I tend to go through phases when it comes to baking. When I first moved away from home, I made a lot of cake mix-based desserts—blueberry coffee cake, Boston cream pie, even a Neapolitan Bundt cake (I wish I had a photo of that one). When I started freelancing full-time, I baked cookies. There was a large-pans-of-bars phase when we attended a Unitarian Universalist fellowship, a pie baking kick several years ago, and most famously, my year of bread.
Lately, my baked good of choice is muffins. As I mentioned in my post about corn and basil muffins, I like muffins because they're reassuring and reliable. They freeze well. And I pretty much always have the ingredients on hand, so I can make a batch whenever I need the comfort of measuring out ingredients and want to show my love in flour and sugar.
That's how these chocolate chip muffins from The Taste of Kosher ended up in my recipe rotation: the muffin-making urge struck on an evening when I had a bag of chocolate chips, but no milk. Admittedly, I didn't have high hopes for a dairy-free muffin recipe, but I was pleasantly surprised with the slightly dense texture and rich flavor. Mike and I both like them better than my "regular" chocolate chip muffins, and it seems like the texture makes them particularly amenable to freezing and then defrosting in the microwave.
I don't keep kosher or have a milk allergy, so I use regular chocolate chips; obviously, you can use dairy-free chocolate chips if needed. I typically use butter-flavored coconut oil for muffins—it gives them a more cake-like texture and buttery flavor—but you could also use regular coconut oil or canola oil.
These muffins don't brown as much as dairy-based muffins do, so you may want to rely on a cake tester or toothpick to determine when they're done.
Adapted from The Taste of Kosher
Yield: about 11 muffins
Ingredients:
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 1/4 cup granulated sugar
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 2 eggs
- 1/2 cup water
- 1/3 cup butter-flavored coconut oil, melted
- 2 teaspoons vanilla
- 1 cup chocolate chips (dairy-free, if desired)
Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Line muffin tins with paper or silicon liners.
In a medium bowl, mix the flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt until well-combined. Add the eggs, water, oil, and vanilla and mix just until moistened. Fold in the chocolate chips until evenly distributed.
Using a 1/3 cup measuring cup, scoop the batter into the prepared muffin tins.
Bake until muffins are dark golden on top and slightly browned around the edges, and a toothpick or cake tester inserted into the center comes out clean, about 23-27 minutes.
Remove muffins from tins and place on a wire rack to cool completely. Store loosely covered at room temperature.
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