Orange Chocolate Chunk and Lemon & Almond Muffin

Spent almost the whole day in the kitchen today.  Started off with preparing the Devil's Curry paste, made for order and then on with preparing dinner.  Since I'm already slavering myself in the kitchen, why not some muffins for 'after-dinner' treat.  Made 2 types of muffins. One is Orange Chocolate Chunk and the other is Lemon & Almond Muffin.

The Orange Chocolate Chunk is exactly like its name.  You can taste the orange zest and at each bite,  generous chunks of melted chocolate just oozing into your mouth.  A great combination of orange and chocolate, I tell you!  It's heavenly wonderful especially after it's just baked. You must eat this while the chocolate is just melting.  Out of this world.....great with a cup of black coffee!

The Lemon & Almond Muffin is very different in taste and texture.  The lemon gives a nice citrus taste to it and the dessicated coconut that I added to the recipe, gives a wonderful texture.  This muffin certainly gives you the 'zang' that you need after a day's hard work.  It's all that you need when you want to put up your feet, relax and have a nice cup of hot tea.

And here are the recipes...

Orange Chocolate Chunk Muffin

120g butter

100g plain chocolate

2 oranges (zest and juice)

A little milk

1 egg

1tsp vanilla essence

285g plain flour

200g muscovado sugar (I used 160g)

1tsp b.o.s.

1/8tsp salt

For the filling: 150g plain choc roughly chopped

1. Preheat oven to 170 degree celsius.  Melt butter and choc.

2. Sift and combine flour, sugar, b.o.s. and salt.

3. Grate the zest from the orange and squeeze the juice. Combine with the zest and add a little milk to make up to 6 3/4 oz of the orange juice.  Add in the egg and vanilla and mix well.  Whisk into the melted chocolate and butter.

4. Fold in the flour to the chocolate mixture until just blended.

5. Fold in the chocolate chunks and spoon batter in prepared muffin tray with paper cups and bake till done for about 20-25 mins. 

Lemon & Almond Muffin

235 plain flour, sifted

170 g caster sugar

1 tbsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

100g ground almond

50g dessicated coconut

grated zest and juice of 2 lemon

A little milk

2 eggs

1tsp almond essence

100g butter

1. Preheat oven to 170 degree celcius. Combine all dry ingredient in a mixing bowl.

2. Make the lemon juice up to 6 oz with milk. Combine the eggs and essence, mix well.

3. Melt butter.

4. Add wet ingredients to the dry and fold together with a large metal spoon until just moistened.

5. Spoon batter in prepared muffin tin and bake for 20-25 mins.