Speckled chocolate muffins

As a savoury fiend who turns to wine, cheese and olives in my hour of need, chocolate tends to fall off my foodie radar from time to time. However, I'm not completely inept to the charms of the brown gooey stuff, as the half eaten jar of Nutella in my kitchen cupboard will tell you. I do enjoy chocolate, but there's one thing I find just a little too rich on the chocolate front, and that's the double chocolate muffin. I always struggle to finish one, and as much as I enjoy the moist, chocolatey goodness, I felt that I had to look for an alternative that would result in just a trail of crumbs across the plate.

Speckled chocolate muffins were born of necessity, designed to give me enough of an energy kick to get me through the afternoon, without feeling like I needed forty winks afterwards. Their pale mochaesque colour denotes that of a wholemeal muffin, already relieving some of the guilt you may otherwise feel with the double chocolate variety. On the off chance you're beginning to think that this muffin's a bit wimpy, two tablespoons of Nutella thrown into the mix should fill you with faith that this chocolatey treat packs the proverbial punch. Enjoy!

Without this stuff, we wouldn't have any muffins:

2 tablespoons Nutella

50g chocolate chips

2½ teaspoons vanilla extract

100g caster sugar

60g rolled oats

275ml milk

280g plain flour

1 tablespoon baking powder

½ teaspoon of salt

1 egg lightly beaten

100g melted butter

Now for the fun bit:

1. Preheat the oven to 200°C. Grease or line a muffin tray. This mixture should give you 10 muffins.

2. In large bowl, throw in the oats and cover them with the milk and vanilla extract. Stir the mixture, then leave the oats to soak up the flavour of the milk and vanilla.

3. Whilst the oats are soaking, mix the baking powder, flour, salt and sugar in a separate bowl. Now add the chocolate chips and give it a good stir.

4. Add your butter and egg to the oat mixture, followed by two tablespoons of Nutella. Stir the mixture well before combining it with the dry ingredients. Mix the two together until just combined.

5. Spoon the mixture into the muffin tray and bake in the oven for 18-20 minutes. When you take them out the oven, they will smell delicious, but try and resist the urge to eat them, until they have cooled in the tin. Around ten minutes should do the trick. Then turn onto a wire rack and enjoy!