Muffins are one of the easiest and most delicious things to bake, they are super versatile and the possibilities are endless.

Today I wanted to give you some keys to making muffins. I will share them as chocolate muffins, however, you can swap the chocolate muffins for whatever ingredient you want (blueberries, lemon, strawberries…).

A few notes for success

These are just a few tips that will make your muffins extra soft and fluffly!

1. Use oil instead of butter, I know many recipes call for butter rather than oil, but, in my opinion, muffins are better when made with oil. The main reason for this is that butter is hard at room temperature, so when the muffin cools down, it will become denser; that won’t happen when you use oil, which is why muffins made with oil will be a lot lighter. Vegetable oil is also tasteless, and butter, on the other hand has a distinctive taste that can overpower.
2. Use a spatula to fold the flour rather than a mixer, that will avoid over mixing and will stop your mix from losing too much air.
3. Chill your batter in the fridge for at least 1 hour, you can also chill them overnight. This will add texture by allowing the scratch in the flour to be absorbed and will give you a more tender muffin, it will also thicken the butter without making it dry which means your muffins will have the beautiful dome.
4. When filling up muffin cases, try to leave a hole empty in between each muffin case, that will allow the muffins to grow more.
5. Sprinkle sugar on top of your muffins, that will give them that lovely crunch we all love!
6. Cook your muffins at 200 degrees celsius for 5 minutes and 180 for 15 minutes. This will also help create that dome.

Your ingredients

• 120 ml of vegetable oil (not olive oil as it’s overpowering)
• 200 gr of sugar + a bit more for sprinkling
• 120 ml of warm milk
• 2 eggs
• 1 tbsp of vanilla extract
• 157 gr of greek yoghurt
• 1 and 1/2 tsp of baking powder
• 260 gr of flour
• A pinch of salt
• 100 gr of dark chocolate chips

Method

1. Mix the sugar and oil, then add the milk and mix again.
2. Beat in the eggs one at a time. Add the vanilla and mix.
3. Fold in the yoghurt until incorporated.
4. Add in the flour, baking powder and the salt, fold them in with a spatula or a wooden spoon until just incorporated.
5. Fold in the chocolate chips and mix again. You can reserve some on the side to top your muffins with them.
6. Chill your batter in the fridge for at least 1 hour or overnight.
7. Once you are ready to bake your muffins, fill up your muffin cases filling about 3/4 of the way, bake them in the oven at 200 degrees celsius for 5 minutes and then reduce the heat to 180 degrees celsius and keep baking for another 15 minutes until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.