Just before
Christmas I heard of a newly started, small artisan chocolatier in Edinburgh called Edward&Irwyn. It was
small, and to the outside world it was not much more than a blog. On the last
evening I spent with my boyfriend before we both left for our respective family
Christmases, he gave me some of the E&I chocolates. One of the two flavours
was beetroot, orange and milk chocolate. It was, quite simply, divine.
With J’s
return to work after maternity leave (not an easy return due to nursery bugs
galore, I must add), and the delicious E&I chocolate in mind, I decided to
try to bake something like the muffins I had made before, but denser and
moister. If you’ve read other posts of mine recently you might also recall an
obsession with a certain recipe by Dan Lepard, so using oil rather than butter
was an easy choice. I didn’t have to experiment more than once to find the
right mixture.
Beetroot, orange, chocolate. Photo: Helene Frossling |
Chocolate
beetroot orange muffins
3 eggs
80 g caster
sugar
80 g golden
syrup
120 ml
vegetable oil
250 g cooked
beetroot
zest from
one-two oranges
120 g plain
flour
60 g cocoa
powder (not sweetened!)
1 tsp
baking powder
Start by
switching on the oven to 180 C, and getting out a 12-hole muffin-tray, and line
with cupcake cases. I find metal muffins trays far easier than silicone ones, but we all have different preferences.
Finely
grate the cooked beetroot and zest the oranges. In a small bowl mix the
plain flour, cocoa powder and baking powder.
In a larger
bowl and using a hand-helg electric whisk, mix eggs, sugar and golden syrup
until light and a bit fluffy. Mix in the vegetable oil. At this point switch
from the electric mixer to a spatula; the rest you want to do with a bit more
finesse. Gently fold in the beetroot and orange zest. Once mixed well, fold in
the flour mix. Divide between the cupcake cases. The mix will only rise a
little bit when baking.
Bake the
cupcakes for 20-25 minutes. Let them cool before eating, and eat within a
couple of days if you want them at their freshest. I have no idea how long they
stay ok, but I think most people wouldn’t find out as the muffins would be long
eaten before they go stale. If you want to frost them to make them more like cupcakes I recommend the Hummingbird Bakery Cream Cheese Frosting. If you donb't have their books, Ocado has the recipe.
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