Lynn is baking again! That's always trouble. But here is the deal: if you live and breathe, you have heard about the viral Olympic Chocolate Muffins. When the Norwegian swimmer Henrik Christiansen posted about them from Paris, the world went nuts. Muffins, which the French don't do at all, are a complete misnomer here. They are actually deeply chocolate baby-cakes. However, with the muffin moniker, you can then justify eating chocolate cake for breakfast.
This swimmer will forever be known as "the Muffin Man" (photo from Honey)
It seems every cooking blogger is trying to hack the recipe. Someone in New York actually managed to overnight a batch of 300 of the originals from Paris, and the line at the pop-up to buy them snaked around the block.
In the originals, the French baker bored into the middle of the cooked muffins and spooned chocolate ganache inside. Most copycat recipes skip that step, and we will too, because we are dieting, sort of. Well, except for the breakfast 'muffins'.
So you don't have to, we searched the Internet for the very best copycat recipe. What's interesting is that the ingredients are all over the map. Things like instant pudding, molasses, and powdered milk all make appearances.
The recipe we tried came from an article by a professional baker in which the author dived deep into a dozen recettres before choosing her gold star muffin. We chose this one partly because I related to the name of her site (I Bake Mistakes) and because it has normal pantry ingredients, plus a lot of sour cream, and how can that be bad? Except for the aforementioned diet, but hey. I felt it was important to get you francophiles up to speed on this. Ganache optional.
Not having tulip muffin liners, I watched a youtube video by a woman who made own, instead of buying them. She whipped them out beautifully on fast forward. I tried this and do not recommend it, unless you are crafty and have a free afternoon. Here is my pathetic effort (brown parchment paper would be more authentic.). But I have to say, they worked just fine. But our baker has given us alternate baking instructions if you want to make smaller muffins with just baking cups.
My unlovely origami tulip liners
Recipe: The Viral Olympic Chocolate Muffins, or nearly
The ingredient list is long, but they are actually quick to put together, unless you go the ganache route.
This recipe is by Kassie Mendieta, with a few minor simplifications by me. This makes 9 jumbo muffins with the tulip liner, or 12 with regular ones. You'll need to adjust baking time if you make 12.
It's optional, but she says they are better if you freeze them overnight before serving. A note on serving: before we ate them, I ran them briefly through the microwave, a few seconds or maybe 20 if you use the defrost setting. This made a HUGE difference--they were more tender and the chocolate chunks became soft.
Like any good baker, Kassie weighs all her ingredients on a digital scale. If you don't do this, I highly recommend trying it. It's so much faster, not to mention more accurate.
- 200 grams all-purpose flour
- 70 grams Dutch-processed cocoa powder
- 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
- 3/4 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon instant espresso or (or instant coffee powder)
- 2 teaspoons kosher salt
- 275 grams light brown sugar
- 100 grams whole milk
- 150 grams (5 oz) vegetable oil
- 2 large eggs
- 225 grams sour cream
- 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
- 113 grams semisweet or dark chocolate chunks (plus EXTRA for the tops)
- 113 grams ( milk chocolate chips or chunks (plus EXTRA for the tops)
- (MY NOTE: I used one 205 gram dark semi-sweet chocolate bar instead, which I cut into chunks).
Preparation
For the muffins:
- In a large bowl, add dry ingredients; whisk to combine.
- In a separate bowl, add wet ingredients; whisk to combine.
- Add the wet ingredients into the center of the dry ingredients; stir with a wooden spoon until no dry pockets remain — you do not want to overmix the batter.
- Gently fold in the chocolate chunks with a rubber spatula.
- Set the batter aside for 30 minutes to an hour to rest before baking, and go do your morning triathlon.
- Or while the batter rests, prep the (optional) filling.
- Preheat the oven to 420 F
To bake the muffins:
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- Once the batter is done resting, place the muffin liners in every other cavity of the muffin pan.
- Scoop the batter in to the liners. For jumbo muffins, each cup should be filled a little over 3/4 of the way full.
- Bake for six minutes. When the timer beeps, do not open the oven! Drop the temp to 350 F and bake for an additional 15 to 18 minutes. Muffins are done baking when the center is set and a tooth pick inserted into the center comes out with a few crumbs stuck to it, or when the internal temp is 200-205 F.
- Remove from baking pan and allow to cool completely. Add the ganache if desired. To serve: They are so much better if you run them through the microwave briefly, not to make them hot but to soften the chocolate chunks.
- NOTE:To make regular sized muffins you’ll need to adjust your bake times. For regular muffins 420F for 6 minutes 355F for 13-15 minutes. Fully set in the center is what you’re going for, and an overall the internal temp of a muffin should be 200-205F when checked with a thermometer.
* * * * *
If you want to make the optional ganache for the center:
- 130 grams water
- 95 grams granulated sugar
- 35 grams Dutch-processed cocoa powder
- 20 grams corn syrup
- 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
- 80 grams heavy cream
- 140 grams dark chocolate chips
- In a saucepot, combine the water, granulated sugar, cocoa powder, salt and corn syrup.
- Bring this mixture to a boil over medium-heat, stirring often to avoid burning the cocoa powder.
- Once the mixture reaches a boil, drop the heat to medium-low, cook it while stirring frequently until it reduces by approximately 1/3 of its original volume, 5 to 8 minutes.
- Add the heavy cream and allow to boil for another 2 minutes.
- Pour the mixture over the dark chocolate chips. Allow the mixture to sit for a few moments to heat up the chips before whisking to combine. Optionally you can use an immersion blender to really get things nice and smooth.
- Set aside to cool until it’s time to fill the muffins.
Favorite READS: My library finally sent me The Paris Novel, a fun bit of fluff if you are a Paris lover or a foodie. Next up in the Paris category (that name in the title must really sell books) is The Paris Understudy, a story of two opera singers under the Nazi occupation. Natalia's choice this week is Guillaume Musso's Quelqu'un d'Autre. Natalia, as you suggest--a friend gave me one of his books to read, they are a good choice if you want something very readable in French. And, Natalia has another great tip: go to French Books Online if you're looking for a good place to purchase your French books.
