chocolate beet muffins

This week I had the good fortune of being a chaperone at my son's first school field trip. We went to the Queens Farm Museum. It was the first time we went and was loads of fun. I was especially interested to see how butter milk is made. You put heavy cream into a churn. Churn it for a few minutes (the more humid the day the faster it goes). And you end up with solid butter and liquid butter milk. I am definitely going to try this at home over the summer. Fresh baked bread and freshly made butter? Can it get any better?

I've heard the praise of butter milk for a while now but this is my first time baking with buttermilk.

A blogging friend of mine recently queried, when is a muffin not a muffin, but a cupcake. A very good question for this recipe. Chocolatey rich and moist, just how a cupcake ought to be... but what I think divides the path between muffin and cake is the existence, or lack, of frosting.

Hence, we have here a very moist, chocolatey, dessert. But not a cupcake.

Chocolate Beet Muffins
Makes 12 muffins, adapted from My Kitchen

• 2 cups white whole-wheat flour
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 cup of semi-sweet chocolate chips
• 2/3 cup of semi-sweet chocolate chips
• 1/4 cup of butter or margarine
• 1 cup beet puree - I stick blended two small cooked and peeled beets - you can buy them precooked
• 3/4 cup brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 eggs, lightly beaten
• 2/3 cup buttermilk - I made my own from 2% milk and 1 tablespoon vinegar. You combine and let sit for 10 minutes until thickened and slightly curdled

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 375 F. Grease or line with paper cups a 12-cup muffin tin.
2. In a large bowl whisk flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt until well mixed. Stir in the half cup chocolate chips.
3. In a small saucepan melt the other (2/3 cup) chocolate chips and butter over super low heat. Stir this to combine and set aside to let cool until it is lukewarm.
4. In a medium-sized bowl, whisk together brown sugar, eggs, beet puree, vanilla, buttermilk and the melted chocolate.
5. Pour the chocolate mixture into your dry ingredients and stir with a wooden spoon until just combined. Immediately spoon the batter into the 12 greased or paper-lined muffin cups. The batter should entirely fill the wells.
6. Place muffin pan in a preheated 375 F oven. Bake for around 18-20 minutes.
7. You can tell the muffins are done when a toothpick inserted in the center of a muffin comes out clean.
8. Finally cool muffins for about 10 minutes in the pan then remove to a wire rack to cool entirely.