Chocolate and walnut muffins

Last year I got a baking book as a birthday present for Zoe. She really loves all the "evil" cakes so it was an easy decision. Unfortunately, I forgot to ask the lady at the book store to wrap the book for me. So when I came home I went through the pages a bit and I got really jealous! The book was amazing, with great pictures, tips about decoration of the cakes and very clear directions for baking even very challenging cakes. So what do you think I did? The next morning I went back to the store and bought the same book for myself!

Due to my everlasting diet plans I didn't bake many things from it though. So when last weekend I saw the book standing on the shelf, and having given up on the diet, I thought I would give it a go. After some "reasonable" pressure from Stratis' side I had to choose between chocolate cake or chocolate muffins. Somehow I decided in favor of the second one and we both really enjoyed it! I changed some of the proportions slightly to make it more chocolaty and brownie-like. Here it comes:

INGREDIENTS:

170gr butter

200gr plain chocolate (I used Toblerone and ... OH! MY! GOD!)

200gr caster sugar

60gr brown sugar

4 eggs

1 tsp vanilla essence

150 gr self-rising flour

3 tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder

150 gr walnuts, chopped

1/3 tsp baking soda

2 tbsp white wine vinegar

12-15 muffin paper cases

1. Place the butter and the chocolate in a small bowl on bain-marie and let it melt. Transfer to a large mixing bowl.

2. Stir in the caster and the brown sugar, the eggs and the vanilla essence and mix with a mixer until smooth.

3. Sift over the flour and cocoa powder. Add the baking soda and vinegar and mix, capturing the air bubbles inside the dough.

4. Stir in the walnuts.

5. Pour the mixture into the paper cases, filling them to 3/4. Bake in a preheated oven at 180°C for about 30 minutes or until an inserted in the center match comes out clean. Dust with some caster sugar and serve with coffee, tea or even better hot chocolate with cream!