Uncheery Cherry Chocolate Muffins

Happy Friday! Today I brought white chocolate chip pumpkin muffins into work to kick off this sweet holiday and have 2 parties tomorrow night. So today I'm dishing up one more spooktacular eat that will fit any Halloween soiree - cherry chocolate muffins!

Ever since my Dexter cupcakes, I've been trying to find a use for the remainder of that absolutely delectable sour cherry jam that I had used for filling the vanilla cupcakes. And since they came out so nice, I figured why not use it as filling twice! After all, what says gore like gooey cherry jam? For a Halloween twist, I went with a chocolate cake and white chocolate chips to highlight the red innards. Though I may have overfilled some of the muffins and the white chocolate chips sunk into the cake (see below for how to avoide both of these problems), it gave the muffins a bit of character and that 'eaten away' look which I think fits perfectly into the spooky scheme of things. And don't let the meager appearance fool you - these were moist and so delicious!

 

Cherry Chocolate Muffins
*Adapted from The Joy of Cooking
2 oz unsweetened chocolate, melted
1 3/4 C all purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1 C buttermilk (I made my own*)
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 C (1 stick) butter, at room temperature
1 large egg
1/2 C white chocolate chips (or chocolate chips if preferred)
1/3 C cherry jam (or more if preferred)

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees and line your muffin tin with paper or foil liners. Melt the chocolate in your microwave (for tips on this, see this article) and let cool slightly. In a mixing bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda and salt. In a separate bowl, combine the buttermilk and vanilla (I measured out the buttermilk in a measuring cup and simply added the vanilla to the cup - no reason to use up another bowl!). In another large mixing bowl (either in your stand mixer or with a hand mixer), beat the stick of softened butter until fluffy, then beat in the egg. Add the melted chocolate and mix until blended.

Then, with the mixer on low, add the flour mixture in 3 parts, alternating with the buttermilk mixture. Fold in the white chocolate chips. Note: some of my chips sunk causing an ‘eaten away’ look which works for Halloween, but might not be the most aesthetically pleasing presentation on other occasions. I recommend rolling them in a teaspoon or so of flour before folding into the batter.

Place a very small amount of batter - just enough to cover the bottom - in each baking cup. (Do not use too much! I severely overfilled some of mine and I ended up with mutant muffins!). Add a teaspoon or so of cherry jam and then cover with another scoop of batter.

Again, do not make the same mistake as me and overfill these! The overfilled ones did not set properly and fell apart when removed from the baking cup, while the muffins that I made using less batter were nothing short of decadent and divine (and in tact). Bake 25-30 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean. This should make about 20-24 muffins, depending on how much you fill the cups.

The result? A chocolately, cherry gooey muffin. The sweetness of the chocolate was offset perfectly by the tart cherry jam all the while creating a gorey little treat. Perfect for Halloween, no?

So there you have it. One more Halloween treat that doesn't scream jack-o-lanterns, mummies and candy corns (not that there's anything wrong with that). And what I want to know is: are you dressing up for Halloween? What are you going as?

Psst...for more Halloween grub ideas, check out my Dexter cupcakes (recently featured as Top Killer Cupcakes for Halloween), Halloween Queso Dip and Pumpkin Spice Cake with Honey Frosting! Oh and to see me in a throwback Halloween costume, check this out!

Freebies on Friday: CHOCOLATE!

MARS is giving away free full-sized chocolate bars! It's all part of their Real Chocolate campaign, promoting their use of real cocoa butter, not vegetable oil or fake chocolate flavoring. Personally, chocolate has never been my favorite indulgence, but who can turn down FREE items? Not this Manhattan chick.

Every Friday, from now through September, MARS will issues 250,000 coupons for a FREE, full-sized chocolate bar. In case you didn't know, MARS is the mastermind behind 3 Musketeers, M&M's, Milky Way, Dove, Twix, and Snickers. For me, always a toss up between Twix and Snickers...how do I turn down nougat? Yet Twix is the only candy bar with the cookie crunch...Anyhow, you can learn all about the promotion on realchocolate.com, including the upside of putting Real Chocolate into your body, as opposed to evil vegetable oil and other, long worded items.
Gripes:
1) Every time I tried to navigate through the site, I had to enter my birthday. Why? I'm not sure, but got a bit fed up while trying to learn more about their offer.
2) The coupon is mailed to you via snail mail. I'm not trying to be snooty and go on about how did people survive before cell phones, Internet, toilets, or whatever, but really this is 2009...wouldn't a printable coupon be more effective? Of course, I was not aware of this or the 6 week (eeek!) delivery time until after I submitted my name. But I suppose it will be a nice surprise after I've forgotten about this promotion 6 weeks from now.