Mexican Chocolate Muffins #MuffinMonday

One of the joys of living and traveling all over the world is finding new ingredients to try.  This week’s Muffin Monday and my travels back home for my dear grandmother’s funeral gave me the opportunity to try something that originates a little closer to Houston, Texas, my hometown.

Our chosen ingredients this week are chocolate and spice so it didn’t take long for me to think of Mexican chocolate which comes already mixed with cinnamon, almond and vanilla flavorings.  It is a sweet rather granular chocolate, used in cooking mole and making hot chocolate.  In this case, it makes a tasty muffin.  If you can’t get Mexican chocolate where you live, the Food Network informs us  that a substitute can be created using semi-sweet chocolate and almond extract.

Ingredients
2 cups or 250g all purpose flour
3/4 cup or 170g sugar
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup or 180ml milk
7 oz or 200g Mexican chocolate, divided in half
1/4 cup or 57g unsalted butter
2 large eggs

Method
Preheat oven to 350°F or 180°C and generously grease cups and top of 12-cup muffin tin or line with paper muffin liners.

In a large bowl, mix flour, sugar, baking powder and salt together.

Melt half of the Mexican chocolate in a microwaveable measuring cup by zapping it for 15 seconds at a time and stirring in between.  Melting mine took 30 seconds total.

Add your butter to the chocolate and microwave for another 15 seconds or until it is just melted.  Stir the chocolate and butter together and allow to cool.

Chop the remaining Mexican chocolate roughly.

In a small bowl, whisk together milk, eggs and cooled butter/chocolate.

Add all the wet ingredients to the flour mixture.

Gently fold just until dry ingredients are moistened.   Then fold in your chopped chocolate.

Divide your batter relatively evenly between the 12 muffin cups.  Bake 20-25 minutes or until muffins are golden.

Remove from oven and let cool 10-15 before removing muffins from tin and cool on a wire rack.

Enjoy!

Bellini Bundt Cake with Champagne Glaze for #BundtaMonth

On Tuesday morning, I woke up early to the terrible news that my grandmother had died.  If you’ve been reading along for a while, you’ve heard about Gram – here and here.  She was a spunky character with a wicked sense of humor and a warm heart.  She did not suffer fools lightly and she didn’t know how to say no to her grandchildren.  When we were little, she sewed our Easter dresses, threatening to put bricks on our heads to stop us growing between the time of first measurements and the finished outfits.  For Christmas she made the only fruitcake I would ever eat.  It was moist and full of pecans.  She fried her legendary chicken well into her eighties, despite assuring us all that she would quit when she reached that milestone because, and I’ll be honest, we begged.  It seems like just a few years ago, my cousin Simone and I coerced her into one more frying session, just so we could take notes and watch every step.  I don’t know about Simone, but I still cannot match that chicken.

It seems so normal today with our ubiquitous music from every device but Gram was the first person I remember ever listening to music on the radio as she worked in the kitchen.  I can’t hear the classic that starts, “Good morning, star shine” and continues something like “Dooby ooby walla, dooby abba dabba.  Early morning singing song,” without hearing her voice, singing along, stirring a roux or probably with chicken sizzling in the huge Magnalite roaster she used for frying.  Lid on, just barely cracked.  It occurs to me writing this that Gram, being born in 1913, was just a few years older than I am now, and listening to pop songs from the musical Hair.   No wonder she never seemed old to me, despite having natural white hair since she was in her thirties.  Even my other grandmother called her “the fun one” with just a little envy.

I went to visit her just a few weeks ago in the nursing home we had to call a rehab center because she refused to live in a nursing home.  She had fallen and broken her femur, endured surgery to repair the damage and was doing 100 minutes of physiotherapy a day, preparing to go home.  I walked in the second morning and she was in the physio room.  The therapist told her to show me what she could do and I’ll be doggone if my 99 1/2 year old grandmother didn’t bend right over and touch the ground!  My aunt was already busy organizing her 100th birthday party in December and, last I had heard, Gram was going to be released this Friday.  Then suddenly, she was gone.

In between looking for last minute seats on airplanes, I baked this cake the day I left Dubai for her funeral.  And since it calls for Champagne, we lifted a glass to Gram.  She was never a drinker but I think she would have appreciated the gesture.

We didn’t get to celebrate your 100th birthday, Gram, but I can assure you that we will celebrate your life, your love of family and the joy of good food cooked in a happy kitchen, leaning always on your good example.

Ingredients
For the cake
1 cup or 225g unsalted butter, room temperature, plus more for pan
2 cups or 450g sugar
4 large eggs, room temperature
3 cups or 375g flour plus more for pan
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon fine salt
2 yellow peaches about 200g after peeling and pitting
2 white peaches –about 200g after peeling and pitting
1/2 cup or 125g peach yogurt
1/2 cup or 120ml Champagne or Prosecco or other dry sparkling wine

For the glaze
1/2 cup or 70g powdered sugar
2-3 teaspoons Champagne

Method
Preheat your oven to 350°F or 180°C and prepare your Bundt pan by buttering it liberally and then shaking a couple of tablespoons of flour in it to coat.  Set aside.

