MUFFINS!

Weekend or not, I love breakfast; can’t really start the day without my favorite combo tea + homemade cake/muffin/biscuits. Because, call me crazy, but I can’t really see the last slice of cake disappearing without thinking about the next one to bake (that normally degenerates into a pathetic picture of me baking until 2am :/).

...anyway, I have been looking for a nice muffin cookbook for a while and when I saw Bob’s recipes published by Marabout with the wonderful pics of the amazing Akiko Ida... well... I guess you know how it ended.

The fact is that muffins are a serious issue as most of the ones you can find out there are huge and pretty BUT dry... terribly dry. And please, don’t try to tell me Starbuck’s muffins are notthatbad :P!!

Bob promises not-SO-nice-looking but extremely good and moist muffins, so I convinced myself it was worth a try.

Choco-chips muffins

Dry ingredients:

320g wheat flour

50g sugar

3 teaspoons of yeast powder

1 teaspoon salt

150g dark chocolate roughly chopped

 

Wet ingredients:

325g crème fraîche

175ml semi-skimmed milk

50ml sunflower oil

1 egg, white and yolk separated

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Preheat the oven to 200º. In a big bowl mix the flour, the sugar, the yeast and the salt; then add the yolk. Beat the egg whites till stiff.

Mix the wet ingredients with the dry ones + yolks. Then add the egg whites and the choco chips. It’s important to NOT mix/beat the mixture too much to not produce too much gluten that will cause a leak of gas (that is the magic thing that allow the mixture to rise once in the oven) so don’t worry if there’s still dry flour or lumps here and there.

Divide the mixture in muffin moulds and bake for 20-25 minutes. You can verify if they’re properly cooked introducing a cake tester (magic tool); if it comes out completely dry the muffins are ready to take off from the oven.

Note: as usual, what makes the difference are the ingredients so - please - don’t buy pre-made choco-chips: just buy a good dark chocolate and chop it roughly. Same for the vanilla extract; just avoid the chemical “vanilla savour” and buy a real natural extract. It’s a bit more expensive but it’s worth the money, it tastes great :).