chocolate cherry chocolate chunk muffins.

I trust Dorie's recipes 100% but myself less than an hour after waking? Zero. Nada. Zilch. I don't know what was I thinking that convinced myself that I could pull off a third of a recipe with drowsy movements and a growling stomach. I always make some kind of slip-up when baking in the morning. And yup, the record continues...

I miscalculated the amount of cocoa powder and put in way too little. Such a pity because this muffin would have been intense and chocolaty. Besides that unintentional blunder, I swapped half the melted butter for applesauce, giving the muffins a lighter fluffier texture. I'd intended to cut down some calories, not really caring about what the applesauce would do to the muffin but I have to say that I do prefer fluffy muffins so I have no regrets.

A word of warning: these muffins are a lot less sweet than the usual ones so if you have a sweet tooth, you should up the sugar. But I find that the intensity of chocolate comes through better if you show some restraint with the sugar so I wouldn't increase it. And if you love rivers of melted chocolate ribboning through a muffin, you would have to add more chunks of chocolate too.

I hid a dark cherry in the middle for a nice surprise although skipping that and applying cherry jam to a split muffin would be nice too.

Chocolate Chocolate Chunk Muffins
makes 12
adapted from Dorie Greenspan

6 tbsp unsalted butter (I replaced half with applesauce)
4 ounces bittersweet chocolate, coarsely chopped
2 cups all purpose flour
2/3 cup sugar
1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder, sifted
1 tbsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/4 cups buttermilk
1 large egg
1 tsp vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 375F. Divide cupcake liners in a 12 hole muffin pan.

Melt the butter and half the chopped chocolate together in a bowl over a saucepan of simmering water. Remove from heat.

In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda and salt. In another bowl, whisk together the buttermilk, egg and vanilla. Pour the liquid ingredients and the butter mixture over the dry mixture and stir until just combined. Fold in the remaining chopped chocolate. Divide batter evenly among the muffin cups.

Bake for about 20 minutes (about 15 if you've used applesauce) or until a skewer inserted in the centre comes out mostly clean with moist crumbs attached. Transfer the pan to a rack to cool for 5 minutes before unmolding the muffins.