Chocolate, Cherry and Sour Cream Muffins

I recently celebrated the purchase of my new stove by attempting to bake some muffins. Bearing in mind that I have not baked in over 14 years (not having a working oven was part of the problem), I was a little anxious at how the muffins would turn out.

I found the recipe in the latest issue of Better Homes & Gardens March 2012 and the recipe was a Bulla Advertising Feature courtesy of George Calombaris. I made only a couple of minor adjustments to it but the recipe source is from Bulla and George Colombaris.

The muffins - sorry the picture is not pretty!

275ml Bulla Premium Sour Cream (note that I used lite sour cream)
350g plain flour
1 Tbsp cocoa powder
Pinch of salt
1 tsp of bicarbonate of soda
2 tsp baking powder
250g caster sugar
4 eggs, beaten (note that I used free range)
180ml extra virgin olive oil
150g dark chocolate buttons (55% cocoa) (Note that I could only find 43% cocoa)
1 x 450g can pitted cherries, drained and cut in half

1. Pre-heat oven to 180C fan-forced.
2. Line two 6-cup Texas muffin pans with paper cups.
3. Sift flour, cocoa powder, salt, bicarbonate of soda, baking powder and caster sugar into a large bowl.
4. In a separate bowl, whisk eggs, extra virgin olive oil and sour cream until smooth.
5. Gently fold wet ingredients into the dry ingredients until just combined.
6. Fold dark chocolate buttons and cherries into the mixture. Spoon mixture into paper cups.
7. Bake muffins for 25-28 minutes. Remove from the muffin pans and cool onto a wire rack.

Make 12 large muffins

Note: As this was my first baking experince in years, I found out that the lower tray cooked faster than the top tray. Eventually it all worked out but on average my baking time was more like 35 to 40 minutes. I did forget to sprinkle some icing sugar but the verdict from my work colleagues was 'yummy', 'delicious' and there were requests for 'more please'. So I guess I did well.

I hope you enjoy these too if you decide to try the recipe out. Thanks George C and Bulla!

Cheers....