Saturday, March 28, 2009

Now With Baking!

I had a craving for chocolate chip cookies but I was feeling too lazy to bake them and too cheap to go out and buy them. I decided that chocolate chip muffins would be much easier to procure so I hopped on the interwebs to see what recipe my google machine would pop out. I found my recipe after I saw this:



I normally don't go for video recipes but I thought if Nigella has a chocolate chip muffin recipe then I should try it - especially since she couldn't wait to snuggle up to a magazine and have one. I watched the video twice to make sure I wrote all the ingredients correctly and then I set to work. So far so good, right?

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I was all excited. I couldn't wait to curl up with a delicious chocolaty muffin and read a magazine - just like Nigella! My excitement was slightly dampened by the amount of time they spent in the oven (something like 40 minutes as opposed to the 20 stated in the video). And then I was skeptical when I pulled them out and they looked like this:

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These were the better looking of the dozen. They smelled amazing. And I thought since they're just going to go in my belly who cares what they look like! My magazine cuddling was just going to have to wait because those suckers weren't coming out. At least not in one piece so I left them in the pan. When Paul came home from work he couldn't believe I couldn't get them out of the pan. So he tried himself...

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and tried...

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and tried.

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He did successfully get the muffins out of the pan with much effort. Unfortunately most of the muffins were no longer muffin shaped after he was done.

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We have now dubbed this recipe "Chocolate Chip Muffin Crumble." I will admit they were dee-lish but I wouldn't bring them to a bake sale. And I would definitely wear a bib if I were to curl up with a magazine and eat them.

Now I'm willing to assume that I did something wrong (I did butter the pan as opposed to using muffin cups and I used Frangelico in place of the vanilla) and with that assumption I am willing to try these again. Are there any suggestions from the bakers out there?

5 comments:

Koshka42 said...

Eat. Repeat. It's all about the taste.

Gabriella said...

I watched the video and Nigella leaves out a couple things:

-really mix up your dry ingredients so they are well blended on their own.
-then whisk up your wet ingredients LIGHTLY (don't use a mixer...just a fork)
-now add the wet to the dry ingredients and don't mix too much. Only mix up enough to form a thick and lumpy mixture.
-if you don't use muffin papers, then only fill the muffin tin halfway up. This will give the muffins room to grow up and over the sides without falling in on themselves.
-if using muffin papers (recommended), then fill those only halfway as well.
-put muffins into a preheated oven (she didn't say what the temp was supposed to be...but make sure it is hot enough)
-only bake muffins on one rack in the oven (don't do 2 racks at a time).
-if you are using a convection oven, you need to reduce heat by 25 degrees and reduce baking time too. (i.e. if it says 380F for 20 minutes, do it at 365F for 15min).

Hope this is somewhat helpful!

P.S. I LOVE your stove/oven!!!

jacquieblackman said...

Gabriella - I think you hit it with the wet ingredients. I believe I whisked them too much and then added more damage but mixing the wet and dry ingredients together with just as much gusto.

It's so sad that I will have to attempt these muffins again to see if that was the case. ;-)

Gabriella said...

Here's something wickedly delicious to do with broken/mishapen/chocolate muffins or cake.

Break muffins into large chunks and add to coffee mugs. Drizzle about a tablespoon of your fav liqour over the chunks (cointreau works great, but so does rum or Baileys irish cream)

Make up a batch of hot instant chocolate pudding. Pour into coffee mugs to just cover the cake chunks.

Eat immediately. A cup of joe goes nicely on the side.

Susan said...

Uhhh...bake cookies next time?