BLACK AND WHITE MUFFINS

Chocolate and cheesecake muffins sitting on a white plate with a red napkin in the background

INGREDIENTS

CHOCOLATE MUFFIN

2/3 cup Dutch-process cocoa
1 3/4 cups All-Purpose Flour
1 1/4 cups light brown sugar*
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 teaspoon espresso powder{optional}*
3/4 teaspoon salt
2 eggs
1 cup (8 ounces) milk
2 teaspoons vanilla
2 teaspoons vinegar
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, melted

CHEESECAKE FILLING

2- 8 oz packs of cream cheese
2 large eggs
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 cup sugar

INSTRUCTIONS

Preheat the oven to 375°F.
Line a large muffin pan with paper or use a vegetable spray to coat the cups.
In the bowl of your mixer, whip the cream cheese until smooth.
Add the eggs, vanilla and sugar and whip until smooth and creamy.
Place Cheesecake filling in a pastry bag, and set aside.
In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the cocoa, flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, espresso powder, salt.
In a medium-sized mixing bowl, whisk together the eggs, milk, vanilla and vinegar.
Add the wet ingredients, along with the melted butter, to the dry ingredients, stirring to blend; don’t over mix the muffins, its okay if there are some lumps.
Scoop the batter into the prepared muffin tin.
With your pastry bag full of cheesecake filling, place the tip of the pastry bag into the top of the batter and squeeze in enough to increase the volume of the muffin by about a quarter of the original size.*
Bake the muffins for 20 to 25 minutes, or until a cake tester inserted in the center of a muffin comes out clean.
Remove the muffins from the oven, and allow to cool on a wire rack for 10 minutes before serving.

RECIPE NOTES

*I did find the muffins a little sweet, which takes away from the chocolate flavor, I would cut back the sugar to one cup. *I didn’t add the espresso powder, with the cream cheese filling I wanted the chocolate to be the only other flavor, If I omitted the cheesecake filling I would have definitely used the espresso powder. *you can smooth over the chocolate muffin batter to completely enclose the cheesecake filling or leave it open at the top the way I did.