Soft, moist, fluffy chocolate muffins studded with dark and milk chocolate, topped with a crunchy streusel and finished with chocolate mini eggs. What an outstanding start to Easter morning!
Collect together your equipment (see Recipe Notes below) and ingredients.
Preheat oven to fan oven 200°C/220°C/425°F/Gas 7 and place 9 muffin liners into a muffin tin.
First, make the chocolate streusel: weigh the butter into a small saucepan and melt over a moderate heat.
Add the sugar, flour, cocoa and salt.Mix thoroughly and set aside to cool.
Next make the muffins: finely chop the dark chocolate, for the streusel and the cake batter, and set 25g aside for the streusel topping.
Weigh the olive oil, sour cream, egg and sugars into a mixing bowl. Sieve over the cocoa and coffee powder.
Mix thoroughly with a balloon whisk.
Sieve over the flour, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda and salt.
Fold until nearly mixed in and a few flecks of flour remain.
Add the 75g of chopped dark chocolate, as well as the chopped mini egg or milk chocolate, and fold in. Be careful not to over-mix at this stage.
Using an ice cream scoop, divide the batter equally between the 9 muffin cases.
Break the cooled streusel into small pieces, add the remaining 25g chopped dark chocolate and stir well.
Sprinkle the streusel over the top of the muffins. If freezing before cooking, put in the freezer in the tin, immediately. It is important to do this straight away to prevent the raising agents activating. When frozen, cover with cling film.
Either:
- if cooking immediately – cook in the centre of a pre-heated oven at a high heat for 5 minutes, OR
- if cooking from frozen – put the frozen muffins in the centre of a pre-heated oven at a high heat for 10 minutes.
After 5 minutes (or 10 minutes if the muffin batter was frozen), turn the oven down to fan oven 160°C/180°C/350°F/Gas 4 and cook for a further 15 – 20 minutes, or until the muffins are cooked.
Remove from the oven when they are cooked and leave to sit for 5 – 10 minutes before transferring to a wire cooling rack.
Finish the muffins: melt the remaining 40g dark chocolate in a microwave or bain marie.
As soon as you have transferred the muffins to the cooling rack, add a spoonful of melted chocolate and 2 mini eggs to the top of each muffin.
Eat warm or at room temperature. Whilst they are best eaten on the day they are made, they will store well, if kept in an airtight container. Store for 1 – 2 days at room temperature or up to 2 – 3 days in the fridge. (Remember to take them out of the fridge and allow them to come to room temperature before eating.) Muffins can be quickly re-warmed in the microwave, if necessary.
Equipment:
Be very careful melting the chocolate. Chocolate can be very difficult to work with. You can overheat it very easily and the mixture will go grainy. When this happens, there is no way to resolve it I’m afraid!
Microwave: I give the chocolate a minute in the microwave, take it out and stir it well, then let it sit for a few minutes to see if it continues melting sufficiently to melt all the chocolate. If not, I then continue with the microwave but in 10 – 15 second bursts.
Bain Marie: if you do not have a microwave, put the chocolate and butter in a heatproof bowl over a saucepan of gently simmering water. Do not let the base of the bowl touch the water. Heat until the chocolate and butter are very nearly melted then take it off the heat and take the bowl off the saucepan. Be very careful not to burn yourself as the bowl will be hot and steam will escape from the saucepan. Allow the mixture to sit for a few minutes for the residual heat to melt the remainder of the mixture. Again, be careful not to over-heat.
Storage:
These muffins are best eaten on the day they are made. However, they will store well in an airtight container for 2 -3 days, or in a fridge or 4 – 5 days. If you are storing in the fridge, allow to come to room temperature before eating.
Freezing uncooked muffins:
You can freeze these muffins before they you cook them. All you need to do is:
Freezing cooked muffins:
You can also freeze these muffins after they have been cooked. Once cooked, allow to cool and freeze in an airtight container for up to 3 months.