Recipe – Double Chocolate Muffins

I haven’t been baking for a long time. Not that the passion has died off, just that I was very busy for these two months. Somehow, baking has been the best way for me to relieve stress. I reached home past 8pm last Friday, feeling very demoralized and upset over something-not-worth-mentioning, so I decided to switch on the oven and do some baking.

I am a very strong believer of work life balance. I believe that while we need to work to earn money and pay for our bills and meals, we also need to spend time at home and spend with our loved ones. So I make it a point to try to have dinner with my Grandpa at least 3-4 times a week. But when work interferes too much into my personal time, I get annoyed. Annoyed at myself, annoyed at everyone.

I am not a high flyer. Or rather, I chose not to be a high flyer. Like spiderman always says, with great power comes great responsibility. And with that, it also means less time with the loved ones. I rather have a super ordinary job, low pay also okay, as long as I am happy and am able to spend time with my family and friends. I don’t want to be working on weekends. I don’t want to be bothered by SMS-es in the middle of the night.

Anyway, Grandpa is a very good assistant. He does things quietly and neatly while I mess up the kitchen table with flour and eggs. I love it when Grandpa bakes with me, but not when Aunty is around. Because I need some peace to think things through while I bake.

So well, I hope baking these delicious muffins together help us spend some time together since I have been coming home late recently. These sweet treats are moist, tender and smells very good! They are flavoured with chocolate chips and cocoa powder. It’s a chocoholic’s dream come true. If you love chocolate, you’ll love these chocolate chocolate muffins.

Ingredients (makes about 12 large muffins):
2 cups all-purpose flour
¾ cup cocoa powder
¾ cup sugar
1 tbsp baking powder
½ tsp salt
1¼ cups whole milk
2 large eggs, beaten
2 Tbsp butter, melted
1/3 cup oil
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips, plus 1/3 cup additional chocolate chips for sprinkling

Method:
1. Preheat oven to 180 degree celsius.
2. Combine the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, sugar and salt in a large bowl.
3. Combine the milk and the melted butter. Then add the oil, and finally whisk in the beaten eggs.
4. Place paper muffin liners on a muffin pan.
5. Add the liquid ingredients to the dry ones and mix.
6. Gently fold 1 cup of chocolate chips into the batter. Don’t overwork the batter.
7. Carefully spoon the batter into the prepared muffin pan.
8. sprinkle the remaining chocolate chips onto the top of the muffins, and transfer to the oven immediately.
9. Bake 20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center of a muffin comes out clean.
10. Remove pan from the oven and let the muffins cool for five minutes in the pan. Then remove the muffins from the pan and let them cool another five minutes on a wire rack.