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Double chocolate salted caramel muffin on cooling rack

Double Chocolate Salted Caramel Muffins

Yield: 12 Muffins (makes 12-16)
Prep Time: 40 minutes
Cook Time: 20 minutes
Total Time: 1 hour

Ingredients

  • 1 ½ cups (213 g) all-purpose flour (see note for whole wheat)
  • ¾ cup (159 g) granulated sugar
  • ½ cup (43 g) natural unsweetened cocoa powder or Dutch-process cocoa powder
  • 2 teaspoons baking powder
  • ¼ teaspoon baking soda
  • ¼ teaspoon salt
  • ½ cup (85 g) milk, semisweet, or bittersweet chocolate chips or chunks
  • 1 cup milk, I use 2%
  • ½ cup neutral-flavored oil, like vegetable, canola, avocado oil
  • 2 large eggs
  • ½ cup thick caramel sauce or dulce de leche (see note)
  • Flaky sea salt for sprinkling, optional

Instructions 

  • Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Line a 12-cup muffin tin with liners.
  • In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Add the chocolate chips.
  • In a separate medium bowl or in a large liquid measuring cup, whisk together the milk, oil, and eggs until smooth.
  • Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients, and stir until just combined (don't overmix or the muffins might be tough and dense).
  • Fill the muffin liners about 2/3 of the way full (you may have extra batter; you can bake a second batch or use a second muffin tin, if needed). Don't overfill as you'll be adding caramel to the muffins in the next step.
  • Bake for about 7-8 minutes, just until the edges are set but the centers are still wet. Working quickly, remove the muffin tin from the oven and drop a heaping teaspoon of caramel sauce or dulce de leche into the center of each muffin (no need to press down into the batter).
  • Return to the oven and bake until the batter rises over the caramel and the tops spring back lightly to the touch, 10-12 minutes.
  • Lightly sprinkle the muffins with sea salt, if desired. Let the muffins rest in the pan for 1-2 minutes before removing them to a wire rack to cool completely.

Notes

Flour: I've subbed 50% whole wheat flour (white wheat, not red wheat) and it works pretty well. The muffins are slightly more dense, but still delicious. 
Cocoa: the muffins pictured in the post are made with natural unsweetened cocoa (like Hershey's brand); using Dutch-process will yield a muffin that has a richer, deeper chocolate flavor (and color).
Caramel: for these muffins, I used some of this caramel sauce I had in the fridge (didn't warm first; I scooped it onto each muffin cold). Using dulce de leche would work great, too (again, if it's refrigerated, I wouldn't warm first), and I even think unwrapping a soft caramel and dropping that onto each muffin would be incredible (haven't tried that one myself yet, though). I wouldn't recommend the thin-ish caramel ice cream topping. 
Muffin Tin: I was able to bake all the batter in 12 muffins (one tin), but I used my favorite USA brand muffin tin {aff. link}; the muffin cups are a bit deeper than other standard muffin tins so I can get away with filling them more. If you are using another brand of muffin tin, you might need to separate the muffin batter into 16 muffins so they don't spill over as they bake.