Nutella Stuffed Chocolate Chip Muffins
Before we get to the food for the day, I wanted to take a moment to point out what you’ve probably already noticed if you’ve visited Wafoodie before. Wafoodie has been completely redesigned and made so much more fun and bright! The awesome graphic designer was, of course, Dustin. He is a total rockstar in my book, as he has spent the past couple of weeks working his butt off in his free time to make my little project prettier. I am absolutely in love with everything he did from the color to general feeling of the blog. Thanks a bunch, babe! I also finally bit the bullet and took the time to tag all of our old posts, so they can be sorted. It’s quite a time consuming task, but one that just gets even longer if we wait. We now officially have a sortable index of all our recipes (over to the left), and you don’t have to go searching in the dark or clicking through dozens of pages to get where you want to go. You may remember that when you clicked on the recipe section of the old site it said “Coming Soon.” It has said that since Wafoodie started. Oops! Now you can also follow the blog by email, link to our Foodgawker gallery, and much more. There might still be a few tiny kinks, but there’s no reason not to enjoy the new layout before those are ironed out. Thanks for stopping by and looking! Now please enjoy the incredibly delicious food in store for you today— these muffins are a real winner!
I made cinnamon chocolate chip muffins that included cinnamon chips a long time ago, but I have yet to make a basic classic chocolate chip muffin. Well, I still haven't since I decided to stuff what was originally going to be a basic chocolate chip muffin, with Nutella. I opened the cabinet to get my mise en place in order when I saw the partially used jar of Nutella staring at me. After the success of the Nutella stuffed chocolate chip cookies on the 4th, I thought "what the heck, let's do this!" And I did.
I used half mini chocolate chips and half regular size chocolate chips to make eat bite of chocolate feel really unique and more fun! I threw in a splash of cinnamon (but no chips), because I think all muffin batters need a little extra spice to keep them from getting too bland and cinnamon is my favorite.
I want tall domed muffins, so I baked them at 425º to start then lowered the temperature a bit, so that the outsides bake really quickly and set but the middle doesn't and continues to bake and rise, which pushes the tops higher. I've been reading up on baking techniques in my cookbooks, and this method is definitely the way to go for some awesome looking muffins! Sparkling sugar helps too!
Dustin took half of them to work and someone in his hallway told him they didn't look homemade. I think this means that these are muffins that make the Sweet E's cut! To see what that is all about, click here.
I can't decide if these or the perfect blueberry muffins are my favorite homemade muffin to date. I'll always have a special place in my heart/stomach for a solid blueberry muffin, but Dustin proclaimed these chocolate ones the very best. You can't go wrong with lots of chocolate and Nutella. But definitely eat these warm (you can reheat them in the microwave for 30 seconds), so that the Nutella in the center is warm and gooey!
Nutella Stuffed Chocolate Chip Muffins
yields 12 muffins
- 1/2 cup Nutella
- 3 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 tablespoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1/2 cup butter, melted
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 2 eggs, room temperature
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 3/4 fat free vanilla Greek yogurt
- 1/2 cup mini chocolate chips
- 1/2 cup chocolate chips
- sparkling sugar, for sprinkling
- Dollop two teaspoons of Nutella onto a baking sheet lined with wax paper for a total of 12 dollops. Freeze for 2 hours until completely solid.
- Preheat the oven to 425º. Line a muffin tin with 12 muffin liners.
- In a medium sized bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon.
- Combine melted butter and sugar in a large bowl using a wooden spoon.
- Add eggs, one at a time, and mix until smooth.
- Add in vanilla and mix until smooth.
- Add about 1/3 of the flour mixture, followed by 1/3 of the Greek yogurt, and repeat two times, stirring, but be sure not to overmix, so your muffins stay light (about 15 strokes with a wooden spoon). The dough will be thick.
- After about 15 strokes, fold in the the mini and regular chocolate chips.
- Divide evenly between muffin tins.
- Remove the Nutella dollops from the freezer, and deeply press one into the center of each muffin then use your fingers to cover the Nutella with the batter.
- Sprinkle the tops with sparkling sugar.
- Bake for 5 minutes at 425º, then lower the temperature to 375º without opening the oven. Bake for another 20 minutes until tops are all lightly golden.
