RAFFAELLO MUFFINS

Place of origin: Our recipe, based on Ferrero Raffaello pralines

One day I was eating Raffaello while looking at some muffins recipes. And it crossed my mind - I could make Raffaello muffins. And so I did the very next day for my friend’s B-day. She didn’t have a party, we just had a drink in a bar. So muffins were a surprise. :-D

Also, I’ve been looking into the difference between cupcakes and muffins as I don't get it why is there a difference. Just making things complicated. And I’ve concluded that, according to what is said (written), I bake neither cupcakes nor muffins. But the hybrid between the two (as I've said, just making it complicated by dividing them). And, as we here in Croatia usually call a muffin everything that comes out of the muffin mold, I call these little cakes of mine muffins, too. :-)

INGREDIENTS

30 g coconut flour

9 tbsp flour

1 baking powder

50 g sugar

2 eggs

70 g butter

100 ml milk or coconut milk

1 tsp vanilla extract

40 g white chocolate

40 g blanched hazelnuts, roasted and chopped

CREAM FILLING

150 ml milk or coconut milk

20 g sugar (optional if you like it sweet)

50 g white chocolate

10-12 g corn starch

1 tsp vanilla extract

300 ml (or more) whipping cream

hazelnuts (not blanched) for decoration

1. In a pot combine coconut flour for the batter and 150 milk for the cream. Bring to boil, simmer over low heat for few minutes, remove from heat and let cool.
2. Drain the coconut over sieve, squeeze the milk out with your hands as much as you can. Measure the milk and add more milk to have 150 ml again. 
3. Measure drained coconut. The difference in weight is milk remained in the coconut flour so subtract that number from the 100 ml (g) of milk. I got 66 g of coconut, meaning there was 36 g of milk in it, so I added only 65 ml of milk to the batter. IF YOU'RE USING COCONUT MILK SKIP THESE FIRST THREE STEPS (I didn't have it at home so I improvised - you can improvise too ;-) ).
4. In a bowl, combine coconut flour, flour, baking powder and sugar.
5. In another bowl (or pot) melt the butter and chocolate in milk in a microwave or over low heat. Do not let it boil and do not heat it too much.
6. Add this mixture to flour mixture and add eggs and vanilla extract. Beat well with hand mixer.
7. Add hazelnuts and incorporate them into the batter with a spatula.
8. Preheat oven to 180°C.
9. Fill muffin cups up to 2/3 with batter and bake for max 22 minutes. Baking them longer might make them too crumbly (but not less tasty ;-) ). Take out and cool.
10. Prepare the filling. In a small pot, over low heat, melt the chocolate and sugar in 150 ml milk. Add vanilla.
11. In a small cup, melt cornstarch in 25 ml cold water.
12. Bring the milk and chocolate mixture to boil, remove from the heat and pour in melted cornstarch. Keep stirring while pouring the starch to avoid lumps. The cream should thicken right away. Put it back over low heat and simmer for another minute or two stirring constantly. Let cool.
13. From the top of a muffin make a hole in the center of every muffin with a teaspoon or cupcake corer (I use apple corer which is basically the same thing as muffin corer, they're just trying to sell you the same thing under different names :-P ).
14. Put the cream in a piping bag (or in a plastic bag and cut a hole at one corner of it) with large wide tip and fill each hole with it. You can also use small teaspoon or coffee spoon and fill holes in few batches.
15. Beat the whipping cream (add sugar to the cream if you would like it more sweet) and decorate muffins. Sprinkle with some coconut flour.
16. Put one (or two, three...) hazelnut on top of every muffin and it's done. :-)

HINT: You can also add some rum or Malibu rum (coconut of course) to the cream. Reduce the amount of milk accordingly.

