Phew! What a busy few months! Its been a while since I've updated you with my baking antics and for that I apologise. No sooner have I invented and created something new than I'm on to the next bake, neglecting to update you all in my frantically greedy crusade for the consummate cake!
I thought I'd take a breather today from cake invention and baking and update you with this greedy little beauty...
The Greedy Girl's Muffin.
So entitled, as it really is one of the greediest, most indulgent creations I've made to date. It refuses to compromise. Soft milk chocolate chip cookie gives way to moist chocolate brownie crumb all encased around an additively gooey salted caramel peanut butter centre.
I kid you not when I said that I ate five in one day just to make sure they were as good as I thought.
They were.
It took some time to perfect this one as the timings for getting the cookie and the muffin just right were not easy things to master. But now that I have done just that, I'm going to do something on my blog that I haven't done before...
...I'm going to share the entire recipe with you so that you can make them for yourselves at home!
The reason for this being that these little moreish beauties, this past weekend, saw me take to the stage at the Cake and Bake Show in Manchester and compete against a fellow contestant to win the Baker's Dozen Challenge judged by ITV's Britain's Best Bakery judges Peter Sidwell and Mich Turner. I was invited to compete on the day after submitting my recipe and pictures online some four weeks earlier.
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| Here I am! Smiling away in the middle with Peter and Mich whilst someone steals my muffins stage left. |
It was all a lot of fun, I met some great people and my dad even got to test out his theory that he looks just like Paul Hollywood, by going back stage and seeing if anyone asked for his autograph (they didn't). Which might be something to do with the fact he ran rampant backstage loudly saying things dad's love to say such as 'you're that woman off the telly aren't you?' to poor Wendi Peters or it could be because he was wearing a neon green bomber jacket. Who knows?
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| Good lord that jacket is probably hurting poor Wendi's eyes! |
A few people after the show asked for the recipe, so in gratitude of the lovely individuals that watched and supported the event on the day (and for those that nabbed the 6 muffins on display when my back was turned for 20 seconds to have my photo taken and are now wondering how to make some more) here is the recipe!
These muffins are best eaten about an hour after they have come out of the oven. Still a little warm, the soft cookie base and chocolate brownie muffin are all the more moreish for it. They still taste great the next day (if they last that long) but I found an hour or two after baking was the ultimate point to quoff these gooey molten delights. I obtained this valuable knowledge through the scientific research technique of eating one an hour after baking and then another each subsequent 30 minutes following on from that for 3 hours (yes thats right, thats where the 5 cakes in ones day confession above came from. I wouldn't normally do such a thing but I needed to research when was best to bake these ahead for the competition. In the end I made them just hours before heading off for the competition)
Without further ado. Here lies the secrets of the Soft Chocolate Chip Cookie based Chocolate Muffin with Salted Caramel and Peanut Butter centre....
This recipe makes 14 muffins with some cookie dough left over for around 4 medium cookies or makes 12 muffins with enough mixture and cookie dough to eat raw out of the bowl while you wait for everything to cook (option two is not recommended but may be worth considering if you only have one 12 hole muffin pan and are a bit peckish. However, I must say I think licking the bowl takes the edge off how lovely any cake is when its cooked as you aren't as hungry, both literally and in anticipation, having smelled how wonderful the mix is so recommend option 1):
Before we even get to what makes up these greedy little muffins, you're going to need an oven thermometer. This is because your oven lies to you. No matter how expensive, fancy and wonderful it is, all ovens lie. Mine is out by between 5-20 degrees Celsius at any one time. This makes a huge difference to the result of this cake, which relies on the muffin and the cookie baking at just at the right time so that they aren't dry and undercooked or raw and, well, inedible (sort of- mmmm raw cookie dough) Yes I know, its all a faff and you wanted to nip to the shops this afternoon, get everything you needed and crack on to make these in time for tea. But unless you've got an oven thermometer- I forbid you. There, I've said it. You'll only ruin it and get very annoyed that the recipe didn't work. Trust me, it really is worth getting these right. Oven thermometers only cost around £5 and are well worth the investment. I got mine from the lakeland shop. I don't know how coped I without it. It like an oven lie detector.
You also may want to invest in a hand held or stand mixer or ask Peter Sidwell to mix things for you while you talk to Wendi Peters abouts caramel (Its probably less faff to get a mixer).
