For the Love of Muffins

I love baking muffins, and nothing beats having a homemade muffin over a cup of hot coffee for breakfast!

Whenever I need to bake something quick and easy, muffins would always be the number one choice. It is also a great way to use up whatever ingredients before the expiry date ;)


I made this batch of yummy muffins following a recipe which is meant for a chocolate chips & crumble muffins. Instead of chocolate chips I replaced it with some left over peanut butter chips. I was quite happy with how the muffins turned out, it was worth the little extra effort required to make the chocolate crumble toppings.


I was quite pleased with the series of photos I took too :) No, I am not referring to the sharpness, the colour and exposure of the images...they failed very badly in these areas. The only thing I liked about the photos was that they were able to capture how 'voluptuous' these 'mountain-high' muffins turned out when I took them out of the oven ;)

By the way, did you know that there were actually three muffins in the above image?


This recipe calls for rubbing in the butter to flour instead of the usual way of using melted butter or creaming butter with sugar. The resulting batter was rather watery as compared to the usual thick and gooey mixture which I was more familiar with. I filled a few of the muffins cups almost to the brim (I used only 10 muffin cups instead of the recommended 12), as such a couple of them had batter spilled over the cups...looking not too different from a volcanic eruption!


I had some difficulty rubbing in the butter while making the chocolate crumbles...I guess the flour was too little for the amount of butter used. Most of the crumbles were really huge!


This recipe yields soft and fluffy muffins, although they were not as moist as what I would expect. The peanut butter chips and the chocolate crumbles really enhanced the texture and flavour of the muffins. I love the slightly crisp crust most :)



Peanut Butter Chips Crumble Muffins

Ingredients
(makes 12)

250g self-raising flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
a pinch of salt
50g butter
100g soft light brown sugar
150g peanut butter chips or chocolate chips
2 eggs, lightly beaten
225ml milk
2 teaspoons vanilla extract

for the Chocolate Crumble Topping:
50g plain flour
1 tablespoon unsweetened cocoa powder
40g butter
2 tablespoons caster sugar


Method

1. For the chocolate crumble topping, sift flour and cocoa powder into a bowl. Mix in the sugar and rub in the butter until the mixture resembles coarse breadcrumbs. Set aside.
2. Mix flour, baking powder and salt in a mixing bowl. Rub in the butter until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs. Stir in the sugar and the peanut butter chips.
3. In another bowl, mix eggs, milk and vanilla extract. Pour the liquid mixture all at once into the dry ingredients. With a wooden spoon or spatula, mix until just combined. Do Not Over Mix. The batter should remain lumpy.
4. Fill paper muffin cups with batter sprinkle with the crumble toppings. Bake in a preheated oven at 200degC for 18-20mins, or until well risen and firm to the touch. A skewer inserted into the centre should come out clean. Let cool completely.

Recipe source: adapted from Muffins Galore, Catherine Atkinson