Chocolate Mini Muffins with Sugar Glaze

I made these mini muffins last week and I have been having an argument with myself ever since. 

To blog or not to blog?  That was the question.  

I was hoping to come up with a recipe that resembled the chocolate-glazed donut holes at our local donut shop.  The flavor that is my kids' favorite.  My husband's favorite.  I'm more of a butter crunch fan, but I digress.

I was hoping that I could come up with a mini-muffin that tasted like chocolate donuts, without all of the deep-fried calories.  Just like these Cinnamon/Sugar Mini Muffins remind me of the frozen Morton donuts I used to like in the '70's.  

I wasn't really sure that the chocolate mini-muffins duplicated the donut taste as I had hoped they would, however, so I decided not to blog about them.

That is, until Caitie said that she liked them, and then said something like, "They're a perfect little chocolate cake."

And then Mr. Terrific ate several of them, telling me between bites how much he liked them. 

That settled it.  Who am I, a butter crunch fan, to conclude that these little muffins aren't good enough to satisfy my chocolate donut-loving family?  I decided to listen to my family and blog about them, if only to have written testimony that this is a recipe that they like.

Maybe I'm just in a good mood because the snow is almost gone, tomorrow is going to be in the 60's and I feel like spring has finally arrived!

Will Clyde abandon his favorite niche by the back door to bask in the sun instead?

He doesn't quite fit there as well as he did when he was a puppy, but that doesn't stop him from trying!

Today's Playlist

• "Come Out and Play"...The Offspring
• "Poprocks & Coke"...Green Day
• "Can't Stop"...Red Hot Chili Peppers
• "No Rain"...Blind Melon
• "Love and Affection"...Neon Trees
• "Here Comes the Sun"...The Beatles

Sugar-Glazed Chocolate Mini-Muffins (yield: approximately 15 muffins)          

                                                                                                                            

Printable recipe

Muffin Ingredients:

• 1 cup flour
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 1/4 cup cocoa powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 egg
• 1/3 cup sour cream
• 1/4 cup milk
• 1/4 cup vegetable oil
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Glaze Ingredients:

• 1 cup confectioners sugar
• 2 1/2 tablespoons light cream
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

We're going to start like we always do, by gathering the muffin ingredients.  It makes things so much easier to have everything ready to go!

Preheat your oven to 375 degrees.  Grease a mini-muffin pan (or use nonstick cooking spray).

Measure the dry ingredients--the flour, sugar, cocoa powder and baking soda--into a medium bowl.

Whisk to combine.

In a separate bowl, beat the egg, sour cream, milk, vegetable oil and vanilla extract.  You can do this by hand or take the lazy way out as I did and use a mixer.  Your choice!

Pour the wet ingredients into the bowl with the dry ingredients.

Stir the ingredients together until just combined.

Spoon the batter (or use a cookie scoop) to evenly distribute it into the cups of your muffin pan.

Bake in your preheated 375-degree oven for 11 to 13 minutes.  You may need to adjust the time up or down by a minute or two, depending upon the heat of your oven and/or the size of your muffins.  

For the record, my batch yielded 14 fairly large mini muffins which took 12 minutes to bake in my oven.

You'll know they are done when the tops have started to crack and they spring back when touched lightly.  Or you could do the toothpick test--stick 'em with a toothpick and if the toothpick comes out dry or with moist crumbs, they're done.

While the muffins cool, prepare the glaze.

Gather your glaze ingredients:  confectioners sugar, light cream and vanilla extract.

Put the confectioners sugar into a small bowl, and whisk in the light cream and vanilla extract. 

The consistency of the glaze should be runny, but not watery.  If you feel that it is too watery, add a bit more confectioners sugar; if you feel that it is too thick, add more light cream (no more than a teaspoon at a time).

Dip the tops of the muffins into the glaze.

Place the muffins on a wire rack until the glaze is set.

I had a bit of glaze left over so I drizzled it on top of the muffins with a spoon.  

You may notice that suddenly there are only 13 muffins left.  I know nothing about that.

That's not entirely true, I do know something.  I know that warm baked goods taste fabulous.  Enough said.

Enjoy.