the highly sought after, Olympic chocolate muffin recipe

some (me) may say, I deserve a medal for this

Aug 04, 2024

hi hi hello!!

If you, like me, get all of your Olympic reporting from TikTok, you’re probably up to date with all the memes. From Stephen Nedoroscik, the gymnast equivalent to Clark Kent and his one job, horse. To Yusuf Dikec, the Turkish shooter, who definitely woke up that morning and said “yeah, I could go shoot a few rounds today I guess” looking completely savage without and of the specialty protective gear other shooters are fitted with. And if you’ve seen all that, there’s a good chance that Norwegian swimmer, and Mark Zuckerberg look-alike (his words, not mine but like true), Henrik Christiansen has also made his way on to your FYP with his chocolate muffin love affair.

Now, I’m no Olympian, so I have no access to the muffins at the Olympic dining hall. Nor am I a European University student, because the muffins are also sold in their cafeterias. So, how’s this non-athletic American college drop-out going to get her hands on this muffin? She’s gonna make them, that’s how. The brand is Coup De Pates and the muffin is the “MAXI MUFFIN CHOCOLAT INTENSE”. I searched the website for an ingredient list to set me off in the right direction but to no avail. The only things I could really gather from the listing were that the muffins had dark and milk chocolate and soy in some form (my guess was the oil used). So, aside from that we started from scratch.

Years of developing recipes and watching Claire Saffitz’s Gourmet Makes series prepared me for this moment. Because, I’ve never had this muffin- clearly. Now, i’m trying to develop a dupe? Without a tangible muffin for me to compare it to? Insanity.

When Henrik first, crossed my FYP he had all of two videos posted about the muffin (today, I believe there are 14, one week later). That’s all I had to go off of when setting out on developing this recipe. Since then, I’ve been tagged in at least 50 different videos from other Olympians by people following along on this development journey and those are what really helped to bring this muffin to life. Better angles of what the crumb structure looks like, the fluidity and color of the filling, plus in depth descriptions and reviews of how they taste. With each video watched, and studied I made tweaks.

The greatest piece of this puzzle came when a follower, Caroline, found a PDF with the Maxi Muffin ingredients listed. Which include: sugar, water, vegetable oil, WHEAT flour, fat-reduced cocoa, vegetable fats (palm, rapeseed, sunflower, shea, coconut), 5% chocolate (sugar, cocoa mass, cocoa butter, emulsifier E322 (SOYA), natural flavouring), 5% MILK chocolate (sugar, whole MILK powder, cocoa mass, cocoa butter, whey powder (MILK), skimmed MILK powder, natural flavouring, emulsifier E322 (SOYA)), modified starch, whole EGG powder, whey powder (MILK), maize starch, raising agents (E500, E450), humectant E420, emulsifiers (E471, E322 (SOYA)), dextrose, EGG yolk powder, salt, WHEAT starch, stabiliser E415, natural flavouring, MILK protein. Now, can I trust this stranger on the internet? Maybe maybe not, but at this point we all have a common goal, getting this muffin.

Looking at these ingredients, I basically just strip away anything that is a preservative/ hard for the average home baker to find. In the end you are left with: sugar, water, vegetable oil, wheat flour, dark chocolate, milk chocolate, milk powder, whole egg powder (which I subbed for whole eggs), maize (corn starch), raising agents (E500, which is baking soda, E450 which is Sodium acid pyrophosphate- not available to home bakers but similar to baking powder in terms of its role in the recipe- from my research.) egg yolk powder (which, would just be yolks), salt, natural flavoring (I’m assuming vanilla). Which are the usual suspects in a muffin. From there it was just getting the balance of ratios right. The biggest take away from these ingredients was the choice to add milk powder to the recipe to make things softer, and more tender.

The filling was also a great point of discourse, is it ganache? Is it a molten lava center that was baked in? Is it more like a fudge sauce? I tried it all. My first thought was that it was baked into the center like a molten lava cake. But, that was back when I had limited views of the muffin. Now, having seen the muffin from literally ALL angles, you can tell that its a filling that is injected into the muffin post bake. I did humor the idea in one of the tests and the bake time and temp cause the molten center to either sink to the bottom of become fully enveloped and bake into the cake essentially becoming non-existent. Since I know this isn’t how the filling is inserted I abandoned figuring out how to get it to “stay”.

I can drone on about recipe development on this for hours, but I know you’re probably just here for THE RECIPE. Which after 12 rounds of testing- 4 different types of filling. 3 types of cocoa powder. Every bag of chocolate chunks in LA. I’ve got for you. The closest thing to the Olympic muffin (according to me, some one whose never had it) you can make at home.

version 2, I wish I knew then what I know now

SOME NOTES:

One thing that other dupe recipes are lacking is a final “ingredient” which is time in the freezer! As we’ve discovered these are a mass produced, pre-baked, shipped frozen muffin. The website recommends thawing for an hour and a half before serving. So, eat the muffins you want now to satiate the craving. But, wrap the extras and store in the freezer ( up to 3 months). The flavors will meld, the texture after thawing does become more fudgey. This is not surprising as freezing cake layers is common practice in the baking industry.
The cocoa here matters, it’s dutch processed which gives a robust chocolate flavor, a deeper brown color the the muffin. I use Valrhona for all my cocoa powder needs, but I also tested with Ghiradelli, which is more widely available at a more affordable price point, which also worked great!
dutch cocoa on top and natural cocoa on the bottom, note the differences in color but also texture. The natural cocoa version leans a little drier. Same exact recipe, different types of cocoa
These dutch processed cocoas have reddish undertones to them when baked, if you want something more authentic in color opt for a dark/black cocoa. For this recipe use 25 grams black cocoa to 45 grams of regular dutch cocoa. Not necessary but if you want something more identical to the real deal, this is the way to go! I’m someone who always has black cocoa on hand, so it works out for me, I don’t think it’s 100% necessary to get it JUST for this muffin.
same recipe, one with a little black cocoa subbed in. the other with all regular dutch processed.
The muffin cups! Very important to the overall authenticity of this muffin. I picked mine up from Surfas here in LA. But, you can also find them online on Amazon. These are jumbo muffin liners but the base is narrow enough to still be baked in a standard sized muffin tin!
Letting the batter rest before baking really helps with the rise and over-all texture of the muffin. Time allows the starches to absorb liquids. Give the batter a minimum of 30 minutes to and hour rest before scooping and baking!
Leave space between each muffin open while baking (skip and use every other hole) to promote even baking! Since the batter has to rest, it’s totally fine to bake these off in batches :)
These are jumbo muffins! To make regular sized muffins you’ll need to adjust your bake times. For regular muffins 420F for 6 minutes 355F for 13-15 minutes. Fully set in the center is what you’re going for an overall the internal temp of a muffin should be 200-205F when checked with a thermometer!
Any extra fudge can be stored in the fridge up to a week. Reheat it and pour over ice cream or into coffee with milk for a mocha!

Olympic Muffins

makes 9 jumbo muffins (160 grams per muffin) or 12 “regular sized” muffins (120 grams per muffin)

Ingredients:

Muffins:

200 grams all purpose flour
70 grams dutch processed cocoa powder
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon instant espresso/coffee powder.
2 teaspoons diamond crystal kosher salt, use 1 teaspoon if using Morton’s kosher!
275 grams light brown sugar
1 tablespoon + 1 teaspoon milk powder
100 grams whole milk, if you’d like to skip adding instant coffee you can sub for cold coffee instead!
150 grams vegetable oil or neutral oil of your choice
2 large eggs (100 grams)
225 grams sour cream
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
115 grams semi-sweet or dark chocolate chunks (plus extra for the tops)
115 grams milk chocolate chips or chunks( plus extra for the tops)

Fudge Center:

130 grams water
95 grams granulated sugar
35 grams dutch processed cocoa powder
20 grams corn syrup (I know corn syrup is a divisive ass ingredient, It gives the sauce a nice shine to it OKAY. You CAN leave it out if you want, I don’t want to hear it!!)
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
80 grams heavy cream
140 grams dark chocolate chips, preferably 70% and above for a really rich filling. Use Semi-sweet if you don’t like it as rich.

