Marmalade Chocolate Chip Muffins.......the Aftermath of a Disaster

Want a good laugh? Two weeks ago I baked Marmalade Muffins. I happily put finishing touches to the muffins before placing them into the oven. When I walked back to the dining table, this was what I found :

Melted butter left behind.

Yaaaaarrrrghhhh!!!! I FORGOT TO ADD BUTTER TO THE BATTER!!!!!!! I was dumfounded at 5:30am on a Sunday morning. What was I to do? These muffins are a goner for sure and since they were already in the oven, nothing could be done to save them. Looking on the bright side (in research and development mode) I can now answer this burning question with absolute certainty - can we leave out butter/vegetable oil when baking muffins? The answer my friends, as you all jolly well know, is a resounding NO! But........there is a but.........Swasthi did an Eggless Banana Chocolate Muffin - No Butter, No Oil, No Sugar Recipe so I could be wrong.

With my heart in my stomach (that's what it felt like), I cleared my baking tools and took a peep into the oven. No wonder the muffin cups looked under-filled. But being well behaved muffins, they rose high and proud. When they were done, I dutifully took them out of the oven to cool. I took one out of the pan and gave it a squeeze. It was soft, nothing out of the ordinary. Looks and feels like a normal muffin. But when I took a bite, well, it tasted bleaghh! The texture was dryish. something like "huat kueh" after two days. So there you go, my thesis on muffins with no butter.

Has this ever happened to you? This is not the first time that my ingredients missed the bus. I have left out vanilla essence, pandan essence and baking powder. And there was that other time when I finished blending a spice paste and to my horror saw that the chillies were still sitting pretty in the bowl. But this I would say is the most disastrous yet. My muffins all went into the bin :(

But all is not lost as I am now more vigilant when preparing muffins. I cross check to make sure I don't miss anything and it led to these very nice Marmalade Chocolate Chip Muffins. I found the muffin liners last Friday at Tesco and I thought they were rather pretty. But expensive. RM5.90 for only 10 liners.

I opened a new bottle of marmalade and added 1 cup into the batter. I also used 2 tubs of plain yogurt and got worried that the batter might be too wet. But it was just nice after I added flour. I think the muffins looked quite nice studded with extra chocolate chips. I was a bit careless when placing the baked muffins on the cooling rack because one of them took a tumble. Butterfingers!

This fellow did a kamikaze and lost a few chips.

I was very happy with the end product as the muffins were moist and tender. The marmalade did not taste too strong. It's orangey flavor complemented the chocolate very well. And even though I did not add any sugar to the batter, the sweetness from the marmalade and chocolate chips were sufficient to sweeten things up. Of course, for those of you who prefer a sweeter muffin, you may need to add some sugar. 

Marmalade Chocolate Chip Muffins
Recipe Source : A mish mash of the many mufin recipes I sourced from the internet
Makes 12 regular sized muffins

Ingredients :
- 230 grams self raisng flour
- 2 large eggs, lightly beaten
- 95g butter, melted and cooled
- 270ml plain yogurt
- 1 cup marmalade (I used St Dalfour)
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 cup chocolate chips plus extra for topping
(I left out sugar intentionally as I found the ingredients sweet enough. Please add if you prefer sweeter muffins)

Method :
1. Preheat oven to 160C
2. Line muffin pans with paper liners
3. In a mixing bowl add yogurt, eggs, melted butter, marmalade and vanilla extract. Stir to mix.
4. In another mixing bowl, add flour and 1 cup chocolate chips. Mix to coat the chocolate chips with flour and make a well in the centre.
5. Pour the wet ingredients into the flour and lightly fold until just combined. Do not overmix.
6. Scoop batter into lined muffins pans and top each muffin with a few chocolate chips.
7. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes.