Dark Chocolate Cherry Muffins for #MuffinMonday #ValentinesDay

Dark chocolate and cherries make a sweet and tender muffin. These may be the perfect Valentine’s Day breakfast because they are easy and tasty and pretty.

Happy Valentine’s Day! I say it early because first thing Wednesday morning I am headed off to Uganda to work as a volunteer in a local elementary school near Kampala called Masooli School.

I do have muffins ready for the coming Mondays, of course, but other than those, this space will be pretty quiet for the next two weeks. I just wanted you all to know so you don’t worry. I hope to come back with some amazing stories and photos to share. I’ll be staying in a rondavel, which is a hut of sorts made out of local materials so I don't know about electricity but I definitely won't have internet.

The plan is for me to teach basic sewing skills and handicrafts as extracurricular activities and pitch in wherever needed during the school day. As I’ve told my friends and family on Facebook, our family is sponsoring two of the students for the second year now but this is my first opportunity to go and be of help in person. To those of you who have added your monetary support to ours, thank you again from the bottom of my heart. I will send you photos, I promise!

So without further ado, I give you these Black Forest-inspired muffins. Except they are missing kirsch because I think it’s nasty. Want to defend it? That’s what the comment section is for!

Ingredients
3 1/2 oz or 100g cherry intense dark chocolate bar (Or sub regular dark chocolate.)

7 oz or 200g glacé or candied cherries
2 cups or 250g flour
3/4 cup or 150g white sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup or just over 26g unsweetened cocoa powder (I used the special dark.)
1 teaspoon baking soda
 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
 1 egg
 Scant 2/3 cup or 140g plain yogurt
 1/2 cup or 120ml milk
 1/2 cup or 120ml canola or other light oil

Method
Preheat your oven to 350°F or 180°C and prepare your 12-cup muffin tin by spraying with non-stick spray or lining with muffin papers.

Set aside 12 cherries for decoration and chop the rest. Chop up the chocolate into small chunks.

Combine your flour, cocoa powder, sugar, baking soda and salt in a large mixing bowl.

In another smaller bowl, whisk together your egg, yogurt, milk, oil and vanilla extract.

Add the chopped cherries into the wet ingredients and whisk again to separate the sticky pieces from each other.

Fold the wet ingredients into the dry ones and stop when it’s still quite dry looking.

Add the chocolate chunks. Stir until just mixed.

Divide your batter between the 12 muffin cups.  Top each with one of the reserved cherries.

Bake for 20-25 minutes or until an inserted toothpick comes out clean.

Allow to cool for a few minutes in the pan and then remove to continue cooling on a wire rack.

Enjoy!

Browned Butter Pecan Muffins #MuffinMonday

One whole cup of chopped pecans in the batter makes sure that each bite of these browned butter muffins is a delicious mouthful of nuts. Are there extra pecans in the brown sugar topping?  But, of course!

I was reading recipes the other day, as you do, and the words “butter pecan” were mentioned. As in ice cream. Well, I don’t make ice cream since I don’t have an ice cream machine, but I do make muffins. Doesn’t butter pecan sound like a great idea? Sometime last fall, I discovered browned butter and I went a little crazy putting it in no less than three different muffin recipes. Because it SO GOOD. And some of those even had pecans too.  But I have yet to make a simple browned butter pecan muffin. Isn’t it time to rectify that?

Ingredients
For the muffins:
2 cups or 250g flour
1/2 cup or 100g dark brown sugar
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 cup or 120g chopped pecans
1 egg
1/4 cup or 60g browned butter, cooled – use these directions here.  (Let me encourage you to make extra and keep it indefinitely in a clean jar in your refrigerator. It's soooo good.)
1 teaspoon vanilla
3/4 cup or 180ml milk

For the topping:
1/4 cup or 30g chopped pecans
1/4 cup or 50g brown sugar
2 tablespoons flour
2 tablespoons butter, melted and cooled

Method
Preheat your oven to 350°F or 180°C and prepare your large 12-cup muffin pan by greasing lightly or lining with muffin papers.

Make your topping by combining all the ingredients in a small bowl and using a fork to mix lightly so you have large crumble. Set aside.

In a large mixing bowl, whisk together your flour, sugar, salt, baking powder and chopped pecans.

In a smaller mixing bowl, whisk the egg, cooled browned butter, vanilla and milk. The butter may try to harden up on you if your milk is cold, but just keep whisking. Even if it separates out a little bit, it will be mixed enough to allow you to pour the mixture into the dry ingredients.

Pour your wet ingredients into your dry ones and stir till just combined.

Divide the batter between the muffin cups.

Top with a generous share of the topping.

Bake in your preheated oven for about 20-25 minutes or until the muffins are golden and a toothpick inserted comes out clean.

Allow the muffins to cool for a few minutes in the pan then remove them to a wire rack to cool completely.

Enjoy!

Condensed Milk Coffee Muffins #MuffinMonday

Creamy, thick sweetened condensed milk makes sugar unnecessary for these sweet muffins, while adding moisture and richness to the batter.  These were inspired by the dark coffee sweetened with condensed milk that is served in many countries around the globe.  Vietnam springs to mine as one of my favorites. 

