Chocolate and Vanilla Half and Half Muffins

Photo Courtesy: Dr. Debarshi Chatterji

I baked these delicious muffins for Debarshi’s office party and let me tell you, these muffins are not only fun to bake but great to eat too. These soft and fluffy buttery sugary Chocolate Vanilla muffins are sure to be a hit in a party as kids love the chocolate over load and adults adore the cute combination. Decorated with both white and dark chocolate chips these muffins will bring a smile on your face before you even eat them. I made a few changes in the original recipe and they turned out amazing! Also, just for this recipe, I decided not to follow the ¾ cup rule which asks to fill the muffin cups only to the ¾th cup level, I filled them up to the top so once they started rising, the tops rose to form big beautiful round domes just like the ones sold in bakeries. So don’t wait, bake these scrumptious half and half muffins today!

This recipe will yield 12 big muffins

Ingredients:

Dry Products-

• All Purpose Flour - 2 and ½ cups 
• Unsweetened Cocoa Powder – 3 tablespoons
• Baking Soda - 1 teaspoon
• Baking Powder - 1 tablespoon
• Salt – ½ teaspoon
• Dark Chocolate Chips - about 2-3 tablespoons (I used Ghirardelli Chocolate Premium Baking Chips, 60% Cacao, Bittersweet Chocolate)
• White Baking Chips - about 2-3 tablespoons (I used Ghirardelli Chocolate Premium Baking Chips, Classic White Chips)

Wet Products-

• Unsalted Butter - ½ cup (or 1 stick) at room temperature
• White Sugar - 1 cup 
• Plain Yogurt - ½ cup 
• Milk - ½ cup (I used 2%)
• Eggs - 2 large, at room temperature
• Vanilla Extract - 1 teaspoon 

Others:

• Muffin Tray
• Muffin Cups - 12
• Spray Oil – for greasing
• Stand mixer recommended

Directions:

• Prepare the muffin baking tray – grease the tray, arrange the muffin cups on them and grease/ spray them with Oil, this double greasing will prevent the batter from sticking on the tray thus yielding smooth bakery standard muffins.
• Put a sifter on a large bowl and sift all the dry ingredients (All Purpose Flour, 
• Baking Soda, Baking Powder and Salt). Set aside. Please do not skip this step. 
• In the stand mixer bowl, combine the Unsalted Butter and White Sugar. Attach the flat beater and beat on medium speed for about 3 minutes or until fluffy. 
• Add the Eggs (one at a time), Plain Yogurt and Milk and beat until well mixed. 
• Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. 
• Add the flour mixture a little at a time, beating on low speed until just blended, being careful not to over mix (Tip: I keep the stand mixer running on low speed and I add continuously a tablespoon of the flour mixture into the egg mixture. This ensures that the flour mixes properly. I keep adding the flour until I have used the entire mixture)
• Divide the batter between two bowls. Stir Vanilla Extract into one bowl of the batter. Stir Unsweetened Cocoa Powder into the other bowl of the batter.
• Spoon vanilla batter into one side of each of the prepared muffin cups. Spoon chocolate batter into the other side of each muffin cup, filling the cups full. Sprinkle dark chocolate pieces over the vanilla batter and white baking pieces over the chocolate batter. 
• Bake for 15 to 17 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in centers comes out clean. Remove the muffins from the oven and let them sit inside the pan for 2 minutes.
• In the meantime, arrange cooling racks on the kitchen counter and carefully remove the Muffins from the tray and transfer them on the cooling rack. Do not turn the tray upside down as the Muffins will be soft and may break. Do not skip this step as it will make the bottoms soggy (Tip: I use two spoons to scoop out the hot muffins from the tray and transfer).
• Let them cool for about 5- 10 minutes then serve.
• Enjoy these scrumptious Muffins whenever you want. They are made of Chocolate remember.

