These After Eight Chocolate Muffins are rich, dark and decadent! Soft, sticky chocolate chip muffins filled with mint chocolate ganache and topped with an after eight chocolate!
A couple of years ago I published my own take on Costa’s pigs in blankets macaroni cheese. It is without a doubt one of my most popular festive recipes, so I thought I would create some more Costa copycat recipes this year!
I’m a big fan of mint chocolate, so when I saw that Costa have started selling After Eight muffins, I couldn’t resist creating my own version. They aren’t a carbon copy of the Costa seasonal offering, but they are pretty darn close.
Soft, sticky chocolate muffins filled with mint chocolate ganache and topped with an After Eight – what’s not to like???
I’ve used the same chocolate muffin recipe as the one I used for my chocolate orange muffins – it’s very moist, sticky and delicious.
If you would prefer to make a large traybake style cake perfect for Birthdays and celebrations, you might be interested in this easy mint chocolate cake recipe!
ingredient list
plain (all purpose) flour
bicarbonate of soda (baking soda)
salt
The salt enhances the chocolate flavour, so please don’t be tempted to skip it.
cocoa powder
using a good quality cocoa powder will make all the difference to the muffins. Drinking chocolate isn’t a good substitute.
caster sugar
eggs
peppermint extract
Make sure you use the extract, not essence.
vegetable or sunflower oil
It’s important that you use a flavourless oil – I wouldn’t recommend regular or extra virgin olive oil because the flavour will come through in the muffins.
full fat sour cream or Greek yoghurt
The fat in the yoghurt/sour cream helps to make these muffins super fluffy and moist, so please don’t be tempted to use lower fat versions.
chocolate chips
For an extra chocolate hit (and when is that ever a bad thing), add a handful of milk or dark chocolate chips.
for the mint chocolate ganache
Dark chocolate and milk chocolate
You can use all dark chocolate if you like, but i prefer the balance of the dark and milk.
double cream
Peppermint extract
unsalted butter
Butter gives the chocolate ganache a little more richness and shine, but it isn’t absolutely essential.
commonly asked questions and trouble shooting tips
the batter is very runny!
Don’t worry – that’s exactly how it should be! It will be a lot runnier than a usual muffin recipe, but that’s what gives the muffins their sticky, gooey texture.
how long will these chocolate muffins take to make?
The muffins take between 22-25 minutes to bake properly – they might still be a little sticky in the middle, but that’s ok.
If they spring back when lightly pressed and a skewer inserted into the muffins emerges with no raw batter, they are ready!
Just bear in mind that if you use the Tulip muffin cases like I have for these pictures, the muffins will almost certainly take a few minutes longer to bake. Mine took exactly 25 minutes, but it will of course depend on your own oven.
my muffins sunk in the middle
This can happen when the muffins are removed from the oven too quickly, the oven door is opened before the muffins have baked or if the batter has been overmixed.
Accidentally adding too much raising agent can also result in the cakes sinking in the middle.
looking for more muffin recipes?
Chocolate chip courgette muffins
lemon blueberry poppy seed muffins
strawberry and white chocolate muffins
more christmas bakes and desserts
white chocolate, orange and cranberry cookies
white chocolate snowball coconut truffles
After Eight Chocolate Muffins
These After Eight Chocolate Muffins are rich, dark and decadent! Soft, sticky chocolate chip muffins filled with mint chocolate ganache and topped with an after eight chocolate!
Ingredients
- 180g plain (all purpose) flour
- 1 1/2 teaspoons bicarbonate of soda (baking soda)
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 50g cocoa powder
- 300g caster (super fine) sugar
- 2 large eggs, at room temperature
- 1 teaspoon pure peppermint extract
- 125ml vegetable or sunflower oil
- 150g sour cream or full fat Greek yoghurt
- 150ml warm water
- 100g milk or dark chocolate chips (optional)
- FOR THE GANACHE:
- 100g milk chocolate (30-40% cocoa solids), finely chopped
- 100g dark chocolate (60% cocoa solids), finely chopped
- 1/2 teaspoon pure peppermint extract
- 15g (1 tablespoon) soft unsalted butter
- 250ml double (heavy) cream
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 180C/160Fan/350F/Gas mark 4. Line a 12 hole muffin pan with paper liners.
- Place the flour, bicarbonate of soda, salt and cocoa powder in a large bowl. Using a large fork or wooden spoon, stir to combine everything together.
- Beat the sugar, eggs, peppermint extract, oil, sour cream or Greek yoghurt and water together until the mixture is smooth.
- Make a well in the middle of the dry ingredients and pour in the wet mixture, stirring lightly until all the dry ingredients have been incorporated. If you're adding the chocolate chips, lightly fold them in.
- Pour the mixture into the liners (the batter will be runny but it's supposed to be that way, so don't be alarmed) filling them no more than two thirds full. Bake in the preheated oven for 22-25 minutes or until risen, springy and a skewer inserted in the middle of the muffins emerges with no wet batter.
- Transfer the muffins to a wire cooling rack and allow to cool completely while you make the mint chocolate ganache.
- To make the ganache, place the chopped chocolate, peppermint extract and soft butter in a medium heatproof bowl. Place the cream in a small saucepan and bring to the boil. The second the cream comes to the boil, remove from the heat and pour over the chopped chocolate. Leave for a few minutes before gently stirring until the chocolate has completely melted and the mixture is lump free and shiny. Allow to come to room temperature before chilling in the fridge for around 60 minutes or until the ganache is the consistency of soft buttercream frosting. If your kitchen isn't too warm, you could probably get away with leaving the ganache sitting out on the counter.
- Remove the cooled ganache from the fridge and using an electric mixer, whip the ganache for about a minute until smooth, shiny and lighter in colour. Do be careful not to overwhip it or the ganache can turn grainy. If you're worried about this, you can give it a good stir with a wooden spoon or sturdy spatula instead.
- When the muffins have completely cooled, remove a piece from the middle of each muffin using an apple corer or something similar. Using a teaspoon, fill the core with the chocolate ganache, going slowly until you reach the top. Add another spoonful of the ganache on top and finish off by topping each muffin with an After Eight chocolate.
Nutrition Information:
Yield: 12 Serving Size: 1Amount Per Serving: Calories: 175Total Fat: 11gSaturated Fat: 5gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 4gCholesterol: 44mgSodium: 81mgCarbohydrates: 15gFiber: 2gSugar: 10gProtein: 4g
Calories and nutritional information are provided by a third party application and should be used as indicative figures only.