I’m back with a Magazine Mondays post!

For me, muffin recipes are a lot like banana bread or pancake recipes, I could try a thousand of them, constantly in search of the perfect one.

I have a general muffin recipe that I’m pretty happy with but I thought I’d give the chocolate chip muffin recipe that I found in a special issue of Fine Cooking a try. The Winter 2006 issue was one dedicated entirely to Chocolate. I bookmarked it awhile back and I happened to have a surplus of chocolate chips on hand so I baked up a batch. I looked for the recipe on-line but couldn’t find it so I’ve reproduced it here.

These are definitely mall chocolate chip muffins. They bake up huge with satisfyingly full tops. They were moist and very good, although if I made them again, I would omit the pecans (I like my chocolate chip muffins to be all about the chocolate chips). I’d also omit the glaze as I found it made the muffins too sweet. Overall, though, it was a good recipe and I’m glad I tried it.

I am so thrilled each week to see how many of you are tackling those magazine piles cluttering your homes. Job well done! Here are all the people that join me this week in conquering magazine piles everywhere:

Jen of the adorable Baking and Dogs brings us a very seasonal and timely recipe for Chocolate Cherry Hot Cross Buns.

Andreas of Delta Kitchen brings us some Rublikuchen, otherwise known as Carrot Cake. Otherwise known as yummy!

My Ottawa best friend Jenny, of All Things Edible, has promised to make breakfast for all of us and she’s serving Oatmeal-Raspberry Pancakes. I’ll bring the maple syrup!

For lunch we’re going to have the Beef and Green Bean Stir Fry that Jenny mde a few weeks ago and that I forgot to post … oopsie!

Tamy of 3 Sides of Crazy (love that name) brings us some Orange Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies. I always have time for cookies! She also brings us some Carrots, Apricots and Baked Beets!

Christie and Ian of Coco Bean made a Smoked Salmon, Dill, Goat Cheese and Artichoke Quiche that has my mouth watering!

The warm Claudia of the sweet blog Cover Girls outdid herself (and all of us) with three magazine recipes: Lamb and Eggplant Shepherd’s Pie, Caramel Apple Crisp and Baked Brie with Sauteed Mushrooms.

Biz of the blog Biggest Diabetic Loser embraced Clean Eating magazine and made a delicious Mac N Cheese.

A regular contributor, Natashya of Living in the Kitchen with Puppies, brings the bundt cake back with a Cardamom Vanilla Bundt Cake with Lime Glaze.

Natashya, in a very timely move thanks to the Easter holiday, also made Lemon Current Hot Cross Buns.

Not only is Cathy’s blog, Noble Pig, noble, but so is Cathy. I. Love. Her. And I love the Roasted Salmon with a Lemon-Herb Matzo Crust that she made.

My sweet Janie from Panini Girl took a bite out of her magazine pile with two recipes this week: Chicken and Leek Pie and a gorgeous Spice-Rubbed Pork Tenderloin.

Mandi of Red Dirt Mummy made a gorgeous Zucchini Cake … I can’t wait for zucchini to be in season again!

ReTorte of Wandering Coyote made Monte Cubano that I’d love to climb!

Claudia of Journey of an Italian Cook made Chicken with Penne and Rosemary. I’ll just go get my fork!

Saliha of the blog Hayat Binbercesni makes some adorable mini pizzas and banana pudding!

Last but not least, I got a lovely e-mail from a woman named Vicki B. who mentioned that she did not have a blog but she did have a huge magazine pile that she wanted to tackle. She asked if she could participate and I said of course. Vicki made a batch of Oatmeal Scones from the Cook’s Illustrated Holiday 2007 issue. Thanks, Vicki!

Thank you to everyone that took part in this week’s edition of Magazine Mondays! For more details on this non-event, just click the link in my sidebar. And remember, anytime you post a mgazine recipe, just let me know!

Have a great week, everyone!

Ciao!

Chocolate Chip Muffins
Winter 2006 issue of Fine Cooking dedicated to Chocolate.

Note: This recipe yields 12 large muffins. They freeze well as long as they’re wrapped in plastic. The original recipe calls for 3/4 cup of coarsely chopped pecans or walnuts but I omitted those here because I think the muffins are best without the nuts. While I included the recipe for the glaze, I recommend the muffins without it.

3-1/2 cups all purpose flour (use unbleached if you have it)
4 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
1-1/3 cups granulated sugar
10 tbsp. unsalted butter, melted and cooled slightly
1 cup whole milk, at room temperature
1 cup sour cream, at room temperature
2 large eggs, at room temperature
1 large egg yolk, at room temperature
1 tsp. pure vanilla extract
1-1/2 cups chocolate chips

For the glaze (optional):

3 cups icing sugar
6 tbsp. water
1/4 tsp. cinnamon

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. and place a rack in the centre of the oven. Lightly oil the top of a 12-cup muffin tin or spray with cooking spray. Line with muffin cups (it’s best to use grease-proof ones if you can find them).

Sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt.

In a bowl, whisk together the butter, whole milk, sour cream, eggs, egg yolk and vanilla exctract.

Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and gently combine using a rubber spatula. Mix only until the dry ingredients are moistened. Don’t overmix or your muffins will be too dense. Don’t worry if the batter seems lumpy or if there are still some flour streaks.

Add the chocolate chips and fold in quickly, again being careful not to overmix.

Distribute the batter among the muffin cups. Mound the better up in the centre of each cup. It will rise above the rim of the muffin cup by as much as an inch. Don’t worry. These are big muffins!

Bake for 30 to 35 minutes. The muffins will be golden and will spring back when pressed lightly. As an extra test, insert a toothpick into the centre of a muffin. If it comes out clean, the muffins are ready.

Remove the muffin tin to a rack and let cool for 15 minutes. With a knife, separate the muffins evenly and then gently lift them out of the tins. Let them continue cooling on the rack.

If you want to glaze them, make the glaze and pour over the muffins. If not, enjoy them as they are!