Chocolate Cream Cheese Muffins with Dark Chocolate and Mint Chips

After nearly an 18mo. hiatus, I thought it might be time for a blog post! The holiday season always makes me want to cook, bake, and spruce up the house. Naturally, my nesting instincts are in full swing with Thanksgiving just around the corner.

As a little symbol of my gratitude for such a fantastic job they do, I baked Amelia's teachers some chocolate cream cheese muffins. The recipe I used is a copycat of the ones they serve at Starbucks (although this recipe calls them Black Bottom Cupcakes).

I, of course, added my own touches. To the muffin batter, I added cinnamon. It gives the muffins a little more of a rich Mexican chocolate taste. Also, I used Tollhouse's dark chocolate and mint chips, instead of plain ol' semisweet (or milk) chocolate chips. I must say, they're divine!

Ingredients:
***Filling:***
8 ounces cream cheese, room temp
1/3 cup sugar
1 large egg
dash salt
1 small bag milk chocolate chips

***Cake Batter:***
2/3 cup cocoa
3 cups flour
2 cups sugar
2 teaspoons baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 cups water
2/3 cup oil
2 tablespoons vinegar
2 teaspoons vanilla
Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Cream the sugar and cream cheese. Mix in the egg and salt. Now stir in chocolate chips. Set the filling aside.
Sift together flour, sugar, cocoa, baking soda, and salt. Next add water, oil, vinegar and vanilla. Mix well.
Fill cupcake liners a little more than half full with chocolate batter. Drop about a generous teaspoon of cream cheese mixture on the top of each in the middle.
Bake in a 350 degree oven for approximately 20 minutes. About 10 minutes into baking, sprinkle some extra chocolate chips on top of each cupcake.
Makes three dozen.

any recipe that starts with this much cocoa must be good!

swirling the dry ingredients

muffins prepped and ready for baking

the final product

this is what dreams are made of :)