Cappuccino Muffins & Cream Cheese Espresso Spread

If you are a lover of coffee and all things coffee related, you are about to discover a new favorite.

If you aren't a coffee fan, you may still like these. Greg does.

I stumbled across this recipe recently while searching for a new banana bread. I took it to our first MOPS meeting to serve with breakfast, although it is rich enough to be desert. A few people asked me for the recipe, so I decided to post it here.

Note: Adjust the instant coffee to reflect personal tastes. I used what I had on hand, which was a Maxwell House International Flavors "Coffee House Beverage Mix" in French Vanilla Cafe.

And I added quite a bit more than called for to enhance the cappuccino flavor...it still was not strong enough, in my opinion.

I am contemplating using actual coffee grounds next time. Is that gross?

Spread:
4 oz cream cheese, cubed or softened
1 tablespoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon instant coffee granules *I used about 1 tablespoon of the French Vanilla Cappuccino mix.
1/2 teaspoon of Vanilla extract
1/4 cup miniature semi sweet chocolate chips *This is optional, as they are also in the muffins.

Muffins:
2 cups all purpose flour
3/4 cup sugar
2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon of salt
1 cup of milk
2 tablespoons instant coffee granules *I probably doubled, if not tripled, this amount using the French Vanilla cappuccino mix.
1/2 cup butter or margarine, melted
1 egg, beaten
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3/4 cup miniature semi sweet chocolate chips

Directions:
Preheat oven to 375 F.

Combine all the ingredients for the cream cheese spread and mix well. A hand mixer or food processor would be handy here. Cover and refrigerate.

In a large bowl, combine flour, sugar, baking powder, cinnamon and salt. Set aside.

In a medium sized bowl, combine the milk and instant coffee granules. Stir until granules are dissolved.

Add the butter, egg, and vanilla to the milk and coffee mixture. Mix well. *Note: I decided to add more instant coffee after adding the hot butter, which did strange things to my mixture. It foamed and began to resemble the consistency of wet sand. This did not seem to affect the outcome of the muffins, but I would be sure to add all the coffee BEFORE the egg and butter.

Stir coffee mix into the dry ingredients. Mix until just moistened.

Fold in the chocolate chips.

Grease muffin pan or use paper cupcake liners. Fill 2/3 full OR grease loaf pan(s) and fill 2/3 full. *You should know that this batter is quite delicious. I had to restrain myself from licking the bowl to a sparkling clean sheen. Only the fear of salmonella poisoning kept me from doing so.

Bake at 375 F for 17-20 minutes. *My first batch burned to blackened nuggets using these directions. I amended the next batch to bake at 350 F for 15-17 minutes and they were perfection, but that could just be my oven.

Cool before removing from pans.

Serve with espresso spread.

Makes 14 muffins. *I doubled the recipe and still had a lot of batter left over. I Made 24 muffins and 2 small loaves.

Enjoy!