This post is dedicated to my lovely
friend and workmate Sue. When I first told her about Lavazza's Coffee,Set, Match challenge, she immediately decided that I needed to make
some coffee chocolate chip muffins, and for weeks afterwards she
regularly harangued asked me when they would be forthcoming.
Sue is such a sweetie that I would hate
to disappoint her, so coffee chocolate chip muffins were made and
delivered to work, and while a few of them were shared with other
workmates, most of them accompanied a gleeful Sue home - they were
most definitely enjoyed! (I may or may not have eaten one for
breakfast myself.)
I decided to use some cupcake cases I
found in Poundland. I really love the 1960s style pattern on these,
but unfortunately you do tend to get what you pay for and during the
baking process they soaked up a lot of grease and went a bit
see-through - not a good look. I'm on the lookout for some nice
Jubilee-style cupcakes but I live miles from the nearest Lakeland -
has anyone seen any good ones in the supermarkets?
Not the best quality but what a fab pattern.
Anyway, here's the muffin recipe. If
you have unexpected visitors or a cake sale you've forgotten about
till the last minute, these are ideal as you can be taking them out
of the oven half an hour after deciding to make them! And like my
fudge recipe, this is very adaptable. Leave out the coffee, use
white chocolate, and add a big handful of frozen raspberries (don't
defrost them first) for a lovely summery treat.
Ingredients:
280g self raising flour
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
Good pinch of salt
90g caster sugar
1 egg
250ml plain yoghurt
90ml semi skimmed or whole milk
90ml vegetable oil
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 shot of espresso (I used a Lavazza
Caffè Crema Lungo Dolcemente pod)
100g chocolate,
chopped (I used milk chocolate as I wanted a bit of sweetness to
counterbalance the coffee, but dark would be fine, as long as it's a
fairly low cocoa content)
Preheat the oven
to 225ºC and get your muffin tin ready with paper cases.
Sieve the flour,
bicarb and salt into a large bowl (or tip it all in and give it a
whisk to get rid of any lumps).
Beat the egg and
sugar together in a big measuring jug. Add the yoghurt, milk, oil,
espresso and vanilla, and give it all a really good mix with a fork
or small whisk.
Pour the wet
stuff into the dry stuff, and fold it all together with a big spoon.
Don't overmix - you want it to stay lumpy. Finish by folding in the
chopped chocolate.
Divide the
mixture between the paper cases (you should get 12, but if you use
smaller cases like I did you might end up with 14 or 15 - if so, and
you can't fit two tins in the oven, you could bake a couple in
silicone cases which will hold their shape in the oven without
needing to be placed into a muffin tin).
Place in the
oven, immediately turn the heat down to 200ºC, and bake for 20
minutes. Remove the muffins from the oven, let them cool for a few
minutes till you can handle them, and then put them on a wire rack to
finish cooling. They are lovely eaten while still a bit warm, as the
chocolate chunks will still be melty and gooey!
Don't forget - you can win prizes from Lavazza too! Look out for instant win details on promotional cups of takeaway Lavazza coffee, or enter online HERE.
Prizes include
pairs of tickets to Wimbledon, Lavazza A Modo Mio Favola Plus
Wimbledon Limited Edition coffee machines and exclusive sets of
espresso cups created especially for the tournament.
1950s Royal Doulton espresso cup which is one of my favourites!
They sound rather nice, I'll have to give them a try, coffee and chocolate yum.
ReplyDeletelovely muffin recipe and STUNNING photography, really beautiful!
ReplyDeleteLovely cakes - I'll get the coffee machine going. I bought some jubilee paper cases at a local shop - I'm wondering if they'll end up a bit see-through as well.
ReplyDeleteI love this recipe, I'll definitely try it soon! I'm baking cupcakes tonight in Union Jacks paper cases bought from Lakeland - I will report back on how good the paper holds against the grease! ;)
ReplyDeleteGreat recipe! Photos are helping for the wow effect as well. Will most definitely give it a shot!
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