A few weekends ago, Joey was off seeing some scary movie and I was at home dreaming of something sweet and delicious that combined chocolate and pumpkin. Basically the opposite of anything involved in a scary movie.

I tested out the recipe. We ate 12 muffins between the two of us (not at once, I promise).  They were good but I knew they could be better, so I remade them and they came out perfect. And I received boyfriend confirmation that they were “awesome!!” and even better than the first batch.

And they better be because I decided to “take a quick walk” to Target to buy muffin tin liners for them and that short walk ended up taking an hour. Definitely worth it, though. I know they’re all chocolatey and cream cheesy, but they’re also all whole wheaty and oil free(y?) and therefore total breakfast material.  And the perfect “grab-and-go” breakfast for when you stayed up way to late watching election coverage and want to sleep as long as possible the next morning.

Just one thing. We’re still into pumpkin, right? Okay good.

Double Chocolate Muffins with Pumpkin Cream Cheese Frosting

For the muffins:

• 1 cup sugar
• 1 stick butter, softened
• 1 egg
• 1 3/4 cup whole wheat flour
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 3 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 cup unsweetened applesauce
• 1/4 cup cocoa powder
• 1/2 cup mini chocolate chips

For the frosting:

• 1/2 stick butter, softened
• 8 oz. cream cheese
• 1.5 cups powdered sugar
• 2 tablespoons pumpkin puree
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Cream together butter and sugar (in a mixer or with a hand mixer).  Add egg and beat until combined.
3. In a separate bowl, mix flour, salt, soda, baking powder, and cocoa powder.
4. Add dry ingredients to butter mixture, along with applesauce and beat until combined.
5. Fold in mini chocolate chips.
6. Fill greased muffin tin with batter, filling 3/4 full.  Bake for 25 minutes.
7. For frosting, cream butter and cream cheese together until combined, then add sugar, pumpkin and cinnamon and beat for 3-5 minutes or until fluffy.
8. Once muffins are cooled completely, generously frost with pumpkin cream cheese frosting.

Remember when I baked muffins without liners and broke the tops off of every single muffin while trying to free them from the pan?  And then instead of topping them with frosting, I glued the two pieces back together with the frosting?  Turns out this makes for the perfect muffin.

Trust me, just try it.