Change Is Good??


 


 

 

Alternately titled “Eating My Words” 😛

More than once in past posts, I have mentioned various foods I don’t like. Liver, Hazelnuts, peanut butter (well, peanut butter is a sometimes thing in the occasional PB&J sandwich but not the great love that I know it is of many bloggers *suddenly hears a ghostly voice saying “Get me a beer and a sammich, bi***!”).

Most the these hates are come by honestly and not just the odd prejudice. Peanut butter is something I didn’t really even care for as a kid; even the smell bugged me. Liver…well, I was brought up when the mothers of our generation were still doing the “you will sit there at that table until you eat every bite of your food” so many was the time I found myself gagging down cold liver *shudders*. As for hazelnuts, I was blessed to be able to live in Germany for 3 years during the time my ex husband was stationed there and it seemed like every….single….piece….of….chocolate…was infused with either a hazelnut paste or just the flavor. I grew to hate hazelnuts lol.

This led to me not really able to get into the current Nutella craze. You know what I mean…. every day you can come across 25 blogs sporting nutella recipes 😛

But you know how your tastes change over time? Well, one fairly recent day, I was in the store and saw one of those nutella snack packs with the little breadsticks and bought it on a whim as my husband looked at me as though I had lost it because he knows I hate the stuff. What can I say? I was shopping while hungry. Liver probably would have looked ok. I opened it for a snack later that night and tentatively took a taste. And fell in nutella love. And then had myself voluntarily committed because I hate hazelnuts. Now, mind you, it’s not something I eat every day and it’s never going to be on my top ten list of favorites but I do enjoy the snack packs now and a periodic spoonful of nutella.

So today I had an idea. I was going to make raspberry muffins and then thought to myself “Self… you’re freaking boring” So I thought I’d add chocolate. Then myself said to…well, myself… “self, this is looking better but you’re still not quite there. Try again”. At that point, I slapped myself around a few times to shut me up because it was getting a bit freaky in my head what with myself talking to myself. After a few slaps, the idea to put nutella in the muffins came to mind. I blame the temporary insanity on the slaps…and copious amounts of caffeine…and genetics.

I wasn’t sure how to incorporate it though. I knew if I just stirred it into the batter, the integrity of the batter would change and I had no interest in messing with batter integrity. I have enough trouble keeping my own intact at times. So in the end, I decided to just dollop it on top. It worked wonderfully. You have a moist muffin filled with chocolate chips and many bits of raspberry and then in the middle, a ooey gooey pocket of nutella that melds so well with the other flavors. Breakfast muffin, coffee break or dessert, I think you’ll like these. If you don’t like nutella, you can just make the muffins without it and they are still fantastic and a favorite of mine. These sink a little in the middle and need to cool a bit before you remove them from the pan or they will sink further. These are weirdly reminiscent of chocolate chip cookies in muffin form because the top and the edges gets that crispy cookie texture.

Chocolate Raspberry Nutella Muffins

  • 2 cups all purpose flour
  • 2 teaspoons baking powder
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt
  • 3/4 cup sugar
  • 1 cup buttermilk
  • 1/3 cup oil
  • 1 egg
  • 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
  • 2 cups frozen (or fresh) raspberries
  • 1 12 ounce bag chocolate chips
  • approximately 1/2 cup nutella (I didn’t measure; just dolloped on each muffin. It was about a teaspoon on each)
  1. Preheat oven to 400. Grease or line 16 muffin cups.
  2. Combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and sugar in a large bowl. Stir.
  3. In another bowl combine the milk, oil, egg and vanilla, Stir to combine.
  4. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients. Stir JUST until barely combined.
  5. Fold in the raspberries and chocolate chips.
  6. Scoop or spoon about a quarter cup of batter into each muffin cup; about 3/4 full.
  7. Top each with a dollop (about a teaspoon) of nutella.
  8. Bake at 400 until a toothpick inserted in the center (not through the nutella) comes out clean and the muffins are golden brown.
  9. Let cool in pan on wire rack for about five minutes before removing from pan to finish cooling

    The Joshinator getting ready to chow down on a muffin with his half nakkie self

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26 thoughts on “Change Is Good??

  1. Folks, I can relate to the aversion to hazelnuts. I was over in Germany about the same time as Jan was, and I can attest that to buy anything sweet without hazelnuts ranked up there with trying to cross the Wall…

    Don’t get me started about the Air Force and green peppers.

  2. I love your combination of raspberries and Nutella! These are fantastic muffins 🙂 Change is definitely good sometimes…I always get so caught up in mentally not liking a food, that I don’t get courageous enough to give them another chance!

    • I do the same thing, Sarah. Lol. I think we get so caught up in the idea of “this is icky” especially when we disliked it as kids that that’s it… it’s NEVER crossing our lips

  3. I do like hazelnuts to a point and Nutella to a greater point. 🙂 And I like chocolate and raspberry together and I like muffins. But somehow I missed your peanut butter hating history! Heading over to Facebook now to de-friend you! 🙂

    • Nooooo! I’ll eat PB…maybe. If you pay me..and add lots of Twinkies….and Cheetos. See the lengths I’m willing to go to to remain “friended”?

  4. Im with you on not being obsessed with nutella. I very rarely buy it but I do have a jar in the pantry now and every now and again I’ll have to dip the tip of my spoon into it just to satisfy my sweet chocolate craving!
    These muffers love amaze!

  5. There are certain episodes in your lift that turn you off of certain foods. Sadly my niece hates Fererro Rochers due to a bite into a rather buggy piece-yuck! I can only hope that she is the big comeback queen like you and gets over it so she can enjoy them again!
    However, the things you put in these muffins only bring me back to happy delicious thoughts, which is a great place to be! Ha-that picture of Josh tells me he is serious about his food.

  6. I think the Joshinator is going to give these two thumbs up! I’m new to Nutella, too, and I like it better straight up or dolloped like in these muffins. So yummy!

  7. My mom and yours definitely came from the same school of thought. I can only thank the powers that be that my mother always made liver with bacon and was kind enough to let me eat mostly bacon with only a few bites of liver. **Shudder** It was a different story with rutabaga **shudder and gag** I had to eat all of that.

    On a brighter note, a dollop of nutella in a muffin is something I’d happily wolf down!

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