Tips: 

• Measure all the ingredients before starting the mixing and baking. Sometimes it may seem that you have enough flour or vanilla extract but when you actually measure them, they are less than you expected. So, instead of running to the store at that last minute, measure them beforehand.
• Keep the eggs and butter at room temperature so that they mix easily and evenly.
• Make sure you are not dropping any egg shells in the mixing bowl. If you are having trouble, use a small bowl. Crack each egg into the bowl, check for shell fragments, then pour it into the mixing bowl. This is also a great way to make sure that we are not using any rotten eggs.
• Chocolate tastes even better the next day but do not keep these muffins outside for long. Transfer to a container in a single layer, cover and refrigerate. Before serving, heat them up for 10-15 seconds in the microwave.

Recommended Reading:

• Blueberry Orange Muffin
• Chocolaty Chocolate Chip Muffins
• Cranberry Orange Muffin
• Muffin Making and Baking Tips
• Muffin Making and Baking Tips 102
• Basic Kitchen Measurements
• Fabulous Lemon Muffins with Lemon Syrup
• Delicious Chocolate Orange Muffins
• Yummy Brownies
• Mary Berry’s Chocolate Apricot Cake (Homemade Sacher Torte)

Fabulous Lemon Muffins with Lemon Syrup

Photo Courtesy: Dr. Debarshi Chatterji

A few weeks ago, Debarshi and I went to the historic downtown of Liberty, Missouri. After strolling around for a while, we came across a local café – Hammerhand Coffee. We got ourselves Iced Coffee and I just started looking in their display case trying to find something for my sweet tooth.  I spotted a muffin along with the beautiful scones and croissants but it didn’t look like a berry or fruit muffin. Curious, I asked about it and came to know it was a Lemon muffin. 

Photo taken at: Hammerhand coffee, Liberty, Missouri. 

Features: Iced Coffee and Lemon Muffins

Now I love lemon but I have never had a Lemon muffin before and that muffin may have looked plain but it was packed with flavors. It was sweet but just enough to cut the tart flavor of the Lemons and its lemony aroma was just refreshing. After coming back home, I started looking for its recipe and finally found one which I liked. Foodies I present to you -  Fabulous Lemon Muffins with Lemon Syrup recipe.

Now whenever you try a new flavor, feedback is important, so I prepared a batch of muffins and sent them to Debarshi’s office. I was a bit anxious because I had never baked with Lemon flavor before. Thankfully, everyone liked it and I got great reviews!!

Lemon is one of my favorite fruits. It has a fresh citrusy flavor and as soon as you start grating or juicing it, the whole house fills with this beautiful fragrance. Papa (my maternal grandfather) had a big garden in his house and along with other trees and plants, he also had a Lemon tree. I used to love walking in that garden and smell the different flowers and fruits. I think Lemon has a very different almost a playful aroma which always lifts my spirit and makes me smile.

Lemon has several health benefits, it is especially good for the liver, it strengthens the immune system and clears dandruff and rashes. Lemon is also one of the easiest options to detoxify your body. I have a routine of drinking lemon juice and honey in some lukewarm water first thing in the morning. This low calorie drink gives me a boast of energy all through the day while aiding my digestion. In fact, I also read that drinking lemon water can also cure the cold and flu. Lemon also restores the body’s pH level which means you will have a younger skin, increased metal alertness and restful sleep.

Now whenever you are trying this recipe, I would recommend to use fresh lemon juice and zest. Believe me, you will enjoy that fresh citrusy aroma while you are baking with it. Wear a glove because all that citric acid may make your fingers itchy while you are juicing the Lemon. These yummy delicious muffins only take 20 minutes to get ready and can be enjoyed any time of the day, so don’t wait, bake a batch today!

