Recipe: Cinnamon and Chocolate Chip Muffins

I found some flour again! I had the bright idea to order flour online and I really don’t understand why I didn’t think of that earlier. Anyway. It meant that I was finally able to bake again and I decided to go for something quick and simple. That’s always my go-to when I want to bake to relax: not too much hassle, just something easy and delicious. Muffins are a great example of such a bake, and these cinnamon and chocolate chip muffins certainly fit the bill!

Once again, I wanted to bake something with ingredients I already had at home – I don’t want to make unnecessary trips to the supermarket in times like these. I always have cinnamon and chocolate around, and the same goes for the other basic ingredients I use for these muffins. For the dairy component of this recipe, you can use either milk or yoghurt; both work very well, so just use what’s most convenient for you.

Cinnamon and chocolate are always a great combination, and although we’re moving into the season for more fruity flavours, these provided the perfect comfort food. I hope you’ll enjoy them too if you decide to make them!

You’ll need… (for 12 muffins)

For the muffins

• 250 g plain flour
• 150 g sugar
• pinch of salt
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1½ teaspoon baking soda
• 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 100 g dark chocolate chips (or chopped up pieces of chocolate)
• 120 ml sunflower oil
• 200 ml yoghurt or milk
• 2 eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla flavouring

For the cinnamon sugar topping

• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 1 tablespoon of melted butter

The rest

• a muffin tin
• optional: paper cases
• and an oven, of course! These muffins need to be baked at 200 °C (don’t forget to preheat your oven!)

So, let’s get baking!

1. Mix the dry ingredients together Firstly, you need to take a large bowl and mix together the flour, sugar, salt, baking soda, baking powder and ground cinnamon. Baking powder tends to be a bit lumpy, so I always sieve it above the bowl so it gets distributed evenly throughout the mixture. Also add the chocolate chips at this point.

2. Mix the wet ingredients together The wet ingredients basically means: everything else. Take a smaller bowl and mix together the sunflower oil, the yoghurt (or milk), the vanilla and the eggs until they’re combined.

3. Add wet ingredients to dry ingredients Create a little well in the middle of the dry ingredients, and pour in the wet mixture. Use a (wooden) spoon to gently fold everything together. Do not overmix — it is okay to still see little bits of flour. If you overmix the batter, your muffins will turn out too tough.

4. Divide the batter over the paper cases Divide your paper cases over the muffin tin (or grease the tin if you don’t use paper cases) and then spoon the mixture into the cases/tin.

5. Bake! Put the muffin tin into your preheated oven and bake the muffins for about 18-20 minutes, or until they’re golden on top and an inserted skewer comes out clean. When they’re done, take the tin out of the oven.

6. Add cinnamon sugar topping When the muffins are done baking, take it out of the oven and let it cool for a couple of minutes. In the meantime, melt the tablespoon of butter. Also mix together the sugar and the cinnamon until you’ve got a nice cinnamon sugar mixture. Then, brush the (still warm) muffins with the melted butter (you probably don’t need all of it – just do what you think is best), and then sprinkle the cinnamon sugar over it. Again, you might not need all of it. It all depends on your own preferences.

And that’s it! You’ve got your own delicious cinnamon and chocolate chip muffins. Enjoy!