Black & White Choc Chip Muffins

Don't ever be fooled. The people you meet on twitter are not your friends. They line up with their pretty avatars, make you laugh once in a while, even share the occasional nugget of wisdom, but ultimately they are plotting against you.

Point in case:

Yesterday I was battling a major craving for chocolate. I tweeted about this, trying to reason my way to "yes, you may run upstairs to the tuckshop, buy the biggest, baddest chocolate you can find and devour it in two bites." And what do my so-called twitter "friends" do? Persuade me to find a nobler alternative? Distract me until the craving passes? Oh no. Those conniving "friends" practically forced me to dive into my handbag, fish out my wallet and run to my nearest drug dealer our tuckshop. At which time I proceeded to inhale that chocolate like.e it was fresh oxygen. The sneaky folks over at Pepenero even had the audacity to congratulate me on caving. The nerve..

Which can only bring us to the conclusion that chocolate = good, Twitter enablers "friends" = evil. 

Okay, back up a bit here, who am I kidding? It is clear that they had my best interests at heart. If it wasn't for that chocolate I don't know how I would've coped with a certain cellphone provider's ineptitude at hanging on to submitted documents. *Grumble grumble gripe* Or dealing with the fact that it's not even weekend yet. Seriously - longest week ever. *Sigh*

Do you ever have one of those days? Well then, step right this way, because you are in for a treat. A seriously sinful, downright devilish rendition of a chocolate muffin. Now, Nigella's version is pretty chocolate-y already, but I thought it couldn't  hurt to make it even more so. After all, there is no such thing as too much chocolate in my book.* I added an entire (big) bar of Top Deck chocolate broken into chunks to this dough. Well, almost an entire bar - a girl has to keep up her energy you know! Either way though, the result is chocolate heaven. Dark chocolate muffins, studded with chunks of milk and white chocolate. A chocolate trifecta if you will. I encourage you to eat these muffins while still warm (or pop them in the microwave for a few seconds to re-heat slightly) so you can experience the full effect of the melted chocolate chunks oozing their way down your throat. It is an experience not to be missed. Trust the addict on this one.

*If you have even the slightest doubts regarding the truthfulness of this, I urge you to leave this blog right away. Do not pass "GO", do not collect $200. Just go back to your miserable chocolate-less existence and forget you ever came here.

Black & White Choc Chip Muffins
Adapted from Nigella's Feast
Makes 12 muffins


250g/8.33 oz/460ml cake flour
4 tbsp cocoa powder
2 tsp baking powder
pinch of salt
1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
175g/5.83 oz/200ml caster (superfine) sugar
1 cup + 2tbsp milk
1/3 cup sunflower oil
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla essence
200g Top Deck chocolate, chopped (or use equal amounts white and milk choc chips) 

1. Preheat oven to 180C. Line a muffin tray with cupcake liners.
2. Sift the dry ingredients together in a large bowl.
3. Add milk, oil, egg and vanilla essence and beat well to combine.
4. Fold the chocolate chunks into the batter, then divide amongst the cupcake wrappers. Bake for 20 minutes at 180C (350F) or until a toothpick inserted into the middle comes out clean.

Nutritional info (per serving): Calories 282.5, Total fat 12.1 g, Saturated fat 1.2 g, Polyunsaturated fat 4.0 g, Monounsaturated fat 1.5 g, Cholesterol 19.5 mg, Sodium 96.3 mg, Potassium 32.6 mg, Total carbohydrate 40.5 g, Dietary fiber 0.6 g, Sugars 1.1 g, Protein 10.7 g