Chocolate Chocolate Chip Muffins

I set out to make one of our family favorites last week.  As I sat my baby girl on the counter to bake with me (something all my kids have done over the years) and her feet stretched all the way down past the knobs on the bottom cabinets, I shook my head.  My big kids still sit on the kitchen counter, but it's usually to eat the goodies from the kitchen not make them.  It made me smiley sad.....you know the feeling?  That sentimental momma pride that hits on occasion reminding you to make the most of these days.

Anyway........!

These muffins are super easy and my kids' favorite thing I bake (second only to Chocolate Chip Cookies).  If you want to eat them for breakfast call them muffins. If you want to eat them for dessert call them cupcakes. They really are delicious.  I found these years ago when I was first discovering the internet.  I still remember cringing when the computer would make dial up noises during baby naptime. In those days I used to love to scour a website that had copycat recipes of famous restaurant dishes.  These muffins came from there.  But I can't remember now what they are supposed to be a copy of!?

If you follow any of the food posts on my blog, you have seen that I have a huge attachment to pudding mixes. See here and here.  So, you shouldn't be surprised that this recipe has a box of pudding mix.  But the real secrets to this muffin are these little jewels.

Almond extract, FROZEN mini chocolate chips, and a perfectly sized muffin scoop.  The almond extract is not recognizable, but makes these amazing and less cake-mixey.  I keep mini chocolate chips permanently in the freezer just for this recipe.  Baked from frozen, they stay in tact so that you have little bitty nuggets of melted chocolate all through these muffins. I love my Pampered Chef scoops and have blogged about them before.  This is the biggest one and it is THE Muffin Master.  The end.

Easy instructions; dump everything except the chocolate chips in a mixing bowl and mix it up.....then mix in the frozen chocolate chips.  Line 18 muffin cups with paper liners, no need to spray them.  Fill each of them with one scoop of batter.  This leaves the perfect amount of batter in the bowl for licking. Bake for 25 minutes, mine take 23. They should barely bounce back when you touch them.  Be careful not to overbake them, a rookie mistake. That was fun, when do I ever get to say "Rookie Mistake?"

For this batch (my second last week) I used a Duncan Hines mix, but usually I choose the Betty Crocker Chocolate Fudge cake mix and Jell-O Chocolate Fudge pudding mix.  When I use that combination the muffins are prettier....I thought these were a bit flat looking compared to how they usually come out. Maybe they are camera shy. It could also be that "we" dropped an entire egg on the counter as "we" were cracking it and scooped it all into the batter while mom was taking pictures,  so"we" might've missed some.  I know Rookie Mistake.

But again, these days are short.....
I'll take a flat muffin and keep my little helper. And her chocolate covered freckles.

Chocolate–Chocolate Chip Muffins

1 package chocolate fudge cake mix

1 small box instant chocolate fudge pudding mix

3/4  cup water

4 eggs

½ cup oil

1 cup mini chocolate chips, frozen

½ tsp. Almond extract

Mix cake mix, pudding, water, eggs, oil, and almond extract until smooth.  Stir in chocolate chips.  Fill 18 greased and paper lined muffin cups, bake for 25 minutes at 350 degrees.