RAFFAELLO MUFFINS

Jedan sam se dan sladila Raffaellom dok sam proučavala neke recepte za muffine. I palo mi je na pamet - mogla bih napraviti Raffaello muffine. I jesam, odmah sljedeći dan za prijateljičin rođendan. Nije imala party, samo smo bili na piću, a muffini su bili iznenađenje. :-D

SASTOJCI

30 g kokosovog brašna

9 žlica oštrog brašna

1 prašak za pecivo

50 g šećera

2 jaja

70 g maslaca

100 ml mlijeka ili kokosovog mlijeka

1 žličica arome vanilije

50 g bijele čokolade

40 g blanširanih prženih lješnjaka, krupno nasjeckati

KREMA

150 ml mlijeka ili kokosovog mlijeka

20 g šećera (po želji, ako volite slatko)

50 g bijele čokolade

10-12 g gustina

1 žličica arome vanilije

300 ml (ili više) vrhnja za šlag

neoguljeni lješnjaci za ukras

1. U loncu pomiješajte kokosovo brašno i 150 ml mlijeka za kremu. Zakipite, kuhajte na laganoj vatri par minuta, maknite s vatre i ohladite
2. Ocijedite kokos pomoću cjedila te potom rukama još istisnite što više mlijeka možete. Izmjerite mlijeko i nadodajte koliko nedostaje do početnih 150 ml.
3. Izvažite ocijeđeni kokos. Razlika između početnih 30 g i trenutne težine je mlijeko koje se zadržalo u brašnu. Stoga tu razliku u težini oduzmite od 100 ml (g) mlijeka i dodajte samo preostalu količinu. Ja sam imala 66 g kokosa što znači da je 36 g mlijeko te je bilo potrebno dodati samo 65 g mlijeka u smjesu. AKO KORISTITE KOKOSOVO MLIJEKO, PRESKOČITE PRVA TRI KORAKA (ja ga nisam imala doma pa sam improvizirala - tako da možete i vi improvizirati ;-) ).
   
4. U zdjeli pomiješajte kokosovo brašno, brašno, prašak za pecivo i šećer.
5. U drugoj zdjeli ili lončiću otopite maslac i čokoladu u mlijeku u mikrovalnoj ili na laganoj vatri. Pazite da ne zakipi i nemojte pregrijati smjesu.
6. Dodajte smjesu mješavini brašna, dodajte jaja i vaniliju te dobro izmiksajte.
7. Dodajte lješnjake i umiješajte ih pomoću spatule ili kuhače.
8. Ugrijte pećnicu na 180°C.
9. Napunite košarice za muffine smjesom do 2/3 visine i pecite najviše 22 minute. Ako se peku duže, postati će mrvljivi (ali ništa manje ukusni ;-) ). Izvadite i ohladite.
10. Pripremite kremu: u lončiću, na laganoj vatri, otopite čokoladu i šećer u 150 ml mlijeka. Dodajte vaniliju.
11. U šalici otopite gustin u 25 ml hladne vode
12. Pustite da smjesa čokolade i mlijeka zakipi pa ju sklonite s vatre i dodajte otopljeni gustin uz stalno miješanje kako se ne bi stvorile grudice. Krema bi se trebala odmah zgusnuti. Vratite lončić na vatru i kuhajte još jednu - dvije minute uz miješanje. Ohladite.
13. Izdubite (s vrha) svaki muffin pomoću žličice ili dubilice za muffine (zapravo ne znam kako se to zove na hrvatskom) - ja koristim ono čime se jabukama vadi sredina, zapravo je to praktički isto kao dubilica za muffine samo se različito zove kako bi ljudima prodali istu stvar pod različitim imenima. :-P
14. Stavite kremu u vrećicu za ukrašavanje kolača s okruglim nastavkom (ili u vrećicu za zamrzavanje kojoj ste odrezali vrh/ugao na jednom kraju) i napunite muffine. Možete ih puniti i žličicom.
15. Istucite vrhnje za šlag (ako volite slatko, dodajte mu šećera po želji) i ukrasite muffine te ih posipajte kokosovim brašnom.
16. Na vrh svakog muffina stavite jedan (ili dva, tri....) lješnjaka i gotovo! :-)

SAVJET: U kremu možete dodati i rum ili Malibu rum (kokos, ne?). Sukladno količini dodanog ruma, smanjite količinu mlijeka. 

Recipe by Linda