Caramel Chocolate Chip Muffins

So this recipe is a partnership I did with Bequet Confections. They’re based in Montana and they make gourmet caramels that are absolutely fantastic.

Maniacal picture of me, I admit. But I had to try one before I baked with them and it took all my effort not to eat a pound of them in one sitting – they’re that good!

They’re amazing on their own and it was a struggle for me not to eat them all before I baked, but I was able to save enough to make these delicious muffins.

Pro tip (and I’ll repeat this at the end of the recipe as well) – either eat them when they’re warm, or pop them in the microwave for a couple seconds before you eat them to get the muffins nice and warm and the caramel super gooey.

Difficulty: easy
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Ingredients

2 cups flour
1 t baking soda
1 t baking powder
½ t salt
1/8 t nutmeg
½ cup butter, softened to room temperature
½ cup sugar
½ cup brown sugar
2 t vanilla
2 eggs
1 cup sour cream
1 cup semisweet chocolate chips, plus more for sprinkling on top
15 Bequet® caramels (Your choice of flavor, but I used mostly the Celtic Sea Salt!)
2-3 T Chunky sugar for sprinkling on top*

optional

Yeah, I was a little excited to try these in a recipe!

Directions

Butter and flour a 12-count muffin tin (or 2 6-counts) and set aside. Or, alternately, just fill them with muffin cups, which is what I did – much less cleaning this way.

Pour the flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt and nutmeg into a bowl and whisk together until well combined and set this aside.

In a larger bowl add the butter, sugar, brown sugar, vanilla and eggs and whisk together until well combined (this is why it’s important the butter really is room temperature, otherwise you won’t be able to do it). Then add the sour cream to this bowl and whisk again, until it’s smooth and combined.

Add in the flour mixture from your first bowl and once again whisk until well combined (yeah, it’s a lot of “whisk until well combined” here). Finally, add in the semisweet chocolate chips and stir with a wooden spoon.

Fill each of the muffin cups about 2/3 – ¾ full. Take your caramels and insert one into each muffin, making sure it gets completely covered by batter.

Sprinkle the tops with some additional chocolate chips, along with the coarse sugar if you want (and trust me, you want).

Bake at 350 for about 20 minutes, or until the cupcakes have risen and turned a nice golden brown.

As I said in the introductions, these are IDEALLY eaten warm, but if you can’t eat 15 muffins in one sitting then put them in the microwave for 10 or so seconds to warm them back up before enjoying them (and believe me, you WILL enjoy them!). The Bequet Caramels add a nice surprise and fantastic flavor to each bite!!