Well hello! Remember that little cold that I had that I thought had gone away, well it hadn’t. I basically spent the past week in a NyQuil coma, fumbling through work and passing out in a bed of tissues.
Can we talk about NyQuil for a bit?! I can’t remember the last time I actually took some, and in a moment of desperation, my fiance Chad poured me a plastic cup. The taste is miserable (that I remember), I held my nose and chased it with some Gatorade. Before I knew it, my whole body was tingly and I was off to a neverland of sleep and dreams.
The next night I was on my own, Chad was off on a work trip. Again, I held my nose, but this time I chased it with orange juice. I just needed something with a strong flavor to get that awful medicine taste out of my mouth. The mix of minty NyQuil and tart orange juice is not one I recommend. So I grabbed a popsicle and by the time I had finished it, I was beginning to nod off to sleep.
Most night when I would FaceTime Chad, I would be slowly fading into la la land with a popsicle in hand. Deep down inside I am an eight year old kid.
The great thing is that NyQuil does the job at getting you to sleep, the not so great thing, when I would have to wake up in the morning and get ready for work. My brain was foggy and I felt like I could sleep a million years. The first half of my work day was spent feeling like I was riding around in a spaceship. I was so completely out of it, barely able to hear because I was so congested, a hot mess.
Once I could breathe through my nose I had to kick my NyQuil routine to the curb, although that was some of the best sleep I’ve gotten in months! All of a sudden I turn 30 and I can’t fall asleep or I’m up at 3 am cruising Instagram.
Anyway, I’m sure you totally want to hear about these chocolate muffins with greek yogurt swirls and not my crazy week of cold medicine. And can they even be called a cupcake if they don’t have frosting?! They’re sweeter than your typical muffin but have the creamy tang of greek yogurt. Plus it’s chocolate – can you ever go wrong with chocolate – I think not.
They’re perfect, good enough to serve for dessert but cleverly designed so that you could qualify it as a snack, or better yet breakfast.
- 2 tablespoons sugar
- 1 tablespoon unsalted butter, at room temperature
- 1 large egg
- ½ tablespoon all-purpose flour
- ⅓ cup greek yogurt
- ¾ cup plus 2 tablespoons all purpose flour
- ½ cup plus 2 tablespoons sugar
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 pinch salt
- ¼ cup cocoa powder
- ½ cup sour cream
- 3 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature
- 1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract
- 1 large egg
- 2 tablespoons hot water.
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degree F and line 12 standard muffin tins with paper liners.
- For the swirl, in a small bowl, beat together the butter and sugar until smooth. Add the egg, and beat until fully incorporated.
- Next add the flour and the greek yogurt. Beat until smooth and then set mixture aside.
- To make the batter, whisk together the flour, sugar, baking soda, salt and cocoa powder.
- In a second bowl, beat together the sour cream, butter and vanilla until smooth. Beat in the egg until fully incorporated. Add the hot water and beat once more.
- Slowly add the flour mixture and beat just until smooth.
- Spoon the chocolate batter into the muffin tins, filling each about two-third full.
- Top each muffin with a dollop of the swirl mixture until you have used most of it. I had a tiny bit left over.
- With a skewer, twist the swirl mixture making sure to bring up parts of the muffin mixture so that you have big bits of chocolate and swirl on top.
- Bake the cupcakes until puffed and a toothpick inserted into the middle comes out clean, about 15-20 minutes.
- Let cool completely and serve.
