December 1, 2016
So I’m back from Japan this week and in the midst of serious travel depression. I always wonder when I come back from a big trip whether it’s worth it, because it is always so hard to get back into it when you come back. But who am I kidding, it is one of the best things you can do! Travel is so amazing, and I think the fact that you are depressed when you come back is a sign of a good trip. Japan was absolutely amazing, out of this world! It is so different to Australia, but such an amazing, rich and kind culture. And the food, god was it amazing! I am going to do a couple of blog posts about the food for you all in the coming weeks, but for now, I have a recipe that I cooked up before I left which I can now share with you!
Before I left we were lucky enough as Melbournites to have Melbourne Cup off, meaning we got a public holiday for the horse racing. We never got this in Brisbane, so I was determined to make a bit of a day out of it. Rather than going to the races ourselves, getting sunburnt and having to wait in line for drinks, we decided instead to have something at home. So naturally I decided to bake something for the occasion. Afterall, what goes better with day drinking than some delicious muffins?
I had a lot of Nutella at home that I wanted to use up, and found a recipe that sounded absolutely delicious! So I decided it was the perfect time to give it a shot and see how they turned out. These muffins are for the chocaholics at heart, trust me, the chocolate in these is nothing to mess around with. But they were absolutely delicious, and the perfect addition to our little Melbourne Cup party. On top of that, they were also pretty simple to make, which is always a winner in my book as you know! I was able to whip them up the night before and they were all ready for serving when people arrived the following day.
- 3 cups of plain flour
- ¼ cup of caster sugar
- 2/4 cup of brown sugar
- 2 teaspoons of baking powder
- ½ teaspoon of baking soda
- ¼ teaspoon of salt
- ¼ cup of cocoa powder
- 1 block of cooking chocolate chopped
- 1 large egg
- 1 cup of buttermilk
- ½ cup of vegetable oil
- 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract
- 12 -24 teaspoons of Nutella
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Preheat your own to 200C (400F). Butter a 12 hole muffin tray generously and set aside.
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In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, sugars, baking powder, baking soda, salt and cocoa powder. Once they are combined, add in the chocolate chunks, stir to combine, and set the bowl aside.
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In a medium sized bowl, whisk together the egg, buttermilk, oil and vanilla extract. Pour the wet ingredients into the bowl of dry ingredients and mix until just combine, being careful not to over mix.
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Fill each of the muffin tray slots half way with the batter, and spoon 1 -2 generous teaspoons of Nutella into the centre of each slot. Then pour the remaining batter over the top of each muffin tray slot, ensuring you use up all batter and cover the Nutella completely.
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Bake in the oven for 15-20 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted off centre (to avoid the Nutella) comes out clean. Once the muffins are ready, remove from the oven and allow to cool for 10 minutes in the pan. Then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.
I’m going to be real with you right now, because I find sometimes food blogs have a tendency to pretend like everything went super well and didn’t mess up at all. In reality, this is often not the case, and sometimes our baked goods don’t work out 100%. I found when I made these, I did have a minor Nutella explosion out of the muffins, so there was a bit of residue Nutella on the muffin tray when I removed it from the oven. However, this did not take away from the delicious Nutella goodness in these muffins, so I felt it was still worth sharing the recipe. I just hope that if this does happen to you, you won’t feel disheartened, as it most certainly doesn’t make the muffins a complete disaster. I think I might have just gotten a little too excited with my Nutella ratios (I love Nutella what can I say) and so it did result in perhaps a little too much. But the result was delicious muffins with probably just the right amount of Nutella in them.
These muffins are absolutely amazing, as the Nutella stays nice and gooey in the centre of the muffins, and gives a nice little surprise when you bite into them. They were the perfect treat for Melbourne Cup, although they did leave everyone with chocolate gooeyness all over their teeth, which isn’t the worst thing in the world! They were super chocolatey and decadent with 3 types of chocolate in them, so perfect for the chocoholic in your life.
I couldn’t actually believe how easy these muffins were to make! Although they had a lot of ingredients, the method was so easy it really made up for the initial complication of sourcing them all. You all know how much of a fan I am of recipes that don’t require beating, so the fact that I could make this using only 2 bowls, and literally dump and combine the ingredients, was a massive tick in my book. You could whip these muffins up really quickly with minimal effort, and know that they will be a massive crowd pleaser!
If you didn’t have Nutella, this recipe would make delicious double chocolate muffins without the addition. They were the perfect consistency and just all around tasty! But if you can, I would highly recommend adding the Nutella, because Nutella is just delicious and should be added wherever it can be!
Until next time, happy eating!
Ella xx
