Miss Mable's Double Chocolate Muffins

I get nervous if there isn't something chocolate to eat in the house, and I'd been wanting to try a new recipe from one of my tea room cookbooks, so this week I decided to make these easy and decadent Double Chocolate Muffins!

During my year of cooking out of tea room cookbooks in 2013, I had mentioned the book "Family Recipes from Miss Mable's Tea Room," a book I purchased as a souvenir when a girlfriend and I visited this Tennessee tea room some years ago before it closed. Several readers commented that they liked that book but they also liked a second cookbook from Miss Mable's, "The Pleasures and Treasures of Taking Tea at Miss Mable's Tea Room." Naturally, I couldn't rest 'til I got my hands on a copy of it as well.

Now, is it a betrayal if I enjoy a muffin made with coffee as I'm sipping tea? I hope not, because all I can tell you is that the two types of chocolate AND the addition of brewed coffee made for an especially rich tasting muffin! Give these a try sometime and see if you agree.

Double Chocolate Muffins

1-1/2 cups plain flour
1-1/2 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 cup sugar
3 tablespoons cocoa
3/4 cup chopped nuts (I used hazelnuts)
3/4 cup chocolate chips (I used mini-chocolate chips because I think they disperse better in baked goods)
1 cup cold coffee
1 tablespoon vinegar
1 teaspoon vanilla
6 tablespoons melted butter

Combine flour, salt and soda. Add sugar, cocoa, nuts and chocolate chips and combine. In separate bowl, combine the liquid ingredients. Stir the liquid ingredients into the dry ones and combine well. Spoon batter 2/3 full into paper-lined muffin tins and bake for 20 minutes or until muffins have risen slightly. Yields about 15 muffins.