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Wednesday 20 February 2008

White Chocolate Heaven Muffins


The weather has been awful over the past few days here with freezing fog and freezing moisture that resembles snow. Icicles hung from the shed roof outside and the garden looked as if it had been painted all over in white yesterday. The birds lined up to take it in turns to feed from a little bird feeder I have hanging in the tree, so all in all it’s been a bleak winters tale.




This leads me onto my bake for today; I thought I would go with a white theme from the weather we’ve had here and I came up with my “White Chocolate Heaven Muffins”. The texture I aimed for in this sponge was a light moist crumb and with the addition of buttermilk to my recipe, I am more than happy with the results. I thought a creamy white chocolate ganache would be perfect for the topping. Adding a few sugar flowers and sugar strand sprinkles for decoration. The little sugar flowers I made yesterday sat in my warm conservatory whilst also watching the birds queue for feeding outside.




White Chocolate Heaven Muffins

Makes 12 muffins

Ingredients
375g (13 oz) self-raising flour
½ tsp baking powder
225g (8 oz) caster sugar
100g (4 oz) good white chocolate – I used Green & Blacks
250ml tub of buttermilk
150g (5 oz) butter, melted
2 large eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
White Chocolate Ganache
100g (4 oz) good white chocolate, chopped into small pieces
200ml (7 fl oz) double cream
25g (1 oz) butter
Decoration
A few decorations of sugar flowers, sugar strand sprinkles

You will need a 12-holed muffin tin and 12 paper muffin cases placed into each muffin hole.


Method

Preheat oven to 180°C/fan 160°C/350°F/Gas mark 4.

Melt the while chocolate over a heatproof bowl sat on top of just simmering water. When melted take off the heat and give the chocolate a good stir.

In a sieve over a large mixing bowl sift the flour and baking powder together, then add the sugar and mix through with a spoon making a well in the middle.

In a large jug add the buttermilk, eggs, vanilla extract, cooled melted butter and whisk through to combine. Pour all this mixture into the dry ingredients in the mixing bowl and then add the slightly cooled white melted chocolate. With a large metal spoon gently fold in the fluids to the flour mixture. Try not to overwork the mixture or the muffins will become tough when baked. Place equally amounts in each muffin case – they will be quite full but don’t worry.

Place into the preheated oven and bake for 25 – 35 minutes until the feel firm in the middle when pressed lightly with fingertips and light golden in colour. You can also test by inserting a skewer into the centre and if it comes out clean the muffins are ready.

Leave to cool for 5 minutes in the muffin tin before turning out onto a wire rack to cool completely.

To make the white chocolate ganache; In a large saucepan add the cream and butter and gently bring up to the boil take off the heat and the butter should have melted into the cream. Next add the chopped white chocolate and stir until melted (off the heat). Place the saucepan over a bowl of cold water and keep stirring until it firms up and thickens to a spreadable consistency. (Don’t let any of the water spill into the ganache).

Spread the white creamy chocolate ganche equally over the top of each muffin. Lastly sprinkle over sugar strands and place a sugar flower in the middle.

Note: if you are unable to find buttermilk use skimmed milk instead in this recipe.

20 comments:

Pixie said...

Hope you're feeling better and glad to see another lovely sweet up. yummy.

Maria♥ said...

Lovely bake Rosie.

Maria
x

Rosie said...

Hi Pixie, awe thanks you really are so very kind. I'm not feeling 100% but working on it ;)

Hi Maria, ahhh thanks sweetie :)

Thank you both for calling by and for your lovely comments!

Rosie x

Pixie said...

Tag, afraid you're it!

http://asweetart.blogspot.com/

Namratha said...

Mmmm looks fingerlicking good!! Love those cute flowers on top...you make everything so pretty and simple Rosie, love that :)

Anonymous said...

White chocolate ganache. My my my, doesn't that look good! :)

Donna said...

Sorry you not feeling chipper Sweetie!! And this looks SO "tender"!!! Wonderful!!

sandhya said...

came here through happy cook.... beautiful cupcakes.. You have a great blog... i have bookmarked few of your recipes, will surely try them.

Cakelaw said...

Hope the weather improves soon Rosie - these little pieces of heaven look as though they might help!

You have also been tagged for a MeMe (if you haven't already done it):

http://kitchenlaw.blogspot.com/2008/02/meme-food-for-gossip.html

Dhivya said...

wow...lovely muffins....u hav lot of patience girl..all cakes sounds great

Rosie said...

Hi Pixie, I will be calling by and thanks for tagging me sweetie! :D

Hi Namratha, thank you! It was such fun making those little flowers, giving me time to sit down for a little while *wink* :D


Hi Maryann, the white choc ganache has the texture of buttercream and if I may say myself very yummy too :D

Hi Donna, awe thanks sweetie I am sure I’ll be back to top form soon & hope you are getting over your tooth problems! :D Take it easy and pop those feet up…….

Hi sandhya, Welcome to my little part of the net and lovely to *see* you here! :D Oh that’s great about bookmarking some recipes – I'm looking forward to hearing about and viewing your bakes! :D

Hi Cakelaw, having better weather here today no frost, which is nice and a muffin and hot cup of tea does do the trick as a pick me up! I will be calling by and thanks for tagging me too :D

Hi Dhivya, awe thanks sweetie and yup I have had to learn patience over the years of having children lol :D

Many thanks to you all for calling by and as always I do appreciate your very kind words!!


Rosie x

Ruth Strong said...

These look so pretty and so tasty, I love white chocolate.

Rosie said...

Hi Ruth, ahh that's very sweet of you to say - thank you! :D White chocolate makes a change at times doesn't it?

Many thanks for calling by!

Rosie x

Finla said...

Wow it looks so delicious and i just wanted to lick that chocolate gnache.
I've book marked this recipe to make .
I see u have one of James book in your collection, i too added one in my collection today.
You know i bought the dessert book from him through the net, ordered it on sunday in amazonUK and got it today morning.
Here in the book shops it is 20 pound and in the net it was 3.09 pound, a bargain don't you think so. Just that i had to pây extra 3.75 for the post, but still a bargain.
Are you buying on the net. It is a realy bargain then.

Rosie said...

Hi Happy, you can get some great bargains on line for books. You got a very good deal with the whole package and James Dessert Book is lovely isn’t it?

The Collection Book of his I brought when I called into Tescos, I think it was £9.99 and I thought that was such a bargain. The collection book is made up from most of his previous books.

I hope you enjoy baking my muffins the ganche is not a hard set one but more like the texture of buttercream..

Many thanks for calling by and your kind comment!

Rosie x

Anonymous said...

Yum-O! Thanks for a great example of a muffin that is frosted. Poor misunderstood muffins. ;)

Mansi said...

that looks extremely decadent girl!!

Rosie said...

Hi C foodie, I love to bake muffins so simple and easy to bake :D

Hi Mansi, heehee I so lovely to be decadent lol ;D

Thanks ladies for popping by! :)

Rosie x

Aparna Balasubramanian said...

These muffins look beautiful, really.
I have been making muffins and cupcakes but never got around to covering/ frosting them. Somehow just haven't ventured there. But I will start with your chocolate ganache one of these dyas.

Rosie said...

Hi Aparna, awe thanks and I hope you enjoy trying out frosting your muffins next time ;)

Many thanks for popping by! :)

Rosie x