I was first introduced to a type of Nutella, that delightful
spread made from hazelnuts and cocoa when I was a small child, living in
Caracas, Venezuela. There it is called
Nucita since the Spanish word for nuts is nueces and it isn’t actually made by the
Nutella company but by a Venezuelan enterprise. Unfortunately, after one year there, my
parents divorced and I moved back to the United States with my mother and two
sisters. So the hazelnut paste romance
was short-lived. According to the Nutella
website, the real deal didn’t arrive in the US until 1984, and then, only in
the northeastern states. (As for my old
friend, Nucita, I’ve never seen it in the States, although it’s possible that
some stores in Florida might carry it, since there is a large population of
Venezuelans living there.) As I grew
older, I would run across Nutella occasionally while overseas but as my preferred
tastes changed from sweet to savory, I never regained the lost love. My daughters are a different matter. I have been buying Nutella for them since
they were young and they like to eat it with a spoon. Never mind the original toast it was meant to be eaten on. Last year, for World Nutella Day, I sent them each two jars through Amazon.com. Because some holidays are well worth celebrating. Put it on your calendar now, folks!
Before writing this post I did a little research about this much loved spread
and discovered that the original recipe was created by pastry maker Pietro
Ferrero using hazelnuts because chocolate was in such short supply due to
World War II rationing. Hazelnuts, on
the other hand, were plentiful in his native land, the Piedmont region of
northern Italy. I must confess that I
was probably in my twenties before I figured out that Nutella wasn’t made from
just chocolate, despite its name. Call me slow but I just never thought about it. [bows head in shame]
Anyway, back to Muffin Monday where we are making
Nutella-filled and Nutella-topped Muffins!
You can find the original recipe here, which called only for Nutella
topping but you know I am always looking for ways to raise the bar.
Ingredients
3/4 cup or 170g sugar
1 large egg
1 1/2 cups + 2 teaspoons or 190g all purpose flour
2 tsp baking power
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 cup or 60ml vegetable oil
3/4 cup or 180ml milk
1 tsp vanilla extract
About 1/3 cup or 100g Nutella for filling
About 1/3 cup or 100g Nutella for topping
Method
Preheat oven to 350°F or 180°C. Grease a muffin tin with cooking spray or line
it with baking cups.
Measure your first 1/3 cup or 100g of Nutella into a small
bowl and place it in the ice tray of your freezer. We just want it to stiffen up a little
bit. If you live in a cold climate, this
step may not be necessary but here in Egypt in the summer, my Nutella is pretty
runny.
In a large bowl, mix all of your dry ingredients together:
sugar, flour, baking powder and salt.
In another smaller bowl, whisk together the wet ingredients:
egg, oil, milk and vanilla extract.
Add the wet stuff to the dry ingredients and mix until just
combined.
Fill each muffin cup about two tablespoons of batter. I use a cookie dough scoop for this because it
is more accurate and so easy. Also, it
reminds me of the friend that bought it for me here.
Divide your Nutella from the freezer between the muffin cups
and then top with the remainder of the batter.
 |
| See, nice and firm, so it doesn't run all over the batter. |
Add a dollop of the other 1/3 cup or 100g of Nutella to each
muffin cup and swirl it around a few times in the batter with a toothpick or a pointy knife. I always have a supply of satay sticks on hand so I used one of those. If you are in a cold climate, you can give it quick zap in the microwave to get it moving. Definitely not my problem here.
Bake for 15-20 minutes. You can't poke these with a toothpick to see if they are done because you just end up with a toothpick full of Nutella so look for light golden brown around the edges.
Remove the muffins from the muffin tin and let them cool a
little bit on a wire rack before serving.
These go great with a glass of
ice cold milk.
Enjoy!
Muffin Monday is an initiative by Baker Street. A
culinary journey of sharing a wickedly delicious muffin recipe every week. Drop
in a quick line to join her on her journey to make the world smile and beat
glum Monday mornings week after week.
Need more muffin recipes?
