Chocolate Fudge Muffins

There’s been a lot of memes coming out of this year’s Olympic Games in Paris: Pommel Horse Guy, Andy Murray’s pin-collecting obsession and Snoop Dogg’s unofficial mascot status, to name a few. One of my favourites, though, is the Norwegian Muffin Man. If you’re unfamiliar with this particular story- a Norwegian swimmer, Henrik Christiansen, posted a series of videos on social media proclaiming his love for the chocolate muffins in the Olympic Village (and confessing to hoarding them, leaving many athletes heartbroken and chocolate muffin-less). The bakers of the world responded, and now there are chocolate muffin recipes everywhere. It’s all very magical.

I wanted to join in with the fun, so, today, I’m bringing you my chocolate muffin recipe, inspired by the ones from the Olympic Village. If you look closely at the muffins in the social media posts (and why wouldn’t you?), you’ll see that their stuffed with a soft, chocolate-y filling. Most of the recipes I’ve seen online opted to use chocolate ganache for this, but I wanted to do something a little different. For these muffins, I’ve created a chocolate fudge filling- the flavour is reminiscent of a traditional hot fudge sauce, but the texture is thicker and the filling doesn’t need to be served warm, making these muffins the perfect snacks for any time of day. These, then, are my Chocolate Fudge Muffins.

Table of Contents

• Making the Chocolate Fudge Filling
  • Ingredients
  • Method
• Making the Chocolate Muffins
  • Ingredients
  • Method
• Tips for Making Bakery-Style Muffins
• Filling the Muffins
• Recipe

Making the Chocolate Fudge Filling

This chocolate fudge filling is easy to make, but so delicious and really elevates these muffins- taking them from standard chocolate muffins to Olympic-standard Chocolate Fudge Muffins! However, you can absolutely make these muffins without the filling and they’ll still be delicious!

Ingredients

To make the chocolate fudge filling, you will need the following ingredients:

• Dark chocolate

This adds chocolate flavour (obviously) and helps the filling to firm up into the perfect, fudgy consistency.

• Cocoa powder

Cocoa powder adds extra chocolate flavour and gives the filling a deep, rich colour.

• Salt

A small pinch of salt is added to the filling, to bring out the chocolate flavour and temper the sweetness of the sugar.

• Evaporated milk

Evaporated milk is used to give a thick, creamy consistency. Because evaporated milk has a lower water content than regular milk, it helps to keep the filling thick and fudgy.

• Caster sugar

Caster sugar is used to bring sweetness to the fudge sauce.

• Golden syrup

Golden syrup is used in conjunction with regular sugar to bring sweetness, while also adding a lovely shine to the fudge filling. The syrup also helps to keep the filling soft and spreadable.

• Unsalted butter

Butter adds a creamy richness to the filling, while also helping it to firm up a little when cooled.

• Vanilla extract

Vanilla not only draws out the chocolate flavour, it also helps to give the filling its iconic, ‘hot fudge’ flavour.

Method

Start by chopping the dark chocolate. You want it to be finely chopped so that it melts easily in the heat of the milk mixture later.

Place the chopped chocolate in a heatproof bowl, along with the sifted cocoa powder and the salt. Set aside for later.

Place the evaporated milk, caster sugar, golden syrup and butter into a saucepan.

Place over medium-low heat and stir frequently until the butter has melted, the sugar has completely dissolved and the mixture has come to just below a simmer. The mixture will be very hot at this stage, so be careful!

Immediately pour the milk mixture over the chopped chocolate and allow to sit undisturbed for 5 minutes. This will allow the chocolate to start melting in the heat of the milk.

After 5 minutes, you can start to stir the mixture. Mix until the chocolate has completely melted and the mixture is smooth and even.

If the mixture still has some lumps of chocolate at this point, you can gently heat the whole lot (either in the microwave or over a pan of barely simmering water), stirring frequently, until smooth.

Allow the mixture to cool to room temperature, then cover the surface directly with clingfilm and place in the fridge for at least 3 hours to firm up, before using to fill the muffins.

Making the Chocolate Muffins

These easy double chocolate muffins are flavoured with cocoa powder and studded with chocolate chunks. They’re quick to make (you don’t even need a mixer!) but super delicious.

Ingredients

• Milk

Whole milk is best, but semi-skimmed/skimmed will also work.

• Unsalted butter

I like to use unsalted butter, so that I am in control of how much salt I am adding to my bakes. If you only have salted butter, just omit the salt in the recipe.

• Instant coffee granules

Coffee helps to bring out the chocolate-y flavour of the cocoa, so I like to add a small amount of instant coffee granules, which we’ll dissolve in the milk/butter, to these muffins.

• Cocoa powder

This brings the chocolate-y flavour to the muffins. Cocoa powder is quite a drying ingredient, so other ingredients are added to the batter alongside the cocoa to increase the moisture content of the muffins.

• Plain flour

Also known as all-purpose flour in the US, this flour contains no raising agents.

• Caster sugar

I prefer to use caster sugar in my baking, because it incorporates into batters more easily.

• Bicarbonate of soda

This is the raising agent for the muffins, which makes them puff up and become nice and fluffy.

• Salt

A small amount of salt is added to the batter to enhance the chocolate flavour and balance the sweetness.

