Thursday 7 August 2014

Chocolate chip and cola muffins

Despite my love of large chocolate cakes, sometimes I want those neat self contained muffins.  Not delicate cupcakes covered in sticky icing.  I much prefer good honest chunky muffins.  They are particularly attractive now that I try and put some home baking in Sylvia's lunchbox these days.

I am far more experienced at making large chocolate cakes than smaller cupcakes or muffins.  So I looked at my recipe index expecting to find proof.  Even so, I was surprised to find I had blogged 40 large cakes, 15 brownies and only 12 cupcakes or muffins.  Perhaps it is that when I was young we had large chocolate cakes but little cakes were usually vanilla.  Not that we would call them vanilla.  We just called them plain.  If that is any indication as to how they were viewed.  Yes, a bit boring.

In an ideal world, I would make hearty healthy muffins filled with wholegrains, seeds and fruit or vegetables.  Which might explain my lack of chocolate muffins on my blog.   Sometimes I just want chocolate.  Lorraine of Not Quite Nigella is one of those bloggers who takes amazing photos.  She made these her chocoletta muffins look so dark and brooding and gooey and just so enticing that they went straight to the top of my to do list.

These muffins had cocoa, cola and choc chips.  Unable to stop just there, I added caramel chips too.  Because I had some.  Sylvia was very excited about these muffins.  They were great sport for her.  The aim was to eat as many of the caramel chips before the muffins went in the oven.  My challenge was to stop her.  And I had to work hard to avoid the temptation of eating the whole batch as soon as they came out of the oven.  

We all loved these muffins.  Soft with lots of chocolate and caramel chips, they were warm and snuggly as befits cold foggy morning, sudden hail showers and bone rattling winds at this wintery time of year.

I am sending these muffins to Jacqueline at Tinned Tomatoes for her Bookmarked Recipes event to share the bookmarked recipes that we actually manage to cook.

Previously on Green Gourmet Giraffe:
One year ago: WW Open House Melbourne, Green Lentil Dal and Om Vegetarian
Two years ago: Treacle gingerbread and more Open House Melbourne
Three years ago: Vegetarian meatballs
Four years ago: Nutty fries and other people’s plates
Five years ago: Apple and date cake
Six years ago: Do I dare to cook with one less pear?
Seven years ago: Baking cake for climate change

Chocolate chip and cola muffins
Adapted from Not Quite Nigella
Make 12 to 15 muffins

2 1/4 cups self raising flour
1 cup caster sugar
1/2 cup cocoa
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/4 cup cola drink
1/2 cup vegetable oil
2 eggs
3/4 cup caramel chips
3/4 cup dark chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 160 C.  Line a 12 hole muffin tin with papers.   (If desired you can add a few extra muffins or some mini muffins - I made about 10 mini muffins as well as 12 regular muffins.)

Mix flour, sugar, cocoa and salt in a large mixing bowl.  Lightly whisk together cola, oil and eggs in a large jug.  Make a well in the flour mixture and tip in the cola mixture.  Mix until combined.  Gently stir in caramel chips and choc chips.

Spoon mixture into lined muffin tray, almost to the top of each muffin cup.  Bake for 23 to 25 minutes.  (I baked my mini muffins for 20 minutes on the middle shelf of the oven.)  Check they are done with a skewer inserted in the middle - it should come out clean.  Cool on a wire rack.

On the Stereo:
Christmas: Low

22 comments:

  1. What a fun muffin flavor! I'm sure the cola gives them a good rise and texture!

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    1. Thanks Joanne - I think the bubbles do help - Lorraine also suggested using soda water instead of cola so I guess the fizz is important

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  2. Yummy, yummy get in my tummy - I think that I shall have to make these to take to my daughters house next week, Thank you so much for the recipe.

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    1. Thanks Lorna - hope you and your daughters enjoy them as much as we did

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  3. These look great! I don't think I've baked with cola before! I'm definitely a muffin girl. In fact, my first job was at Muffin Break! I had to laugh about your Sylvia trying to eat all the choc chips before the muffins went in the oven. My Sylvia does exactly the same when choc chips are in a recipe :)

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    1. Thanks Kate - I sort of like the Nigella trashy idea of cooking with cola but recently heard that coke has a lot of salt as well as a lot of sugar which makes me like it even less. I do love muffin break - used to frequent one in my student days so they bring back happy memories to me.

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  4. I have bookmarked a few cola chocolate recipes but this one will go straight to the top of my list - I'm so intrigued by the idea of using cola in baking! I know what you mean about chunky muffins beating a cupcake, and whilst mostly I prefer fruit / veg varieties, sometimes chocolate is what's required. I did laugh at the challenges you faced with keeping Sylvia from all of the caramel chips, and then having to deal with a whole tray of enticing muffins. Willpower for two!

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    1. Thanks Kari - will power for 2 indeed - I am intrigued by baking with coke too - not sure how much it contributed to the taste - am sure it helped with the sweetness and rise.

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  5. Funnily enought, I've been craving Chocolate and Cola muffins, and you have tempted me even more. I've made Cola Muffins in the past with marshmallow http://allotment2kitchen.blogspot.co.uk/2010/01/vegan-marshmallow-cocoa-and-cola.html and even Nigella Lawsons Cola Cake. http://allotment2kitchen.blogspot.co.uk/2011/07/chocolate-cola-cake.html
    But I will drool over yours for now.

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    1. Thanks Shaheen - love your little lolly cola bottles you use to decorate your cakes - sounds like you are due for another batch of choc cola muffins :-)

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  6. They look great! I'd sub soda water, cola is too sweet for me

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    1. Thanks Cate - I think I would prefer soda water too - ended up with cola leftover going flat because we don't drink it very much and I bought a large bottle because cheaper than small bottle but we usually have soda water about the house!

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  7. They do look really good and I like your addition of the caramel buttons. I have seen a lot of recipes using cola but have never yet cooked with it myself. I have however, used lemonade to make scones! xx

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    1. Thanks Charlie - lemonade scones are amazing - I think this is my first time baking with cola - not sure I would do it too often but I would bake lemonade scones every week and love them every time.

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  8. Oh, this one stopped H in her tracks! Chocolate, caramel and cola - a teenaged bakers idea of heaven. :-) I'm going to have to hold her back from baking them until she gets over her horrible cold. Year 12 has her procrastibaking quite a bit lately.

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    1. Thanks Linda - sorry to tempt H away from her studies - do you have a source of vegan caramel chips? Though I think any combination of chipc chips would work - Lorraine used dark and milk

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  9. Hi Johanna! So glad that you liked these-they're based on Maureen's muffins that I was similarly inspired by and I love how you described them! :D

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    1. Thanks Lorraine - love a bit of muffin inspiration travelling the net :-)

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  10. What stunning cupcakes - I’ve never have cola in it before! I really like the gooey muffins especially the melty chocolate when it comes to dark chocolate muffins or cakes. Have you ever made vegan muffins before with the same consistency? If so, please let me know! Congratulations on completing numerous cakes & desserts, that’s amazing!!! I hardly make desserts at all :(

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    1. Thanks Rika - oh I love chocolate baking - always have - I have also made vegan muffins recently that I think were denser than these and not quite so fluffy (rather than really gooey) but I think these would be ok to veganise as they don't have a lot of eggs.

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  11. >Sometimes I just want chocolate.
    Haha. I actually didn't make banana bread this past weekend as we were out of chocolate chips ;p
    These look awesome!

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  12. They look amazing Johanna and nice photos! Thanks for entering them into Bookmarked Recipes.The roundup is now live.

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