Dark Chocolate Raspberry Muffins with Le Creuset

Moist and rich with a slight tart, these Dark Chocolate and Raspberry Muffins feature a balance of flavours that are sure to please!

A little while back, I saw a photo of some dark chocolate and raspberry muffins on Instagram and they looked so good that I decided to make a batch. Although I lived in Canada many years ago where muffins were eaten daily, I rarely make them anymore. Muffins there are often filled with fat and sugar and usually bear more resemblance to a cupcake. I took out my trusty Toughened Non-Stick Muffin Tray from Le Creuset and set to work creating a muffin recipe that still tasted good and wasn’t too high in fat and sugar. I like the Le Creuset muffin tray's deep cups and easy release from the newly enhanced non-stick surface. These make this particular muffin tray simply perfect for making muffins without the hassle of stuck pieces and broken bits. However, I decided to pop some paper cups in there as they make the muffins look so pretty. I turned to Ottolenghi and adapted his recipe for blueberry muffins, adding some wholemeal flour to the mix for a healthier touch. If you prefer your muffins a bit sweeter, you may want to use a higher quantity of sugar. But I felt they were just right without the extra sugar, so did my work colleagues and next door neighbours. Here’s the recipe for you which makes 12 small muffins or 6 jumbo muffins. For all my recipes I use a 250ml cup and a 20ml tablespoon, unsalted butter and 60g eggs. My oven is a conventional gas oven so if your oven is fan forced you may need to reduce the oven temperature by 20°C.

Dark Chocolate and Raspberry Muffins recipe

Ingredients

• 200g plain flour
• 75g whole meal flour
• 2½ tsp baking powder
• Pinch salt
• 1 large egg
• 175-200 g caster sugar
• 75 g unsalted butter, melted and cooled slightly
• 190 ml buttermilk
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 175g raspberries, fresh or frozen
• 150 g (55% or higher) dark chocolate, roughly chopped
• Raw sugar for sprinkling
• Icing sugar to dust

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 180°C /350°C. Line a 12-cup muffin pan with paper cases. 2. In a medium bowl, sift together the flours, baking powder and salt, then set aside.

3. In a large mixing bowl, lightly whisk together the egg, sugar and melted butter. Whisk in the buttermilk and the vanilla. Add the sifted dry ingredients and fold together very gently. When about half the dry ingredients are properly folded in, add the raspberries and chocolate and continue to fold in. Make sure you stir the batter just enough to combine; it should remain lumpy and rough.

4. Spoon the mixture into the muffin cases until they’re about two thirds full, then sprinkle a dash of raw sugar on each muffin. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes, or until a skewer inserted in the centre of a muffin comes out clean and the tops are golden.

5. Dust with icing sugar just before serving. Enjoy warm whilst the chocolate is till molten or cool completely and freeze in individual zip lock bags for breakfast on the go.

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Next Read: Peach and Blueberry Cobbler in a Cast Iron Skillet

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