Chocolate Orange Muffins

Posted 2017-01-12 by Roy Chambers ⇒ follow

There was a time when chocolate ruled my life and so the ultimate muffins with would be triple chocolate muffins with some experiments in quadruple chocolate muffins (this means chocolate muffins with chocolate chips, chocolate topping and with chocolate ripple).

But recently I have been seeking out ways to go beyond just simple chocolate flavour This one was inspired by a block of orange chocolate that someone gave me and a previous recipe that I have published online, orange coconut muffins .

I have to admit that chocolate muffins are not that healthy. While chocolate itself is not unhealthy, when you add chocolate powder you need to add in addition butter or oil to keep the muffin moist. While not as effective as banana chocolate muffins , these orange chocolate muffins use the fruit to make the muffin moist without needed too much additional oil.

Preparation Time: 5 minutes
Cooking Time: 20 minutes
Serves: 8-10 muffins

Ingredients
1 1/2 cups of plain self raising flour
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup chocolate
50g butter
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1/3 cup milk
1 large egg
1 small orange
1 teaspoon cinnamon
2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Method

Mix all the dry ingredients together in a large bowl.

Melt the butter.

Roughly chop up the orange, peel and all. Note: there can be a lot of variation in the flavour and juiciness of oranges. Taste a little of the peel, if it is bitter, then you will want to reduce the amount of peel you use. The same if the peel is very thick. If the orange is dry, then you might want to add a little extra orange juice.

Put the oil, butter, vanilla and oranges together in a blender. I find that the extra liquid ensures that it will blend smoothly, otherwise you can end up with some chunky orange bits that the blender doesn't get.

Add the egg to the liquid mix and beat thoroughly.

Combine the liquid mix with the dry ingredients.

Last of all, add the milk to the bowl. Add this in last to stop the acid in the orange souring the milk.

Because the size and juiciness of the orange will affect the overall consistency you may find that you have the perfect amount of liquids, or you might need to add additional oil or milk.The resulting mix should be smooth and pourable, but not too runny.

Spoon into a lightly greased muffin pan.

Bake at 200C for 20 minutes.

Check the muffins to see if they are properly cooked by pricking them with a toothpick. If the toothpick comes out cleanly then they are ready.