These Chocolate Lemon Muffins are light, flavourful and full of melted chocolate and lemon zest. Perfect for breakfast on the go, or a little mid afternoon pick me up!
Happy New Year everyone! I hope you had a lovely Christmas and New Year. Ours was quiet which is just what we needed.
This week though? Stressful beyond words. There’s so much going on right now, we are stressed! It doesn’t help that I am still very limited with what I can do with my back, it’s been weeks and weeks since everything with work kicked off and I’m still unable to bend or lift anything at all.
I’ve finally been able to start driving again which is a small step in the right direction, but I’m in an awful lot of pain and it’s affecting every part of my life. It’s affecting me mentally because I haven’t been able to exercise and for me, with a history of an eating disorder, exercise is something I need.
It’s also having a big impact on my husband, he works full time, yet he’s had to come home early to take me to doctor’s appointments and drive me around as I haven’t been able to. He’s also had to pick up a lot of things to do with the house that I would normally do. I’m worried with how much stress this is putting him under, so not best pleased with the situation.
Anyway, we are working hard to come up with a solution to this mess, so let’s talk muffins. Have you ever had the chocolate lemon combo before?!
If you haven’t, you are missing out! I feel like chocolate orange is very well known, but chocolate lemon isn’t, yet it’s such an amazing flavour combination! It’s more delicate than the orange and adds the most beautiful lightness to the chocolate.
I also see lots of white chocolate and lemon, but milk chocolate lemon? Not so much!
I can’t remember what I first made to try the combination, it was a few years ago, but I remember biting into whatever it was and being like “WOW why are more people not talking about this, it’s amazing!!!!”
You don’t need any fancy equipment to make these muffins, just a wooden spoon and a large bowl. I also use a cookie scoop to ensure even muffins, but you can just use a tablespoon.
On top of these delicious muffins, I added a drizzle of lemon icing to really ramp up that lemon flavour. I made these into jumbo muffins, but you could easily make small muffins for a little treat if you’re trying to be good this January.
I’m not one to ban foods, even if I’m trying to be healthy, been there done that and it’s not healthy for me. So instead, I like to stick to everything in moderation. These muffins are perfect for busy mornings or an afternoon pick me up when you’re waning at work!
I fully believe that we all deserve a treat now and then, life is hard and busy, so if you want to eat a chocolate muffin in the afternoon, do it!
Since I am such a firm believer in everything in moderation, I’ll be coming at you with something lighter on Thursday 😉 enjoy these muffins!
Chocolate Lemon Muffins
Ingredients
- For the muffins:
- 1 cup (200g) caster/white sugar
- Zest of 1 large or 2 small lemons
- 2 large eggs
- 1 stick (113g) unsalted butter, melted and slightly cooled
- 1/2 cup (87g) milk chocolate, melted and slightly cooled, I used milk chocolate chips, but any chocolate will work
- 2 1/2 cups (350g) plain/all-purpose flour
- 2 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda/baking soda
- Pinch of salt
- 1/4 cup (25g) cocoa powder
- 1/2 cup (120ml) milk
- For the icing/glaze:
- 1/2 cup (60g) icing/powdered sugar, sifted
- 1 tbsp lemon juice
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 180C/350F and place 12 large muffin cases into a muffin tin. You can also make smaller muffins, you'll probably be able to make 16-18 small muffins with this mixture.
- Place the sugar, lemon zest and eggs into a large bowl and beat until well combined and smooth.
- Gradually add the melted butter, stirring between each addition until you have a smooth mixture.
- Add in the melted chocolate and mix until well combined.
- Add in the flour, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda, salt and cocoa powder and begin to mix gently. As the mixture starts to come together, add in the milk and continue to mix until there are no lumps of flour or cocoa powder and your mixture is thick and smooth.
- To make jumbo muffins: place 3tbsp of mixture into each liner. To make normal sized muffins: place 2tbsp of mixture into each case.
- Place in the oven for 15-20 minutes, until risen and an inserted skewer into the centre comes out clean. Smaller muffins will take 12-15 minutes.
- Leave to cool in the pan for 10 minutes, before transferring to a wire rack with kitchen paper beneath it, to cool completely.
- Once cool, make the glaze. Place the sifted icing sugar into a medium sized bowl and add in 1tsp of lemon juice, mix and then add another 1tsp of lemon juice, mix and see the consistency. After 2tsp mine was a thick paste, so I added the final tsp of lemon juice in. You want a thick consistency that will drop in ribbons off of your spoon.
- Either with a spoon or a Ziploc bag with the corner snipped off, drizzle the icing mixture over each muffin. Leave to set for 15 minutes and then devour!
- Chocolate Lemon Muffins will keep in an airtight container, at room temperature, for 4 days.
Annie is a self-taught baker, recipe developer and food photographer, who has an obsession with dessert and beauty! 