During the years we lived in Southeast Asia, we took advantage of cheap fares and proximity to travel often to neighboring countries.  Vietnam was a favorite and we went there at least three times.  I’ll share a few of our photos from Saigon, Hanoi and Vung Tau at the bottom of this post, for those who might be interested.

Ingredients

2 1/2 cups or 315g plain flour
2 scant tablespoons or 8g instant coffee granules
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 can (1 1/4 cups by volume or 397g) sweetened condensed milk
1/4 cup or 60ml ml milk
1/2 cup or 120ml canola or other light oil
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Powdered sugar, optional, for serving

Method
Preheat your oven to 350°F or 180°C and prepare your 12-cup muffin tin by lightly rubbing it with oil or use non-stick spray to coat or by lining it with paper liners.  I ended up getting four extra muffins out of this batter because I decided not to fill the muffin cups too full.  If you have an extra muffin pan, you can do the same.

In a large mixing bowl, whisk together your flour, coffee powder, salt and baking powder.

Whisk the condensed milk, oil, eggs and vanilla extract together in a smaller mixing bowl.

Pour your wet ingredients into your dry ones and stir until just combined

Divide the batter between the muffin cups.

Twelve and four spares.

Bake in your preheated oven for about 20-25 minutes or until the muffins are golden and a toothpick inserted comes out clean.

Allow the muffins to cool for a few minutes then remove them to a wire rack to cool completely.

Sprinkle with powdered sugar, if using.

Enjoy!

If you’d like to enjoy a glass of Vietnamese coffee along with these, here’s a good link to instructions.

And the filter thingy is really inexpensive on Amazon.com – only $2.49


***This is an affiliate link so I will earn some small change (literally six cents) if you buy when you click through.  I’m gonna buy myself some bubble gum, if one can even get bubble gum for a nickel anymore.***


Here are some very random photos from our trips to Vietnam, with the disclaimer that I don’t always take the most touristy of photos.

Struggling through the narrow, low Chu Chi Tunnels that were used by the Viet Cong during the war.
I don't know the guy in front of me. 

In an underground board room with mannequins posing as Viet Cong.  Why we are smiling, I cannot tell you. 

How families travel. 

Many of the homes are tall and narrow. 

The local florist shop.  In Malaysia floral wreaths are sent to shops or businesses for grand openings,
but these might well be for funerals.  Anybody out there know the tradition in Vietnam?

Floral street vendors

 The tomb of Ho Chi Minh - It was a holiday that day so the queue to get in was enormous.  These are not tourists but mostly locals, there to pay respects.  His body is on view, embalmed and preserved, despite his wishes.  

So many motorcycles.  Everywhere. 

I took this photo because this is the communal water fountain, in the park outside Ho Chi Minh's childhood home. Still open for sharing at the height of the SARS epidemic, 2003.  Everybody used those same plastic cups. 

More typical housing.  I love the plants growing everywhere. 

The bay in Vung Tau.

And that's it for the tour!  Thanks for stopping by! 

Apricot Muffins #MuffinMonday

Canned apricots and their syrup add wonderful flavor to this vanilla muffin, made even prettier when topped with a sliced apricot half before baking.

Today’s muffin comes to you with a little added history lesson.  Did you know that canned food, first in glass bottles and then in cans made out of tin plate, dates back as far as 1809?  Canning was first devised as a way to feed armies on the move and sailors on long sea voyages, until mechanized production of the actual cans and the sterilization of their contents eventually made canned food accessible and affordable to the masses.  What I find funniest about this whole story is that the first can opener wasn’t invented until 30 years after the first can.  Soldiers used bayonets and rocks to open them.

Nowadays we take for granted that grocery store suppliers fly in fresh produce from all over the world and we can eat most anything, even out of season, because it’s in season somewhere.  We also take for granted the humble can.  According to a BBC magazine article quoting the Can Manufacturers Institute in Washington DC, Europe and the US alone use more than 40 billion cans of food a year!  This week’s muffin, using canned apricots, is a tribute to the innovators who first came up with the idea.  Gentlemen, I salute you!

Ingredients
1 can (14.5 oz or 410g, net weight) apricot halves in syrup
1 3/4 cups or 220g flour
1/2 cup or 100g sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup or 60g unsalted butter, melted and cooled
1/4 cup or 60ml milk
1/4 cup or 60ml apricot syrup (from the can of apricot halves)
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 large egg

Method
Preheat your oven to 350°F or 180°C.  Prepare your 12-cup muffin pan by putting liners in the muffin cups or greasing them well with butter or non-stick spray.

Drain your apricots, making sure to save the syrup.  Set aside the prettiest six for decorating the tops before baking.

Chop the rest of them in small pieces.  Cut the pretty ones in half and then make three slits almost all the way through to the top so that you can fan out the apricot half in four sections.

Whisk together flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt in a large bowl.

Whisk together the melted butter, milk, syrup, vanilla and egg in a bowl until combined well.

Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and fold to combine.

Gently fold in your chopped apricots.

Divide batter among muffin cups.

Decorate each with a fanned out apricot half.

Bake in your preheated oven until the muffins are golden brown and a toothpick inserted into center comes out clean, about 20 to 25 minutes.

Remove to a wire rack to cool.

Enjoy!