Another star of these games? The Olympic Village. The residential complex accommodates nearly 14,250 athletes during this year's Olympic Games as well as 8,000 athletes during the Paralympic Games. And thanks to social media, we've gotten the inside scoop on the Village, including some off-hours Taylor Swift friendship bracelet crafting and the athletes' thoughts on those cardboard beds .
And then there's the food . Tens of thousands of meals are served each day in the Olympic Village but one item in particular took on a life of its own: the chocolate muffins. Norwegian swimmer Henrik Christiansen was a huge fan of the baked good and shared his passion on his TikTok page and news soon spread far and wide.
The catering company behind the Olympic Village food wouldn't share the recipe for the famous chocolate muffins, but since when has a detail like that stopped the internet from doing its thing? In fairly short order, copycat recipes started popping up, including versions from New York Times Cooking and one of my favorite baking creators, Sarah Fennel of @bromabakery .
When I saw her video of her copycat version of the viral Olympic chocolate muffin I knew I had to give it a try. It was a trifecta of chocolaty goodness: moist chocolate cake, dark chocolate chips and a homemade chocolate ganache filling. It looked incredible, but would it live up to the hype? Here's what happened when I tried it in my kitchen.
Ingredients for the Olympic Village Chocolate Muffins
Nathan Hutsenpiller
Besides the soft moist bite and gooey melted chocolate, what really shines about this recipe is that you might have the majority of the ingredients on hand. You’ll need melted unsalted butter, light brown sugar, eggs, vanilla extract, Greek yogurt, buttermilk, heavy cream, flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, salt and a bag of chocolate chips. In addition to the ingredients, you’ll want to have a whisk, a large mixing bowl, a spatula, a muffin pan and a handful of muffin cups handy.
Fennel based her muffins on the Double Chocolate Muffin recipe on her website, and then explained the adjustments she made to turn that recipe into an Olympic muffin copycat in her video.
You'll start by preheating the oven to 425° and lining a muffin tray with 12 cupcake liners. In keeping with the elevated Olympic muffin vibes, I went the fancy route and created tulip cups out of 6-inch squared pieces of parchment paper, but muffin cups will do just fine. If you don’t have muffin cups or parchment paper on hand, make sure to grease the muffin tin thoroughly.
While the oven preheats, whisk together the melted butter and brown sugar until combined, then whisk in the eggs one egg at a time until the mixture is frothy. Add the vanilla, Greek yogurt and buttermilk and stir everything together. Next add the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder and salt, mixing until just combined. For light, tender muffins try not to overmix. Finally, add the chocolate chips and mix once or twice just to distribute them evenly.
Using a large ice cream scoop or a ⅓ measuring cup, divide the batter evenly among the 12 muffin tins. If you want larger muffins, use ½ cups of batter per muffin, which will give you 6 jumbo muffins. Bake at 425° for 5 minutes, then reduce the heat to 375°F and continue to bake for 15 more minutes.
While the muffins bake, you'll make the chocolate ganache that goes inside the muffins. To make the ganache, heat ½ cup of heavy cream until hot (not boiling), then dump in ½ cup of chocolate chips. Let that sit for a minute or so while the warm heavy cream melts the chocolate chips, then come back and stir together until the mixture is smooth and glossy. Set the ganache aside to cool while the muffins finish baking.
Once a knife inserted into the middle of the muffins comes out mostly clean, remove the muffin tray from the oven and let the muffins cool. When ready, cut a small hole into the centers of each muffin and fill each hole with the chocolate ganache using a piping bag.
My Thoughts About the Olympic Village Chocolate Muffins
Nathan Hutsenpiller
I’m an easy guy to please, when I see chocolate my mouth starts watering almost immediately. “Double chocolate chip” are three words that, when spoken in my vicinity, do something to me that I just can’t explain. These muffins absolutely hold up to the hype they’ve received online and if I were an Olympic athlete staying in the Olympic village, it would be game over for me. I loved the soft, moist muffin (truly it was more like cake) and the combination of chocolate chips and the smooth, creamy ganache filling.
Some Tips If You Make the Olympic Village Chocolate Muffins
• Check your ingredients. When I baked my first batch I had some trouble getting the muffins to rise. One of the issues was expired baking powder, so definitely do an ingredient check before you start baking.
• Go easy on the mixing. The other issue I had when I first made these was I overmixed the batter, which impacted the rise (plus that whole old baking soda situation). Mix just until the dry ingredients are incorporated and then stop.
• Fill 'em up. If you want to make gold-medal-worthy muffins, I'd suggest using 1/2 cup of batter per muffin. I found that was the amount of batter you need to create a tall, impressive muffin that looks similar to what they served in the Olympic Village.
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