Triple Chocolate Muffins

Who decided that muffins are an on-the-go food? Have you ever actually tried to eat a muffin while wandering about town? I mean, they’re more on the go than a bowl of cereal, but what isn’t? Walking down the street while trying to catch every single crumb that falls from your delicious muffin is more than a little embarrassing. But hey, I guess that’s why we have two hands – one for feeding the muffin into your mouth, the other for catching any runaway crumbs.

So. The other day I was walking down the street, enjoying the very last muffin of the batch. It was a messy affair, obviously, but I was eating a (triple chocolate) muffin & so I was happy to ignore any looks from passersby. But then the final bite came. You know when you get so near to the end of something delicious that you just want to stuff it all in your face? It’s not classy, but everyone does it, don’t even try to deny it. Well, just as I stuffed the final hugemongous bite into my face these two women stepped onto the path in front of me. Them: at least 12-ft tall, gorgeous, stick thin, & practically models. Me: a pesky little hamster with cheeks full of muffin & increasingly self conscious thighs. I wish I was kidding.

That is the moment when I decided that muffins should not be considered as on-the-go food. No one should have to go through that experience. It was rough – like watching people try to eat burgers on their first date. The things I do for you guys. It all worked out fine in the end though; I scurried away as fast as my little hamster legs would allow & made myself feel better by coming to the conclusion that those women probably never eat muffins & live purely off undressed salad. I mean, who would want that? (everyone knows that life is better with both muffins & salad dressing.)

These muffins came about because of two very simple reasons. Reason #1 – there is a startling lack of muffins on the blog. Reason #2 – I’m still the chocolate crazed maniac that was I was when I created the fudgiest brownies ever. Both reasons were rather pressing (like seriously, how is there no muffin recipes on the blog yet?), but obviously the real reason was the need for chocolate. Enter moist chocolate muffins, studded with dark chocolate chunks, & drizzled with white chocolate. They’re light, they have the most delicious crunchy top, they’re subtle, they’re good.

Makes 12 muffins (adapted from the Joy the Baker cookbook)

Ingredients 

• 113g of butter
• 140g of plain chocolate, chopped up
• 2 cups of plain flour
• 3 teaspoons of baking powder
• ½ teaspoon of salt
• 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract
• ½ cup of packed brown sugar
• 2 eggs
• 2/3 cup of plain yogurt
• 1 cup of dark chocolate chunks
• ½ cup of white chocolate

Method 

1. Preheat your oven to 170 degrees C & place 12 muffin liners into a muffin tin.
2. Place the butter & plain chocolate into a microwavable bowl & microwave on full power for thirty seconds before taking out to stir with a spatula. Repeat until all of the chocolate is melted. Leave to cool.
3. In a medium bowl whisk together all of the dry ingredients, excluding the brown sugar. Set aside.
4. In a large bowl, whisk together the brown sugar, eggs, plain yogurt, vanilla extract, & also the slightly cooled melted chocolate until well combined.
5. Pour all of the flour mixture into the wet mixture & use a spatula to fold the mix until there is no remaining flour bits.
6. Fold in the dark chocolate chunks.
7. Divide the muffin batter between the 12 prepared cups & bake for 18-20 minutes, or until a tester inserted into the muffins comes out clean. Remove from the oven & cool in the tin for 5 minutes before placing them on a wire rack to cool completely.
8. As the muffins cool, place the white chocolate into a heatproof bowl & melt in the microwave in thirty second increments. Drizzle the white chocolate generously over the cooled muffins.