Chocolate Cinnamon Muffins

 My boyfriend and I are doing what we can to save money due to job situations.  Saturdays used to involve us going out for breakfast before we got groceries, but we've since decided to have breakfast in house.  I still wanted Saturday breakfast to be somewhat special, so I decided to bake something simple using whatever I had.  I found this recipe for a chocolate chocolate chip muffin, but I didn't have nearly enough chocolate chips.  Undaunted, I used cinnamon instead which resulted in a warm, spicy chocolate muffin that went over well for breakfast.

As a side note, I did this both with and without cupcake wrappers.  The muffins without seemed be a bit more moist, but this may just be my imagination.  Either way, if you do not have any wrappers you'll be perfectly fine.

Chocolate Cinnamon Muffins

Ingredients:

• 1 3/4 cups all purpose flour
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 2 tbsp cocoa powder
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1 tbsp cinnamon
• 1/3 cup chocolate chips (optional)
• 1 cup milk
• 1/3 cup + 2 tsp vegetable oil
• 1 egg
• 1 tsp pure vanilla extract 

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.
2. Line 12 cup muffin pan with cupcake wrappers, or lightly spray the cups with cooking spray.
3. Put the flour, baking powder, baking soda, cocoa powder, sugar, and cinnamon into a large bowl. 
4. Whisk the dry goods together until well incorporated, and then add the chocolate chips. 
5. Whisk the milk, oil, egg, and vanilla extract together in a separate bowl or large measuring cup.
6. Pour the liquid into the bowl with the dry goods and stir until mixed.  Be sure to scrape the sides and bottom of the bowl to make sure the dry ingredients get fully combined with the liquid.  The batter may be lumpy which is OK.
7. Spoon the batter into the cups filling each around 2/3rds of the way full.  If you have any leftover batter, then use it to top off the cups until they are all even.
8. Bake for 20 minutes or until the muffins are dark, full, and springy.  You can also put a toothpick in the center of each to test to see if they are done.  If the toothpick comes out clean, then they are cooked all the way.
9. Allow to cool for 2 to 3 minutes prior to serving.

Yields 12 muffins.  I'll leave it up to you to determine how many is a serving. ;)