The poor chocolate muffin. So often consigned to plastic wrap and kept moist with who-know-what additives. But there is another way! Treat yourself to 12 magnificently light muffins made with real ingredients, that can easily be made dairy-free, as necessary. Part of what makes them so moist is the super sloppy batter, but this does mean the choc chunks don’t distribute evenly through muffin, not that this bothers me. If you prefer a more even chunkiness and don’t need them dairy-free, use 60g butter and 60ml (1/4 cup) oil instead of just oil.
Makes 12
150g (1 cup) gluten-free plain white flour blend
50g (1/2 cup) cocoa powder
150g (3/4 cup) granulated sugar
180ml (3/4 cup) milk or soya milk
125ml (½ cup) sunflower/canola oil
3 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
3 tsp gluten-free baking powder
100g dark or milk chocolate, chopped into small chunks
Place the flour blend, cocoa powder, sugar, milk/soya milk,
sunflower oil, eggs and vanilla in a food processor and blend for about 10
seconds.
Now leave the mixture for 20 minutes – this is the magic
step that prevent grittiness and avoids the need for additives like xantham gum.
While you wait, preheat the oven to 160C and drop 12 muffin cases into a 12-cup
muffin pan.
For the final stage, dust the top of the batter with the
baking powder and whizz everything for a further couple of seconds. Pour the
sloppy mixture equally between the cases, then drop in chocolate chunks into
each one.
Pop the muffin pan in the oven for 20 minutes until risen. Remove
from the oven and leave to cool in the tin.