Chocolate Chunk Muffins

I spent the last quarter of 2010 spending way too much! There was a lot of bargain items which I got for Christmas gifts to my love ones and tons of new baking books and kitchen paraphernalia. My room looks more and more like a storage room with all the boxes, shopping bags strewn everywhere. Little by little I try my best to organize them and put it in their proper place. My huge pile of baking books, one by one I try to have them covered with a clear plastic wrap to protect them from certain kitchen spills and accidents. Once they are well protected, it's time to give them a whirl! But where will I start? After pondering for a few seconds, I settled on the The Essence of Chocolate. I got this book from my favorite second hand bookstore and I got it on a bargain for 375 pesos around $8! Another thing that I love is that the baking books that I often get though used are in excellent conditions and since most of them are in hardcover formats there are no tear pages. Though sometimes the book jacket is missing or the jacket looks dilapidated but heck for more than 1/4 of the price of a new book, I can look passed it and when it's all wrapped in clear plastic, no one would notice those. I probably just bore you with my obsessiveness and you probably don't care and just want me to get it and talk about the muffins. Here goes...

I don't make a lot of cupcakes or muffins, I however would like to admit that a compulsive muffin/cupcake liner buyer. Whenever I see new colors or designs of the liner even if I have no idea when I'm going to use them I always buy it! I even get obsessive with them whenever I see a cute design online, I check my local cookery store if we got those designs here. One of my New Year's Resolution is used up all the things that I have been hoarding like a crazed maniac. For this Chocolate Chunk Muffins, I used my clear plain ones to showcase the chunks that you could see through out the muffin. It a total coincidence that I chose this recipe by Joan Chang from a different book while at the same time started reading her new baking book Flour. How fun is that?
I don't make muffins often and I can still remember the first time I made muffins years ago, it was a huge disaster! I was afraid of over mixing which I heard creates a tough muffin. Silly little me, under mixed it and made a huge inedible mess! There were bits of flour not mixed in so when it baked . . . you can only guess the horror! LOL! After that horrible muffin incident I'm glad to say that I have made major improvement since then. I made my muffin making come back 3 years ago making this. I guess the saying "When there is a will, there's a way" Ha! It surely applies to me. My will to eat gives me the courage to try and try again. I actually wanted a chocolate chunk muffins but couldn't find a good recipe for it but since I love eating and making chocolate chunk cookies how bad can it be in muffin form. I'm glad to say they are not to shabby and the house smelled so wonderful after. The muffin itself is a vanilla based muffin with generous chunks of chocolate suspended in their crumbs. Its was such an easy afternoon baking project that I'm sure you will enjoy. My only gripe is the recipe said it yields 12 muffins? Uh..it barely fits 11 pieces. One less muffin to enjoy. LOL!

CHOCOLATE CHUNK MUFFIN
Recipe from Joanne Chang
  • 4 oz unsalted butter, melted & cooled
  • 2 large eggs
  • 3/4 c creme fraiche
  • 2 c all purpose flour
  • 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
  • 1/4 tsp baking soda
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 1 c granulated sugar
  • 3 oz 62% chocolate chunks
  1. Preheat oven to 350F.

  2. Butter and flour 12 muffin cups (3/4 cup capacity) or line with paper liners.

  3. In a small bowl, whisk together the butter, eggs and creme fraiche.

  4. In a large bowl, combine flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt and sugar. Add the butter-egg mixture and stir with a wooden spoon or a rubber spatula just until combined. Fold in the chocolate chunks.

  5. Divide the batter among the muffin cups. Bake for 20-25 minutes or until muffins springs back when lightly pressed on the center.

  6. Let it cool in the pan for 10 minutes, then transfer to cooling rack and let it cool completely.

  7. Chow it down! Enjoy! 

nikcreate

I'm a nine to five pencil pusher who loves to play with flour and paper during my free time. Dreams of going to Europe and eat croissants and make pastries all day long!

4 comments:

  1. I can definitely imagine the smell of these wafting through your house! They look so yummy. And you put your muffin liners to good use!

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  2. oh so pretty! yum. i will have to make these soon.

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  3. Anonymous7:30 PM

    I've visited your blog today nice blog

    ReplyDelete
  4. good share info make me hungry:) thanks for share their knowledge

    ReplyDelete