Triple Chocolate Muffins

Titus favorite treat when we go out for coffee is always a chocolate muffin. I figured he should learn how to make them, so he can always have some at home. These turned out great - very tender and soft, and very indulgent with all the chocolate. 

Triple Chocolate Muffins 

Makes 24 regular sized muffins

120 ml canola oil
200 g sugar
120 ml milk
2 large eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract (or paste) 
150 g sour cream or yogurt
250 g all-purpose flour
50 g cocoa powder
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
75 g white chocolate chips
150 g dark chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 175°C. Line your muffin tins with muffin liners - I got 24 out of this recipe. 

Whisk oil and sugar. Add milk and eggs and vanilla, and whisk again. Add the sour cream or yogurt, and stir. In a separate bowl, mix flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, salt and both types of chocolate. 

Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and mix - don't overdo it, just mix until combined. 

Dollop into your muffin liners - about 1/2-2/3 of each. They will rise quite a bit. 

Bake for about 10 minutes. Check with a toothpick to see if they're baked through - it should come out mostly clean. (Unless you hit chocolate of course.) 

Take them out of the tin as soon as they're cold enough to handle and leave to cool on a rack. 

Banana mini-muffins

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Another way to attempt and use up those inevitably browning bananas that always seem to exist in my fruit basket...

Banana mini-muffins
Makes about 30

2 very ripe bananas
1 egg
80 g Demerara sugar (or just regular brown sugar)
80 ml neutral oil
125 ml milk
250 ml all-purpose flour
180 ml whole wheat flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt

Line a mini-muffin tin with paper cups.

Mash the bananas and mix with the egg, sugar, oil and milk. Mix in the dry ingredients (and as usual, I don't bother pre-mixing the dry ones, I'm too lazy) until they're just combined. Dollop into the mini-muffin tin, and bake at 175°C for about 7-9 minutes.

Apple Muffins with Caramelized Hazelnuts

Apples are easily found all year round, but if you want Swedish apples, the season is considerably shorter. Some are ripe in early summer, but most sorts aren’t ready until late summer or fall. Some are even later. For these muffins, it won’t really matter much what kind you use – just use one that you like to eat!

It’s a very versatile recipe, as you don’t add the fruit until the end – you can just as easily swap the apples for, say, blueberry or raspberry, or maybe try a combination of blackberries and apples? I love this combination though – apples, cinnamon and caramelized hazelnuts… Delicious!

Don’t be scared of the extra step of caramelizing the nuts. You can certainly skip it, but it does add an extra layer of flavor, and it’s not difficult at all. Make sure there are no kids around though – caramel is HOT. And you want some kind of silicone or teflon baking mat – or oil a regular baking sheet.

This recipe yielded me 12 normal-sized muffins, and 15 mini-sized. It would probably have been enough for 18 normal-sized, but I wanted to make some minis without the nuts, since so many people are allergic these days. I also like making smaller ones for the sheer cuteness.

Apple Muffins with Caramelized Hazelnuts

For the nuts:
100 ml hazelnuts, toasted (If you can’t find them at the store, toast them yourself for about 10 minutes in a 200°C oven)
50 ml sugar
1/2 tsp lemon juice

Heat the sugar and lemon juice in a small saucepan, and watch closely as it’ll turn deep golden brown. Add the nuts, stir, and immediately turn out onto a teflon or silicone baking mat, or an oiled baking sheet. Let cool completely, then chop coarsely.

For the muffins:
200 g butter, at room temperature
70 g brown sugar
80 g sugar
1 tbsp vanilla sugar (or 1 tsp vanilla extract)
3 eggs
280 g flour
1 tbsp baking powder
2-3 apples, peeled, cored and cut into small dice
cinnamon

Cream the butter and both sugars until light and fluffy. Add the vanilla sugar as well, or the extract.

Add the eggs, one at a time, and make sure to mix well in between each addition. Stir in the flour and baking powder.

