I can't believe I'm posting these....

181 Calorie Chocolate Muffins (a Hungry Girl recipe) - ButterYum

I can't believe I'm posting these - they go completely against my bake-from-scratch philosophy, but hey, they're so good, I had to tell you about them (update - I've included a homemade chocolate cake mix recipe below).  The teens liked these muffins so much that they've asked me to make them repeatedly since we first tried them - what does that tell you?

I first saw the recipe on the blog Hungry Girl.  When I heard they were made with only two ingredients and only contained 181 calories, I knew I wanted to try them.

**This post contains affiliate links.

I should first start by telling you that I generally don't like chocolate and pumpkin together, but honestly, all you taste here is an incredibly moist chocolate muffin.

So here we go - you'll need an 18.25 ounce box of devil's food cake mix (homemade recipe is listed below) and a 15 ounce can of 100% pure pumpkin puree.  Mix the two together (just the dry mix and the pumpkin - no egg, or oil, or water).  You can do this by hand, but the flat beater of your stand mixer will make quick work of it.  Line a muffin pan with 12 liners; divide the batter evenly among the 12 liners (they won't rise much while baking).  Bake in a preheated 400F oven for 20 minutes.  Cool completely before eating.

Alternately, one recipe will make 48 soft cookies.  Just use a #50 scoop to portion batter into cookie-like blobs on a silpat lined half sheet pan (about 1 tablespoon each).  Bake 12 per tray in a preheated 375F oven for 15 minutes.  Cool completely before eating.

I let the family sample these before announcing what they were made of - nobody could taste pumpkin, yet the pumpkin adds a cool, smooth, moist quality to the muffins.  They're dense, yet light at the same time - really hard to describe.  They're really affordable too - 12 large muffins cost less than $3 to make.

Update

If you're like me and prefer to to bake from scratch, this recipe (below) makes the equivalent of one box of cake mix.  I've used it to make these muffins a couple times and it works extremely well.

Homemade Chocolate Cake Mix

makes the equivalent of one 18.25-ounce box

Printable Recipe

Ingredients

• 2 cups all-purpose flour

• 1 3/4 cups granulated sugar

• 1 cup Dutch-processed cocoa powder (sifted to remove lumps)

• 1/4 cup shortening

• 2 teaspoons baking powder

• 1 teaspoon baking soda

• 1 teaspoon fine sea salt

Directions

1. Place all ingredients in the bowl of a stand mixer and mix on low speed until the mixture resembles a box of cake mix. Alternately, you can process the ingredients in a food processor.

CI's Perfect Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe

I recently watched an episode of America's Test Kitchen devoted to cookies, one of which was "The Perfect Chocolate Chip Cookie".  What was their idea of perfect?  A soft and chewy cookie that remains that soft and chewy, even the following day.

Based on the traditional Toll House recipe, this version incorporated some non-traditional techniques which piqued my curiosity.  1 - instead of creaming softened butter and sugar together, some of the butter is melted and carefully browned to develop a nutty, caramelized flavor.  2 - the remaining butter is then stirred in to the browned butter to stop the cooking process.  3 - both sugars, eggs, and vanilla are added to the melted butter; whisking and resting, in three phases, until the sugars liquefy before the remaining ingredients are stirred in by hand.  And lastly, 4 - the baked cookies remain on the cookie sheet for a full 30 minutes after they are removed from the oven.

I should also mention the Toll House recipe makes tablespoon size cookies, where as these are about 3 times larger.  From a textural standpoint, they are indeed soft and chewy, even the following day.  From a flavor standpoint, they were very good, but they're not my all-time favorite.  With that said, they're certainly wonderful and my family had no trouble gobbling them up.

Cook's Illustrated Perfect Chocolate Chip Cookies

makes 16-20 cookies 

Printable Recipe

Ingredients

• 1 3/4 cups unbleached, all-purpose flour (8 3/4 ounces)

• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda

• 14 tablespoons unsalted butter, divided (10 tbsp; and 4 tbsp)

• 1/2 cup granulated sugar (3 1/2 ounces)

• 3/4 cup packed dark brown sugar (5 1/4 ounces)

• 1 teaspoon table salt

• 1 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

• 1 large egg

• 1 large egg yolk

• 1 1/4 cups Ghiradelli 60% cacao bittersweet chocolate chips

• 3/4 cups chopped pecans or walnuts, toasted (optional)

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 375F and line 2 large sheet pans with parchment or silicone baking mats. 

2. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour and baking soda; set aside.

3. In a small stainless steel sauce pan or skillet over medium-high heat, melt 10 tablespoons butter; swirling pan until butter is dark golden brown and smells nutty (don't let it burn); transfer to a large, heatproof bowl and immediately stir in remaining 4 tablespoons butter until completely melted. 

4. Add both sugars, salt, and vanilla and whisk together. 

5. Add egg and egg yolk and whisk for 30 seconds; let sit for 3 minutes and whisk for another 30 seconds. 

6. Repeat whisking and resting process 2 more times; until mixture is smooth and shiny. 

7. Using silicone spatula or wooden spoon, stir in flour mixture completely. 

8. Stir in chocolate chips and optional nuts.

9. Divide dough into 16 portions or use a #24 cookie scoop. 

10. Arrange 8 cookies per sheet pan. 

11. Bake one pan of cookies at a time; at 375F for 10-14 minutes until the edges have begun to set but the centers are still soft. 

12. Allow cookies to rest on sheet pan for 30 minutes before moving.

Notes

• A #20 scoop will yield 20 cookies.  Ghiradelli bittersweet 60% Cacao chips won CI's taste test. 

• 60% Cacao (not cocoa) means the chips are 40% sugar and 60% cocoa solids and cocoa butter.