Sue's chocolate chip coffee muffins

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! 

the humble muffin

Dear blog,

I am sorry that I created you months and months ago, spent ages listing all my cookbooks on a separate tab and then completely neglected you. I promise to be better in future, and actually take photos of lots of lovely food and share them with the world.


By way of apology, here is a recipe for some healthy muffins. I know, healthy isn't a word you'd normally associate with the stuff that comes out of my oven, but now and then I surprise myself.

Preheat the oven to 225ºC.

Ingredients:

225g plain flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
big pinch of salt
240ml plain yoghurt (or as much yoghurt as you have, and make up the rest with milk)
1 egg
120g soft light brown sugar
2 heaped tablespoons honey
60g bran
90ml vegetable/rapeseed oil
handful linseeds
handful chopped walnuts
pumpkin seeds
extra milk to loosen mixture

Sift the flour, baking powder, bicarb and salt into a large bowl. I have to admit I don't do this - I just throw it in and mix it around.

Measure the yoghurt/milk into a measuring jug. Crack in the egg and mix it in with a fork. Add the sugar, honey, bran and oil, mixing with the fork after each addition.

Pour the wet mixture into the flour mixture and fold it in - you will probably need a bit of extra milk to loosen it up as it may be quite stiff. Don't overmix it, it should still be lumpy. When you're almost done, add the linseeds and walnuts and fold them in.

Divide the mixture into about twelve muffin cases (mine are from Ikea, I thought they were cute). Sprinkle pumpkin seeds over the top. Place in the oven and immediately turn the oven temperature down to 200ºC. The initial burst of heat helps the muffins to rise nicely, and turning it down immediately stops them burning, see? Time it for twenty minutes, take them out and cool on a wire rack. Eat at least one while they're still quite warm, they're much nicer that way.


Another confession - I have a new camera. I'm used to an SLR but this is a little compact with all auto settings, and I'm finding it very hard to get a decent photo. So as mine were all either over or under exposed, I have photoshopped the hell out of them, just for fun.

I doubt my next post (and yes, there will be one) will be as healthy as this one...