Ingredients
For the cookie base: (adapted from a cookie recipe in Cookie Girl's 'Eat Me' Book. A really wonderful and inspiring recipe book well worth investing in!)
110g unsalted butter
85g caster sugar
85g light brown sugar
1 large egg beaten
1/2tsp vanilla essence
200g plain flour
1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1/4 tsp of baking powder
100g of milk chocolate chopped into big chunks. I used dairy milk because its my favourite, chopped into uneven big chunks. Pick your favourite bar of chocolate and give it the same choppy-uppy treatment.
Ingredients
For the muffin:
100g plain dark chocolate
85g butter
300g plain flour
1tbsp baking powder
150g caster sugar
1tbsp cocoa powder (not drinking chocolate!)
200ml full fat milk (lets not faff around with any low fat nonsense)
1 large egg beaten
1tbsp of crunchy or smooth peanut butter. Smooth is a more subtle flavour as it melts into the mix, with crunchy you get bits of peanut in the muffin even after cooking. Both are yum.
Ingredients
For the Salted Caramel Peanut Butter filling:
A full tin of caramel (this will be innocently sat in a tin next to the cans of condensed milk in the supermarket. Don't be fooled. Its so moreish its lethal. I can't open one of these tins unsupervised or I'll quoff the lot. Possibly even drinking straight from the can without even the aid of a spoon. You've been warned!)
1 tbsp of smooth peanut butter
a little freshly ground sea salt to taste
Chocolate dessert sauce or melted milt chocolate to decorate- optional
Method:
THE COOKIE MIX!
use all the ingredients listed under cookie ingredients for the next bit (seems obvious but I thought well worth saying as this can get confusing)
Before you begin, line a muffin pan with 12- 14 cases. I played around with the size and found that small muffin cases/large cupcake cases were the right size. Those large muffin wrappers left me with overcooked cookie dough and raw cake mix and any cases smaller than the ones I used meant there was almost more cookie that cake mix!
1. Beat the butter and both sugars together until light and fluffy.
2. Add the beaten egg and the vanilla to the mixture and mix until combined.
3. Sift the bicarbonate of soda and baking powder with the flour into a separate bowl. Combine well together and then tip this into the butter, sugar and egg mixture.
4. Stir this mixture until the flour is combined and a nice cookie dough forms.
5. Tip in your chocolate chunks and mix until they are evenly distributed.
6. Using a tablespoon, scoop out large dollops of the mix and roll into balls and squash with your hand to make a circle big enough to cover the bottom of a muffin case, about 1cm thick. Make 12-14 of these depending on how many muffins you are making. You will have some dough left over. Place your trays of cookie dough lined cases in their trays in the fridge for at least 20 minutes. I'd advise using this time to wash the cookie dough mix off your hands, have a large cup of tea and make arrangements for who will be supervising you opening the tin of caramel a little later. The next step of making the muffin mix takes around ten minutes to complete so you can then crack on with this after around 10 mins of relaxation time. This cooling bit is really important for at least 20 minutes. It ensures you get lovely soft gooey cookies sat on the bottom of your muffins. Mmmm...
MUFFIN
Now, you're getting the hang of this I'm sure but I'll still mention that for the next bit, use the ingredients listed under 'muffin ingredients' above.
1. Put your oven thermometer in your fan oven and turn the oven on to 200 degrees Celsius.- Check after a few minutes to see the actual temperature on your oven thermometer (you won't believe how your oven lies!) To make sure it actually is 200 degrees Celsius at the point your oven tells you it has heated up.
2. Melt all of your plain dark chocolate broken into about 8 large pieces and the butter in a bowl over a pan of simmering water on the hob.
3. Once this has melted, set it aside and stir in the Peanut Butter until it melts fully into the mixture.
4. In another bowl sift the flour, baking powder, sugar and cocoa into a large bowl. Mix with a spoon to make sure its all good and mixed together. You want your raising agent to be nice and evenly distributed.
5. In another, smaller bowl swhisk your egg and then pour in the milk and whisk them together.
6. Pour the milk and egg mixture slowly into the, now slightly cooled, chocolate mixture, mixing as you go.
7. At this point, take your cookie dough lined cases out of the fridge and set to one side and also make sure your oven temperature is 200 degrees Celsius.
