Tales From the Kitchen

In Search of the Lost Costco Muffin

I’m dealing with a domestic crisis over here. Someone in my household (name withheld to protect the muffin-obsessed) developed an all-out love affair with Costco’s famous jumbo chocolate muffins—the kind where you paid for one pack and got two boxes of eight. Yup, past tense, because they’ve recently been discontinued.

Cue full-blown panic.

The replacements were a total letdown. They’re either too creamy, too cakey, too crumbly—and worst of all, not a speck of chocolate in sight.

Being the soft-hearted pushover I am, I went scouring the internet, determined to find a chocolate muffin recipe that came close to the beloved Costco version. Eventually, I landed on one from John Kanell over at https://preppykitchen.com/ and decided to give it a shot.

The verdict? A cautious thumbs-up from the mystery muffin lover. So if you’re on the hunt for a worthy chocolate muffin substitute, John’s recipe is worth trying.

One note: I didn’t have large muffin cups, so I improvised with tulip-shaped parchment liners. Worked like a charm. Here are a few images showing how to make them, hoping you can make out my clumsy hands-on directions. The parchment is cut in squares of 6 x 6 inches for a standard size muffin pan.


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4 responses to “Tales From the Kitchen”

  1. stargazer Avatar

    They look delicious! I have a soft spot for chocolate muffins, but never tried to bake them myself.

    Liked by 1 person

  2. Josephine Strand Avatar

    It was my first attempt at making them and I was surprised at how easy it was.

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  3. Elizabeth McD Avatar

    I have been meaning to comment on this since you posted it, but FIRST, is your family okay? I read about Mt. Etna erupting yesterday and immediately thought of you. Praying for safety for all.

    What you just described about these muffins is how we felt some six+ years ago when Costco discontinued their apple crumb muffins. Like you, I took to the internet for a suitable copy cat recipe and tried so many I lost count. None of them were quite right. In the end I combined elements from I think three different recipes, and it’s a more involved labor of love, but we make them on occasion as a treat.

    Really enjoying the stories and excerpts you’re posting, and congrats on the honorable mention! Thanks for sharing. 🙂

    Liked by 1 person

  4. Josephine Strand Avatar

    Hi Elizabeth, thanks for asking about my family. Everyone there is fine. They are used to living with the volcano’s frequent shenanigans, so it hardly bothers them—except for when it rains ashes on everything and the clean-up takes days, and sometimes weeks. This was certainly a scary one, though.

    I hate when Costco changes things up. It makes the lives of us wives and mothers infinitely more difficult. 😉😆 I’m glad you found the right formula to reproduce the apple crumble muffins.

    Like

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