Anyone made Dorie Greenspan's chocolate muffins?

[cransplash]

I normally love DG's recipes, but I made her chocolate-chunk chocolate muffins this morning for my BFF's birthday, and it just didn't turn out.

The muffins tasted not that sweet (and I don't have a big sweets tooth and still thought/hoped they would be a bit sweeter), dry, and kind of lifeless. They did crown well. I'm wondering if I messed up since I altered it- could someone give me some pointers?

- Used bittersweet chocolate chips (recipe recipe bittersweet chocolate, chopped)
- Instead of buying buttermilk, I made it homemade- Recipe called for 1-1/4 cups buttermilk, so I put in 1 Tbsp + 1/4 tsp white distilled vinegar and filled the rest with skim milk until it hit 1-1/4 cups
- They were dry (recipe says 20 mins; should have looked at them around 18 mins)

Here is the recipe I used: www.browneyedbaker.com/2010/01/14/chocolate-chocolate-chunk-muffins/

Has anyone made this? Were my substitutions too unreal?

[ohgillian]

I would not use skim milk to make the buttermilk. I don't know if that could have made the difference, but skim milk is kind of void of flavor. Otherwise, I don't know. Could just be a dud recipe?

[cransplash]

Feb 8, 2013 9:04:21 GMT -5 ohgillian said:

I would not use skim milk to make the buttermilk. I don't know if that could have made the difference, but skim milk is kind of void of flavor. Otherwise, I don't know. Could just be a dud recipe?

I thought that could be part of it (using slim milk). I normally don't keep whole milk in the house. Oh well- I will try it again. What a bummer!

[redheadbaker]

Everyone's ovens are different -- some run hot, some run cold, some are hot in some spots and cooler in others, so I always go by any given visual cues ("until brown around the edges" for cookies, as an example) and ignore the time given.

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