One of the joys of living and traveling all over the world is finding new ingredients to try. This week’s Muffin Monday and my travels back home for my dear grandmother’s funeral gave me the opportunity to try something that originates a little closer to Houston, Texas, my hometown.
Our chosen ingredients this week are chocolate and spice so it didn’t take long for me to think of Mexican chocolate which comes already mixed with cinnamon, almond and vanilla flavorings. It is a sweet rather granular chocolate, used in cooking mole and making hot chocolate. In this case, it makes a tasty muffin. If you can’t get Mexican chocolate where you live, the Food Network informs us that a substitute can be created using semi-sweet chocolate and almond extract.
Ingredients
2 cups or 250g all purpose flour
3/4 cup or 170g sugar
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup or 180ml milk
7 oz or 200g Mexican chocolate, divided in half
1/4 cup or 57g unsalted butter
2 large eggs
Method
Preheat oven to 350°F or 180°C and generously grease cups and top of 12-cup muffin tin or line with paper muffin liners.
In a large bowl, mix flour, sugar, baking powder and salt together.
Melt half of the Mexican chocolate in a microwaveable measuring cup by zapping it for 15 seconds at a time and stirring in between. Melting mine took 30 seconds total.
Add your butter to the chocolate and microwave for another 15 seconds or until it is just melted. Stir the chocolate and butter together and allow to cool.
Chop the remaining Mexican chocolate roughly.
In a small bowl, whisk together milk, eggs and cooled butter/chocolate.
Add all the wet ingredients to the flour mixture.
Gently fold just until dry ingredients are moistened. Then fold in your chopped chocolate.
Divide your batter relatively evenly between the 12 muffin cups. Bake 20-25 minutes or until muffins are golden.
Remove from oven and let cool 10-15 before removing muffins from tin and cool on a wire rack.
Enjoy!
I'm so sorry about your grandmother! These muffins look beautiful and delicious, and just the perfect thing
ReplyDeleteThank you, Kayle. I appreciate your kind words. I don't think a person can go wrong with a muffin, do you? No matter the extra ingredients, it's still a muffin. Which is good.
ReplyDeleteThe flavors of what is called mexican chocolate are amazing, but I have never tasted it really, from mexico I mean. These muffins look very yummy Stacy! And the chocolate called Abuelita is very fitting...
ReplyDeleteYou are so right, Paula! I didn't even think of that. :)
ReplyDeleteThese look fabulous!!!!! I think I might have to try them.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Selena! I hope you do!
ReplyDeleteFirst off they are mouth watering! Second, did you do some kind of magic to get those to stack up like that???? :)
ReplyDeleteHa, ha! Yes, you've found me out. It's called cropping. :) My elder daughter was out in the yard helping me. She said the professional food stylists probably run a wooden skewer through them.
ReplyDeleteAs much as I love chocolate cupcakes, I adore chocolate muffins for breakfast..maybe the best breakfast there is. Cakier and less sweet than cupcakes, these are perfect with a cup of coffee. And I love that spicy touch of mexican chocolate in these. I love picking up foodstuffs for baking and cooking in other countries...
ReplyDeleteI'm with you, Jamie. I am not much of a sweet eater so I would always take a muffin over a cupcake. Buying odd regional ingredients is one of my hobbies. :) For instance, while in Paris recently, I had to buy Piment d'Espelette, which I just learned about a few months ago and had struggled to find either in Dubai or the US. I am sure you know all about it, but I don't remember ever hearing of it before - even when I lived in France!
ReplyDeleteOh my gosh! NOW I see - I love how magic it looks!
ReplyDelete