White Chocolate Muffins with Cacao Nibs Crumbs - Easy, Melt and Mix (Donna Hay)

I enjoy learning new things.

And here, I asked myself... What is cacao nibs? I have been seeing them everywhere... in many recipes and in most health food shops and supermarkets like Coles and Woolies. Hence, I did a search at Google for an answer.

According to Serious Eats, cacao nibs are small pieces of fermented, dried, roasted and crushed cacao beans and so they are basically raw chocolate that has not been ground, not mixed with sugar and not moulded into the blocks or bars kind of chocolate that we commonly eat. In another words, cacao nibs are actually chocolate which are rich in antioxidants, flavonoids, minerals like magnesium and potassium and can improve your mood but with NO sugar and they are not sweet!!! Now, do you think that cacao nibs are good for you? Hmmm....

Can you imagine... eating chocolate that is not sweet? I don't mind. Do you?

I find nibbling cacao nibs kind of nice and interesting but my son hates it. They can be slightly bitter and yet fragrant with coffee-like flavours, nutty and crunchy.

"I don't like these cacao nibs! They are not sweet and they are not chocolate!!!" My son whinged as I was trying to explain to him the benefits of eating cacao nibs. What should I do to convince my son that cacao nibs are delicious?

Well, my baby step it is to mix cacao nibs with chocolate! Then, use the cacao-chocolate mixture to bake something delicious... like these white chocolate muffins with cacao nibs crumbs. Fingers crossed. I hope that I can convert my son to like cacao nibs.

White Chocolate Muffins with Cacao Nibs Crumbs

These white chocolate muffins from the Donna Hay magazine are delicious!!!! And they are so easy to bake as all I have to do is melt, mix and bake. However, due to the reason that these muffins are made with minimal amount of butter and mostly chocolates, I would strongly encourage you to bake just a minimal batch of these muffins and consume all within the same day of bake because these muffins are in their best texture only when they are freshly baked. If you have any uneaten muffins to store, you might want to freeze them individually rather than storing them at room temperature as they will become tough on the next day.

Want to see how I baked these yummy cacao nibs muffins? Watch my one-minute video and you will see that they are so extremely easy to bake!

In order to avoid the cacao nibs crumbs from melting into the muffin base, the muffins was baked for 5 minutes first. Quickly sprinkle the cacao crumbs and bake them again until they are fully cooked through just like these...

And these muffins should be well risen and cooked thoroughly after another 20 mins of baking.

I was like Wow! when I had my first bite of these muffins...

These muffins are not the overly-sweetened, rich or extremely moist kind. Instead, they are yummy in a different way with their light fluffy cake-like inside, milky white chocolate surrounding crust and ultimately nice with a little sweet crumbly coffee-like chocolaty topping. Everything is just right and nice!

Now who says that cacao nibs are bitter???

Here's the recipe that is adapted from Donna Hay Magazine, Issue 88 Aug / Sep 2016

Makes 6 standard 1/3 cup-size muffins

For the cacao nib crumbs:
2 1/2 tbsp (30g) demerara sugar or any coarse sugar
3 tbsp (40g) milk chocolate chips or any types of chocolate chips that you like
2 tbsp (20g) cacao nibs

For the cakes:
3/4 cup (110g) all purpose / plain flour
3/4 tsp baking powder
1/8 tsp salt
2 1/2 tbsp (30g) caster sugar
25g unsalted butter, melted
60g white chocolate, melted
35ml (2 1/2 tbsp) plain unsweetened yogurt or buttermilk
1 egg, at room temperature

Preheat oven to 160°C / 325°F. Line the cups of a muffin tray with baking paper cups.

To make cacao nib crumb, place sugar, chocolate chips and cacao nibs in a small bowl and combine.

To bake the cakes:
Sift flour, baking powder and salt into a large mixing bowl. Add sugar, butter, melted white chocolate, yogurt or buttermilk and egg into the flour mixture and use a spatula to mix until combined. It's ok that the mixture is lumpy. Do not over-mix.

Spoon divided mixture into prepared muffin tray. Bake for 5 mins. Remove from oven and quickly sprinkle with cacao nib mixture and bake for a further 20 mins or until the muffins are well risen and a inserted skewer comes out clean. Set aside to cool slightly in the tray for 10 mins. Transfer onto a wire rack to allow cakes to cool completely.

Serve with they are slightly warm or at room temperature and best to consume all within the same day of bake.

Happy Baking

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