Peel your peaches and dice two.  Puree the other two with a hand blender.  I chose to use white peaches for the puree since traditional bellinis were made with white peaches but, really, you can use all yellow, if that’s what you have.

Sift your flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt into a bowl and set aside.

In the bowl of your mixer, cream the butter and sugar until yellow and fluffy.

Add the eggs one at time, beating well in between.

Add half of the flour and mix again.

Now add half of the yogurt and half of the peach puree.   Mix again.

Add the rest of the flour and mix and then the rest of the yogurt and peach puree.  And, you guessed it, mix.

Fold in the diced peaches.

Finally, fold in the Champagne.

Pour the batter in your prepared pan and bake for 55-65 minutes or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.

Meanwhile, mix the Champagne one teaspoon at a time into the powdered sugar, until it is of good drizzling consistency.  I ended up using three teaspoons.

When the Bundt is baked, let it cool for 15 or 20 minutes and then turn it out onto a wire rack and allow to cool completely.

Once the cake is cool, drizzle with the glaze.  I like to use a decorating bag with a tiny icing tip for prettier lines.

Serve with the rest of the bottle of the Champagne.

Enjoy!

Craving more Bundt cakes with peaches?  Have a look at all of the other wonderful peachy Bundts the Bundt-a-month group has baked for you today.

Balsamic Peach Bundt Cake by Kate from Food Babbles

Bellini Bundt Cake with Champagne Glaze by Stacy from Food Lust People Love

Brown Sugar Peach Bundt Cake by Veronica from My Catholic Kitchen

Caramelized Peaches and Cinnamon Bundt Cake by Anuradha from Baker Street

Cream Cheese and Peach Bundt Cake by Kathya from Basic N Delicious

Frangipane Peach Bundt by Sandra from The Sweet Sensations

Momotaro Peach Boy Cake by Kim from Ninja Baking

Peaches and Cream Bundt Cake by Heather from Hezzi-D's Books and Cooks

Peach Bundt with Raspberry Jam Swirl by Holly from A Baker's House

Peachy Buttermilk Bundt by Anita from Hungry Couple

Peach Cinnamon Swirl Bundt Cake by Lora from Cake Duchess

Peach Spice Bundt Cake by Renee from Magnolia Days

Peach Streusel Bundt Cake by Anne from From My Sweetheart

Vinho Verde Pound Cake with Peaches & Blueberries by Laura from The Spiced Life

Even more Bundt fun!  Follow Bundt-a-Month on Facebook where we feature all our gorgeous Bundt cakes. Or head over to our Pinterest board for inspiration and choose from hundreds of Bundt cake recipes.

Join us in the month of August by adding your peachy Bundt to the linky tool below.

This is my August blog post choice for Fab First Fridays, hosted by Fiona of London-Unattached, where we share our favorite post from the previous month.  Head on over and share yours! 

Strawberry Muffins with Pecan Streusel #MuffinMonday

I am back on the ground in Dubai but I can’t complain.  Sure it’s hot but we have air-conditioned houses and air-conditioned cars and air-conditioned shops, which is more than I can say for the fair city of Paris.

This week’s Muffin Monday ingredient really isn’t any ingredient at all, but a combination of them:  Streusel.  I looked it up.  According to the Oxford Dictionary, streusel is a crumbly topping or filling made from fat, flour, sugar, and often cinnamon.  The Merriam-Webster Dictionary says further that it often contains nuts or other spices.  Streusel comes from the German word streuen, which means to sprinkle or strew, both words we also use in English.  And while I admit to sprinkling streusel, I do try to confine it to the top of muffins or coffeecake.  I suggest you do the same.

Ingredients
For the muffin
2 cups or 250g flour
3/4 cup or 170g sugar
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup or 180ml milk
1/2 cup or 120ml canola or other light oil
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup (measured after chopping) or 150g (weight after hulling) strawberries

For the streusel
1/2 cup or 60g pecans
1/4 cup or 50g dark brown sugar
1/4 cup or 30g flour
1/4 cup or 55g cold butter

Method
Preheat oven to 350°F or 180°C and generously grease cups of 12-cup muffin tin or line with muffin cup liners.

Hull and chop your strawberries and chop the pecans.  Set the strawberries aside.

Make your streusel by mixing together your brown sugar, chopped pecans and flour.

Cut in your butter with a pastry blender.

This takes a bit of doing and you will probably have to scrape the butter off the pastry blender and back into the bowl a few times before it starts to come together with the dry ingredients.

Persevere.  You might find it helpful to use a fork at the end.

Set the streusel aside (in the refrigerator if you are in a warm place) and continue making the batter.

In a large mixing bowl, combine your flour, sugar, baking powder and salt.

In another smaller mixing bowl, whisk together the milk, oil, vanilla and egg.

Add all the milk mixture to flour mixture.

Gently fold just until dry ingredients are moistened and then fold in your chopped strawberries.

Divide your batter relatively evenly between the 12 muffin cups.

Sprinkle the streusel on the top of the batter and pat it down a little bit so it doesn’t fall off as the muffins bake and rise.

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

Remove from oven and let cool 10-15 minutes before removing muffins from tin and placing on a wire rack to finish cooling.

Eat any pieces of streusel that fall off as you are removing the muffins.  The family will never know or miss them.

Enjoy!