Double the Chocolate, Double the Fun Muffins - No. 158

Do we even need Pumpkin Spice?

Double Chocolate Buttermilk Muffins, recipe below.

We are officially in pumpkin spice latte (PSL) season, or should I have mentioned those three words?

The off-the-charts seasonal Starbuck’s drink rolled out 20 years ago this January. Since then more than 600 million have been been ordered. It was the creation of Peter Dukes, a Stanford University economics major and guard on the college basketball team who would go on to work at corporate Starbucks and was tasked in 2001 with creating a new espresso drink for fall.

I’m thinking I didn’t take the right Econ 101.

Anyway, Dukes got pushback because no one thought his idea was so great, but I guess basketball teaches you to persist, and so he did. As part of the creation process, says Tasting Table, the Starbucks team would eat a bite of pumpkin pie, then immediately sip espresso. Some reports said they poured shots of espresso onto pumpkin pie, and then forked in. Whatever process, they were on to something. And even after countless pumpkin pies were sacrificed for r&d, the drink was nearly called Fall Harvest Latte!

The father of Pumpkin Spice Latte. Or, his reaction to the fact that his drink was nearly called Fall Harvest Latte! Actually, this photo was taken during the 1992 game between Stanford and Oregon. Stanford won 70-47. Photo by Otto Greule Jr/Allsport/Getty Images.

So I’m dedicating today to a muffin that isn’t pumpkin spice at all

In fact, if chocolate muffins had been a thing, more than pumpkin muffins, more than pumpkin pie, just think of what Dukes and his team could have created drinks-wise. Just think of the flavors that might come from pouring espresso over a chocolate fudge pie!

Poor chocolate muffins have long been in the shadows of all things pumpkin in October. Even if you add a smidge of cinnamon, which does make them nice and reminiscent of Texas Sheet Cake, they would never have garnered the fame.

But they’re every bit deserving, and if pumpkin muffins are the yin, then these dense and moist chocolate muffins are the yang. And did I mention you can zap them in a paper towel in the microwave for a few seconds so those chocolate chips get warm and melty?

Big Batch Pumpkin Bread for traditionalists.

Pumpkin mini muffins for snackers like me.

OK, I give up. Here’s the link to the pumpkin bread!

If you absolutely must have your pumpkin fix this month, here’s the recipe. And you can bake loaves or muffins, even baby muffins out of this batter.

Which goes, I know, really well with a PSL or just a latte.