8. Next, pour the wet chocolaty mixture into the dry ingredients. Stir until almost fully combined. You should still see streaks of flour. Don't let this scare you as it did me. I'm used to making cupcakes, not muffins. With muffins you don't want to over stir the mixture or you'll get a tough muffin, so, trust me, stir it 8-10 times, then embrace your fear and stir no more!! (Don't listen to that little voice in your head that wants you to stir away all the flour until its nice and neat and even and fully incorporated. This voice is wrong and will ruin your muffin if you listen to it!)
9. Next, dollop around 1 and 1/2 generous tablespoons of the mix on top of the cookie bases until the cakes are almost, but not quite, full.
10. Bake in the oven for 17- 20 minutes. Check at 17 minutes by inserting a skewer into the centre of one of the cakes. When they are done, they should have a tiny bit of mixture left on the skewer but not too much. No matter what they are like at 20 minutes I take them out, you don't want them to overcook and become dry and they will continue cooking a little once out of the oven.
11. Take the muffins out of the tray, still in their cases and allow to cool on a wire rack.
SALTED PEANUT BUTTER CARAMEL FILLING
1. Whilst the muffin are cooling, combine all of your Peanut Butter filling ingredients until smooth. Taste as you go. You won't need much salt, as the Peanut Butter is already salty, you may decide not to add any salt. It should taste sweet with a hint of saltiness and Peanut Butter.
2. When the muffins are cooler, after around 15-30 minute or so, place a cupcake corer into the centre and bring out a chunk of the cake, or you could use a knife to cut a circle of cake out of the centre. Place this to one side and resist the temptation to eat this little warm, chocolaty gooey cake morsel! Then fill the hole with about 2tsps of peanut butter mixture. Top this with the pre-removed cake piece.
3. Drizzle or pipe more salted caramel Peanut Butter mixture onto the top of the cake and, if you are feeling particularly greedy drizzle again with chocolate dessert sauce or melted chocolate.
4. Sit down with a chilled glass of champagne or a warm mug of tea, unwrap one of these beautiful creations, cut down the middle and fleetingly admire the sheer indulgent greedy beauty of what is within before scoffing, interspersed with sips of your chosen beverage.
These really are rather special. They certainly do hit the spot whilst being exceedingly moreish. Soft cookie dough, gradually softer in the centre, interspersed with generous chunks of milk chocolate, gives way to soft moist chocolate brownie muffin, all slathered with a luxurious lashing of Salted Caramel Peanut Butter sauce in the centre. If you bite straight into the muffin without slicing in half first, this wonderful gooey filling pops into your mouth as the most wonderfully unexpected surprise. Like salted caramel but with the added twist of Peanut butter. Its even better!
These cakes aren't the most simple to create but my goodness they certainly are more than worth it when you bite into them or peel back the wrapper.
My dad gave them his own seal of approval when I asked him to try one. He never likes to be 'too' nice (or complementary at all. If he says the word 'hm' in a short and confused manner it means he isn't quite sure what to do as he has rather enjoyed something but 'mmm thats nice' isn't in his vocabulary. When I passed all my GCSE's I recall him saying 'Oh right. Whats for tea?' and we all knew he was very proud.) On this occasion, after sampling a mouthful of the muffin he commented 'hmmm, could be a little moister and I'm not entirely sure its my 'thing' I don't really like sweet stuff'. To which I replied, 'Oh, Ok, would you like me to have the rest then?' In a wild panic, his pupils dilated and he shoved the remaining three quarters of the muffin into his mouth in one go and in between cake crumbs and caramel sauce, attempting to sound nonchalant (which is terrible difficult to do with a huge muffin in your mouth) he managed to mumble 'erm, no that's ok, I'll manage the rest I think. Don't want to be rude'. How very good of him. I did also notice him quoff one back stage when he thought I wasn't looking at the Cake and Bake show and then attempted to blame the theft on the lovely young man that helped me measure out my ingredients back stage. 'I think it was that shifty looking bloke called Nigel' he said putting on his best doe-eyed look. Like I said, those Greedy Girl Muffins are addictive. You have been warned!
Good luck and Enjoy!
Oh... And for those of you that heard on Friday that I got into baking after losing five stone and wanted to make sure that the treats I had really hit the spot and didn't quite believe me. Here's a before and after pic to prove that you can have your cake and eat it! (Did I also mention my dad has lost 5stone too?!) I think its going to be salad for a fortnight for me now after this weekend!
