My mom and I have always been, well, shopaholics. What can I say? I love a good sale. I couldn’t even tell you the number of times we spent a Friday night or Saturday roaming the mall– sorry Dad! Those mall trips are some of my favorite memories. Ironic enough, one of my most fond mall trip memories has nothing to do with shopping and everything to do with food.
When I was little (like really little), there used to be what I can only recall as “the muffin place” at our mall. I honestly have no clue what the place was called or what their range of offerings included. I just remember it as the place where Mom would buy me a muffin when we went to the mall. She would always get us the same thing to share—a chocolate muffin that had some sort of cream cheese swirl—and I loved it. The place closed down at some point and I’ll probably never know what it was called, but now, at least 15 years later, I still think about those muffins.
These muffins are an homage to my childhood memories and those muffins I shared with my mom so many times before. They’re rich and chocolate-y, striped with a vanilla cheesecake-esque filling, and studded with extra chocolate chips for good measure. They’re so delicious with your morning cup of coffee or cold glass of milk and just as perfect as an afternoon treat.
For this recipe, I went on a deep dive into everything you need to know about muffins. I learned all there is on leavening of muffins, domed tops, the best temperatures for oven spring, and the power of a good ole resting of the batter. Follow along for the step-by-step and everything I learned in my muffin journey or skip ahead to the bottom for the recipe. Happy baking!
Begin by making the muffin batter.
Whisk together the flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and instant coffee granules in a large bowl until the ingredients are evenly dispersed. Set the bowl aside.
Coffee helps to bring out the richness and flavor of chocolate. I love adding the coffee granules if I have it on hand, but if you don’t have it, feel free to leave it out.
Whisk together a cup of whole milk with a tablespoon of vinegar and let stand for 5 minutes. This will act as a buttermilk substitute (because I never have buttermilk on hand), but a cup of shaken buttermilk can be used instead.
In a separate medium bowl, whisk together the melted and slightly cooled butter, neutral oil, the milk mixture, room temp eggs, vanilla, and granulated sugar.
I like to melt my butter in the microwave and let it cool until the bowl is warm to the touch, not hot. Any neutral oil (canola, vegetable, etc.) will work.
Add the wet ingredients into the dry.
Whisk together until no dry bits remain and the mixture is smooth. Don’t overmix.
Gently fold some of the chocolate chips into the batter.
Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and let the batter rest for 1 hour at room temperature.
Resting the batter is one of two main tricks in getting tall, beautifully domed muffins. The 1-hour rest allows the flour to hydrate thoroughly resulting in a thicker batter. This thicker batter helps with both height and the doming of the muffins.
In my many trials in muffin making I did test baking a single muffin without resting the batter. The muffin still tasted the same and baked perfectly fine, however, it didn’t rise as much and didn’t maintain a rounded top shape. The rested muffins, as you’ll see below, bake up tall and nicely rounded. Although the muffin tops bake slightly together, they still maintain their shape and can be easily pulled apart.
The TL; DR version— you can bake the whole batch of muffins without resting the batter, but they won’t look as good as they could and there’s potential for the muffin tops to bake together into one flat mass.
While the batter rests, make the filling.
Beat the softened cream cheese, vanilla, salt, and sugar together in a medium bowl until smooth and combined.
Rather than dirty my mixer and because it’s a relatively small amount, I like to do this by hand. If you prefer to, feel free to use a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment.
Add the beaten egg to the cream cheese mixture and beat until the mixture is smooth and combined. Be careful not to overmix.
Put the filling in a disposable piping bag or resealable plastic bag.
Line a standard-size, 12 cavity muffin tin with paper liners.
Once rested for an hour, you'll be able to see how much the batter has thickened.
Divide the batter between the 12 lined cavities of the muffin tin.
Snip the corner of the bag with the filling.
Insert the tip of the piping bag into one of the batter-filled muffin cavities and pipe some of the filling into the center, continuing to squeeze as you pull the bag up. Pipe a stripe of filling down the middle of the top of the muffin. As you pipe the filling into the center, you’ll be able to see the batter rise.
Repeat until all of the muffins are filled and striped and all the filling has been used.
The muffin cavities will be filled to the top—don’t worry! It’ll all be okay! The muffin tops will puff up and bake closely together, but not so much that they can’t be separated. However, if you’re nervous about that, feel free to divide the batter between two pans (6 muffins per pan).
