Coconut Almond Chocolate Chip Muffins

I love Almond Joy candy bars. I have a couple of coconut muffin recipes, one of which I posted a while back, but I wanted to create a muffin that truly captured the essence of an Almond Joy. I have enjoyed the flavor that cream of coconut has added to many desserts I have made, so I decided to incorporate that into my recipe. If you have never used it before, don't be alarmed by how it looks when you open the can. It is pretty clumpy. Just whisk it a little and it will have a similar texture to sweetened condensed milk. I used it as an ingredient in the muffin batter as well as for the topping.
I was very happy with how these turned out - moist from the coconut, crunchy from the almonds, and rich from the chocolate.

Coconut Almond Chocolate Chip Muffins

1 cup sugar
1 stick softened butter
2 eggs
1/4 cup cream of coconut
4 oz frozen coconut
1 tsp vanilla
1- 8 oz bar Ghirardelli semi-sweet chocolate, coarsely chopped
3/4 cup toasted slivered almonds
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
3/4 tsp salt

Topping:
2 ounces coconut
2 tbsp cream of coconut (add more if needed for moistness)

Cream together sugar, butter, eggs, vanilla, chocolate, and 4 oz coconut. Add dry ingredients and mix well. Spoon into a muffin tin lined with 12 paper baking cups. Mix topping ingredients and spoon over each muffin. Bake at 350 for about 25 minutes.
These are wonderful served warm.