Warm Chocolate Muffins with Chocolate Sauce and Fresh Strawberries


As life gets busier and work get more demanding day by day, its easy to resort to "semi-homemade" and "30-minute" meals for preparing our dinners. A full-time engineer myself, I know how difficult it can get at times when you have to sacrifice a gym session just because you still have to cook, and its inviting to gather the semi-cooked ingredients and spend less time cooking, at the same time still winning loads of compliments for your culinary skills(yeah, who knows I used something right off the shelf!:)) But as a cook, I can say that most of the joy and satisfaction that I derive from cooking is in the actual process, making something from scratch, trying out variations and methods, the smells and flavors that fill up my kitchen, getting involved as the delicacy takes shape, form, color and texture in the oven or on the stove, and finally, taking that extra step to make my meal more attractive and appealing! The joy of these small wonders can't compare to the packaged food!

I'm all for semi-homemade cooking, and using ingredients to ease your process is encouraged, but at least don't deprive yourself of the enjoyment while you cook! I needed some tonic for my body after this, and I went home and baked these Simple and Easy Chocolate Muffins, layered with homemade sauce, and served with fresh strawberries. I would use this as a basic muffin recipe, and you can play around with ingredients and flavors to make muffin variations. It works perfect as breakfast served with your morning coffee or as a quick evening dessert.

Note: This recipe makes 6-8 muffins

Ingredients
1 1/2 cup self-raising flour
1 tbsp cocoa powder
1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1 cup sugar
4 tbsp skimmed milk
1 egg
2 tbsp sunflower oil

For the Chocolate Sauce
1 cup semisweet chocolate chips
3/4 cup whipping cream
1 tspn vanilla essence

Method
Preheat oven to 350 deg F and grease a muffin pan with non-stick spray. Sieve the cocoa into a large bowl, then add the rest of the dry ingredients. Stir to combine, then make a well in the centre.

Beat the milk, egg and oil together in a jug, pour into the well, then stir quickly to make a batter. Spoon into the muffin tin, then bake for 15 mins or until risen and firm to the touch.

In a microwave-safe bowl, melt the chocolate chips and whipping cream. Remove after 30 sec, the stir, then repeat the process (keep stirring) until smooth. Add in the vanilla, and let the sauce cool a little.

Turn out the muffins while they are warm (not hot!) and pour the custard over them. Slice some fresh strawberries on the side, and enjoy a delicious dessert any day of the week!

Tip: You can make the chocolate sauce and store it in a fridge. Just melt it anytime you want to use it. Also feel free to indulge by pouring some vanilla ice cream on the top to make it one luscious dessert!


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28 comments :

FH said...

You know! Sucked into all the 30min meals hype, I bought Rachel Ray's but I don't think I can cook any of those within 30 mins!
You can make desserts even faster in the MW, I am waiting for Sri "MW-Desserts"!:D
Muffins looks yum, warm chocolate sounds great after a cold winter's dinner. My son made a Chocolate Bundt cake last weekend from the box, he loves chocolate!
Enjoy. It's all Kerala tomorrow at FH!:)

Anonymous said...

that was a really fun read girl!! loved your writeup, and yeah, i totally agree with your 29-min meal sentiment:D it's hard to find time, but some things are best done from scratch:)

The muffin looks very inviting!

-Sarah

SteamyKitchen said...

if i read your blog in the mornings, I'd never eat my boring breakfast!!

;-D
jaden

Anonymous said...

I can feed on this for 3 days a week:) (and starve the rest of the week!!) but the strawberries make it healthy too, right?:D

-Amy

Mansi said...

Asha - your son cooks!! brilliant:) and yeah, as I said, I am all for using ready-made ingredients, but not like get everything from outside and just assemble it at home!!

Sarah, Amy - thanks for your funny comments:)

Jaden - it's better to read my blog than give in to your boring breakfasts:D

Anonymous said...

aah! the smell of a warm muffin drizzled with my favorite chocolate sauce!! yummy!!! delightfully simple Mansi!

-TK

Rajitha said...

i swear!! next they are going to be promoting books lik no cook meal...just zap the food with ur eyes and its done!!..those muffins look to die for..

Sagari said...

that dripping chololate sauce looks delecioussss mansi beautiful pic

Coffee and Vanilla said...

Beautiful like always, really great classy dessert.
Margot ;)

EC said...

super...

Namratha said...

Well presented Mansi, looks delicious!

Richa said...

29 mins....lol
those muffins look ready to be popped into my mouth :)

Red Chillies said...

Ah! Hats off to you girl that you would rather go through the actual process of cooking rather than shortcuts.
Me! I always look for shortcuts and try to do things the easy way.
Hey, I loved our idea of using jaggery and no besan in churma laddoo. Let me give it a try and see

Shella said...

Lovely looking muffin Mansi. So tempting.

Padma said...

they look simply delicious. Love reading the ur write-up... I too agree RR's 30 minute meal never finishes in 30 mins...

Finla said...

Love the muffin and not to mention the chocolate sauce.
Delicious

Cynthia said...

Okay, you can go to 30-mintues meals but semi-homemade? (lol)

Manggy said...

Hi Mansi, you commented on my blog but your profile didn't show your website, so I just stumbled upon it now courtesy of Susan of Food Blogga. Beautiful place you have here :)

I think the 29-minute meals are to trump Rachael Ray by 1 minute, haha. Poor fast-food-ed souls. Chocolate muffins (admittedly with chocolate chips IN them) have always been a guilty pleasure of mine. Yours looks really good!

Deeba PAB said...

YES THANK YOU...I'M HERE! Maybe it was because I was trying to get here through the blogger profile. What a lovely post...will try it from scratch one day though! Am a sucker for 'from scratch' stuff & a diehard 'try everything once' at least. Hats off to you for carrying out a full time job & churning out such beauties!! HAVE A GREAT 2008!!

Aparna Balasubramanian said...

Oh God, chocolate again. I swaer, I am am putting on weight just looking at everything!Lovely muffins.
Congratulations on winning the Christmas Cookie event at Food Blogga.

Archana Doshi said...

Lovely, Enjoyed your write up as always, get inspired by it. The cake with straberries is my favorite combination as well.
Archana

remya said...

wow!!!!! mansi..u have my fav muffins with chocolate sauce...superb hmmmm ur tempting me to make them...i'm goin to grab things from my pantry...nice writeup mansi...enjy wid ur muffins...

Mansi said...

Thanks people! your comments are like my lifeline, so keep them coming! some of them are funny and most are very informative:) appreciate your time here!

AnuSriram said...

Delicious Dessert .... Simple and easy to make... Thanks... Happy 2008!

lakshmi said...

Why do you tempt me like this? You have enough chocolate recipes on this blog to so a JFI sort of round up!!!

Laavanya said...

Wow that looks so luscious and what a perfect dessert that makes Manasi.

Anonymous said...

Mmm! Looks so good. I could eat that whole thing.

Kribha said...

Wah....Wah.... Can you hear me cry? It looks fantastic and inviting.