• Chocolate chunks

Chocolate chunks are both mixed directly into the batter and sprinkled on top of each muffin before baking, for maximum flavour and prettiness. I’ve used milk chocolate chunks for my muffins, but you could dark or white chocolate chunks, if you prefer.

• Eggs

I always use large eggs in my baking.

• Sour cream

Sour cream adds extra moisture to the muffins, which helps to counter any cocoa-induced dryness.

• Oil

I use a 50:50 combination of oil and butter for the fat in these muffins. This way, you get the added moisture provided by the oil, while still getting the nicer flavour of the butter. Make sure to use a flavourless oil, like sunflower oil.

• Vanilla extract

Much like with the fudge filling, a small amount of vanilla extract helps to bring out the chocolate flavour in these muffins.

Method

Line 2 muffin trays with 12 muffin cases, placing one case in every other cavity, as pictured (this gives the muffins plenty of space to puff up). Preheat the oven to 200°C fan.

Start by heating the butter and milk together until the butter has completely melted and the mixture is hot. You can either do this in the microwave or in a saucepan on the stove.

Add the instant coffee granules to the hot milk mixture and whisk until dissolved.

Add the cocoa powder and whisk until smooth. Set the mixture aside to cool to room temperature while you prepare the dry ingredients.

In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, caster sugar, baking soda and salt until combined.

Add 2/3 of the chocolate chunks to the dry ingredients and toss to combine, making sure the chunks are thoroughly coated in the flour mixture.

Add the eggs, sour cream, sunflower oil and vanilla extract to the cooled milk mixture.

Whisk the wet ingredients together until smooth.

Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and, using a spatula, mix briefly until just combined.

Divide the batter between the 12 cupcake cases. Each case will be pretty full- I used a regular-sized ice cream scoop for this and filled each case with two whole scoops of batter!

Sprinkle the muffins with the remaining chocolate chunks, then place into the preheated oven to bake for 5 minutes.

After 5 minutes, turn the oven temperature down to 150°C fan and continue baking the muffins for 15 minutes. When the muffins are ready, a skewer should come out mainly clean, with a few moist crumbs stuck to it. Be careful, though, because if you happen to pierce a chocolate chip you might end up overbaking the muffins!

Once the muffins are cooked, you can remove them from the oven. I like to remove the muffins from the baking tin immediately, so that the cases do not get too greasy, and transfer them to a wire rack to cool completely before filling with the fudge filling (if using).

Tips for Making Bakery-Style Muffins

Recently, there’s been a lot of content on social media surrounding the ‘bakery-style’ muffin: that is, a beautiful, fluffy muffin with a big, domed muffin-top. I thought it would be fun to try out some of the techniques I’ve seen that are supposed to help you achieve this effect with this recipe and the results were… magical. Here’s what I learned:

• Don’t over-mix the batter.

This is Muffin-Making 101, but you should never over-mix a muffin batter. Doing so can lead to your finished muffins being tough, dense and oddly shaped. Don’t worry if you have a few lumps of flour here and there after mixing in the dry ingredients- just go with it!

• Bake the muffins in every other cavity in the muffin tin.

This gives the muffins plenty of space to grow and form a lovely, domed top. If the muffins are overcrowded in the pan, they won’t cook as evenly and the muffin tops might merge together and become misshapen. This does mean that you’ll only be able to bake 6 muffins at a time, which is a bit of a drag, but it makes such a difference to the finished muffins.

• Fill the muffin cases right to the top.

Usually, when I make cupcakes/muffins, I use a regular-sized ice cream scoop to portion out the batter, filling each cavity with one scoop’s worth. For the biggest, best muffins though, with perfectly domed tops, you need to fill the cases extra full. For these muffins, I filled each case with two scoop’s worth of batter, which worked perfectly.

• Save some of the chocolate chunks to sprinkle on top of the muffins:

To make the muffins extra pretty, keep some of the chocolate chunks back when mixing them into the batter. That way, you can sprinkle each muffin with some chocolate chunks just before baking them, to mimic those pretty, bakery-style muffins.

• Bake the muffins using the fan setting on your oven.

Muffins are best baked quickly and at a high heat (at least, to begin with- more on that in a sec!), so the fan setting is your friend.

• Use a higher oven temperature for the first 5 minutes of the baking time.

Bake the muffins at a high temperature (200°C fan, in this recipe) for 5 minutes. Then, turn the oven down to a more regular temperature (150°C fan) for a further 15 minutes, to finish off the baking process. The initial high temperature helps to activate the raising agent in the muffins, which helps them to rise up and become big and fluffy, then the lower temperature helps to ensure that the muffins are fully and evenly cooked through.

Filling the Muffins

Filling the muffins with the fudge filling is super easy- you just need a piping bag! I happen to have this fancy doughnut-filling piping tip, so I used that, but it’s not a necessity.

If you have a long piping tip like mine, you can pipe the filling directly into the muffins, inserting the piping tip into the centre of each muffin from above and applying gentle pressure. Once the muffin is nicely filled, lift the piping bag up and finish off the muffin by piping extra fudge filling on the surface of the muffin, to cover where you inserted the piping tip (and mimic the muffins from the Olympic Village!).

If you don’t have the fancy piping tip, you can still fill the muffins! You can either poke the centre of each muffin with the handle of a wooden spoon, or use an apple corer to remove a small amount of muffin. Then, fill the space with fudge filling and decorate the top in the same way as before. That’s it!

Recipe