Coffee and chocolate?  Count me in!  You’ll love these Cappuccino  Muffins, whether you love coffee the way I do or not!

I have a small blue cookbook with stained pages and little notes and hundreds of wonderful recipes.  It’s called The Newcomer’s Guide to Cooking in Africa, and I treasure it not only for the memories it calls to mind but for the delicious dishes I prepare every time I open its pages.

I was barely 22 years old when a kind missionary friend and mentor gave it to me, complete with notes about which recipes she suggested and others that she loved.  The book offers insight to cooking at high altitude, as well as substitutions for common ingredients you couldn’t find in Kenya back in the day.

But the recipes aren’t just for Africa.

There are some I’ve made for years here in the states. They’re old standbys in my kitchen.

Every now and then, though, I try a new one, and I am seldom, if ever, disappointed.

This recipe is one I tried recently, with some minor adjustments for making the muffins here in Mississippi (or anywhere, really).  We loved them, and I think you will, too.

What You Need to Make Cappuccino Muffins

• 2 cups All-Purpose Flour
• 3/4 cup Sugar
• 2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 2 single-serve packets of instant coffee (about 1 tablespoon)
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1 cup milk
• 1/2 cup butter
• 1 egg
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 cup mini chocolate chips

What You Do to Make Cappuccino Muffins

Preheat oven to 375.

Melt butter and allow to cool.

Combine flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, and cinnamon, whisking together to incorporate air.

Dissolve instant coffee in milk.  Add egg to milk and beat slightly.  Add cooled butter and stir.  (I used decaf instant coffee becuase I had some here –  I have NO IDEA why, but it worked just fine!)

Add liquids to dry ingredients and mix until just moistened.  Add vanilla.  (You can also add the vanilla to the liquid mixture.  I may have forgotten to do so.)

Fold in mini chocolate chips.  Looking at these closeup photos, I’m wondering if I used mini chocolate chips, but I usually do so that’s how I listed the ingredients.  Obviously, you can use whatever you have.  In Kenya, back at the turn of the century (the 21st one that is), I would have chopped a bar of chocolate up and thrown it in because chocolate chips were hard to come by.

Fold gently so you don’t overmix!

Divide batter into liner-filled muffin tins and bake in preheated oven for 15 – 20 minutes.

(I tell myself that everyone’s muffin tins look like this, especially after more than a decade of use.  Please don’t tell me otherwise.)

Remove from oven and cool on wire racks.  Enjoy!