Chocolate Chip Muffins Recipe & Tefal Vitacuisine Steamer

The Daisy Blue Cupcake Box
Cupcake insert (comes with the Daisy Blue box)
The Teddy Red Cupcake Box
Cupcake/Muffin Boxes: I’m really excited about my cakeboxes!! I’ve spent weeks working on the ‘Daisy Blue’ box and the ‘Teddy Red’ box. These boxes are designed specially for cupcakes and muffins. I decided to do these boxes because I was unable to find good-looking cupcake boxes to store the cupcakes I bake for gifts. So I decided to design some myself! These boxes are now on sale at Carrefour Suntec Level 2 (where the ovens and baking trays are), Bake-It-Yourself, Sun Lik Trading and Pantry Magic (Holland Village). Visit http://www.boostprints.com/ for the addresses of the above stores. The boxes are also on sale at the Boostprints website http://www.boostprints.com/

Carrefour Suntec City: All my books and cakeboxes are now on sale at Carrefour Suntec! Here’s where they can be found –
Carrefour level 1: Baking Needs section (opposite Bengawan Solo)
Carrefour level 2: Household appliances (where the ovens and baking trays are)

Busy, busy, busy:I must apologise for my long absence. It’s been a very busy March for me! I’ve got box design assignments, book publishing matters, sales of my new cupcake boxes to look into, etc. Now that I can take a little breather, the first thing that I jump into is my blog.
Eating healthily:One of my resolutions for 2008 is to take better care of myself, which means to eat healthily and exercise regularly. I've started Pilates and I’ve switched to eating more steamed meals too. Steamed meals are healthier because they do not need oil to cook and also, more vitamins are preserved in the food (especially the vegetables). And for this, I must thank Tefal for the kind use of their new Vitacuisine Steamer. According to a study done, the Vitacuisine preserves 86% of Vitamin C in broccoli, as compared to 58% in saucepan cooking, 61% in microwave and 70% in some steamers. The look of the Vitacuisine steamer is unique, unlike the usual 3-tier steamer that you see in the market. It is made up of individual baskets and tray so that the flavours of the food are kept separate. The video below shows my family's lunch being prepared - a delicious healthy meal of rice, chicken with ginger and soya sauce, and spinach.
Video: Tefal Vitacuisine 3 in 1 Steamer

Tefal Vitacuisine: S$159 at Carrefour Suntec City. Also available at most leading electrical and departmental stores.



Chocolate Chip Muffin made with chocolate milk
I’ve always liked making muffins. They’re quick and fuss-free. I usually use plain fresh milk as one of the ingredients in my muffins. Just the other day, when I was getting the ingredients ready, I wondered how a chocolate chip muffin would turn out if I used chocolate milk. So I did just that – made a substitution just to see whether it would make the muffin more chocolaty.

Milk: For the muffins, I used the Meiji chocolate flavoured milk. My kids absolutely LOVE this brand.
Flour: I used self-raising flour because since it already contains baking powder, it’s more convenient. Plus I had some leftover in my pantry and I really wanted to finish it up since it’s opened already.
Chocolate chips: I used my last packet of Ghirardelli. (Tried to look for it at Fairprice Finest lately but it was out of stock.)

So my experiment for today is to answer this question: Which gives a better flavor to chocolate chip muffins – plain milk or chocolate-flavoured milk?
Below is my muffin recipe:
Ingredients:
350g self-raising flour
140g unsalted butter, softened at room temperature
170g caster sugar or fine-grained sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla essence
180ml Meiji chocolate milk
About 1 cup (about 180g) semi-sweet chocolate chips
Method:
1. Sift flour. Preheat oven till 190°C/375°F. Line a regular-sized muffin tray with paper cases.
2. Cream butter and sugar on medium speed. Add one egg. Mix till incorporated. Add other egg and vanilla essence. Mix till incorporated.
3. Switch mixer to lowest speed. Add 1/3 of flour, then ½ of milk. Repeat this alternating procedure till all the flour and milk are added. Mix till just combined. Do not overmix.
4. Add chocolate chips. Fold gently. Fill the paper cases till about 80% full.
5. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes till golden brown.
Video: Chocolate Chip Muffins

Sturdy baking cases: From the video, you can see that I used a muffin tray as well as the white stand-alone sturdy paper cases. If you are using those (that is, the paper cases that do not need muffin trays), fill them to about half-full with the muffin mixture. If you fill them up with too much mixture, it will overflow out of the cases. If you are using a muffin tray, you can fill each one with more muffin mixture and it probably won’t overflow during baking. This is because a muffin tray ‘cooks’ the mixture more evenly and quickly, thereby solidifying it before it can overflow.
Mixing: After adding in the flour to the cake mixture, do not overmix! Mix till everything’s just combined. If you overdo it, the gluten in the flour starts to strengthen and elasticize, and this will result in tough-tasting and rubbery-textured muffins.
Results: The muffins were soft and delicious. They tasted just as good as when I used plain fresh milk. The crumb had a very slight chocolaty taste but it was overshadowed by the more intense flavor of the chocolate chips. There was, however, a difference in the look of the muffins. Due to the colour of chocolate milk, the muffins had a light brown crumb, instead of a yellow one.
Best eaten today: How long can a muffin keep? Well, muffins REALLY do taste best on the day they are baked. If you plan to eat them the next day, they must be reheated in the microwave for a few seconds so that they regain their soft texture. I baked these muffins on a Sunday afternoon and took them along for a family gathering that very evening.

Question from readers:
Dear Oilin,
So sorry to trouble u again with endless qns on baking. I made the pineapple jam just like yrs and kept it in the fridge for 3 days and took it out to make pineapple tarts. My jam was too soft n too watery(juice) and i can’t even roll it properly. I decided to get the commercial ready-made pineapple jam this year. I would like to check with u whether
( 1) Can I cook this ready-made jam with my own grated pineapples?
(2) Is ready-made jam recommended for only closed kind of pineapple tarts because for open tarts, the jam will be too dry for that.
Hope to hear from u soon. Have a nice day ahead!!
Answer: Yes, you can cook your own homemade pineapple filling with the commercial ones. If you find the commercial one too dry for open tart, you can stir-fry it with a little pineapple juice (eg the 'Lee' brand - available at most local supermarkets at the section where the canned drinks eg. Yeo's drinks are found.) The 'Lee' brand of pineapple juice comes in a red-coloured can. Or you can simply mix in your own homemade pineapple filling with the commercial one to make a less dry filling.

Fabulous Cupcake Pictures: Click on the following links below to see pictures of absolutely fabulous-looking cupcakes. They really are some of the prettiest I've seen. Hope they inspire you to make some too!
http://fiveprime.org/hivemind/Tags/celebrationscupcakes
http://www.cupcakedlights.blogspot.com/
www.flickr.com/photos/65668398@N00/

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