Skinny chocolate and cranberry muffins

Hmm, there seems to be a cranberry theme going on round here. I'll give it a break for a while after these, although I have still got quite a few fresh cranberries frozen for the time being. In fact I had to resist buying some fresh ones reduced to clear the other day. Thankfully I managed to avoid temptation because my groaning freezer can't cope with much more!

These are from the latest issue of BBC GoodFood magazine (Feb 2010), from the 'Chocolight' feature. They wouldn't have been my first choice of item to bake, but I was being dictated to by a tub of yogurt in the fridge nearing its off date (for the rest of the tub of yogurt, I made these oat bars), so these were the chosen item. I do really fancy the chocolate sorbet, and the light and fluffy chocolate mocha cake too though. The recipes aren't on the BBC GoodFood website yet, but I'll try and remember to add links when they appear.

As ever with muffin recipes, these were easy to make, the basic idea of mixing the wet ingredients into the dry holds true with a couple of twists.

Skinny chocolate and cranberry muffins

Ingredients

250g self raising flour

1tbsp cocoa powder

1tsp mixed spice (recipe specified cinnamon)

85g light muscovado sugar

85g dried cranberries

50g dark chocolate, chopped (recipe specifies 25g)

125g low fat yogurt

125ml milk (I used semi-skimmed but the recipe specifies skimmed)

3 tbsp sunflower oil

1 egg, lightly beaten

Method

- Preheat the oven to 180C/Gas 4. Line a 12 hole muffin tin with paper cases.

-Sift the flour, cocoa, baking powder and mixed spice into a bowl. Stir in the sugar and cranberries. Melt the chocolate, either in the microwave (except I don't have one!) or in a bowl over hot water, stir the melted chocolate and set aside.

- Mix the yogurt and milk with the oil and egg.

- Make a well in the centre of the dry mix and gently stir in the liquid.

- Drizzle half the chocolate over the mix, gently fold in until swirled, then repeat with the remaining chocolate. Take care not to over mix.

- Spoon the mix into the muffin cases and bake for 15-20 minutes unti risen and firm to the touch.

I think I overcooked mine slightly, but they were still fairly moist. I enjoyed them, and the taste of the tart-ish cranberries against the soft cake was nice. The chocolate flavour wasn't particularly prominent, as you might expect and the spice came through too. I wouldn't hurry to make them again because to be honest I couldn't decide if I liked all of the different flavours together, or whether it was just confusing. But I do have quite a boring palate - so don't let me put you off trying them - I was glad I had done. They are relatively low calorie and fat, so good for this time of year when you want a treat but don't want to overdo it. Colleagues enjoyed them, even though many profess to be on diets/watching what they're eating at the moment!