Mint Chocolate Chip Muffins

The first reaction you might have to trying these might be “Why did someone put mint in my muffin?” After a few bites, though, they really start to grow on you. I got the idea from mint chocolate chip ice cream.

We also have chocolate mint growing in our garden (seedlings bought from the North Union Market), which worked particularly well in these.

Mint Chocolate Chip Muffins

1 ¼ cups milk
5 TB. (2 ½ oz.) butter
¼ — ½ oz. (2−4 fistfuls) fresh mint
½ cup sugar

1 1/3 cups whole wheat pastry flour
2/3 cup all-purpose flour
1 TB. Baking soda
½ t. fine-grain (regular) salt
½ — ¾ cup chocolate chips

1 egg

(1) Heat milk, butter, sugar and mint in a saucepan. Once bubbles form around the edges of the pan, turn off heat and let steep for at least 15 minutes.

(2) Combine flours, baking soda, salt and chocolate chips in a large bowl. If you want chocolate swirls (with some whole chocolate chips) pour in the milk mixture when warm. If you want the chips to stay whole, be sure the milk mixture is at least cooled to room temperature.

(3) Add the egg and mix everything gently; the batter will be lumpy.

(4) Refrigerate dough for at least a few hours up to a few days. You can skip this step, but the muffins won’t be as soft.

(5) Preheat the oven to 400 degrees, grease a 12 cup muffin pan, and portion out an ice cream scoop of batter (it will be more like dough, but don’t worry about that) into each cup.

(6) Bake for 20–30 minutes until a toothpick inserted into the largest muffin comes out clean.

These muffins are easy to make, taste very good and are unusual in a couple ways. I’ve never heard of using infused milk, but it really intensifies the flavor. And while Peter Reinhart pioneered overnight whole grain bread and Jacque Torres advocates for overnight cookies, I’ve never heard of the technique being used for muffins. The resulting crumb is more like what you’d expect from cake flour than whole wheat flour.