Posts Tagged ‘chocolate muffins’

Chocolate and pumpkin? Not a typical combination, I know. I’m not sure where the idea for combining the two came from. I’m positive I’ve had the combination somewhere along the way and once you’ve tried it, it seems so obvious. There’s something about the cinnamon and other spices combined with the chocolate… but then again, I would be happy with a chocolate covered stick.

One afternoon, a couple of weeks back, I had a chocolate craving. Earlier that day a tempting pound cake recipe found its way to my computer screen. Sometimes that happens. Random pastries and sweets just pop up, out of nowhere.

So when the chocolate craving hit, with pound cake already on the brain, I decided to try to make my first chocolate pound cake (which can made used for muffins too). I’ve had a few chocolate pound cakes over the years – some which were quite dry and not very chocolatey. And if I was going to go to the trouble of making something from scratch, and something chocolate, it better be worth the effort and calories.

After searching for a few recipes that looked easy enough for a non-baker to master and that involved ingredients that I had on hand, The Bag Lady’s Favorite Chocolate Pound Cake from foodnetwork.com caught my eye. And while I’ve never tried a Paula Dean recipe I didn’t like, Hortensia’a Best-Ever Chocolate Pound Cake recipe sounded tasty too. I didn’t have enough flour for one of them and not enough butter for the other, so I settled on merging the two together. For this recipe I decided on muffins but it can easily be split between two loaf pans or one tube pan.

Both called for adding instant coffee but my husband didn’t care for that the last time I used it when baking so I skipped it. I did use Hershey’s Special Dark Cocoa Powder which I think makes this cake rock.

The pumpkin? It’s fall y’all and while the chocolate pound cake or muffins are mighty fine on their own, I wanted to spice it up for fall. So a quick cream cheese pumpkin frosting topped it off. This frosting could be thickened up if you’d like with more cream cheese, powdered sugar or both. The consistency is more like a spread because of the pumpkin puree but I kinda liked it. It definitely would be good on toast, bagels… a leaf (I’m into nature y’all).

Chocolate Muffins with Pumpkin Frosting
(merged, melded and mixed together from Paula Dean’s Chocolate Pound Cake recipe & Hortensia’s Best-Ever Chocolate Pound Cake found on foodnetwork.com)

Muffin (Pound Cake) Ingredients:
(makes approx. 34-36 muffins)

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 cup cocoa (I recommend a dark cocoa, I used Hershey’s Special Dark Cocoa)
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 sticks (1 cup) unsalted butter, room temperature
• 3 cups sugar
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 5 eggs
• 1 cup buttermilk

Ingredients for Pumpkin Frosting:

• 1 stick butter, softened
• 8 oz. cream cheese
• 3 1/2 cups powdered sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon ginger
• 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
• 1/2 cup pumpkin puree

Directions for cake:

- Preheat oven to 325°F.

- Grease muffin pans or line with paper liners.

- Sift together the flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda and salt.

- In a separate bowl cream the butter then add the sugar a beat until fluffy.

- On medium speed add one egg at a time to the butter sugar mixer. Don’t overbeat, just  mix enough to blend well.

- Add vanilla and mix.

- Alternate adding flour/cocoa mixture and buttermilk until combined. Mix well on medium speed for about 30 seconds until smooth.

- Fill muffin tins halfway.

- Bake at 325° F for 15-18 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean. Be careful not over bake.

- Let cool in muffin pan for about 2 minutes and carefully remove to cool on rack. (Go ahead and eat one while they’re hot… you need to test it anyway.)

(*If you’re making 2 loafs of pound cake cook for approximately 65 minutes at 325° F or until toothpick inserted in middle comes out clean. Not sure about the time for a tube pan but imagine it would be a bit longer than the two loafs. If you make one in a tube pan, please let me know.)

Pumpkin Frosting Directions:

- In a bowl beat butter and cream cheese together until smooth.

- Add all other frosting ingredients and mix together on medium speed. Add more powdered sugar or cream cheese for a thicker consistency if desired.

(I refrigerated the frosting for about 10-15 minutes before icing the muffins which I think helped the frosting to thicken up a tad.)

* These warmed slightly in the microwave are yum yum!

I hope you enjoy! Yea fall!