On Monday, February 7, 2011 the much anticipated bake-off rematch arrived. For those who don't remember, December 2010 brought us bake-off X: Battle Shortbread to fruition, a showdown in which my competitor took the tiara with a 1 point lead. Unfortunately for her, for true bake-off championship the victor must crush the competition by at least 3 points. Needless to say, a rematch was inevitable following her narrow and hardly relevant win.
After months of deliberation, mother-insulting, and the occasional laboratory tussle (no rats were harmed and I think the fluorescent orange mark on my shoulder is fading...), we landed on a baked good for the rematch: muffins. At the last bake-off we had shared a recipe. This time, we left it general. Any muffin was fair game (with the exception of bran, which meant automatic disqualification).
The choice for me was obvious. Too many people dislike blueberry muffins. Besides, these would fail my avoid-fruit-in-baked-goods-at-all-costs rule (as would raspberry or apple muffins). Banana nut would violate my avoid-nuts-in-baked-goods-at-all-costs rule. Corn muffins violated no rules and happen to be a favorite of mine, but they are too easy to mess up. Chocolate chocolate chip it was. Not only were no other muffins worthy of bake-off, but choc-choc chip muffins are the most delicious things in the world.
As a wee high schooler I had produced a batch of Chocolate Ricotta Muffins from my favorite Mollie Katzen cookbook: Sunlight Cafe
The time had come to reproduce these tiny mounds of rich sweetness.
Chocolate Ricotta Muffins
adapted from Sunlight Cafe by Mollie Katzen
* 2 1/3 cups flour
* 8 tbsp cocoa powder
* 1 tsp baking powder
* 3/4 tsp salt
* 1 1/2 cups chocolate chips (or as many as you want)
* 2 eggs
* 1 cup ricotta
* 1/2 stick butter, melted
* 1 1/3 cups milk
* 1 tbsp vanilla
Preheat oven to 350˚ F.
Combine the flour, cocoa, salt, b.p. and choc chips in a bowl. As opposed as I am to separate mixing of wet and dry ingredients, muffins are a different story (especially bake-off muffins). There is a great danger of overmixing with quick-bread type foods, which (I'm told) yields dense, overly chewy results.
In a separate bowl, whisk the eggs, the add the ricotta, milk and vanilla, then whisk to combine (story time: brilliant and experienced baker that I am, I somehow managed to forget the vanilla in the process of creating these muffins. Fortunately, I remembered this most crucial ingredient right before putting the muffins in the oven. I proceeded to pour the batter out of the muffin wrappers I had used and remix the whole thing. Not gonna quit my day job any time soon).
Add the wet ingredients and melted butter to the dry ingredients bowl and mix until just combined. Assuming you not forgotten to add any key ingredients, fill muffin tin with the batter. Fill each compartment almost to the top. This made 15 muffins. If you are using muffin wrappers, you do not need to grease the pan. Since all the papers I had were ruined by my vanilla oversight, I went without and instead buttered the tin. Alas.
Bake for 20-25 minutes. Cool on rack.
My two biggest fans, Dani and Sophie, gave the muffins nothing but positive feedback. I also sampled on the night before bake-off, and was thrilled with the chocolate overload I experienced from just half a muffin.
I showed up to work the next day only to find that my competitor had made pumpkin cream cheese muffins: the other best kind of muffin in the world (or should I say cupcake?!). In that moment I knew that, although I might get lucky with a chocoholic group of judges, the competition was far from in the bag. My heart thudded as each judge tasted the muffins, ranking each from 1-10. As the numbers were tallied on a paper towel (bake-off tradition) I began feeling lightheaded and found myself leaning on the wall and cracking bad jokes to ease the tension. It was looking very close. After two re-counts (no one seemed to be able to find a calculator) the final results were tallied. My competitor had won by 4.5 points. My time in the bake-off had come to a premature but unquestionable end. I managed to maintain my composure through the end of the day, smiling and shaking hands with the victor. But mark my words, this is not the last the GI division bake-off will see of the Noe Valley viper (yes, that is my bake-off pseudonym/alter ego). I'll be back, and there will be hell to pay.
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