DARK CHOCOLATE ORANGE MUFFINS

Dark chocolate orange muffin

I bought a muffin tin. You know, American-sized muffins, as opposed to normal Irish bun-sized ones. And then it took me ten shops to find the proper cases to go in them and, even then, I could only find boring plain ones. (Though I did find some snazzy yellow cardboard ones in Tiger that won't fit in the tin...)

The Dublin airport chocolate orange muffin

Anyway, I am addicted to the giant-sized choc-orange muffins that you get in Harvest Market in T2 in Dublin Airport. I would almost (almost) take a flight just to have one of those muffins. They make the whole airport shenanigan worthwhile.

But I'm not flying anywhere until May, so I have had to resort to making my own. The ones in the airport have a gooey, sweet, orange jammy curd in the centre (drool!) but I couldn't find a satisfactory recipe to match that. So I have adapted a few different recipes to make these delicious choc-chippy-orangey ones instead. These are a trial run for Easter Sunday, when I will probably (hopefully) take the time to ice and decorate them.

My helpers

238 kcal per muffin

Makes 6 large sized muffins, 10 bun/cupcake sized muffins or 12 minis

INGREDIENTS

2/3 cup self raising flour

1/3 cup cocoa powder

1/4 cup caster sugar

1/2 cup dark chocolate chips (I used a 100g bag)
zest of an orange
1/4 cup milk
1/8 cup orange juice
1/8 cup veg oil (I used rapeseed)
1 medium egg, beaten

METHOD

Preheat oven to 180 deg C

Zest and juice the orange

Mix together the flour, cocoa powder, sugar and choc chips

In a jug, mix together the orange juice, orange zest, milk, veg oil and beaten egg
Make a well in the centre of the flour and pour in wet ingredients
Mix and pour into muffin cases

Bake for 15 to 18 minutes

CHOCOLATE BISCUIT CAKE

Juno with the Chocolate Biscuit Cake - it's a real slab

I have become a chocolate cake fiend. I used to HATE chocolate cake but clearly I was eating the wrong ones. Lately, I can't get enough of good choccie cake and I had a craving for Chocolate Biscuit Cake this week (why!?). I haven't eaten it since my mother used to make it when I was a kid.

I've never used condensed milk in a recipe before - it is amazing, gloopy sweet stuff, I have discovered. Anyway, I adapted this recipe and came up with this cake: a rich, no-bake delight.

 INGREDIENTS

300g dark chocolate, broken up

100g butter/marg, diced

1 teaspoon cocoa powder

1/8 teaspoon salt

397g tin condensed milk

250g digestive biscuits, broken into quarters

METHOD

- Line a 2 lb loaf tin with cling film

- Melt the choc and butter in a heatproof bowl over a pot of gently simmering water. Stir until smooth.

- Remove the bowl from the heat and mix in the cocoa powder and salt, then pour in the condensed milk, stirring well to combine.

- Add the broken biscuits and stir

- Pour the chocolate biscuit mixture into the lined loaf tin, pressing it down with a spatula.

- Put in the fridge for about 3 hours, or overnight, until set.

Juno made these Monsters Inc buns for her and her cousin Lyra (special pack from Aldi):