Chocolate Chocolate Chip Muffins

Chocolate Chocolate Chip Muffins

Ingredients:

1 3/4 cups all purpose flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

2 tablespoons best quality cocoa

3/4 cup superfine sugar

3/4 cup semisweet chocolate chips

plus 1/4 cup for sprinkling

1 cup milk

1/3 cup + 2 teaspoons vegetable oil

1 egg

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Instructions:

1.  In a large bowl, mix together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, cocoa, and sugar.

2.  Stir in the 3/4 cup chocolate chips.

3.  In a medium sized bowl, whisk the milk, egg, vegetable oil, and vanilla extract.

4.  Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and stir together (but don't over-mix it either.  should be a little lumpy)

5.  Pre-heat oven to 400 degrees.  

(see Mark's notes - 375 degrees worked better for us).

6.  Take a 12 muffin tin and line it with paper muffin cases.

7.  Spoon the batter evenly into the muffin pan.

8.  Using the 1/4 cup chocolate chips, evenly sprinkle those on top of the muffins.

9.  Bake for 20 minutes or until the muffins have risen and an toothpick inserted comes out clean.  (see Mark's Notes - 15 minutes worked better for us).

10.  Remove from muffin tin and let cool.

11.  Enjoy.

Mark's Story (or Miriam's Story)

For one of her 4H projects, Miriam decided she wanted to make chocolate muffins.  So, I did a Google search and found this recipe from the Food Network.  I gave her the recipe, and she did everything herself.  I just supervised and I was not allowed to help. 

Miriam used the mise en place method - she measured out all of her ingredients into separate bowls before starting.  Once she had everything measured out, she mixed together all the dry ingredients in one bowl, then mixed together all the wet ingredients in another bowl, and then combined the wet ingredients with the dry ingredients.

She did a practice batch that turned out slightly overdone.  The final batch was perfect.  

Mark's Notes:

The practice batch was baked at 400 degrees for 20 minutes, and the muffins were over-done.  So, for the final batch, we decided to bake them for 15 minutes at 375 degrees and that was perfect.

Here is the link to the original recipe from The Food Network:

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/nigella-lawson/chocolate-chocolate-chip-muffins-recipe-1947115

Blueberry Granola

Blueberry Granola (not Granola bars...just granola)

Ingredients:
4 cups oatmeal
1 cup flaked coconut
1/2 cup chopped walnuts
1/2 cup chopped pecans
1/4 cup chopped almonds
1 cup dried blueberries
1/2 cup dried cranberries
1/2 cup dried cherries
1/2 cup all-bran cereal
1/4 cup sesame seeds
1/2 cup corn oil
1/2 cup pure maple syrup
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon salt

Instructions:
1.  Pre-heat oven to 325 degrees
2.  Mix the oatmeal, coconut, walnuts, pecans, almonds, blueberries, cranberries, cherries, all-bran cereal, and sesame seeds together.  (The first 10 ingredients).
3.  Mix the corn oil, maple syrup, vanilla extract, and salt together.
4.  Pour the wet ingredients over the dry ingredients and stir.
5.  Grease a 13x9 casserole dish
6.  Spread the granola mix evenly in the casserole dish
7.  Bake for a total of 35 minutes.  After the first 20 minutes, gently stir, and then bake for the remaining 15 minutes.

Mark's Notes:
1.  I did not use sesame seeds.
2.  I used olive oil rather than corn oil
3.  I used regular raisin bran cereal for the "all bran cereal"
4.  I couldn't find dried cranberries, but I did find a bag of mix of dried cranberries and other dried fruits and so I used that.  
Mark's Story:
We spent the 4th of July weekend camping at Wilderness State Park near Mackinaw.  While there, I bought a baking book where all the recipes used blueberries.  I wanted to make blueberry granola bars.  At first I thought this recipe was the blueberry granola bar recipe.  I made it and it didn't look like it would cut into granola bars very easily.  So, I re-read the recipe, and this is essentially a blueberry-granola mix/cereal.

Everyone loved this.  The kids loved it.  It can be used as a snack. It can be used for breakfast.  It is super healthy.

In the near future, I plan on making the actual blueberry granola bars.