Muffins are indeed a great way to start your day. The two lovely flavors – coffee and chocolate compliment each other in perfect harmony. Mine is a coffee and chocolate loving family, and they loved these muffins. Do check my other recipes of coffee n chocolate in the archive.

The recipe is adapted from joyofbaking.com. The last time I baked I wasn’t really happy with addition of baking soda as said in the recipe. The muffins turned out really fluffy but the after taste of baking soda was really disappointing so this time I reduced the soda and it turned out to be delicious.

You need –

• All purpose flour – 1 & ¾ cups
• Coco powder – ¼ cup
• Baking powder – 1 teaspoon
• Baking soda – ½ teaspoon
• light brown sugar – 1 cup
• Salt – ¼ teaspoon
• Sunflower seeds – 1/2 cup; lightly toasted and cooled
• Eggs – 2, @room temperature
• Butter milk – ½ cup
• Canola oil – ½ cup
• Black coffee – ¼ cup
• Vanilla extract – 1 teaspoon

How to-

Pre-heat the oven to 190 C.  In a muffin tin, line 12-15 cupcake/muffin liners.

Sift together the flour, coco powder, baking soda, baking powder and salt. Add in the toasted sunflower seeds, sugar and stir well till well combined.

In a mixing bowl add the eggs, butter milk, oil and vanilla extract and whisk till everything is well combined. Now add the dry ingredients and fold in gently till everything is well combined. Make sure not to over mix the batter else they will not be light and fluffy when you bake.

Divide the batter equally into the lined liners. Fill the liners 3/4 full and bake for 20-23 minutes or when toothpick inserted in the centre of the muffins comes out clean.

Remove from the oven and cool them for 10 minutes and then place on a cooling rack to cool completely.