Famous for his delicious baking throughout the UK and possibly further, Paul Hollywood is a great inspiration.
From what I’ve seen of him, he has worked hard for what he now has and seems like a really down to Earth guy.
Clearly then, I thought he was great, but now I find my admiration has gone up another notch when I tried his amazing recipe for dark chocolate and cherry muffins.
They are so moist and tender along with chocolate pieces, that if you catch them at the right moment, melt in the mouth.
The secret to these morish muffins is jarred cherries.
If you’ve never worked with them before, they are usual cherries which have been pitted, added to a sugar syrup and are a lot more moist and soft as a result.
Being in sugar syrup they are also a whole lot sweeter than fresh cherries, so that’s where the dark chocolate comes in, to balance it out with a slight, rich, bitterness.
This recipe makes it so you will find cherry in every bite and their fantastic soft, juicy, sweet and moist flavours make theses an easy bake that can be served any time and make a very welcome home favorite.
I scaled this recipe down to make 6, instead of 12 muffins for our small 2 person household. If you need a dozen of these muffins in your life, feel free to scale up!
Paul Hollywood’s Dark Chocolate & Cherry Muffins
Makes 6
Ingredients
100g unsalted butter, softened
75g caster sugar
100g strong bread flour
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
2 medium eggs
75g good quality dark chocolate, chopped into chips
145g jarred Morello cherries without liquid
Pinch of salt
A splash of milk
Method
Preheat the oven to 200°c fan, and in a 6 cup muffin tin add a square piece of greaseproof paper, or paper case, to each hole.
In a medium bowl, cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy.
Slowly, add in the eggs a small amount at a time, stirring with each addition until combined.
Sift the flour, baking powder and salt into the mix and fold in gently.
Add in a small amount of milk at a time, stirring after each addition, until the cake mix becomes not runny, but a little looser, I’d say 2-4 tablespoons depending on your mix.
Add in the chocolate chips and 2 thirds of the cherries, reserving the others, and fold in so evenly distributed.
Distribute the batter equally as you can between the 6 muffins then press the reserved cherries into the surface of the top of each muffin.
Bake in the oven for 15 – 20 minutes, until firm and a skewer through the center comes out clean aside from cherry juice.
Leave to rest for about 10 minutes before releasing the cakes, then placing on a wire rack.
Serve and enjoy, they are lovely both warm and cold.