Top each muffin with the remaining chocolate chips.
Bake the muffins at 400 degrees f for 8 minutes. After 8 minutes, immediately turn the oven down to 350 degrees f and bake for another 7 to 10 minutes, until the cheesecake centers are set and no longer jiggly and a toothpick inserted into both the muffin and cheesecake come out clean.
Baking the muffins at a high temperature and then dropping it down to the standard 350 degrees f is the other trick that helps to create a tall, domed muffin. Baking the muffins at a higher temperature first allows for maximum oven spring.
Allow the muffins to cool in the pan for 10 minutes and then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely. Enjoy with a hot cup of coffee or cold glass of milk!
Because they have a cheesecake-like filling, store the muffins in an airtight container in the refrigerator! You can eat them cold or take the muffin out for about 5 minutes before eating. This helps the muffin to re-soften a bit while maintaining the texture of the cheesecake. Alternatively, you could also microwave a chilled muffin for 10 to 15 seconds until the muffin is soft again, but the filling is still firm.
Yield: 12 standard-sized muffins
Ingredients
For the batter
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder, sifted
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon instant coffee granules, optional
1 cup whole milk (see notes)
1 tablespoon distilled white vinegar (see notes)
6 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted and cooled slightly
3 tablespoons neutral oil (such as canola or vegetable)
2 large eggs, at room temperature
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2/3 cup granulated sugar
1 1/3 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips, divided
For the filling
8-ounces cream cheese, softened
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Pinch of kosher salt
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 large egg, beaten, at room temperature
Method
Start by making the batter— Whisk together the flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and instant coffee granules (if using) in a large bowl until the ingredients are evenly dispersed. Set aside.
Whisk together the milk and vinegar in a glass measuring cup and let stand 5 minutes.
Whisk together the melted butter, oil, the milk mixture, eggs, vanilla, and granulated sugar in a separate medium bowl until combined. Add the wet ingredients into the dry and whisk together until smooth and no dry bits remain. Gently fold 1 cup of the chocolate chips into the batter. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and let the batter rest for 1 hour at room temperature.
While the batter rests, make the filling. Beat the cream cheese, vanilla, salt, and sugar together in a medium bowl by hand until the ingredients are smooth and combined. Alternatively, beat the ingredients together in a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment. Add the beaten egg to the cream cheese mixture and beat until combined and smooth. Don’t overmix. Put the filling in a disposable piping bag or resealable plastic bag.
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees f. Line a standard-size, 12 cavity muffin tin with paper liners.
Once rested for an hour, divide the batter between the 12 lined cavities of the muffin tin.
Snip the corner of the bag filled with the cream cheese filling. Insert the tip of the piping bag into one of the batter-filled muffin cavities and pipe some of the filling into the center, continuing to squeeze as you pull the bag up. Pipe a stripe of filling down the middle of the top of the muffin. Repeat until all of the muffins are filled and striped and all the filling has been used. The muffin cavities will be filled to the top—don’t worry! Top each muffin with the remaining chocolate chips.
Bake the muffins at 400 degrees f for 8 minutes. After 8 minutes, immediately turn the oven down to 350 degrees f and bake for another 7 to 10 minutes, until the cheesecake centers are set and no longer jiggly and a toothpick inserted into both the muffin and cheesecake come out clean.
Allow the muffins to cool in the pan for 10 minutes and then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely. Enjoy with a hot cup of coffee or cold glass of milk!
Because they have a cheesecake-like filling, store the muffins in an airtight container in the refrigerator! You can eat them cold or take the muffin out for about 5 minutes before eating. This helps the muffin to re-soften a bit while maintaining the texture of the cheesecake. Alternatively, you could also microwave a chilled muffin for 10 to 15 seconds until the muffin is soft again, but the filling is still firm.
Notes
Buttermilk (well shaken) can be used in place of the milk/vinegar combination.
The muffin cavities will be filled to the top once filled with the cheesecake mixture. While the muffins do bake into each other ever so slightly, the resting period of the batter allows the tops to maintain their shape without all merging into one and allowing the muffins to be gently separated. However, if baking such a full muffin tin makes you a bit uneasy (totally understandable!), feel free to divide the batter between two lined muffin tins with 6 muffins per tin.
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