Healthy Tiramisu Muffins #MuffinMonday

Inspired by the traditional dessert, these muffins have the flavors of tiramisu in a whole wheat breakfast treat.

Hey ho! Before I get into today's Muffin Monday post, I'd like to remind everyone that the KitchenAid Mixer Giveaway ends tomorrow! Click here to find out more info. I'd also like to direct your attention to my How To Eat Local This Year series of posts. Thanks for your time and attention!

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Let's get one thing straight off the bat--there are no ladyfingers in these muffins. This is not the traditional Italian dessert made individually in muffin cups. It is Muffin Monday and I had the idea to take some tiramisu ingredients (namely mascarpone cheese, espresso powder, and chocolate) and bake them into a muffin. I got these ingredients after our local grocery store finished their Taste of Italy promotion and everything was marked down. Half price imported espresso powder and mascarpone cheese? I'm so in.

I like my baked breakfast goods to be on the healthier side, however, so I chose to make these with white whole wheat flour. Even though I prefer less sweet muffins, what with the chocolate chips I opted to go big and bump up the sugar a bit from my standard ¼ cup up to ⅓ cup for the dozen. I mean, this is definitely a treat. I was thinking these could be a sweet start to a Valentine's Day celebration.

I looked in my muffin bible, Muffins, A Cookbook by Bidinosti/Wearring, for a recipe using cream cheese so I could substitute with mascarpone. This book was written by college friends of my mom, and remains my go-to for all things muffin. I didn't find a recipe. Instead, I just winged it--knowing that 2 cups of flour makes about a dozen muffins and that I'd need the usual ratios of salt, baking powder, and baking soda since I was using that amount of flour. Any resemblance to another recipe is happenstance and I'm not bothering to look up and see if anyone else has done this. I did it in my own little vacuum, and I'm sharing what I did with you today.

The first time I made these muffins, for a morning coffee, I felt the batter was a bit dry so at the last moment I added a slug of milk to thin it out. The second time I made this recipe I started out with the milk in the wet ingredients and it worked much better. I've included the final recipe below. I had so much fun playing with the mascarpone and espresso powder that I'll be sharing a Tiramisu bar cookie soon!

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Healthy Tiramisu Muffins

Ingredients

• 2 cups (8 ounces by weight) white whole wheat flour
• 1 teaspoon espresso powder, plus more for dusting 
• ½ teaspoon salt (I use kosher as shown)
• ½ teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 2 eggs
• ⅓ cup vegetable oil
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• ⅓ cup granulated sugar
• ½ cup mascarpone cheese
• 3 Tablespoons milk
• ½ cup dark chocolate chips or chunks

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit. Line a 12 well regular muffin pan with paper liners (the chocolate chunks can stick so paper works better for easier removal).
2. In a large bowl, whisk together dry ingredients. That's the flour on down the list through the baking powder. Hang on to that whisk!
3. In a medium bowl, thoroughly whisk (told ya to hang onto it) together the wet ingredients. That's the vegetable oil down the list through the milk, and I do include the sugar in this category as it dissolves nicely. Hang on to the chocolate chips for a moment--eat a couple--but you can ditch the whisk now.
4. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ones. Using a spatula, stir a couple of times.
5. Add the chocolate chips to the mixture and stir until just mixed.
6. Scoop mixture into prepared cups. Dust tops with a bit of espresso powder. 
7. Bake for 15 minutes. Cool in pan for 5 minutes, then transfer to rack. 
8. Delicious warm or at room temperature.

#MuffinMonday is a group of muffin loving bakers who get together once a month to bake muffins. You can see all our of lovely muffins by following our Pinterest board.
Updated links for all of our past events and more information about Muffin Monday, can be found on our home page.

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