Monday, July 10, 2006

Chocolate muffins

There must be a zillion chocolate muffin recipes floating around the Internet, so I thought I'd add my version to the general confusion. I wanted to make a "chocolate surprise" muffin, with melted chocolate in the centre... but the only "surprise" was that there was no melted chocolate - it had all been incorporated in the baking. Oh dear.


Oh dear, what can the matter be? The chocolate's all disappeared! (sung to the tune of "Oh dear, what can the matter be, Johnny's so long at the fair")

I'd put in 10-12 chocolate chips in the middle - perhaps those werent enough. Perhaps I should have used chocolate chunks instead. I dont know. I'd appreciate any tips from those who DO know!

The muffins were pretty good as plain chocolate muffins go, though - fluffy and very chocolatey. I added a simple vanilla icing, but chocolate icing might have been just as nice - or nicer.

PS. Please excuse the pathetic quality of icing (as seen, not as tasted!) - I'm the most amateur of "icers" (what's the technical term?) and have practically no experience with decorative icing.

Recipe for:
Chocolate muffins




Ingredients:

2 eggs
1 cup sugar
1 cup flour
6 tbsp cocoa powder (I used plain ol' Cadbury's, nothing fancy)
1 tbsp instant coffee
2 tsp baking powder
2 tsp vanilla extract
2/3 cup milk
1/2 cup vegetable or sunflower oil (anything that is tasteless and odourless)
1/4 cup butter
Chocolate chips or chunks (optional)

For the icing:

2 cups icing sugar
Cold milk as required (3-4 tbsp)
1 tsp vanilla extract

Mix carefully in a bowl till the sugar is incorporated, then beat for 3 minutes by hand, until smooth. Reserve.

Method:

1. Pre-heat oven to 180C. Line a 12-cup muffin pan with paper muffin bake cups.

2. In a large bowl, beat the eggs with the sugar till well blended.

3. Sift in the flour, cocoa powder, instant coffee granules and baking powder. Add the vanilla and milk and mix.

4. Add the oil and melted butter and fold in gently.

5. Fill each muffin cup with about 2 tbsp batter (till about a third full), then place a few chocolate chips (15-20) or chunks in the centre.

6. Top up with more batter until the muffin cups are 3/4 full. Bake at 180C for 25-30 minutes or till done.



7. Allow to cool completely, then spread with the prepared icing.

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

shyamala ,we are supposed to put a hershey's kiss in the center..that gives just the perfect gooey center that you are looking for

Anonymous said...

Eve: We dont get Hershey's kisses here :(

Anonymous said...

shammi.. thats sad..write to hersheys and they might just mail it to you for free:) and also thank you in return for opening a door to the UK market..

Anonymous said...

oops that was me as anonymous

Luv2cook said...

Shammi:

I do make "surprise muffins". I usually do a cream-cheese frosting for the cupcakes, then take a bit of that creamcheese frosting, mix in the chocolate chips and then use that as the surprise filling. I am not sure if that would have helped here? The muffins look delicious by the way.

Unknown said...

Hey Shammi, it's raining muffins- i maked some banana muffins and did a check on who else is, and found yours. Surprise or no surprise they look absolutely YUM! I was just going to suggest that you place a hershey's dark chocolate kiss in the center, but then saw Eve's comment and your remark. It would have been the perfect solution though. Next on my list is your kinda muffin. I'm posting the link to this latest muffin on the block in my post
Cheers
Looking forward to your breakfast recipe for my event!

Vaishali said...

Shammi,
Your muffins look perfectly delicious to me. And with the icing (I mean the pattern that you've made), they remind of hot cross buns. Btw, your version of the nursery rhyme is adorable. :)

The Cookbook Junkie said...

How freaky. That song was already stuck in my head from the morning drive with my 2 1/2 year old. It's on the tape we listen too.

If you put a ball of ganache is the center, you should get your gooey filling.

Anonymous said...

does anybody know if u can get hershey's kisses in brisbane

Unknown said...

The muffins look very delicious. They r perfect. Bout the "surprise", u can simply use any chocolates actually. Just break them into little squares/chunks & hide them in the middle.
I normally use cherry preserve as my chocolate muffin's "surprise".