Double Chocolate Muffin Loaf

I have been promising Brian muffins for days now. It all started the night/morning I looked up strawberry muffin recipes online. Well, ok, it all really started the night/morning I ate an entire pan of Martha White Wildberry muffins all by my lonesome. Though they may not be his favorite flavor, Brian was marginally upset by this event, so I promised him new muffins. Better muffins. Chocolate chip muffins. I am not a fan of straight-up chocolate chip anything (save cookies), especially muffins. So, I decided they should be double chocolate. It was also a cheap ploy to get a canister of cocoa powder, which I promised to put into a pot of chili at some point. Don't laugh, it's good.

So, this recipe is from the Tasty Kitchen Blog, but I added a teaspoon of vanilla, a dash of salt, changed the chips from bittersweet to milk, and they aren't actually going to be muffins. My muffin pan is rusted, and rusty muffins are no bueno. So, a muffin loaf it is, which is actually our preferred way to eat them (no wrappers to compete for muffin with, you get a substantial chunk without the "I just ate an entire pan of muffins!" guilt.) Muffin loaf just might change your life, if you let it.

Taste Verdict- I like it. It's not too sweet, it's dense, pretty moist, and for breakfast, you won't feel like you're eating a big chunk of cake. And it could be gussied up for dessert, too, with the addition of ice cream or whipped cream or whatever topping tickles your tastebuds. I would also suggest adding nuts. I like nuts in my baked goods.


Double Chocolate Muffin Loaf

2 whole Eggs
¼ cups Canola Oil
1-¼ cup Milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup Granulated Sugar
½ cups Cocoa Powder
dash salt (about 1/4 teaspoon)
2-¼ cups All-purpose Flour 
1 cup Milk Chocolate Chips

Preheat the oven to 350 F.

In a large bowl whisk together the eggs, oil, milk, vanilla, and sugar. Add the cocoa powder, followed by the flour, salt, and baking powder. Fold in the chocolate chips and pour the batter into a greased loaf pan. Bake for 50-60 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Note- I baked mine a hair over 50 minutes, and part of it was still gooey in the middle. Perhaps my oven was not hot enough or retaining enough heat; I used a toaster oven. I will try again using our regular, gas, heats-up-the-whole-dang-kitchen oven next time! 

*Something I learned recently, did you know you should heat your pan slightly after you spray it with non-stick spray? I did this last week when I baked a bundt cake. I'd never actually read the back of the can, but it's right there, silently instructing us to do so. It worked fine, no better or worse than not heating it. I do have a theory it helps cut down on that post-baked pan stickiness (hate that!) but only time and further baking/experimentation will prove me right or wrong.*