Chocolate Drop Mini Muffins with Red Noses (Delia Smith)

I’ve missed joining the event Cook Like A Star for quite sometime and the feature for this month is recipes from Delia Smith. I adore Delia Smith’s recipes as they are quite easy to follow. Actually I’ve picked Bacon and Egg Tart and Lemon Tart to try but when I was checking on the chocolate recipes, I saw this peculiar name that caught my attention …. with Red Noses? Sounds funny huh… hahaa, after checking on the recipe then I realized that it’s the little red glace cherry that was placed on top of the small muffin. OK set! I’ll try this recipe as it looks quite easy and the baking time is real short, only 10 minutes. BUT my muffins did not rise at all, may be I’ve over mixed the ingredients. The chocolate chips did not melted completely either that may also be one of the causes why my cake did not rise (might have also used the wrong ingredients) as there were still some chocolate chips remaining at the bottom of the cake. Anyway the mini muffins were really soft and light. I can just pop the whole cake in my mouth even without the chocolate topping.  For the topping I didn’t melt the chocolate chips as stated in the recipe but just added some of the leftover ganache cream on the little muffins and placed the red glace cherry on top which looked really like a ruby jewel.

Ingredients: makes 12 (recipe from Delia Smith)

     150g Plain flour
     2 level tbsp Valrhona cocoa powder (13g)

     1 level dstsp Baking powder (2g)
     1/4 tsp Salt
     1 Egg (70g), lightly beaten
     40g Caster sugar (I used 30g)
     120ml Fresh milk
     50g Butter, melted and cooled slightly
     50g Plain chocolate drops (used 30g chocolate chips)
     For the topping: (from the original recipe)
     65g Chocolate drops 
     12 Red glace cherries
     Icing sugar, sifted
     or use Ganache cream as topping
     200g Semi sweet chocolate, chop to pieces
     20g Butter, cubes
     100g Whipping
     Method:

• Start off by sifting the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder and salt into a large bowl.
• In a separate bowl, mix together the egg, sugar, milk and melted butter.
• Sieve the flour mixture the second time directly on to the egg mixture (this double sifting is essential because there won’t be be much mixing going on).
• Now is to take a large spoon and fold the ingredients into the wet ones – quickly, in about 15 seconds. Don’t be tempted to beat or stir, and don’t be alarmed by the rather unattractive, uneven appearance of the mixture: this, in fact, is what will ensure that the muffins stay light.
• Lastly fold the chocolate chips into the mixture – again with a minimum of stirring, just a quick folding in.
• Divide the mixture between the muffin cups evenly and bake on a high shelf in the preheated oven 200 degrees C for 10 minutes, until well risen. Then remove the muffins from the oven and cool in the tins for 5 minutes before transferring them to a cooling tray.  
• While they’re cooling, place the chopped chocolate and butter in a bowl.
• Boil the whipping cream (boil a little more then measure 100g) and pour it on to the chocolate and stir till smooth. 
• Then spoon a little melted chocolate on to the little muffin and fix a cherry on top and dust some icing sugar on top before serving.

2013-03-27 18:49:48

Source: http://www.anncoojournal.com/2013/03/chocolate-drop-mini-muffins-with-red.html