Friday, September 3, 2010

Nigella's Chocolate Chocolate Chip Muffins

I can't believe I told Small Small Baker that I will bake Nigella's Chocolate Chocolate Chip muffin when I get hold of the bicar and baking powder then forgot all about it (because I did not diligently update my to-do-list). I chanced upon it again when I got hold of the bicar few days ago. How coincident.

I love making muffins because of its easy preparation. Furthermore, this recipes uses a number of regular ingredients that most bakers will have -- cocao powder, milk, chocolate chips, plain flour. Not sure if my observation is correct, but usually bakes without whipping egg whites , without creaming butter and sugar, or without whipping full eggs uses bicar and baking powder ... I should be right to say they are raising agents ... but it seems their combined pressence are common to bakes not done with those 3 method mentioned.

I have used this recipe 3 times for the past 1 week. I made a trial batch because I wanted to use this recipe for Teachers' Day gift, then the batch for actual gifts and the last batch is for own consumption plus Teachers' Day gift to the yamaha teacher.

I finally got hold of the pretty ikea paper cases that I first see in HHB's blog and I can't wait to use it. Not sure why, the paper cases did not fit my waxed cases very well and the paper cases folded up at some places, resulted in cases "eating" into muffins.


And look at this :

the "burnt" chocolate chip

The chocolate chips inside the muffins are all darker in color then the ones at the top (can see the comparison side by side?). This "burnt" chocolate chip also happens in my Double Chocolate Cupcakes.

I have tried using different brands. For the 1st and 2nd batch I used Hersley minis while the last batch Phoon Huat's housebrand. All the same result. So it is not the chips problem, then why? Perhaps the timing? I baked longer than what the recipe called for. No choice, the muffins are not baked at the required time. I extended the time by 10 minutes.


The 2nd batch were dressed up by the kids for their teachers. I used the white cups because I wanted the kids to write the message on the cups .... but since I baked it in the night ( have to involve the boy who is in PM session), the kids have to go to bed before the muffins are totally cooled so the notes are written separately when the muffins are cooling. I even wanted to include an ingredient list so that the teachers will know what is used (incase teachers are allergic to any ingredients), but I could not find an appropriate way to include it. I also purposely asked the kids not to mention names of teachers in the message so that they will not squash the other
muffins while trying to find the right one for the right teacher. Just fish out and give.

Having baked two batches, I find that it is rather plain to have chocolates over choclates, look all dark dark ... thus the third batch, I sprinkled strawberry flavoured chocolate chips instead. The strawberry choc chips did not go very well. They deformed a little from the high heat. This time I used the ikea paper cases and got 9 muffins again. Guess what ... two are wrapped for teacher and the kids finish the rest of the 6 (I ate 1 for testing) on that very day! There is nothing left for the next day.

So, I made the chocolate chip oat meal muffin on the next day. I now end this post at 3.50am and the picture of yesterday's bake. I just ate one. Yummy.

p/s 1 : It seems that only the white pokka dot cases seemed to be too big but the red ones fit nicely.
p/s 2: That night I forgot to add that the Nigella's recipe muffin has a taste similar to 發糕,those brownish coloured ones. Maybe I should bake for other people to try, and also to try others to see if they taste similar.

8 comments:

Esther said...

Yum, yum, yum... here i come to have one from u or two please :-)
Nice muffins you hv whipped up!

sherlyn said...

I wish I can give u some too ... actually I wanted to let pp try things i made, and i want to try things others made, but i want the same item, so that I can tell if I did it correctly.

BTW, i send u an email thru NLB. There is a adult jewelery making workshop in TP library. Go to NLB website, on the left "GOlibrary", click and go chk out the workshop.

Esther said...

THANK YOU Sherlyn for looking out for courses for me ... Muacks! hope your dh don't mind hor .. hehehe ...

Esther said...

Sherlyn, I just went to NLB website. It's on 4th Sept, which is today. Too bad I have missed it .. sob sob sob

sherlyn said...

IS it? I did not see the date, cos my friend told me she go library register program then i went in to chk got what program I also can sign for kids then i notice that and i immdiately sent to you ... sigh .. bet they have another one in time to come .. maybe u call them and register your interest and let them inform you when they have?

ying xuan said...

I came acroos these muffins on youtube and decided to try them since Nigella is known as the chocolate queen. Sadly, the muffins did not reach my expectations. The muffins was still goey despite staying really long in the ovens, the texture is very very dense and flour-y and the flavour is really bland. Sighs, perhaps its because my baking skills are really still not up to standard yet.

ying xuan said...

I came acroos these muffins on youtube and decided to try them since Nigella is known as the chocolate queen. Sadly, the muffins did not reach my expectations. The muffins was still goey despite staying really long in the ovens, the texture is very very dense and flour-y and the flavour is really bland. Sighs, perhaps its because my baking skills are really still not up to standard yet.

sherlyn said...

Hi Ying Xuan,

Do try again. I think not because of baking skills. Maybe some ingredients are measured wrongly? Don't worry, just try again, okie? :)

Thanks for dropping by my blog too. :)

cheers
sherlyn

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