Ingredients:

For the muffin - 

• All-Purpose Flour - 2 cups 
• White Sugar – ½ cup 
• Baking Powder - 3 teaspoons 
• Salt – ½ teaspoon 
• Lemon Zest - 1 tablespoon grated (approximately 1 big lemon)
• Milk – ¾ cup 
• Vegetable Oil – 1/3 cup 
• Egg - 1 (at room temperature)
• Vanilla Extract - ½ teaspoon 

For the lemon syrup -

• Lemon Juice - ¼ cup (approximately 1 big lemon)
• Sugar - ¼ cup 
• Lemon Zest - to garnish (approximately 1 big lemon)

Extras:

• Muffin Tray
• Muffin Cups - 12
• Spray Oil or a brush with ½ cup vegetable oil – for greasing the cups

Directions:

• Prepare the muffin baking tray - arrange the muffin cups on them and grease them with Oil.
• Sift all the dry ingredients (All Purpose Flour, White Sugar, Baking Powder and Salt), Whisk them together and mix the Lemon Zest.  Smell it, its fruity citrusy fragrance is refreshing.
• In a separate bowl, beat the Milk, Oil, Egg and Vanilla.
• Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.
• Pour the wet ingredients into the dry and beat with a spoon just until smooth.
• Fill the muffin batter into the cups using a spoon or scoop. Fill them full but do not overfill them. Do not press the batter.
• Bake in the pre-heated oven for 20 minutes or until a toothpick (insert in the center of the muffin to check if its baked through) comes out clean.
• While the muffins are in the oven, let’s prepare the Lemon syrup. Whisk the lemon juice, zest and sugar together in a small saucepan and boil for about five minutes or until slightly reduced and shiny. Remove from the heat.
• Remove the muffins from the oven and let them sit inside the pan for 5 minutes.
• Arrange cooling racks on the kitchen counter and carefully remove the Muffins from the tray and transfer them on the cooling rack. Do not turn the tray upside down as the Muffins will be soft and may break. Do not skip this step as it will make the bottoms soggy.
• Poke a couple toothpick holes in each muffin (I poked 4 in each) and carefully drizzle about 1 teaspoon of hot syrup over each of them. Decorate with the zests.
• Let the muffins cool for at least 10 minutes so that they can absorb the syrup, then serve.

Tip:

• Do not pour a lot of syrup over the muffins otherwise it will get too tangy and sweet. Just one teaspoon for each muffin is perfect. Add some lemon zest over each of them to complete the decoration.

Recommended Reading:

• Blueberry Orange Muffin
• Chocolaty Chocolate Chip Muffins
• Cranberry Orange Muffin
• Muffin Making and Baking Tips
• Muffin Making and Baking Tips 102
• Basic Kitchen Measurements
• Delicious Chocolate Orange Muffins
• Chocolate and Vanilla Half and Half Muffins
• Yummy Brownies

Muffin Making and Baking Tips 102

In my previous article on Muffin Making and Baking Tips, I included some important points:

Why do we need to sift the flour?

Why shouldn’t we over-mix the Muffin batter? and

Why not open the Oven door before time?

While writing the article on Cranberry Orange muffin, I realized that I need to include some more pointers for muffin baking which will greatly help the novices. Now before I go further, I want to share something from my own personal experience. As I have shared in my previous articles, Indian households do not have a convection oven. As most of the cooking is done on stove tops, the baked products are always bought from the local bakeries. When I was younger, I have seen my parents bake a Christmas fruitcake on stove top. They used to bake it in a pressure cooker and my sister and I used to hover around the kitchen waiting impatiently for the cake to finish baking and when it was finally ready, we used to eat it together. 

I guess what I am trying to say here is, buying something readymade from the market will save your time and extra work but if you want to learn something and make some memories then you got to keep on trying. It may not be perfect but it will be something which you will cherish forever. 

I am a self taught baker and I found that with a little encouragement and the right recipe you can bake pretty much anything. So, here I am with all the tips about muffin baking. Use them well:

Use a muffin paper or liner

You must have noticed lots of beautiful muffin liners in the baking aisles. They play one of the most important role in baking the muffin properly. I always line the muffin tins with the liners, spray them with oil and then pour the muffin batter in it. This ensures an easier clean up of the pan. Also, the hot muffins are softer in texture and if they are inside a liner you can be assured that they wont break while you are taking them out of the pan. 

