Chocolate Pumpkin Swirl Muffins

Chocolate Pumpkin Swirl Muffins

These chocolate-and-pumpkin muffins make a perfect breakfast on the go, the two flavors united by a hint of cinnamon. If you’d like to dress them up for a party, start by adding 2 tablespoons of finely chopped chocolate to the chocolate batter before scooping it into the cups and skip the sugar topping. Bake and cool the muffins, then top them with a simple cream cheese frosting: Beat together 8 ounces softened cream cheese, 4 tablespoons room-temperature unsalted butter and ½ cup sifted confectioners’ sugar. Spread the frosting liberally on the muffins and top with chocolate sprinkles.

Yield: 12 muffins

2 cups/256 grams all-purpose flour

1 tablespoon ground cinnamon

1 teaspoon baking powder

¾ teaspoon kosher salt (such as Diamond Crystal)

½ teaspoon baking soda

1 cup/200 grams granulated sugar, plus more for sprinkling

¾ cup/165 grams packed light or dark brown sugar

½ cup vegetable oil

1 (15-ounce) can pumpkin purée (about 1 ¾ cups); see Tip

2 large eggs

¼ cup plain whole-milk yogurt

1 ½ teaspoons pure vanilla extract

½ cup/47 grams Dutch-processed cocoa powder, sifted

Heat the oven to 375 degrees. Line a standard 12-cup muffin tin with paper cups. In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, cinnamon, baking powder, salt and baking soda. In a large bowl, whisk together the sugars, oil, pumpkin purée, eggs, yogurt and vanilla extract.

Fold the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients until just combined. Divide the batter in half.

Add the cocoa powder to one half of the batter and mix until just combined.

Add alternating scoops of each batter to the muffin cups until you’ve used it all up. Using a butter knife, swirl the batters together without combining them fully. Sprinkle the tops generously with granulated sugar.

Bake until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean, 22 to 26 minutes.

Let cool on a wire rack for 10 minutes, then remove the muffins from the pan and let them stand on the rack to cool completely. The muffins will keep for up to 5 days at room temperature, in an airtight container.

Tip: The texture of pumpkin purées vary from brand to brand. Thinner purées will yield more delicate muffins, but they will still be delicious.

These were delicious and a big hit with my family! I did significantly reduce the sugar as follows: half cup brown sugar & quarter cup of granulated.

Made the following adjustments: cut sugars by about 1/3; added a dash of nutmeg, dash of ginger, and dash of cardamom; used 1/2 whole wheat flour. These are great! Still quite sweet but not overly sweet for an indulgent muffin. Despite the whole wheat flour, they are light and fluffy. I added the chocolate first and then swirled with a skewer, which I twirled around while also mixing. I think 10-12 twirl/mixes is just about right to get a good swirl.

Jordan Marsh’s Blueberry Muffins

Jordan Marsh’s Blueberry Muffins

In 1985, The Times published a recipe for the blueberry muffins served at the Ritz-Carlton hotel in Boston, which Marian Burros, who adapted the recipe, judged among her favorite muffins in the city. A few years later, a reader wrote Marian to say that the best blueberry muffins in Boston were in fact from the now-closed Jordan Marsh department store. Marian tracked down and adapted that recipe so you can judge for yourself. But the origins of the Jordan Marsh recipe were unclear until 2023, when Mara Richmond of Burlington, Vt., wrote The Times to say that the developer of the recipe was her father, Arnold Gitlin, then the executive food consultant for Allied Stores, which owned Jordan Marsh at the time. His recipe, Richmond said, was an adaptation from one in Esther Howland’s 1847 cookbook, “The New England Economical Housekeeper, and Family Receipt Book.” Everything old is new again. This version has a lot more sugar and butter and fewer eggs than the Ritz-Carlton muffins. It also calls for mashing a half cup of berries and adding them to the batter. This produces a very moist muffin, one that will stay fresh longer.

Yield: 12 muffins

½ cup softened butter

1 ¼ cups sugar

2 eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 cups flour

½ teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons baking powder

½ cup milk

2 cups blueberries, washed, drained and picked over

3 teaspoons sugar

Preheat the oven to 375.

Cream the butter and sugar until light.

Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Add vanilla.

Sift together the flour, salt and baking powder, and add to the creamed mixture alternately with the milk.

Crush ½ cup blueberries with a fork, and mix into the batter. Fold in the remaining whole berries.

Line a 12 cup standard muffin tin with cupcake liners, and fill with batter. Sprinkle the 3 teaspoons sugar over the tops of the muffins, and bake at 375 degrees for about 30-35 minutes.

Remove muffins from tin and cool at least 30 minutes. Store, uncovered, or the muffins will be too moist the second day, if they last that long.

TIP: Toss the berries in flour before adding, to keep them from sinking to the base of the muffin.

The original John Pupek recipe, which I have used for years, calls for 1 cup of sugar, 1/4 tsp.salt, and he includes 1 tsp. vanilla as well. I don't know why the recipe above makes the salt optional. Salt is used in cooking as a flavor enhancer, and if it is left out of baked goods, the final product will not taste right.

I would recommend adding a teaspoon of cinnamon and, MOST important, a tablespoon of lemon zest (thanks to Mark Bittman). Also I would use much less sugar -- I find that half a cup is enough, or three-quarters tops.