For whatever reason, I was recently searching for breakfast items in a book called 1001 Chocolate Treats. Like y’do. I saw these lemon-flavored chocolate muffins and was curious, because I couldn’t remember if lemon and chocolate go particularly well together. (This happened before that tragic lemon and chocolate tart.) I would say these muffins are nice for variety if you’re somehow sick of normal chocolate chip muffins. The lemon is definitely noticeable (you can taste it if you warm a muffin and breathe near it), but doesn’t make them sour or gross. It works. I liked that, if you heated them up and then breathed in near them, you could taste lemon.

I had to make one substitution with this recipe because it calls for a cup of chocolate yogurt or sour cream, and I couldn’t find chocolate yogurt, or chocolate extract, at either of the two supermarkets near my house. Instead, I put a teaspoon of cocoa powder and a tablespoon of sugar in a 1 cup measuring cup, and then filled it the rest of the way with plain, unsweetened yogurt. I didn’t bother mixing and tasting that to see how good it was as chocolate yogurt, but it was fine in the muffins. You could actually probably bump up the cocoa and sugar a bit if you want a chocolate muffin with chocolate chips, as I don’t actually taste the cocoa much at all in the final muffin. Or, y’know, just find chocolate yogurt in the first place? Anyway…

Ingredients:

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 3/4 cup semisweet chocolate chips
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• grated zest of one lemon
• 1/2 cup butter or margarine, at room temperature
• 1 1/4 cup chocolate yogurt or sour cream
• 1/4 cup fresh lemon juice

Combine flour, chocolate chips, baking soda, and lemon zest.

I love chocolate for breakfast!

In a large bowl, using an electric mixer on medium, cream the butter and sugar. Beat in the eggs and yogurt. Beat in the lemon juice. Gradually blend in the dry ingredients, blending until just moistened.

The recipe said to just grease a muffin tin… I wish I had lined it, as some of my muffins stuck and came apart a bit when I pried them out. So, spoon into a lined muffin tin.

Bake 30-35 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center of a muffin comes out clean. Cool in the pan for 10 minutes, then remove to a rack to cool completely.

I ate one out of the oven, cooled the rest on a rack and froze them in a ziplock. 40 seconds in the microwave, and they’ve been breakfast for days since!

Lemon-Flavored Chocolate Muffins

From 1001 Chocolate Treats.

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 3/4 cup semisweet chocolate chips
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• grated zest of one lemon
• 1/2 cup butter or margarine, at room temperature
• 1 1/4 cup chocolate yogurt or sour cream
• 1/4 cup fresh lemon juice

Preheat oven to 375 degrees and line a muffin pan with muffin papers.

Combine flour, chocolate chips, baking soda, and lemon zest.

In a large bowl, using an electric mixer on medium, cream the butter and sugar. Beat in the eggs and yogurt. Beat in the lemon juice. Gradually blend in the dry ingredients, blending until just moistened. Spoon into the lined muffin cups.

Bake 30-35 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the center of a muffin comes out clean. Cool in the pan 10 minutes, then turn out onto a wire rack to cool completely.