raspberry & chocolate muffins

Grace and I were off to a first birthday party Sunday afternoon to soak in some much needed sunshine, giggle with friends, play on the grass and eat cake.  Along with a little gift for the completely gorgeous birthday girl we decided to take along some of our favourite muffins, raspberry and chocolate.  I felt a small pang of guilt watching Grace eagerly devour her muffin, I kept thinking oh god I’ve got her addicted to sugar and chocolate already, perhaps I should be one of those baking mothers who uses ingredients like agave syrup, gluten free flour and coconut oil rather than sugar and white flour.  I quickly let go of the silly mother guilt and realized we were at a children’s birthday party, the one place on earth that all things naughty, sugar and chocolate included are fine celebrated.

And these muffins are a celebration indeed.  They are jam packed full of lovely molten dark chocolate pieces, laced with swirls of tart raspberry and cooked to golden perfection creating a gorgeous cakey crust topping.  The top of the muffin is always my favourite, and after watching Grace hoe in, I now believe it’s hers too.  A small disclaimer; when feeding the little ones these lovely little muffins be prepared for a complete raspberry and chocolately mess.  Grace was so enthusiastic with ferrying her muffin into her mouth she managed to get crumbs, raspberry and chocolate absolutely everywhere.  But that’s all part of the baby led weaning fun.

The recipe is super simple and easy to prepare and begins by sifting the flour, caster sugar and baking powder into a large mixing bowl.

I then stirred all of the dry ingredients together and created a well in the centre.  In a small jug I combined all of the wet ingredients; vegetable oil, yoghurt, vanilla and eggs.

I then poured the wet ingredients into the dry and mixed until combined.

I then took half a bar of my favourite dark chocolate and chopped into smithereens, creating large chunks of chocolate as well as tiny shavings that would melt and dissolve a little into the muffins.

I then placed the raspberries and chopped chocolate into the muffin batter and gently folded through.

Using a ¼ measuring cup, I ferried the mixture into muffin cases and popped into a preheated 180°C oven.  The muffins spent 15-20 minutes in the oven, just until they were lovely, golden and cooked.

When baking the muffin mixture slightly spilled out of the cases and onto the muffin pan creating gorgeously golden crusts a top each muffin and smelled unbelievably amazing, a lovely mixture of golden vanilla cake, raspberry jam and chocolate.

Raspberry and chocolate muffins

Adapted from Kayla Marie’s Kitchen

INGREDIENTS

¾ cup (180ml) vegetable oil

2 eggs

1 cup thick natural yoghurt

½ tsp vanilla bean paste

¾ cup caster sugar

2 cups self-raising flour

1 cup frozen raspberries

100 grams dark chocolate, roughly chopped

METHOD

Preheat oven to 180°C (350°F).  Line a muffin tray with 12 muffin paper cases.

Place the oil, eggs, yoghurt and vanilla in a jug and whisk to combine.  Sift sugar and flour into a large mixing bowl, stir to combine and make a well in the centre.  Pour wet ingredients into dry and mix using a wooden spoon until just combined.  Add raspberries and chocolate and gently fold to combine.

Pour the mixture into the muffin cases (I use a ¼ cup measurement for this, super fast, clean and easy) and bake for 15 – 20 minutes or until cooked (test by pressing gently on the top of the muffin, if the muffin bounces back they are done).  Enjoy x

 

You may also like…

 pear, cinnamon & almond muffins

 carrot, apple & yoghurt muffins

 banana bread