Update: This is an old recipe I made on a whim, and while the title is William Shatner’s Cappuccino Muffins, I have no idea if this really is his recipe. It seemed fun at the time, so I went with it.
The ingredients sounded good and the technique was pretty basic. Plus, I had just bought a jar of espresso powder and was itching to use it. Since I didn’t have any “mini” chocolate chips, I used a combination of bittersweet chocolate chips and a few mini cinnamon chips.
I followed the instructions as directed and put the muffins in the oven while I cleaned the house. After 18 minutes, I turned on the oven light and said “Beam me up Scotty! These muffins look fabulous!” Luckily, no one was there to hear me but the cat and he’s used to it.
Anyway, if William Shatner puts out a cookbook, I’ll buy it because these were terrific. I think I’m going to take them down to the school and put them in the Teachers’ Lounge. They’re going to think they’re from a bakery, though. I packed them in one of my fine plastic muffin containers from PaperMart.
One final note. William Shatner got 12 muffins, but I filled the muffin tins up to the rim and made 8 big ones with nice crowns.
William Shatner’s Cappuccino Chip Muffins
2 cups flour (aerate your flour and spoon and scoop or just weigh out 9 oz/250 grams)
1/2 cup granulated sugar (100 grams)
2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
2 teaspoons instant espresso powder
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt (add a pinch more if using unsalted butter)
1 large egg (room temp)
1 cup milk (room temp)
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, melted and cooled (114 grams)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3/4 cup mini chocolate chips or equivalent of other chips
Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Spray a 12 cup muffin tin with flour-added cooking spray. For bigger muffins, spray 8 of the cups.
In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, baking powder, espresso powder, cinnamon and salt.
In a medium bowl, whisk egg lightly. Whisk in milk, melted butter and vanilla extract. Make a well in center of dry ingredients and pour in milk mixture. Stir just until evenly blended. Stir in chocolate chips.
Divide batter among 12 greased muffin cups. Bake 15 to 18 minutes, or until a cake tester inserted in center of muffin comes out clean.
Makes 12 muffins
Rusty
I decided to apply this recipe to my Oat meal which was out of this world! Thank you Captain Kirk. Rusty
Coffee
sounds tasty!
thank you for sharing =)
and coffee lover, check my mars coffee recipe *.*
best wishes.
Anna
Hello There, Supun.
Yes, I’d say this is a pretty solid recipe. I need to go and add the metric weights/measures so that it will be more accurate and more people will make it. Maybe I’ll do that tomorrow. Thanks for testing with cake flour! And yes, my defauls flour is all purpose. I don’t always write “all purpose” but maybe I should since there are so many new and different flours available.
supun
Very good. I substituted 1 cup of assumed AP flour for cake flour, and bumped up the instant espresso powder to 3 tsp. Used a mixture of Ghirardelli semi-sweet and bitter-sweet chocolate chips.
Lynn
I made these on Christmas morning and they are absolutely superb! Made the muffins per the recipe, no alterations. My husband’s opinion was middle-of-the-road but he isn’t a mocha/cappuccino fan. I might cut back on the sugar just a smidge but that’s personal preference speaking. 😉 All in all, these were definitely yummy and I will definitely make these again. Oh, and I sent the few leftovers to work with hubby and his coworkers gobbled the muffins down, so these must be good! 🙂
Shannon
I made these for breakfast, I did not have any expresso powder, I just used freeze dried coffee and they were pretty good and I also made them because of the fact they were William Shatner’s muffins LOL my BF laughed at that. I made mine with 1/4 cup whipped tofu instead of unsweetened applesauce instead of butter and these can be completely vegan if you use milk free chocolate chips and soy milk instead of milk. I think that these would also be awesome with 1 3/4 cup all purpose flour and 1/4 cup cocoa powder.
Anna
Mare, that’s awesome! Have you tried them with the Eagle Mills Ultra Grain? The Ultra Grain will taste as good as white flour, but you’ll get the benefit of whole wheat.
Mare Martell Stotler
Howdy!
These muffins have become locally famous with anyone that eats them. I made some while on vacation using whole wheat flour, instant folgers, ghiridelli chocolate chips, and soy milk. They weren’t quite as good as the original recipe, but there were none left once anyone tasted them. So I would have to say, since these muffins are a 10, that the substituted ones rank in at a solid 8.
Anna
Bummer. It looks like Paper Mart doesn’t sell those anymore.
bettyagnes
You don’t happen have a direct link or item # for those plastic muffin containers, do you? I’ve been looking for that exact thing and can’t seem to find them on the PaperMart site
Anna
I wish I could say I got it from Mr. Shatner himself, but I believe it came from Recipe Goldmine. The question is, where did they get it?
bettyagnes
This fascinates me that William Shatner has recipes out there. Where did you run across this recipe? They look awesome by the way, and I’m so glad to find another use for my espresso powder. Yum! and Thanks!
AmyS
I just made these, and they are fabulous! Going to post a photo with a link to you on my blog right now. Thanks for the recipe.
