When it rains lava – Brownie muffins

I don’t really have much of a sweet tooth. I’ve always preferred savoury food. Lately though, I often find myself rummaging through the 6-year-old’s candy stash. It’s what I do when I’m stretched to my limits; when the kids are on my last nerves; when bowls and plates REFUSE to stay in my grip and when I manage to twist both ankles coming down the stairs. I eat.

Hello. My name is Pris and I’m an emotional eater. Except I don’t just eat when I’m sad. I eat with EVERY emotion. Happy, sad, mad, bored, frustrated or depressed, I eat. I like chips when I’m bored and candy when I’m mad. But some days, candy just doesn’t cut it.  Some days, you just get so bogged down that all you want to do is to sit down and not give another shit about whatever might go wrong next. You’ve heard one too many “NO!” from your kids and you’ve knocked over one too many glasses of milk. Let it rain lava for all you care. You just want cake. Chocolate cake. A dense and rich one, with nuts and extra chocolate chips. Hey, that sounds a lot like a brownie. So that’s what I did. I made brownies and suddenly the world doesn’t seem so bad after all. Except now I’m getting fat with every bite. Goddammit!

This is a recipe I’ve been using since I was a kid and it’s never failed to cheer me up. In fact, I remember giving quite a number of “baking classes” to my friends back in my school days using this recipe. The original  recipe uses self-rising flour, but because you’re more likely to find a talking cow here in Switzerland than a pack of self-rising flour, I’ve adapted it to use AP flour. It’s an unusual recipe for brownies because 1) it uses baking powder, 2) the egg white is beaten separately and 3) okay, it’s technically not a brownie but more of a brownie-esque chocolate cupcake. I’m still calling it a brownie.

The beating of the egg white suggests that it’s quite light and not at all dense and fudgy like a brownie should be. But in any case, it still is a very satisfying cake. Not too fudgy that it glues your mouth shut but also not that light that it disqualifies itself as a brownie. Sometimes I like to skip the nuts and throw in peanut butter chips instead and then I sit back and watch the lava rain turn into rose petals while I nibble on my brownie. Nibble……HA! Who am I kidding?

As I’m writing this, the last of the brownies is long gone and I’m in the middle of a power struggle with the two-year-old. I may need to go make some more. Happy Wednesday everyone!

Brownie Muffins

Makes 12 – 14 muffins

INGREDIENTS

• 160g  dark chocolate, chopped
• 100g butter, cut into cubes
• a pinch of salt
• 1 Tbsp milk
• 75g sugar
• 115g AP flour
• ¼ tsp baking powder
• 2 eggs, separated
• chopped walnuts, chocolate chips and/or white chocolate chips to make up a cup *

*optional

 

DIRECTIONS

• Preheat the oven to 180ºC.
• Line a muffin pan with cupcake liners.
• In a saucepan, melt the chocolate with the butter, salt and milk  over low heat. Keep stirring until it’s all thick, smooth and glossy.
• Stir in the sugar and set aside to cool.
• In the meantime, beat the egg whites till stiff peaks. Set aside.
• In large bowl, sift together the flour and the baking powder.
• Add the chocolate mixture and the egg yolks to the dry ingredients and mix well.
• Fold in the egg white carefully until just incorporated
• Fold in the nuts and chocolate chips if using and scoop batter into the liners.
• Bake for 18 – 20 mins until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cupcake comes out clean.
• Dust with icing sugar if desired and serve.