Unless you’ve been living under a rock, or just hate sports in general, by now I’m sure you’ve heard all about the Olympic Village’s chocolate muffins in France.
For those of you haven’t heard, Henrik Christiansen, a Norwegian swimmer who competed in both the 800 and 1500-meter freestyle, became smitten with the muffins, giving them an 11/10 rating and posting about it on his TikTok.
Being a chocolate lover myself and seeing their extreme decadence, I knew I had to try making a dupe. After reading several articles on them, and realizing I had already made one trip to Europe this summer and a second would be out of the question, I decided to try Kassie Mendieta’s dupe recipe from USA Today.
Olympic Village Chocolate Muffins
Equipment
- 2 Mixing bowls
- 1 piping bag optional
- 1 muffin tin
- 9 large muffin liners or parchment paper
Ingredients
Muffins
- 200 grams all-purpose flour
- 70 grams Dutch-process cocoa powder
- 3/4 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon instant coffee powder Kassie’s recipe calls for espresso powder, or you could use cold coffee
- 2 teaspoons kosher salt
- 275 grams light brown sugar 1 1/8 cup
- 1 tablespoon milk powder + 1 teaspoon
- 100 grams whole milk
- 150 grams vegetable oil
- 2 eggs, large
- 225 grams sour cream ~1 US cup
- 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
- 115 grams semisweet or dark chocolate chunks 1/4 lb, plus extra for the tops
- 115 grams milk chocolate chips or chunks 1/4 lb, plus extra for the tops
Filling
- 30 grams water
- 95 grams granulated sugar
- 35 grams Dutch-process cocoa powder
- 20 grams corn syrup
- 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
- 80 grams heavy cream
- 140 grams dark chocolate chips
Instructions
Preparation
- Muffin batter:
- In a large bowl add the dry ingredients and whisk to combine.
- In a separate bowl, add wet ingredients; whisk to combine.
- Make a pocket in the center of the dry ingredients, then add the wet. Whisk together gently just until the dry ingredients are incorporated. Do not overmix.
- Using a rubber spatula, gently fold in the chocolate chunks.
- Now set the batter aside for 30 – 60 min to rest.
- Preheat oven to 420 F.
Fudge Filling
- In a saucepan, combine water, granulated sugar, cocoa powder, salt, and corn syrup.
- Bring the mixture to a boil over medium heat, stirring as you go to avoid burning the cocoa powder.
- Once the mixture reaches the boil, drop heat to medium-low.
- Continue stirring until the mixture is reduced to about 1/3 its original volume. (5 mins or so.)
- Add the heavy cream and allow to boil for two additional minutes.
- Pour this mixture over the dark chocolate chips.
- Once the mixture has softened the chips, whisk to combine.
- Set aside to cool until it’s time to fill the muffins.
Baking the Muffins
- Once the batter is done resting, place the muffin liners in every other depression of the muffin pan. (I cooked them in every cup which increased my baking time.)
- Using an ice cream scooper, scoop the batter into the liners. (Each cup should be filled to around 3/4 full — 140 grams of batter.)
- Bake for six minutes at 420 F. Without opening the oven, drop the temp to 350 F and bake for an additional 15 to 18 minutes. (As I baked them having filled every cup, my baking time was longer: 25 -30 minutes.)
- Muffins are done when a toothpick inserted into the center comes out with a few crumbs stuck to it (internal temp should be 200-205 F.)
- Remove from baking pan and allow to cool completely before filling.
Filling the Muffins
- Fill a piping bag with the cooled fudge filling, then cut the tip. Now insert into the center of each muffin one-by-one and fill.
Notes
Nutrition
“For the full Olympic muffin experience,” Kassie recommends wrapping the extra muffins in plastic wrap and storing them in the freezer in an airtight container. When ready to eat one, allow it to thaw at room temperature for about and hour and a half.
My boys and I tried the muffins both straight out of the oven, as well as frozen and then thawed. All of us preferred the frozen and thawed method. The chocolate flavor becomes much more intense while the texture of the filling become fudgier.
Either way these muffins are fabulous, but if you haven’t eaten all the muffins straight away, I highly recommend the freezing and thawing method! 😋
I enjoy your videos. They are both entertaining and informative
Thx!!
Looks amazing – I’ve already made 2 versions of these muffins and can’t wait to try this recipe!
Cool! Let me know how it stacks up. 🙂
Most of the Olympic Muffin recipes were shorts/ tiktoks 🙁 Thank you for uploading a full video tutorial!
Sure thing! Hope you enjoy them. We thought they were divine. (Especially after freezing/thawing.)