Anna
Krista, I go to the Trader Joe’s in Westport whenever I’m in CT. I love it. I’ve also been to the one in Chicago a couple of times.
That recipe looks great! Surely you can find espresso powder somewhere. Maybe ask a few store managers.
Krista
you would just love trader joe’s. I would love to see what you would come up with – the stuff they have is awsome! OMG you are right not one in Texas – here I thought Texas had it all 🙂 Next time you visit a new place, check and see if they have one. I’m thinking the cappuccino chips would be nice in a breakfast muffin with a crumb topping with the chips..or a cookie with hazelnuts, cappuccino chips.. and chocolate drizzle… I’m puzzled they have no web site.. this is the only recipe I’ve found
Mocha Cookies
2 1/4 c Unbleached All-Purpose Flour — (10 1/4 ounces)
1/3 cup Double Dutch Dark Cocoa OR natural cocoa — (1 3/8 ounces)
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup granulated sugar
3/4 cup brown sugar
1 tablespoon espresso powder
1 cup butter — (2 sticks, 8 ounces)
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup cinnamon chips
1 cup cappuccino chips
In a medium-sized mixing bowl, stir together the flour, cocoa, baking soda and salt. In a separate bowl, beat together the sugars, espresso powder, butter, eggs and vanilla. Gradually add the flour mixture to the sugar mixture, beating till well-combined. Stir in the chips.
Drop the dough by rounded tablespoonfuls onto ungreased baking sheets. Bake the cookies in a preheated 375°F oven for 8 to 10 minutes, or until they’re just barely set. Transfer them to a wire rack to cool completely. Yield: about 4 dozen 2 1/2-inch cookies.
expresso powder…errrrrh 🙂
Anna
Krista, TJ’s might have it. That’s the one store we don’t have here in Austin.
If not, you could sub instant coffee crystals. Just use 1 1/2 to 2 times the amount.
Krista
espresso powder? can’t find it in these parts – went to world market even, no dice. guess I could order it online…..I hate to wait. Wonder if Trader Joe’s has it.
Muffin mama
I have been on a crazy muffin makin’ mood and was tempted by the v.tasty lookin’ pics. I tried them but would leave the cinnamon flavour to the apple muffins. My choco mocha tastebuds are hardened and do not like other flavours muscling in.
Lisa Ernst
I tried this recipe over the weekend and I really like it. I made half a recpie and I did a few things different: I was short on regular white flour and had to use 1/2 white flour and 1/2 whole wheat pastry flour. That worked fine, plus I added a few extra tablespoons of liquid because the batter seemed dry. The muffins came out extremely moist but the whole wheat flour blunted the flavor of the espresso powder. If I used half whole wheat pastry flour again, I would up the espresso a little. All in all, these were a success and I will make them again.
Anna
Lisa, I love Ina’s brownies too….her “Outrageous” brownies, that is.
Jen, nice use of swirl chips. You boldly went where no man has gone before!
Jen
Made the muffins to bring to work and they were a smashing success. I got 11 but should have made them bigger because your muffins look prettier than mine. I made them with the white chocolate/chocolate swirled baking chips, which was okay, but I think I might use mini chips next time. Great recipe Bill and Anna!
Lisa Ernst
Perfect timing. I bought a jar of instant espresso powder when I was making Ina’s brownies (wonderful, by the way). Now I have another use for the powder! I imagine I will try this on Saturday for a weekend treat.
Anna
Rachael, I think this recipe requires a very, very, light hand with the flour. I stirred mine up quite a bit to aerate it before measuring and then very lightly spooned and swept. Do you scoop your flour or pack it? Because too much flour will cause dryness.
Michelle W. in Calif.
Wow, those look yummy! Where’d you get a recipe from William Shatner???? And I’ve got some of that exact espresso powder in my cupboard…..hmmmmm.
I have to bring cookies to a school booster meeting tonight…I was thinking oatmeal, but maybe muffins would work!!!
rachael
I made these last night for breakfast today and they are very good. A bit dry though, but that’s probably my fault. Every muffin recipe I’ve ever tried (except one for delicious pumpkin cream cheese muffins)gives me dry, crumbly muffins. I’m no good at bread products. 😐
Anna
Anonymous, I used 2% milk and the muffins were fine. I think they’d be okay with skim milk too since the recipe already calls for a good half cup of melted butter. You might have some minor textural issues due to skim milk having more protein and (probably…I’m not really sure) more water, but I think the muffins would still be really good. I wouldn’t go out and buy whole milk to make these muffins.
Anonymous
these look so good — do you think I can sub skim (can you automtically do that in baking recipes) since that’s what I buy.
Love your blog
Anna
Emilie and Amy, I use Folgers crystals too. In some instances, the Folgers works really well and adds a good flavor. It kind of depends on the recipe. But I’m easy when it comes to coffee…..as long as it’s strong, I’m good!
(I do have a thing for Starbucks Sumatra, though).
Anyway. Enough about me.
I dropped these muffins off at the school and gave them to the staff at the front office. There were only 6 to give away, because I kept the other 2 for myself.