Mexican Mole Muffins and a Dr Oetker Chocolate Giveaway #15

Cornwall is my home and I hate to leave it. However, the pull of friendship can be strong, so this weekend, we headed upcountry to some chocolate loving friends in Glastonbury. With time in fairly short supply, I decided to make some chilli muffins from Unwrapped, the Green & Black's Original chocolate cookbook. These Mexican Mole Muffins appealed, not only because they were quick to make, but also because they had a lot of chocolate in them - ideal for the aforementioned chocoholics. With the cold winds and hail storms we'd been experiencing, the chilli seemed like a nice warming idea too.

Luckily I had recently been sent a load of chocolate goodies from Dr Oetker, so I had plenty of chocolate to choose from. As the above recipe called for a high cocoa content milk chocolate, the 33% Cook's chocolate was ideal.

This is how I did it:

• Chopped 100g 33% milk chocolate into shreds with a sturdy knife.
• Chopped half a de-seeded rocoto chilli finely.
• Sifted 200g flour (half wholemeal, half white) into a bowl along with 1 tsp baking powder, 25g cocoa powder and 1/2 tsp fine sea salt.
• Added 110g vanilla (caster) sugar. 
• Stirred in the chocolate and chilli.
• In a large jug, beat 2 medium eggs with 100ml sunflower oil.
• Whisked in 225g milk and 1/2 tsp of vanilla extract.
• Made a well in the centre of the dry ingredients and poured in the wet.
• Mixed together gently until just incorporated.
• Divided the mixture between the muffin cases, making a complete mess as I did so - the mixture was very runny.
• Baked at 180C for 20 minutes.

They didn't rise as much as I expected, but they were nonetheless delicious. The rocoto generated a gentle heat, which allowed the flavour of the chilli to come through. But after the muffin had gone, that same chilli buzzed around the mouth and was much more noticeable. Although liberally studded with chocolate, which gave a satisfying sweet crunchy burst, the chips had sunk to the bottom half, which was a bit disappointing but inevitable given the wetness of the batter. Anyway, between us we managed to devour most of them in fairly short shrift and used them to power us to the top of Glastonbury Tor.

Many thanks to Dr Oetker for this great chocolate themed toolbox. I'm looking forward to making lots of fun things with the remaining items, although I have already made some scrumptious cookies with the white choc chips - recipe to be posted later.

This is what I received:

• 150g bar of cook's 33% milk chocolate
• 150g bar of cook's 54% dark chocolate
• 150g bar of cook's 72% dark chocolate
• 100g bag of white chocolate chunks
• Pack of chocolate ready to roll icing
• Giant milk chocolate stars
• Chocolate flavour writing icing
• Milk and white chocolate flakes
• Chocolate flavour strands
• Vanilla extract with seeds
• Cake release spray

Giveaway
If you would like a chance at getting your hands on this chocolate baking and decorating extravaganza just in time for Christmas, then please fill in the Rafflecopter below. You will need to leave a comment on this post which then gives you additional chances to enter if you so wish. Rafflecopter will pick a winner at random from the entries received. If you are commenting anonymously, please give me some way of identifying you as I will be verifying the validity of entries. Any automated entries will be disqualified. This giveaway is only open to those with a UK postal address.

Closing date is Sunday 2 December 2012

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