Chocolate muffins: moist, studded with chocolate, mixed exactly twelve strokes
Muffins are made unlike most cakes: dry in one bowl, wet in another, then combined with a dozen strokes of a spatula and left alone while the batter still shows lumps. That isn't carelessness, it is the whole method. Add cocoa, a hundred and fifty grams of chopped chocolate and a hot start that pushes the dome up.
Your own work in that: 15 min.
- Dry ingredients 8 min
- Wet ingredients 7 min
- Batter resting 15 min
- Baking 20 min
Step by step
0 / 6 doneSift the dry ingredients
Heat the oven to 200 °C and line the tin with paper cases. Sift the flour and cocoa together into a large bowl, add the sugar, baking powder, soda and salt, and whisk. Cocoa sets into hard lumps that can only be broken up by mixing — and mixing is exactly what you must not do later.
Ingredients: 300 g plain flour · 40 g cocoa powder · 180 g sugar · 2 tsp baking powder · ½ tsp bicarbonate of soda · ½ tsp salt
TipSoda and baking powder are not interchangeable. Powder lifts on its own; soda needs an acid, and here it takes it from the natural, non-alkalised cocoa, darkening the crumb. That is why both are in the list.
Flour and cocoa through a sieve, the rest by whiskWhisk the wet
In a jug beat the eggs, then add the milk, oil and vanilla sugar. Whisk 20 seconds, only until combined; don't beat air into it.
TipOil, not butter. Butter sets hard as it cools and the muffin is dense by the next day; oil stays liquid at room temperature, so the crumb is still moist on the third.
Eggs, milk, oil: twenty secondsCombine in twelve strokes
Make a well in the dry mixture, pour in all the wet at once and scatter the chopped chocolate over (keep a handful of chunks back for the tops). Fold with a spatula for 10–12 strokes and stop, even if streaks of flour and lumps remain. The batter should look unfinished.
Ingredients: 2 pcs eggs · 240 ml milk · 100 ml rapeseed oil · 1 tbsp vanilla sugar
TipEvery extra stroke builds gluten. Developed gluten traps the gas in long channels: the muffins come out peaked, tunnelled inside and rubbery. The lumps disappear by themselves in the oven.
Twelve strokes, the lumps stayFill the cases and wait a quarter hour
Portion the batter with an ice-cream scoop, evenly, to three-quarters up each case. Press a few reserved chocolate chunks into the tops. Leave the tin to stand 15 minutes before it goes into the oven.
Ingredients: 150 g dark chocolate
TipThat quarter hour is not wasted: the flour hydrates, the batter thickens, and in the oven it climbs instead of spreading sideways. That is where the tall dome comes from.
Three-quarters full, chocolate on topBake with a temperature drop
Bake at 200 °C for 5 minutes, then, without opening the door, turn the oven down to 180 °C and bake 15 minutes more. A skewer pushed in beside a piece of chocolate should come out with moist crumbs, not wet batter.
TipThe first five minutes at high heat turn water to steam fast and push the centre up before the top sets. Held at 200 °C throughout, the edges would dry out before the middle was baked.
Five minutes at 200, fifteen at 180Cool and serve
Leave in the tin 5 minutes, then move to a rack. Best lukewarm, while the chocolate inside still stretches behind the spoon. In a closed container they keep 3 days; frozen and warmed 20 seconds in the microwave they taste almost fresh.
Five minutes in the tin, then onto the rack
Before you start
With fruit
150 g raspberries or blueberries instead of half the chocolate, tossed in a spoon of the measured flour so they don't sink. Don't thaw frozen ones.
More chocolatey
Bring 100 ml of the measured milk to the boil, pour it over the cocoa, stir to a smooth paste and leave 5 minutes. Add the cooled paste to the wet ingredients instead of sifting the cocoa with the flour. Hot liquid draws out cocoa's aroma; the muffins come out darker and deeper.
No dome
Batter too loose, oven too cool, or the resting quarter hour skipped. Put the tin into a fully heated oven and don't fill the cases to the brim.
