Chocolate Ricotta Mini Muffins

I had some ricotta but no almonds or lemon zest, so with some difficulty I found a muffin recipe that involved ricotta and something besides lemon: Chocolate Ricotta Muffins. My main change was in proportion of maxi to mini muffins: I made 24 mini muffins and 6 maxi ones (the latter because I didn’t have time to wait for the tin to cool in between).

Makes about 36 mini-muffins.

Ingredients

Dry

• 2 ⅓ c. white flour
• 7 T. unsweetened cocoa
• 2 tsp baking powder
• ¾ tsp salt
• 1 c. sugar

Wet

• 1 c. ricotta
• 2 eggs
• 1 ⅓ c. milk
• 4 T. melted butter
• 1 T. vanilla

Extra

• 1 c. semi-sweet chocolate chips

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350° (with convection).
2. Spray muffin tins.
3. Mix dry ingredients in a large bowl.
4. Mix wet ingredients in a smaller bowl, first beating the eggs into the ricotta individually, then as a free-for-all.
5. Pour wet ingredients into dry and mix minimally.
6. Fold in extra ingredients.
7. Bake 12–20 minutes depending on size, or to the toothpick test. (Beware of melted chocolate chips when testing.)
8. Cool in pan until they’re cool enough to twist and extract.

Variants

I’m considering putting the mascarpone glaze from these muffins on top, possibly with a change to the flavoring to make it more interesting—say, anise or orange extract.

Cut in half, that would be:

• ½ c. powdered sugar
• ½ tsp. extract
• 1 T. milk or half-and-half
• 1 T. mascarpone

Whisk until smooth and drizzle.