Chocolate Muffins

I was trawling the internet for a 'chocolate cum chocolate' muffin recipe and this caught my eye as it seems so easy to do and had good ratings.  I had tried other recipes but they turned out to somewhat lacking in the degree of chocolate-ness as deemed by my kiddos. 

The recipe called for buttermilk which I substituted with 1 tablespoon of white vinegar to which enough milk was added to make up 1 cup.

  

I was excited when the muffins came out dark brown, almost blackish.  Surely, it hints at the amount of chocolate in it.  And it looked moist too!

Chocolate Muffins 

Ingredients

2 large eggs

1 cup buttermilk
2 tsp vanilla extract
210 gm all-purpose flour
83 gm unsweetened cocoa powder
250 gm light brown sugar (without lumps)
2 tsp baking powder
150 gm chocolate chips
110 gm salted butter (melted, slightly cooled) 

Method

1. Place rack in centre of oven and preheat oven to 220 ^oC. Line muffin pan with liners.

2. In a large bowl, whisk together eggs, buttermilk and vanilla extract.

3. In another large bowl, whisk together flour, cocoa powder, brown sugar, baking powder.  Break up any lumps of brown sugar.

4. To the bowl of dry ingredients, add the wet ingredients and chocolate chips. Mix until well combined.

5.  Using 2 tablespoons, fill the muffin cups to the brim. You may choose to lightly press some more chocolate chips onto the top of the filled cups.

6.  Place into oven and bake for 8 minutes. Turn down oven temperature to 175 ^oC and bake for another 12 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the middle of cupcake exits clean.

7.  Transfer to wire rack to cool.

Reference : Once Upon A Chef

Ipoh Hor Fun with Mushroom and Shredded Chicken

To say that the last time I posted was a long time ago would be an understatement since it has been years. Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the Circuit Breaker policy has been implemented in Singapore to interrupt transmission cycles. With the adults in the household are working from home and the kids doing home-based learning, our meals are starting to get boring.

And so I started exploring some new recipes to inject some further varieties. Some are excellent hits and those recipes are definitely keepers for my family, so I am posting some of them here to save myself from hunting for good recipes when that craving for specific dishes hits us again.

  

We love chinese food and this is one that I always enjoy. However, ordering it back as a take-away sometimes results in a gooey mess that does no justice to an otherwise excellent meal.

So I decided to attempt this at home instead.

I did not try it for taste whilst cooking but it turned out amazingly perfect. My fusspots are now older and are more vocal about what tastes good and what warrants a thumbs down. It is with great satisfaction that they slurped this up and the younger one gave a nod when I asked if he enjoyed it.  

Ipoh Hor Fun with Mushroom and Shredded Chicken 

Ingredients

500 gm Ipoh hor fun

1½ chicken breast (adjust if you prefer more/less chicken meat with the dish)
2 packets Xiao Bai Chai
4 dried mushrooms (rinse and soak till softened, remove stems and slice, keep the water)

Gravy :
250 ml chicken broth (I use Swanton's instant chicken broth)
2 bowls of mushroom water (from soaking the mushroom)
1 tsp sesame oil
2 tbsp oyster sauce
2 tbsp dark soy sauce
2 tbsp light soy sauce
1 tbsp sugar

Thickening Agent :
1 tbsp corn starch with 1 tbsp water (for thickening of gravy)

Method

1. Wash chicken breast and pat dry. Rub in ½ tsp salt, dash of pepper and ½ tsp sesame oil. Leave in refrigerator to season at least 1 hour. 

2. Cook chicken breast meat in boiling water. Remove and set aside. Shred the meat when cool.

3. Blanch the Xiao Bai Chye. Set aside.

4. Blanch the Ipoh hor fun in boiling water. Remove, drain and apportion onto serving plates.

5.  Add mushrooms and all ingredients for gravy into saucepan.  Allow it to come to a boil.

6.  Add thickening agent. Let it continue to simmer, stirring to prevent starchy lumps from forming.

7.  Apportion shredded chicken, Xiao Bai Chye and mushrooms onto serving plates. Spoon gravy over the hor fun.

8.  Serve with sliced green chillies on the side.

Reference : The Fussy Palate