Espresso muffin with chocolate drops: a twilight in L.A.

As you probably know, muffins aren’t part of the big Italian culinary culture, that’s the reason why I discovered them when I was already adult and started to travel throughout the Anglo-Saxon world. During the years I ate a lot of them but there’s one special muffin that will always have a special place in my heart. Even if I certainly ate muffins before that day, there is a well-defined moment in my life when I completely fell in love with this culinary delights. It was August 2005 and we were in L.A. , first stop in our first travel to the U.S. We had been in the big city for few hours, ready to leave for a 6.500 km journey in California, Arizona, Nevada and Utah, and I perfectly remember myself staring out of the windows in this beautiful hotel, watching the dawn and the city waking up slowly. I had a Starbucks coffee in one hand and a blueberry muffin in the other one and, while I watched outside, every bite tasted of thousands flavors: expectations, hope, willing to know, a “dream coming true” feeling… I completely fell in love with everything I met during that travel, muffins included. So I started to cook them, from the traditional recipes till this “fusion” version that includes the Italian favorite coffee. Hope you like it!

Ingredients: (serves 12)

- 2 eggs

- 150 g of sugar

- 100 g of melted butter at room temperature

- a pinch of salt

- 1 coffee cup of espresso

- 250 g of flour

- 15 g of yeast

- 1/2 cup of chocolate drops

Whisk eggs and sugar until the mixture is white and fluffy. Pour the melted butter, add a pinch of salt, the espresso coffee, the sifted flour and the yeast (previously skimmed in a tablespoon of milk). Add the chocolate drops, pour the mixture in a buttered and floured baking pan and cook in preheated oven at 160°C (320°F) for 40 minutes. Enjoy!