Dark Chocolate & Stem Ginger Muffins –

I was exploring the possibilities of making some dark chocolate muffins with ginger, since the two go so well together, when I came across a very nice recipe on Zeb Bakes website.  Since I had two jars of stem ginger in the cupboard I thought I might as well try that recipe.

Making muffins is never terribly onerous since it is really just a case of mixing wet ingredients together and then mixing the dry ingredients together too and then combining them.

This recipe is really just the same, but with an additional task of melting some butter and chocolate together as the starting point. 

I must say my attempt at these muffins has turned out rather well, they certainly taste very good indeed.

I am sure they will be eaten quite quickly, though I see no reason why they should not freeze very well too.

Ingredients:
Wet mixture:

• 110g unsalted butter
• 100g dark chocolate(I used 70%)
• 1 medium egg
• 100g natural yoghurt
• 160g milk(I used semi-skimmed)
• 2 balls or nuggets of stem ginger, finely diced.

Dry Ingredients:

• 260g plain flour
• 200g light brown muscovado sugar
• 10g ground ginger
• 1 1/2 tsp baking soda
• pinch of salt
• 150g dark chocolate chips(I used 70%)
• 1 ball/nugget of stem ginger

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 170C/150C Fan/340F
2. Line a 12 hole muffin tin with paper cases
3. In a bain marie(double boiler) melt the butter and 100g chocolate and stir to combine.  Then set aside to cool a little
4. In a bowl mix the egg, yoghurt and milk together.
5. Add in the butter/chocolate mixture and stir to combine.
6. Add in the finely diced stem ginger and stir to spread throughout the mixture.
7. In another bowl mix the flour, sugar, ground ginger, baking soda and salt.
8. Pour that dry mixture into the bowl of wet mixture and stir until just combined. Do not over-stir.
9. Add in the 150g of chocolate chips and stir to combine.
10. Spoon the mixture evenly between the 12 muffins cases.
11. Place a sliver of stem ginger on the top of each uncooked muffin.
12. Bake in the oven of 20-25 minutes, until a skewer poked into the centre comes out clean.  Mine took a full 25 minutes, but it rather depends on how the individual oven performs.
13. Allow to cool for a few minutes and then transfer to a wire rack and leave to cool completely.