Half-fill muffin cups placed in a muffin tin for extra sturdiness. As this batter is on the thick side, you can lightly wet your fingers to press down the batter. Add about a tablespoon of diced apples, and lightly dust with cinnamon. Sprinkle with the chopped caramelized nuts.

Bake at about 190°C. The normal-sized muffins will take about 15 minutes, and minis 10 minutes. Use a cake-tester or a toothpick to check that they’re done – it should come out clean.

Previously published at sweden.se

Corn Bread Muffins

I feel so sad at the events in Norway - it's such a heinous crime, I can barely comprehend it. As some of you know, my full-time job is in politics, and when I was younger, I too was part of a political youth organization. We had a summer camp as well, and I can't begin to imagine..

Well, even in times of crisis, one must eat. And cook. And blog, perhaps.

Try these corn bread muffins - they're lovely comfort food. Add a big pat of butter, and drizzle with maple syrup for an extravagant treat.

You deserve it. We all do.

Corn Bread Muffins
12

250 ml all-purpose flour
250 ml cornmeal
1/2 tsp salt
1 tbsp baking powder
300 ml buttermilk (or Swedish filmjolk)
1/2 tsp baking soda
2 eggs
80 ml neutral cooking oil
4 tbsp raw sugar (sometimes sold as demerara or turbinado - use regular sugar if you can't find it)

Mix flour, cornmeal, salt and baking powder in a large bowl. In another bowl, whisk buttermilk and baking soda, then add the egg, oil and sugar. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ones, and mix gently. Dollop into lined muffin tins, and bake at 200°C for 20 minutes.

Recipe in Swedish:
Majsbrödsmuffins

Banana Yogurt Muffins

Yet another way to use up over-ripe bananas.. I know I have many recipes along these lines but I never tire of them. Or more honestly, I rarely turn back to them, always on the hunt for more. This time, I also had some greek yogurt that needed using up, and I was in the mood for some nice spice.

Banana Yogurt Muffins
makes 12

2 bananas, very ripe
120 g greek-style yogurt
2 eggs
120 g sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
150 g all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp ginger, ground

Mash the bananas with the yogurt, and stir in the vanilla.

Beat the eggs and sugar until very fluffy. Add the banana yogurt, then the baking soda, baking powder, flour and spices. Stir together until combined. Divide into 12 lined muffin cups, and bake at 175°C for about 15 minutes.

Recipe in Swedish:
Bananmuffins med yogurt

Raspberry Quark Muffins

I love involving Titus in the kitchen. Sure, he's small, but he's definitely able to do a lot of stuff. And he is so interested! He'll move his chair, climb up and see what we're doing, and he often plays with various kitchen utensils... not always a good thing, we recently had an incident involving both Nespresso machines, a cupful of sugar and a lot of salt. Oh well. It cleaned up, eventually.



Anyway. Arla - the Swedish dairy producer - sent me two flavored quarks to review, raspberry and rhubarb. They also included a box of really cute cupcake liners, and a recipe for raspberry muffins. Well, how could I resist that? And after all, it's the perfect project with kids. To be honest, he only really showed interest in the mixing part, and later, with the tasting part.

They turned out pretty good! I know it's a rather specific recipe and revolves around a product many of you won't ever see. I don't really like doing that but I think raspberry-flavored yogurt might make a nice substitute, though!



Raspberry Quark Muffins
12

3 eggs
100 g sugar
50 g melted butter
250 g Kesella Raspberry (quark)
1 tsp baking powder
250 ml flour
24 frozen raspberries (or fresh!)

Beat eggs and sugar until very fluffy. Add the melted butter and the quark. Stir in baking powder and flour and mix gently. Divide into cupcake liners, placed in a muffin tin.

Stick two raspberries into each muffin. Bake at 200°C for 10-12 minutes.

Recipe in Swedish:
Hallonmuffins med kesella