Since this seems to be the order of the day, three cheers for celebrating our first Muffin Monday in the new place!
This week’s recipe is actually called Coffee Hazelnut Muffins, and I had every intention of leaving the recipe perfectly intact: Nutella and coffee in a muffin? The stuff dreams are made of! Breakfast of champions! Et cetera!
An errand-weary day changed that plan, however. The day that I was out and about getting the ingredients for these muffins, my final stop on the to-do list was at the new-to-me, scaled down grocer down the road from our house. Being unfamiliar with what they do and do not carry, upon arrival, I discovered that they do not carry hazelnuts, let alone hazelnut meal, but they did have a small supply of brazil nuts. Of the other varieties I could have chosen from, I figured brazil nuts would be the closest match, and frankly, I wasn’t up for another errand that took me in the opposite direction of home that day.
Brazil nuts it was! I ground them up in the food processor two times over to get the pieces as small as possible before adding them to the batter.
This recipe actually produced 22 regular sized muffins for me: nearly double!
Coffee Hazelnut Muffins
2 cups self raising flour
3/4 cup plain flour
1/3 cup hazelnut meal
1 cup firmly packed sugar
11/2 tablespoons dry instant coffee
1 tablespoon boiling water
2 tablespoons Nutella
2 eggs, lightly beaten
11/2 cups buttermilk
Preheat the oven to 400F and line a 12 hole pan with muffin liners.
Combine the water and instant coffee, set aside.
In a large bowl, sift together the self raising flour and all purpose flour.
Add in hazelnut meal, sugar, coffee mixture.
Eventually stir in the buttermilk, egg and nutella and mix gently.
Spoon the mixture equally into the prepared pan.
Bake for 18 to 20 minutes until a toothpick inserted in the centre comes out clean.
Cool for 5 minutes and frost if you like.
For the hazelnut frosting:
1 cup icing sugar
1 tablespoon cocoa powder
2 tablespoons Nutella
40 grams butter, softened
1 tablespoon milk
Stir in the icing sugar and cocoa powder together and beat the rest of the ingredients in gently.
Muffin Monday is an initiative by Baker Street. A culinary journey of sharing a wickedly delicious muffin recipe every week. Drop in a quick line to join her on her journey to make the world smile and beat glum Monday mornings week after week.
Source: http://foodjetaimee.blogspot.com/2012/05/muffin-monday-coffee-nutella-brazil-nut.html
