Chocolate muffins

Thanks to Ottolenghi for this recipe for Chocolate cupcakes. Its perfect.
I knew I wanted a recipe which had depth and gooey-ness, probably with oil and treacle. This one was exactly it.
I then experimented a bit with the frosting, before just going with what is in the recipe, which suits the muffins perfectly: a rich ganache - chocolate, cream, butter, and a little vin santo (which threatened to make the chocolate seize, but was rescued with more cream. The recipe stated Amaretto, which with its higher alcohol content wouldn't have seized the chocolate).

In the end - the muffins have chunks of chocolate, are soft and gooey, and the slight flavour 'hole' made by the oil and treacle is filled entirely by the ganache on top. It all works out brilliantly - and cake and topping together make each aspect entirely better.

Chocolate macaroons

I had a lot of seized chocolate and a lot of egg whites (blame the choux paste) to use up. So found this Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall recipe for chocolate macaroons which went some way to using it up.
The macaroons didn't develop the smooth coating of the petit macarons - maybe I ground my almonds too coursely. I hadn't any pre-ground, so resorted to peeling and grinding plain whole almonds I had in a bag.
Had fun with the piping bag for the second time this weekend (first was for the choux buns). And was pleased with the uniform roundness of the macaroons.
Made ganache with the seized chocolate and cream, whipped it up, then spread onto the macaroons to sandwich them.
This combination seemed to transform the cakes - in the centre they were deeply chocolately but supremely light, and the nuttiness of my (course) almonds was very very good with all that chocolate. Interesting how the sum of the parts was greater than the whole on this one.