White chocolate muffins

I was all set to make dark chocolate muffins for a friend's baby shower last weekend, when I remembered the Mum-to-be is a big white chocolate fan.  I did a little research, and one test batch, and discovered the best muffins ever. Seriously.  I'm usually a dark chocolate kind of girl, but there's just something about these.. they're slightly chewy/caramelised at the edges, and tasty hot or cold.  And they're almost solid chocolate.

Makes 12 muffins
Ingredients
350g white chocolate (I used 1 x 250g block, and a couple of handfuls of chocolate buttons)
60g butter
300g all purpose flour
1 Tbsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 large egg
3/4 cup sugar (160g)
3/4 cup full cream milk
1 tsp vanilla extract

(While this recipe starts out the same way as my dark chocolate muffin recipe, things change pretty quickly, so pay attention!)

Preheat oven to 200C (375F) and line muffin tin(s) with paper liners.


Add butter to a small saucepan, and melt on a medium heat. When the butter melts and starts to bubble, remove from heat and add 100g of chocolate (break into pieces first, or use buttons/melts).

Stir until smooth, then set aside to cool.

Take the remainder of the chocolate, and chop finely with a heavy knife.  Set aside.

In a mixing bowl, use a whisk to combine flour, baking powder, and salt (the whisk helps aerate the dry ingredients, and keep your mix light)

I have no idea why I decided to switch to portait orientation at this point, but you can see my pretty new scales!  I prefer to weigh ingredients for baking, as a cup measure of flour can be so variable!

In a large mixing bowl, whisk the egg and sugar until thick (about 2 mins).  Don't think you're clever and use a small bowl, or you'll make a mess in a couple of steps time.  I found out the hard way so you wouldn't have to.

Add the cooled chocolate mixture, whisking until smooth:

Note that the cooler the weather, and the longer you wait, the more the chocolate will thicken.  It was cold on Saturday, and my chocolate set a little too much.  You want it cool enough that it doesn't cook the egg on contact, but warm enough that it's still a smooth paste, rather than waxy semi-set chocolate..

Now stir through the milk and vanilla.  This will splash a bit, and you'll be pleased you used a large bowl.

Fold in the chopped chocolate.  Finally, stir through the flour mixture until just mixed (never over-mix muffins.  Fold ingredients together until the flour is just moistened.)

Fill muffin tins, and bake for 20 minutes or until centres bounce back when lightly pressed.
These really are best eaten warm if you can.  They're good muffins when cold, but amazing when warm.

A further note on weather.  The first time I made these, it was a warm day and the mix was the consistency of sweetened condensed milk - thick and runny, and sticky.  The second time, it was a cold day, and the mix was completely different - see the centre shot above.  Don't panic, the consistency of your mix will depend a lot on the temperature of the melted chocolate when you add it.  Expect a bit of variation.