The taste of warm chocolatey muffins in the morning. The sound of leaves rustling on the sidewalk. The smell the autumn breeze carries. The feel of the cozy blanket as you watch Elf. Who doesn’t love this time of year?!
With Thanksgiving and Christmas on the way, this time of year is the perfect excuse to whip up something delicious. Something you would find in the bakery. Something extremely chocolatey. I don’t know about you, but when it comes to chocolate I could eat it all day, every day. I have fond memories of eating chocolate chip muffins in my grandmother’s home, in the Dublin airport, and honestly wherever I could get my hands on some. I especially enjoy a good muffin in the quiet of the morning. But why limit muffins to the morning? For my family and I (at least for me), muffin baking and eating can happen at any point of the day.
This is similar to our time with God. In the past, I have enjoyed my quiet time with God at the beginning of my day. I would get up at six o’clock and have a good forty-five minutes of reading His word, journaling my thoughts, and praying before I walked out my bedroom door. There was a time where it was difficult for me wake up in the morning and still have my “Me and God” time. The times I did get up to do it, I would be so tired I could not concentrate on the words I was reading. I would get frustrated with myself because I knew I needed a positive start to my day or my day would go downhill fast. I was frustrated because I was believing that I could only have time with God in the morning. But I realized something. Yes, it is good to start my day with God, but I also need and can continue my day with Him.
God is our loving Father. He is the one who brings the peace and the joy to our lives. In Psalm 30:5, it says “Weeping may last through the night, but joy comes with the morning.” His joy is not a gift that comes only for the morning. His joy, His peace, and His presence come with the rise of the sun and last throughout your day. He will never leave you or forsake you. What is so beautiful about our God is that He whispers to you and me to be women after His own heart. He whispers to you at breakfast, at the art museum, at your job, at your school, at church, and so on. He loves you so much! He wants time with you! Small moments or big moments, our time with God doesn’t begin and end in the morning. It begins and continues when we choose to whisper back to His heart.
I hope that if you feel like making these mouth-watering, bakery style muffins, you will not think you can only make them in the morning. I hope that when you feel His tug at your heart, you will not think that you need to save your response for only the “You & God” time. You can make the muffins for a midnight snack! You can have moments of “You & God” time throughout the day! My challenge for you today, my sister in Christ, is to listen for Him, answer Him, and rest in Him. Think on that as you enjoy some chocolatey goodness!
Ingredients
- ½ cup (8 tbsp.) of unsalted butter, softened (put butter in a small bowl & microwave for 10-15 seconds)
- 1 cup of white sugar
- 2 tsp of baking powder
- 2 tsp of vanilla extract
- 2/3 cup of unsweetened cocoa powder
- ¾ tsp of salt (if you have to use salted butter, omit this tsp of salt)
- 2 eggs
- 1 cup of almond milk
- 1/3 cup of Greek yogurt
- 2 cups of all-purpose flour
- 1 ½ -2 cups of chocolate chips (be generous!)
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350F. Spray the cups of a stone or metal muffin pan with cooking spray.
- Take a large bowl and mix the butter, sugar, vanilla extract, and Greek yogurt very well until a creamy and smooth consistency is reached. Add the eggs one at a time and mix into the batter.
- In a small bowl, mix flour, salt, baking powder, and cocoa. Add 1/3 of the dry mixture to the wet batter and stir. Then add 1/3 of the milk to the batter and stir. Continue in this pattern until all the dry mixture & milk have been mixed into the batter.
- FINALLY (my favorite part) mix in plenty of chocolate chips!
- Fill the muffins cups ¾ of the way and bake for 23-25 minutes. Put a fork through a muffin. If it comes out with some batter on it, put muffins in for 2 more minutes. If it comes out clean, you are good to go!
- Let muffins cool for 5 minutes and enjoy the yumminess of muffins!! Oh… and maybe save some for your friends 😉