Chocolate Cherry Muffins

Since going to Oxford, I have developed a love of dark chocolate. The darker the better. My friend Rachel always has lindt dark chocolates in her room, and just one is enough to satisfy me, rather than the gluts of milk chocolate I could gobble.

I've never really baked with cherries either, so this recipe (found in Paul Hollywood's "How to Bake") really tempted me:

Ingredients:

200g unsalted butter

150g caster sugar 

4 medium eggs

200g strong white bread flour 

1 and a 1/2 tsp baking powder

pinch of salt 

splash of milk

150g good quality dark chocolate (sainsbury's dark cook's chocolate is to die for - I used 200g for an extra chocolatey hit)

470g jar pitted morello cherries, drained (I couldn't find morello cherries so just used black cherries in syrup, and it was still delicious!) 

Method:

Heat your oven to 200 degrees Celsius. Put twelve paper cases into a muffin tray, or line the moulds with scrunched squares of baking parchment.

Cream the butter and sugar together in a large bowl until light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs, one at a time. Sift the flour and baking powder and salt together over the mixture and fold in lightly. Add the milk and stir in, but be careful to not over-mix the mixture. (the mixture is quite runny but do not fear!)

Add the chocolate and two thirds of the cherries and fold in, until just combined.  

Divide the mixture evenly between the cases and press the remaining cherries into the top of each one. Bake in the pre-heated oven for 15-20 minutes until the muffins are firm and spring back when lightly pressed.

Compulsory photo in the sunshine

I'm afraid i'm a useless blogger and forgot to take photos AGAIN for this one - but the recipe is pretty self explanatory really! I usually find muffins quite dry, but these were beautifully moist and the chocolate/cherry flavours compliment each other beautifully.

I can't wait to experiment with this muffin recipe; i'm thinking white chocolate and raspberry next...

Happy baking x

P.S These cupcakes also use cherries, and are a perfect Easter treat. Or, if you fancy a muffin but aren't a cherry fan check out these Rhubarb and Custard Muffins!