In researching the internet, I came across these muffins on an Italian blog. In addition to the chestnut flour, it calls for finely shredded coconut or coconut flour. I do have the coconut, so I decided that I could grind it up some more instead of purchasing the specialty flour.
The pairing of the chocolate and chestnut flavors makes for a delicious muffin. Also, you get three textures when eating, moist fluffy cake with a slight chew from the coconut and a crunch of a big chocolate chunk.
Some of these were baked with a paper liner and some without. I found that using a paper liner is better because the muffins brown too much before getting done and the chocolate chunks make the muffins stick (even though the pan was greased).
Also, I misunderstood the recipe and thought it was for jumbo muffins and made 8 muffins. The recipe actually is for 1 dozen large muffins, meaning large standard muffins.
Chestnut Chocolate Chunk Muffins
adapted from Ms Adventures in Italy
Ingredients
3/4 cup dark chocolate chunks
3/4-1 cup coconut flour or ground coconut (I used a blender to finely grind and measure of 1 cup)
3/4 cup dark brown sugar
1 stick or 1/2 cup butter (room temp)
2 eggs
3/4 cup milk
1 tsp vanilla
1/4 tsp salt
1 tbs baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
2 cups chestnut flour
Preheat oven to 375 degrees and prepare a muffin pan by placing paper liners in the cavities.
Sift together the flour, baking powder, salt and baking soda in a medium size bowl. The chestnut flour is not the same as regular flour, so you might have to push some of it through the sieve. After sifting, stir in the coconut flour/shreds. Set aside.
Cream together the brown sugar and butter in a bowl until light and fluffy. Add the eggs, one at a time. Beat each egg into the batter for about a minute. Then mix in the vanilla extract.
Using a wooden spoon, add half of the flour mixture and stir until no dry streaks remain. Add the milk, blending all the liquid into the batter. Stir in the rest of the flour mixture. Lastly, fold in the chocolate chunks.
Using an ice cream scoop, put the batter in the lined muffin cavities, making sure all cups are evenly filled, about 3/4 full. Bake until tops are a golden brown and tester comes out clean, about 15-20 minutes. Let muffins sit in pans for 2 minutes, then remove paper coated muffins and sit on rack to finish cooling.
**LAST YEAR: Coconut Dinner Rolls**