After a very bizarre Friday evening, I decided that I needed to restore some balance in my life and get back to baking. It is has been a few weeks since I have created something new. Today I woke up with an intense desire to bake chocolate muffins. I am not sure where the need came from, possibly the aftermath of eating chocolate ice-cream at lunchtime yesterday. There has also been a bag of dark chocolate pieces sitting in the fridge for the past few weeks just asked to be melted into a chocolate frenzy. As usual Google provided me with a wealth of recipes to try and I eventually decided on one from Baking Mad.com. I was interested in the use of sour cream in the ingredient list. It is not something that I have even used in non-dessert recipes but it made for a very moist and soft creation. My husband, who is a huge chocolate fan, loved these muffins. I think they will become a regular staple!

Ingredients

• 200g Dark chocolate broken into pieces
• 200g Butter (unsalted)
• 200g Self-raising white flour 
• ¼tsp Baking powder
• ¼tsp Bicarbonate of soda
• 2tbsp Cocoa powder sieved
• 150g Unrefined golden caster sugar 
• 150ml Sour cream
• 3 Eggs (free range)

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 180oC. Line a 12 hole muffin tin with paper muffin cases.
2. Put the chocolate and butter in a heatproof bowl. Microwave on medium (500W) for 2 minutes, stir then microwave for a further 2 minutes until smooth.
3. Stir together the flour, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda, cocoa powder and golden caster sugar in a large bowl.
4. In a jug, lightly mix together the soured cream and eggs. Pour into the dry ingredients with the melted chocolate mixture. Mix together until just combined.
5. Divide the mixture between the prepared paper cases and bake the muffins for 18 minutes until risen and firm.