Directions:

For the muffins:

Preheat the oven to 420F.
In a large bowl combine 200 grams all purpose flour, 70 grams dutch processed cocoa powder, 1/4 teaspoon baking powder, 3/4 teaspoon baking soda, 1 teaspoon instant espresso powder, 2 teaspoons kosher salt, 275 grams light brown sugar, 1 tablespoon + 1 teaspoon milk powder. Whisk to combine the ingredients, set aside
In a separate bowl combine 100 grams whole milk, 150 grams vegetable oil or neutral oil of your choice, 2 large eggs (100 grams), 225 grams sour cream and 1 tablespoon vanilla extract. Whisking to combine.
Add the wet ingredients into the center of the dry ingredients. Whisking to combine. Work slowly, so you don’t send all the dry ingredients flying!
Whisk just until no dry pockets remain, you do not want to over mix the batter.
Gently fold in the 115 grams dark chocolate chunks and 115 grams milk chocolate chunks with a rubber spatula.
Set the batter aside for 30 minutes to an hour to rest before baking. (BTW, If you want you can wait until this point to preheat the oven while the batter is resting.)
While the batter rests, this is a great time to prep the filling.
Once the batter has rested, place the muffin liners in every other cavity of the muffin pan.
Scoop the batter in to the liners. For jumbo muffins each cup should be filled a little over 3/4 of the way full and will hold 150-160 grams of batter. Check notes for baking smaller muffins!
Top each muffin with a sprinkle of reserved chocolate chunks before baking.
Bake for 6 minutes at 420F. When the timer beeps do not open the oven! Drop the temp to 350F and bake for an additional 15-18 minutes. Muffins are done baking when the center is set and a tooth pick inserted into the center comes out with a few crumbs stuck to it. Or the internal temp when taken with a thermometer is 200-205F, if you’re a head ass pastry cook like me.
Remove from baking pan and allow to cool completely before filling.

For the fudge filling:

In a sauce pot combine the 130 grams water, 95 grams granulated sugar, 35 grams dutch processed cocoa powder, 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt and 20 grams corn syrup.
Bring this mixture to a boil over medium-heat. Stirring often to avoid burning the cocoa powder.
Once the mixture reaches a boil drop the heat to medium-low, cook it while stirring frequently until it thickens and by approximately 1/3 it’s original volume. This should take 5-8 minutes.
Add the 80 grams heavy cream and allow to boil for another 2 minutes.
Pour the mixture over the 140 grams dark chocolate chips. Allow the mixture to sit for a few moments to heat up the chips before whisking to combine. Optionally you can use an immersion blender to really get things nice and smooth.
Set aside to cool completely until it’s time to fill the muffins.

Ways to fill:

Once the muffins have cooled you have a few options on how to fill:

Fill a piping bag with the cooled fudge filling, cut the tip, insert into the center of the muffin and fill
Cut out a small crater in the center of the muffin using a paring knife and use a spoon to fill the hole with the sauce
Should you have a squeeze bottle lying around this can also be used similarly to the piping bag to fill the muffin!

For the full Olympic muffin experience!!!! (aside from flying to Paris and competing… yeah all of that aside…)

Store the left over muffins in the freezer. Wrap the up in plastic wrap and store in an airtight container. When ready to eat, allow to thaw at room temp for and hour and a half. Like before you head to a swim meet or something idk. I promise, the freezer will change things for ya. The filling doesn’t magically become molten again, rather it stays a little creamier/fudgier, but I attribute that to the fact that these don’t have any of the crazy emulsifiers a mass produced muffin does lol
here she is after being frozen overnight and about in hour into thawing!

Hope y’all enjoy these muffins ♡ until the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics!!! See ya later! xoxo, Kassie

bake chats

Discussion about this post