Friday, March 31, 2006

CHOCOLATE CHIP COCONUT MUFFINS

Everyone loves muffins and that's not a secret! Why? Well, because they are fastly prepared, multi-faceted and soooo tasty!

One can create her/his favorite muffins by following a basic recipe and adding the loved ingredient of her/his choice. We feel a bit like (role)playing the scientist or alchemist at home; it wakes up our creative spirit and opens us to new sensations! It is one of those baking products which can be prepared in so many different ways -savory and sweet- as nearly all variations are possible that it is impossible not to love those little wonders!!!

So, I decided that I wanted coconut and chocolate chip muffins and the result was very pleasant ad gratifying! Those muffins were very fluffy and tastful, yummy yum!!!...

This recipe was originally released in the "King Arthur Flour 200th Anniversary Cookbook". I took it from their site (see here) and modified certain detail...

Yields 12 muffins

Ingredients:
300g (2 Cups) Plain white flour
110g (1/2 Cup) Castor sugar
1/2 Tsp Salt
1 Tbs Baking powder
1/2 Cup Grated coconut
1/2-2/3 Cup Chocolate chips
230ml (1 Cup) Milk
62, 5 g (1/4 Cup) Unsalted butter, softened or 62,5ml (1/4 Cup) vegetable oil (optional)
2 Eggs (~50-53g)

Method:
1. Preheat the oven to 250°C (500°F).
2. Blend together the flour, sugar, salt and baking powder.
3. Beat the milk, butter or oil and eggs together until they are light.
4. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ones.
5. With a fork blend the two for 20 seconds, no more!
6. Fill the cups (2/3-3/4 full) of a greased muffin tin.
7. Place the muffins in the oven and immediately drop the temperature to 200°C (400°F).
8. Bake for 15- 20 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean from the center of a muffin.

Remarks:
If you wish you can reduce the amount of fat or not use any, but remember that it will affect the tenderness and moistness of your muffins; you'll have then to eat them very fastly as they will tend to dry more than the butter/oil version...

The secret of light and tender muffins lies within the blending of the wet ingredients with the dry ones. It's not a problem if you've left some lumps that look as if they want more stirring. Don't continue stirring no matter how hard it is, resist the impulse!

Serving suggestions:
Eat those muffins at any time of the day or for breakfast with butter and jam, honey or peanut butter.
You can also eat them warm.

(Chocolate Chips -Pic by www.acoutica.com)

14 comments:

  1. love muffins and your post is making me itch to get my baking stuff out soon! interesting combination of chocolate and coconut!

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  2. hey babe! lovely muffins! i can smell them from here :p
    i gotta try my hand at these once lent is over and when i can eat chocs. hahaaa :)

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  3. I like this recipe and i have coconut .... I want to taste that muffins ...

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  4. EATZYCATH: Let us then see how your muffins look!!!

    THE BAKER: Thanks! They did indeed smell fine and taste fine ;-)))... Be strong and courageous, lent is soon over!!!

    FABIENNE: I'm waiting to see those muffins featured on your blog!...

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  5. Got inspired by your recipe but changed it around a bit:

    (change 1) used dried-sweetened coconut flakes which were soaked for 15min in the juice of one lime

    (change 2) add one tbsp coco powder, some vanilla extract and a handful of chocolate chips (or dark chocolate pieces)

    Very brown, but also very yumyum - expecially when still warm out of the oven ...

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  6. Hi ..
    You have really nice recipe of muffins and this one is one i prefer in my small kitchen in France ...
    Can you tell me if you have the recipe of the muffins which are in photo on the top of the muffins category ??
    Thanks for your message on my blog ..

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  7. ANABEL02: Thanks for your comment! I'm glad you like that recipe... Regarding the recipe you are looking for, well would not be able to give it to you as I don't know which one it is... My guess is that they are plain vanilla muffins with icing.

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  8. Thanks for the recipe. We thought they might use a little more sugar, but maybe castor surgar is sweeter than granulated we used? Not sure. I think they would rise a little nicer if they sat in the muffin pan a few minutes before baking. In any case, delicious.

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  9. ANONYMOUS: Thanks for passing by and for leaving a comment! I'm glad you liked those muffins! Thanks for the tips... In fact, castor sugar IS granulated sugar :D.

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  10. I just made these and they are AWESOME!!!

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  11. Hi - Your muffins came up first in a search a few weeks ago, and since then I have made them every week for my daughter to take to school & my husband for work (I don't eat wheat/gluten/dairy!) and time & again they taste awesome, lots of people have asked for the recipe....I point them in your direction! Thanks for sharing, Anna

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  12. ANNA:

    Hi Anna!

    Thanks for passing by and for leaving a comment! I'm glad to hear that you like those muffins! your kind words make me very happy...

    Cheers,

    Rosa

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  13. Hi Rosa- those muffins came out amazingly! They broke nicely at the top, showing the fluffy moist inside. Thanks

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  14. ANONYMOUS: Thank you for passing by and for the comment! I'm glad they turned out great. Cheers.

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