Studded with dark chocolate chips and piled high with a crunchy chocolate streusel topping, these chocolate orange muffins are, simply put, showstoppers.
Yield: 10 large or 12 standard muffins
Prep Time: 15 minutesminutes
Cook Time: 20 minutesminutes
Total Time: 1 hourhour30 minutesminutes
Ingredients
For Chocolate Streusel:
½cup/ 63gall-purpose flour
¼cup/ 52gpacked light brown sugar
2tablespoons/ 11gcocoa powder, sifted
¼teaspoonfine sea salt
¼cup/ 56gcold butter, cut into cubes
For Muffins:
½cup/ 100ggranulated sugar
¼cup/ 52gpacked light brown sugar
1tablespoonfinely grated orange zest, from 1 medium orange or 3 small mandarins or clementines
1 ¼cup/ 156gall-purpose flour
½cup/ 45galmond flour
2 ½teaspoonsdouble acting baking powder
½teaspoonfine sea salt
6tablespoons/ 84gunsalted butter, melted and cooled to lukewarm
⅔cup/ 120gcoarsely chopped dark chocolate chunks or chips
Instructions
Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.
In a mixing bowl, whisk together flour, brown sugar, cocoa powder and salt. Add cold cubed butter and work it into the dry ingredients until mixture comes together in dry crumbles. I like to start with a pastry cutter, and then switch to my hands part way through so I can really rub it together. You should be able to squeeze the dough and it will stick together in a larger clump. Place in the refrigerator and chill until ready to use.
In a mixing bowl, mix together sugar, brown sugar and orange zest. Whisk in flour, baking powder, and salt.
In another bowl or 2 cup glass measuring cup, whisk together milk, sour cream, eggs, vanilla and orange extract. Whisk in lukewarm melted butter.
Pour wet ingredients into dry ingredients. Stir until almost fully incorporated and only a few streaks of dry flour remains (batter will be a little bit lumpy still; do not overmix). Fold in chopped chocolate.
Lightly cover and refrigerate for at least 15 or ideally 30 minutes. This short chill will stiffen up the batter a bit so the mix-ins and topping are better supported; a short rest also produces a more pronounced rise in the final muffins.
Line a muffin tin with paper liners (tall tulip liners if you have them!) I recommend using two muffin tins and only filling every other cup (or baking two batches of 6 muffins each): this will allow for better airflow and produce a higher rise.
Scoop batter info muffin cups. For tall, tulip wrappers you can do two generous medium scoops, or about 90-95g of batter each. For standard muffin papers, use more like 60-65g, or one large scoop worth per muffin, no more than 3/4 full. If you only have one muffin tin, keep the remaining batter in the fridge until it's ready to use.
If you have an uneven number of muffins in one of your tins (if you're baking with the larger tulip papers, you'll only have 4 muffins in the second pan... fill the two empty cups half way full with water to ensure even baking.) For standard muffin papers you'll probably end up with exactly 12, 6 in each tin, and can skip this step.
Sprinkle a generous amount of crumbled streusel on top of batter (about 2 tablespoons worth per muffin, slightly less if you're using regular sized muffin papers).
Bake for 18 to 20 minutes (about 16 for standard muffins) or until tops are lightly browned and a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out with a few moist crumbs attached but no gooey batter. Let cool for 10 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely. If baking a second batch in the same tin, let it cool until lukewarm to the touch, then you can scoop the remaining batter, top with streusel, and bake the second batch.
Muffins will keep in an airtight container at cool room temperature or refrigerated for up to 5 days.