Sea Salt + Double Chocolate Muffins (2024)

• Rebecca Firth
• January 13, 2015 (Updated October 17, 2023)
• 2 Comments

Sea Salt+Double Chocolate Muffins

So, I really have been sticking to this healthy eating thing. Wanna know what healthy eating means to me? It means how can I make everything that is actually healthy tastenothealthy. It’s just how my palate swings. I want ooey, gooey, oozy, boozy chocolate things. I want sauce…and lots of it. I want things to be salty for crying out loud.

I have all these really dramatic taste buds mingling in my mouth that are working against my current cause. They want high drama…extremes. They’ll even take the lows if they can get some really good highs. Nothing middle-of-the-road. They are VERY demanding. So while I may set out with the world’s greatest intentions to eat well, I’m MY OWN WORST ENEMY. Does anyone know what I’m talking about?!?!

I think it is a really significant step in my grown-up life that I’ve connected these dots. That I can at least be self-aware enough to realize that I’m a self-saboteur. I mean, you’re impressed, right? Dazzled…just dazzled.

So it is with all this in mind that the below recipe was created. I swear Instagram oscillates between being the best thing that’s ever happened to me to the worst, in one-second increments. I’m constantly amazed and inspired by everyone’s creativity. And humor. Damn-oh-mighty there are some funny peeps on Instagram. Then the pendulum swings and I see something that I literally cannot live without and I have to make. Like, right that second. If not sooner. Such was the case when @keystomykitchen posted the most beautiful, delicious, delectable photo of a chocolate chocolate muffin. It just did it for me….you should go take a look at it (go ahead, we’ll wait). Erstwhile, I could think of nothing else. I tried to resist ALL WEEKEND LONG. Because, remember? I’m eating healthy. Ugh. Why oh why don’t our bodies have adjustable metabolisms? In December I would crank the dial on high and if I happened to be sick another month, I would turn it on low. I mean, I totally wouldn’t abuse it. I swear. No, really. Promise.

But I digress. You get the point. I need my sweets and I’m trying to get rid of some back fat. There. I said it. It’s a safe place. Liberate yourself. You feeling it a bit too? So, this recipe was inspired by a Canyon Ranch recipe (I love their cookbooks for when I’m feeling pious)…but it doesn’t even remotely resemble the original. It was taken from their first cookbook and it was a banana bread recipe. Which I turned into muffins. And then I added chocolate. And then I wanted Greek yogurt instead of applesauce. And so on…and so on. That’s how may brain works if you haven’t tuned into that channel yet.

I have wind-bagged ON. Geez. Let’s get some bakin’ on.

{ sea salt + double chocolate muffins }

Makes 30 Mini Muffins (or 12 normal ones)

INGREDIENTS

• 3/4 cup whole wheat flour
• 3/4 cup cakeflour
• 1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 3/4 baking powder
• 1 teaspoon sea salt
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 1/4 cup brown sugar, packed
• 1/4 cup Greek yogurt
• 1 large egg
• 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 2 tablespoons freshly brewed espresso or strong coffee
• ½ teaspoon real vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup mashed banana
• ¾ cup bittersweet or semi-sweet chocolate chips, plus 30 chocolate chips to place on top of each muffin
• 1 tablespoon coarse sea salt

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Preheat oven to 350.
2. Put liners in the muffin tin…you don’t have to, but I think it makes them more of a portable, on-the-go snack. If you don’t use liners, be sure to spray your muffin tin with nonstick.
3. In a small bowl whisktogether thewheat flour, cake flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder and sea salt and set aside.
4. In a mediumbowl, mix together thegranulated sugar, brown sugar, egg, yogurt, vegetable oil, vanilla, espresso and mashed banana in another bowl. Beat until well blended.
5. Combinethe sugar-egg mixture with the flour mixture in as few strokes as possible.
6. When it’s not quite mixed together, dump your chocolate chips in there and gently fold them into the batter.
7. If you’re making mini muffins you’ll put about 1-2 tablespoons per muffin. Don’t overfill because they will overflow and no longer be pretty. I usually do 1 tablespoon in all of them and then divvy out the extra.
8. Place one chocolate chip on top of each muffin and sprinkle all with the coarse sea salt.
9. If you’re making the mini muffins, mine were done in a mere 12 minutes. Reason 9,678 why you should make mini muffins. That’s amazing. These were whipped up, cooked and in my mouth in under an hour. It’s amazing how fast chocolate can make a person move. If you make larger muffins, they will take about 20-ish minutes.
10. Let cool for about 5 minutes in the pan. Then, remove the muffins from the pan and finish cooling on a rack. Store these babies in an air-tight container.

Soooo, a couple of thoughts today…

• I’m feeling like I’m shoving a lot of different flours at you. I must say, I do like to make do with what I have in my cupboard…but when it comes to flour I like to be kinda particular. I like my cake flour. My all-purpose. Bread flour anyone? My 00 flour for pizza. I do think it’s worth the investment. This leads me to my next bullet point…
• If you aren’t used to cooking with more than one type of flour you may find my baking mildly annoying. I don’t want to make you go to the store to satisfy a special craving!?!? I’m thinking about putting together a ‘what’s in my pantry’ section. I really do cook with the same stuff over and over…we’ll see. Which leads to the next bullet point…
• Why can’t we use all-purpose flour here? And, honestly, I quite rightly believe you could. But you’ll get a lighter crumb and more rise with the cake flour. Just know that going into it.
• I also think that you could sub finely shredded zucchini for the banana…if you’re so inclined. I haven’t tried it, but I think it would work mighty fine indeed.
• I honestly would love to spend the rest of the week fiddling with the recipe. And I very well might. I’ll post any notes if I do.
• Umm…that’s it for now.

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