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 :).

GÂTEAU CHOCO-MARRON MERINGUÉ

Every time I go to France I of course come back with food and products that I can hardly find here or that I simply find interesting and nice-looking.

It’s the case of this nice chestnut spread with a vintage design, created by Clément Faugier :).

Well, it was staring at me from my cupboard when I finally found, on Saveur, a very warm and wintery recipe to use it. I’ve already tried it twice, changing and adding ingredients to the original recipe, and I have to admit I really loved the results.

I would suggest to keep the cake “fondant” (that means that the inside has to be moist and not completely cooked) but If you like the consistency of a cake mixture just leave it in the oven for a few more minutes :).




Gateau choco-marron meringué (adapted from Saveur):

250g butter
200g chocolate
80g chestnut spread
150g icing sugar
4 eggs
100g all purpose flour
50g chestnut flour (you can find it in any bio-shop)
110g canned chestnut (normally they are simply boiled), crumbled
50g Maizena

Meringue:

2 egg whites
40g caster sugar
4 marrons glacés (optional)
salt

Preheat the oven to 180°C. Butter and flour 4 small cake pans or a single one (24cm) and line the bottoms with parchment paper.

Melt the butter and the chocolate in the microwave (or au bain marie), then add the chestnut cream.

In another bowl whisk the eggs and the icing sugar, until the mix becomes frothy then add chestnut and wheat flours, Maizena and the chocolate mix. Stir the crumbled chestnuts into the mixture and pour it all into the pans.

Bake 20-25 min the mini-pans or 25-30 the big one; as I said you can leave the cake in the oven a bit longer if you don’t like the fondant texture.
Take out from the oven and let it cool down.

For the meringue: beat the egg whites with a pinch of salt, then add the sugar and keep on beating for another minute. Spread the meringue on the cakes, crumble the marron glacés on it and brown the meringue with a blowtorch (my favourite :)) or under the grill-oven for 2 or 3 minutes.