Double Chocolate Salted Caramel Muffins

1 ½ C (7 ½ oz/213 g) all-purpose flour
¾ C (5 ½ oz/156 g) granulated sugar
½ C (1 ½ oz/42 g) Dutch-process cocoa powder
2 t (8 g) baking powder
¼ t (1 g) baking soda
¼ t salt
½ C (3 oz/85 g) milk, or semisweet chocolate chips
1 C (236 ml) milk room temperature
½ C (118 ml) vegetable or canola oil
2 large eggs, room temperature
½ C thick caramel sauce or dulce de leche*
Flaky sea salt for sprinkling, optional

*Note: You want the sauce thick. Do not warm before using.

Position oven rack in middle position and heat to 375° F (188° C). Line a 12-cup muffin pan with paper liners. Set aside.

In large bowl, whisk together flour, sugar, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Add chocolate chips. In separate medium bowl or large liquid measuring cup, whisk together milk, oil, and eggs until smooth. Add wet ingredients to the dry ingredients, and stir until just combined. Do not over mix or muffins will be tough and dense.

Fill muffin liners approximately 2/3 full (if you have extra batter you can bake a second batch or use a second muffin tin, if needed). Do not overfill as you’ll be adding caramel to muffins in next step.

Bake for 7 to 8 minutes, or just until edges are set but centers still wet. Working quickly, remove muffin pans from oven and drop heaping teaspoon of caramel sauce or dulce de leche into center of each muffin. Rotate pan one half turn when returning to oven. Bake an additional 10 to 12 minutes until batter rises over caramel and tops spring back lightly to touch.

Lightly sprinkle muffins with sea salt, if desired. Let muffins rest in pan for 1 to 2 minutes before removing them to wire rack to cool completely.

Makes: 12 to 17 muffins

3 May 18 – Used large glass Pyrex bowl for dry ingredients and medium for wet. Followed recipe as written with the following choices. I used Dutch processed chocolate, bar bittersweet chocolate (Ghirardelli), canola oil, 2% milk and caramel sauce (Cinnamon Bun Caramel Sauce by Robert Rothchild). Batter came together easily and as described in recipe. It was a bit more liquidy than I expected but so much it was a problem. I ended up with enough batter to using two muffin pans, one 12 cup (William-Sonoma Gold/W-S) and a 6 cup (dark finish). Filling cups 2/3 fill made 17 muffins. Baked muffins in island oven. First bake was for 8 mins sets definitely had start to set. I used a teaspoon and small spatula sprayed with vegetable spray and to portion out caramel sauce. Getting caramel in the center proved a difficult but important because if it hit the pan or even the paper liner, the muffin would stick to the pan. I had at least two that stuck and were difficult to remove. The others were fine. The second bake was for 11 minutes which proved maybe 30 seconds to 1 minute long. Not surprisingly, the muffins in the 6 cup darker pan baked faster and domed higher than the muffins in the lighter W-S pan. The difference wasn’t a problem but was noticeable. Muffins had excellent chocolate flavor and good crumb. The caramel sink to the bottom of muffin but remainded inside. The sea salt was a nice touch but did dissolve over night. In the future, I might sprinkle salt at time of serving. The chocolate chunks were definitely noticeable and added another texture which was good.