Double Tone Coffee Vanilla Breakfast Muffins

Hi!

Can you imagine a brown and white soft cake, in a muffin shell, ribbons of coffee-cocoa and vanilla interspersed with bits of browned almond slivers. Right. This is what this is about. Hang on I'll get there!

I have been MIA for too long now, owing to a job that takes up such a huge chunk of time and energy. The best thing? I'm loving it! And yes, as of yesterday, I complete a year in this job, so all the world's Yay-ness points straight at me!

I have the best colleagues turned best friends in the world. There are the top bosses, who are some of the greatest teachers I have had. Then there are my seniors, who literally protect me when I cannot take a bigger bunch of work than I already have. Then there are my equals. I call them my equals owing to them having that same mad-ass quality that I have around Pinterest, nail art, office gossip (whatever little we get to hear), a chewy gummy toffee called Falero, ice cream, cheese balls and a digestive miracle called Fatafat. It is these equals who have become my best friends, the reason I look forward to office each day. Which connects me to the next point.

You know, I bake every Sunday (almost at least). Lately that trend has slowed down, owing to the less than human heat in Delhi. Temperatures have touched 45 Celsius already and that is not good news to anyone. My office folk on the other hand, love the baked goods that I get to office once in a while. I have brought Christmas Cake, the Banana Walnut Muffins and a set of chocolate cookies I made. Updates about each: The Christmas Cake post follows soon, the banana muffins I have told you about and the cookies. Oh Lord those cookies were NOT good. I made four batches, each having separate sets of problems. Lastly, after a day, the cookies turned into hockey pucks. Maybe I should give them away to some Ice Hockey team. Remind me?

Which gets me to my Double Tone Coffee Vanilla Breakfast Muffins. These are perfection in a muffin wrapper. I swear. The whole kitchen was smelling of espresso/ mocha by the time this was even half done!

Can you see the white vanilla streak in the centre bottom one? :D

For the recipe now:

Double Tone Coffee Vanilla Breakfast Muffins

You need:

• 2 cups flour (you can use all white, or take half white and half whole grain like I did. I'm trying to eat and feed healthy. *Trying to keep a straight face while saying this*)
• 2 cups of granulated sugar (I used a mix of white and brown. Brown gives a caramel-ly taste.)
• About 2 tbsp of instant coffee. You can adjust this to your taste.
• 1 and a half tbsp of cocoa powder. Use normal drinking chocolate if you want.
• 2 or 3 tsp baking powder
• 1 or 2 tsp vanilla extract/ essence
• 2 eggs
• A handful of almonds, chopped/ slivered and toasted in the oven till it's all toasty and yummy smelling. You can use cashews, walnuts anything you want. You can omit this too.
• A cup and a half-ish of melted butter.
• A pinch of salt
• Optional: Self control to stop yourself from finishing all the almonds beforehand. I didn't need this one. Ahem.

The Hows:

• In about 6 tbsp of water, dissolve the coffee and throw the chocolate in. Mix it up nice.
• Sieve the flour, the salt and the baking powder.
• Now this will happen in two parts. In a mixing bowl, whip the bejeezus out of one egg and dump half the sugar in. Mix till very well incorporated. Add 2/3rds the butter. (May I add here, I received a brand new stand mixer on my birthday from my adorable Ammijaan, my dearest grandmother! I am now a full scale baker! Yahoo!).
• Add half the flour little by little, till it becomes a batter/ crumby.
• At this point, put in the vanilla essence. Mix well.
• Keep your muffin papers and the pan ready. Spoon the vanilla batter into each paper till about half way up.
• Repeat steps 3-4. Add the coffee mix to this.
• Spoon the rest of the batter in the waiting half-filled papers.
• Swirl a toothpick/ handle of a small spoon in each paper to mix the vanilla and coffee batters.
• Sprinkle the almonds on top. Rightfully nom up the rest.
• In a preheated oven, bake the muffins for about 12-15 minutes at 200 Celsius.
• Swoon in the aroma.
• Take it out carefully. Resist the urge to bite one right now. Test the centre with a fork for done-ness. It should come out clean.
• Wait for 3-4 minutes to cool down a bit.
• Bite and swoon again. Try to share!

The bottom left one with the bite taken out of it? Yeah that's me.

It was AMAZING. So much so that I was asked to bring some more to office and it was very much liked by K and P, and categorically asked to make more of by my Mum, that dollop of sweetness!

Special thanks to my sous-chef, my Dad!

Till next time you guys!

Thanks for reading and keep nomming!! :)