Now, if you have already greased all the cups (or they have the juices from the previous batch) and ran out of batter after filling only a couple of cups then I would suggest to fill the remaining ones with a little water so that the heat does not burn the oil (or juices). This will help an easier clean up.

All ingredients at room temperature

Remember the sifting step? It allows all the dry ingredients to get mixed easily, evenly and quickly. Next step is adding the wet ingredients to the dry ones. If you have milk, eggs and butter at room temperature, they will make a smooth batter and combine easily with the dry products. You will not find unnecessary lumps and this will prevent any over mixing of the batter. 

Use good quality ingredients

I never suggest over spending on ingredients but I would recommend getting good quality fresh ingredients. If you have any doubts about the expiration date don’t use it. I like using McCormick Vanilla and Hersey’s Chocolate Chips and Cocoa Powder. They are not super expensive but taste great.

Use a scoop or spoon to measure the batter

Do you know why the homemade muffins look different than the store bought ones? Because we get lazy and take hasty decisions. Why use another spoon to fill the batter in the pan? I will just eyeball it. Believe me, eyeballing is what will make your muffins either huge or too small. Come on! One spoon or scoop doesn’t make much of a difference. Use it.

The ¾ cup rule

Remember we added baking powder and soda in the muffin batter? They help to rise the muffins making them light and soft. Now I know a big cute muffin sounds yummy but if you pour too much batter in the cup then it will keep rising and finally start spilling out. Always pour till ¾ of the cup and then stop. This will also ensure an even cooking.

Don’t skip the pre-heating oven step

As soon as we add the wet ingredients in the dry ones we are on a clock. We do not want to over mix the batter so this is the time to start the pre heating. You can do it before starting the sifting process as well but my oven heats faster so I prefer doing it at this stage. The important point is, the oven should be pre heated and ready for the muffins by the time you mix the batter and fill it in the cups.

Remove the muffins from the pan

Once the muffins have been baked, take the pan out of the oven and set a timer for 2-3 minutes. Then take them out from the pan carefully and transfer to a cooling rack, this ensures that your muffin bottoms are not soggy.

Muffin pan is not baking properly

Personally I have never faced this problem, but I read online that sometimes this happens. Now my guess is, you are not filling all the cups equally and this may result in under cooked muffins. If you are doing everything correctly, then maybe its time to change the muffin pan. I use a Kitchen Aid muffin pan and it works great. It’s a big pan with 12 cups and at times I have baked only 4-5 muffins for my second batch and they have still come out perfect. So get a good bake ware before baking these delicious muffins. 

I hope these tips will help you as they have helped me. Happy Baking!

Recommended Reading:

• Blueberry Orange Muffin
• Chocolaty Chocolate Chip Muffins
• Cranberry Orange Muffin
• Muffin Making and Baking Tips
• Fabulous Lemon Muffins with Lemon Syrup
• Delicious Chocolate Orange Muffins
• Chocolate and Vanilla Half and Half Muffins

Cranberry Orange Muffin

Photo courtesy: Dr. Debarshi Chatterji

The recipe I am going to share today is a Cranberry Orange Muffin. I have had Blueberry, Banana, Chocolate Chips and many other types of muffins with different flavors but there is something special about this muffin. I think about Cranberries and I immediately think of fall and holidays. This muffin actually looks like fall colors with the orange and reddish maroon tinges in it. This is one flavor which I have never tasted in any Indian bakery and that may be because Cranberries are not easily available in the Indian grocery shops like other fruits and believe me, we have some amazing fruits in India like Mango, Lychee and Guava which are considered pretty exotic.

So, what do Cranberries taste like?

Hmm... interesting. I think Cranberries are tart and sour and that’s why I love to pair them with other flavors. The Cranberry Orange muffin is a perfect example. The first time I ordered this muffin I thought I will be eating something really sweet but as soon as I took the first bite, I was completely fascinated by the balance of flavors. The tartness of the Cranberries with the sweetness of Oranges creates a perfect sweet tart flavor and the citrusy fragrance of the Orange juice and zest is always so fresh it almost makes me drool even before biting into the muffin. Believe me this muffin is as good as it looks.

My introduction to Cranberries:

The first time I had Cranberries was at the Thanksgiving dinner at Vicki and Calvin’s house. You guessed it, I had the classic Thanksgiving Cranberry sauce. At that time, I was new to baking. I had no idea that Cranberries are so versatile. You can literally add Cranberries in anything, the list is endless. Be it breads, bagels, pies or salads, Cranberries give another flavor profile to the dish.

Can I freeze Cranberries?

Of course you can! In fact, this is what I always do. I get a big packet of Cranberries and freeze them. This gives me the flexibility to bake these delish muffins all year round whenever I feel like. If you don’t have enough space in the freezer, then don’t fret, dried Cranberry packets are available in every grocery shop all year round and can be easily substituted for fresh Cranberries in many recipes.

Can I freeze the muffin batter?

I read somewhere that the muffin batter can be frozen and reused later so I tried it. Alas! Didn’t turn out good at all. Considering that the recipe is really simple I would urge you not to freeze any left over batter. Just bake it all. Its anyway too delicious to leave out.

When can I eat this scrumptious muffin?

Cranberry Orange muffins can be eaten as breakfast or with any meal. I love to eat them with a cup of hot coffee. You can also take them for an eat out in a picnic basket or serve them as a dessert. I love to bake these muffins when Debarshi is in office so that when he comes home I can surprise him with a sweet muffin.

So, this fall bring the colors into your kitchen by baking these treats.

Ingredients:

• All Purpose Flour - 2 Cups
• Sugar (or Truvia) – ¾ Cup 
• Baking Powder – 1 Teaspoon  
• Baking Soda – ½ Teaspoon  
• Salt – ½ Teaspoon  
• Fresh Cranberries - 1 Cup, Washed, Chopped and Seeded
• Egg - 1
• Orange Juice – ¾ Cup 
• Vegetable Oil – ¼ Cup 
• Grated Orange Rind – 1 Teaspoon (Grate the skin not the white part)

Directions:

• In a bowl, sift and combine all the dry ingredients (Flour, Sugar, Baking Powder, Baking Soda and Salt)
• Stir in the Cranberries.
• In a different bowl, beat the Egg, Orange Juice, Oil and Orange Rind.
• Preheat the oven to 400F.
• Add to the dry ingredients all at once.
• Stir just to moisten.
• Prepare the muffin baking tray - arrange muffin cups on them and grease them with Oil.
• Fill the muffin batter into the cups using a spoon or scoop. Fill up to ¾ full.
• Sprinkle the tops of the cups lightly with a bit of sugar.
• Bake in the pre-heated oven for 15-16 minutes until they are light brown in color and firm to the touch.
• If you are baking multiple batches using only one muffin tray, let the hot muffins cool for a minute or two before removing them from the tray and putting them on a cooling rack.
• Enjoy these scrumptious Muffins with a cup of Coffee and breakfast.

Recommended Reading:

• Muffin Making and Baking Tips
• It's all about Cranberries!
• Muffin Making and Baking Tips 102
• Blueberry Orange Muffin
• Chocolaty Chocolate Chip Muffins
• Picnic at Smithville Lake, Missouri
• Fabulous Lemon Muffins with Lemon Syrup
• Basic Kitchen Measurements
• Delicious Chocolate Orange Muffins
• Chocolate and Vanilla Half and Half Muffins
• Yummy Brownies
• Easy Pecan Pie