Dark Chocolate Muffins

It’s July but I felt like some wintry, snowy dark chocolate muffins! Mainly I’m baking because I’ve just moved into my brand new University house so I was super excited to test out the new kitchen and some of my new kitchen goodies freshly bought in Ikea (A.K.A. Meatball Palace, especially on a Wednesday, £1 for 10 meatballs plus mash. Kinda makes you wonder what actually goes into them…oh well, they’re tasty!) to make sure it’s all good of course, not that I secretly wanted chocolate…Anyway these went down really well, but be careful not to overbake them, they can turn quite dry due to the amount of cocoa powder, but extra icing can easily fix that. Sprinkle over some icing sugar for snowy muffins or extra cocoa for a double choc hit.

Ingredients

150g self-raising flour

1 tsp baking powder

150g soft light brown sugar

80g cocoa powder

100ml vegetable oil

70ml milk

1 egg

1 tsp vanilla essence

For the icing:

Cocoa powder

Icing sugar

Water

Method

Line a 12 cup muffin pan with brown paper cases and preheat the oven to 180C/160C fan/gas mark 4.

First, measure out and mix together all of the dry ingredients, the flour, baking powder, sugar and cocoa powder.

In a measuring jug, first measure the oil then add the milk (this makes it easier to measure to 170ml) then add in the egg and vanilla. Whisk together to lighten the egg, beating air into the mixture. Pour slowly into the dry ingredients, stirring as you go so as to not lose too much of the air in the eggs, until you have a really dark, sticky, chocolatey batter resembling brownie mix.

Spoon about 1.5 tbsp into each muffin case and bake for about 16 minutes until firm on top but maybe still slightly gooey in the centre depending on how you like them. If you like them more cakey and crumbly, leave for 18 minutes total.

Leave to cool on a wire rack while you make the icing! Combine equal amounts of icing sugar and cocoa powder with a tablespoon of water. Mix together then add another tablespoon. Add a drop more at a time until a thick paste is formed. Stir until any lumps are gone then spread over the tops of the muffins. Use a small sieve to sift over some extra icing sugar or cocoa depending on your desired effect. Enjoy!!