Chocolate Muffins

Would you believe that in all of the cookbooks I own I could not find one single recipe for chocolate muffins? Not even in my “Muffins and cakes” book. Baffling. But I have made chocolate muffins before and was not deterred, turning to t’internet for a recipe.

It took me 15 MINUTES of internet searching before I found a recipe I felt I could trust (that is, one from a site that doesn’t use Comic Sans or flashing gifs). Fifteen of your Enghlish minutes! That’s the equivalent of, like, a DAY’S non-internet research.

Anyway, this recipe came from the UKTV Food site (re-written my way) and went down well with Mr B and his workmates. I was most saintly and only had one small one.

Ingredients (Makes 20 Muffins)

250g Butter
190g caster sugar
4-5 eggs (I used 4)
250g self raising flour
20g Baking powder
60ml Milk
100g chocolate chips
150g drinking chocolate

Muffin cases and a muffin tray.

The Cooking

In a mixing bowl, mix together the butter and sugar with a wooden spoon until fluffy. Crack in the eggs, one at a time, mixing well with each addition, and whisk together for 5 minutes. Don’t be scared if it goes sloppy and looks like it’s fallen apart, just keep mixing and it’ll come together.

Sift in the flour and baking powder to the butter mixture and fold together until well-blended. Try not to beat it to death, the aim is to keep it light and fluffy.

Add in the milk and the drinking chocolate and mix for 1 minute. Fold in the chocolate chips. Once mixed, try not to eat it all off the spon right there and then.

Preheat the oven to 200°C/390F. Line muffin trays with paper cases, making 20 muffin cases in all. I only have one tray with space for twelve muffins, so I did it in two batches.

Drop a large tablespoon (or two, depending on what size you want them) of the muffin mixture in each case, trying not to get it all over the tray like I did. Bake the muffins for 15-20 minutes until cooked through and risen. They will crack a bit on the top, which is a good thing. You know what muffins look like. Leave them to cool in the tray to begin with because they’re quite soft when they first come out of the oven and you don’t want to squash them. After five minutes, lift them out and feed to whoever you love best.