Buttermilk Chocolate Chip Muffins

The husband went to a local Irish bakery last week and came home with 4 tender blueberry scones (1 of which I promptly ate before dinner) and a story about a chocolate chip muffin. But not just any chocolate chip muffin...a buttermilk chocolate chip muffin. Something about the tang of the buttermilk gave this particular muffin a certain something...or so the story went.

I was enchanted by this tale and felt sure that I could recreate this beautiful muffin experience. And, as luck would have it, I had some buttermilk in the fridge that needed using up. It was leftover from making the best chocolate sheet cake ever. The Pioneer Woman does not lie- this cake is magical.

Because this recipe contains only 1/2 cup of sugar (I am obviously not including the kisses in this assessment- do so at your own risk), I consider this healthy. You should, too.

2 cups AP flour
3 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup sugar
1 egg + 1 egg yolk
1 cup buttermilk
1/4 cup melted butter (I used unsalted)
1 cup of mini Hershey milk chocolate kisses

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Line a regular-sized muffin tin with 9 muffin cups.

Combine the flour, baking powder, salt, and sugar in a medium sized bowl. Whisk it around to combine.

Melt the butter on low and let cool. Whisk butter, buttermilk, and eggs together and just use the same whisk you used for the flour. This is being environmentally friendly because now there is one less dish to wash- check you out!

Add the wet to the dry and combine gently- I used a wooden spoon. They make me feel rustic. Stir in the mini kisses.

Fill each of your muffin cups with ~1/4 cup of batter. This recipe gives you 9 good-sized muffins. If you want to be a scrooge with the batter, you could probably squeeze out 12 small muffins. Before you do this- ask yourself: Does anyone EVER want a small muffin? Chew on that before you make a bad choice.

Bake at 400 for 22-25 minutes- they should be lovely and golden like this:
















I can't leave well enough alone and topped mine with a smidge of unsalted butter like this...
















One quick note- these were perfect when enjoyed fresh out of the oven, but they were a bit dry when devoured the next day. Might I suggest a quick nuke in the microwave-if you're into that sort of thing- OR a toast under the broiler with some butter?

You could also be like me and eat half of them before they are cooled- I had help! This eliminates some of those hard decisions you might have to make later.