Nigella's Chocolate Chocolate-Chip Muffins 【Nigella的】双重巧克力松糕

Will weather influence your choice of food? The answer is yes to me.

This is my kind of comfort food during a raining or cooling day. The last time I baked with cocoa was during a raining day too. I baked a Chocolate Wet Cake that time.

I made this batch of muffin last Friday when the weather was cooling throughout the day. I told myself I was lucky enough to be off from work and stayed home with Lucius. We don't usually have such a nice weather in Singapore.

Thanks to SSB for sharing such a wonderful recipe. The muffin tasted very good, it is soft and moist (even after more than 24 hours). Expect melted chocolate chips all over the mouth in every bite. I like to warm it before serving so that I can have slight crisp top.

The cocoa powder used in this recipe is only 2 tbsp that is equivalent to 10g, 4% of the plain flour amount. If you have made other chocolate muffin or cake before, you may have noticed the cocoa powder ratio in this recipe is very low. I think that is the beauty of this recipe; the not so chocolaty batter is balanced by the generous amount of chocolate chips.

However, if you like your muffin to be super chocolaty, you can always increase the amount of cocoa powder.

This is definitely one of the best muffin recipes I have ever tried. The other reason I like about this recipe is that the batter exactly fit into my 12-hole muffin tray.

By the way, the 2 muffins with colourful chocolate rice on top are for my BIG baby. >.<

Ingredients: (makes 12 muffins)
250g plain flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
2 tbsp best quality cocoa powder
175g caster sugar (I used 170g)
150g chocolate chips (save 1/4 of the chips for sprinkling)
250ml milk
90ml vegetable oil
1 large egg
1 tsp pure vanilla extract

Method:
1) Preheat the oven to 200 deg C.
2) Put the flour, baking powder, baking soda, cocoa, sugar, and 3/4 of the chocolate chips into a large bowl and mix well.
3) Pour all the liquid ingredients into a measuring jug and mix well.
4) Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and mix together with slow and gentle strokes. Stop stirring once the last traces of flour disappear. Do not over mix. A lumpy batter will ensure the muffins stay moist and fluffy.
5) Spoon the batter into paper muffin cases.
6) Sprinkle the remaining 1/4 chocolate chips on top and bake for 20 minutes or until the muffins are dark, risen and springy.

Note:
I lowered the oven temperature to 180C after 10 mins of baking when I noticed the top started to crack.