For The Love of Nutella - Chocolate and Hazlenut Muffins

Nutella, nothing makes my heart warmer, my teeth stickier. It's my not-so-guilty secret and I'll let you into another secret. A confession, if you will.  


Imagine this.  It's a bad day at work and thankfully I'm working from home and it's about 5.25pm when I'm thinking about packing up and going for a walk. The phone rings. Last call of the day, I tell myself, then I'm off.

So I answer it and the shouting begins. Let me be clear, it wasn't at me as such, more in my general direction about the general state of the World in which we work, but clearly it's all my fault. Throw in world hunger and poverty and we'd have had the full set, apparently. Much as I tried to get a word in edgeways, it was never going to happen so, I put the phone on speaker and raided the cupboards to dig out my trusty jar of Nutella and a very big spoon.  I sat back down and I ate. I ate, listened (ish) and took responsibility as I consoled myself in the depths of the nutty, silky, so-bad-it's-good jar of spread. I don't know how much I got through but needless to say that 1kg jar of Nutella didn't last the household very much longer. And it hadn't been open for long before my 'episode' either.

Nutella-gate 1 with Tess

I know.  It's bad, but worse is that, this wasn't my first time. The first time this happened I wasn't alone. It wasn't even sparked by the need to console myself. This time it wasn't personal. This time it was a joint effort. I hate to name and shame, but my friend Tess and I got through a whole 1 KG jar. In one night.

It all started with a few drinks one sunny day in Dusseldorf. That German beer is strong and by the time it came to get ready to go out for dinner, frankly, we just couldn't be bothered and decided to make the most of the weather with a barbecue on Tessa's sunny balcony. We went off in search of meat and along the way, we found waffles and, 'Oh Look, Nutella! Wouldn't they be lovely together!', we exclaimed? (Waffles and Nutella that is, not meat and Nutella... although.... - another day, another post). And would you know, the 1kg pot was on offer and it seemed daft not to. And that's always how it starts.


Along with our meat, waffles and Nutella, we grabbed a couple of bottles of wine and sensibly had a lovely meat barbecue. Not so sensibly, we dismissed the waffles with the flick of a wrist and hit the Nutella with a spoon, while we sat on the balcony, talking, laughing, eating, drinking.  

We Ate. The Whole. Blimmin. Thing.

But what can you do? We all have our weaknesses. And Nutella's mine!

So when I was flicking through the new Hummingbird Bakery Cake Days book and clumsily dropped it, I just had to make the Hazlenut and Chocolate Cupcakes the booked opened at as it hit the floor.  Surely it was a sign?

So the recipe below is not mine.  It's adapted from the book (and only ever so slightly changed to be fair).  They are cupcakes in the book but to all intents and purposes these are muffins in my mind, and muffins they shall be.

And how indulgent a muffin can you get!? I think they are actually made of magic - certainly my husband thought so when he couldn't figure out how the squidgy Nutella got in the middle of the muffiin in the first place (tut, roll eyes. Men.)  And please, please serve these warm - the Nutella is gorgeously runny then.

Please don't judge me.  I licked the spoon.  And the bowl.  And ate four in one go.

To save my soul from Fat Camp, I made only six (otherwise I'd have eaten more), and the recipe below reflects this.  

Chocolate and Hazlenut Muffins

• 150g plain flour
• 55g caster sugar
• 1/2 tbsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp bicarbonate of soda
• Pinch salt
• 125ml whole milk
• 1/2 tsp vanilla essence
• 1 egg
• 40g melted butter
• 75g Nutella
• 15g hazelnuts, left whole of chopped

1. Preheat the oven to 180 and line a muffin tin with cases

2. Sift together the flour, sugar, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda, baking powder and salt into the bowl of a mixer, with the paddle attached,

3. Whisk together the milk, egg, and vanilla in a jug and, with the mixer on slow, add the wet ingredients into the dry. Scrape the bowl with a spatula to catch all the ingredients then mix on medium - high until combined. Add the butter and mix a little more.

4. Add 40g of Nutella to the batter and mix thoroughly.

5. Spoon the batter into the cases until a quarter full. Put a teaspoon of the remaining Nutella in each case, on top of the batter and then add the remaining batter so each case is 2/3s full.

6. Sprinkle over the chopped nuts and bake for 25-30 minutes until they are risen and bounce back when pressed.

Enjoy!