Chocolate and Coconut Cream Muffins

I've graduated school - whohoooo!! Oh, my, it's almost unbelievable how anxiously, happy, sad andexcited I've actually waited for this sentence to be written down ;-).

12 years of achievement or failure, of late night studies and early pre-exam mornings, of adventurous class trips or boring math classes are over. And I almost never thought to say (or write) this sentence myself, but this time went fast! Hard to believe, that I'm no longer the excited little first grader who can't wait to learn reading and writing or the lazy 8th grader feeling like latin ain't my business.

Yaaa,yaaa long talks short: the past months have been crazy, packed to the rim with last exams (like you might have already read) and yesterday came the final feeling of relief - we got our certificates in an official ceremony and had the obligatory ball with a fantabulous after show party at night. Following the tradition, the whole celebration had a theme and we choose the Abicadamy awards as our motto (referring to the Academy Awards and Abi from Abitur, how the german A levels are called). I think we didn't promised too much, of course everyone was dressed adequately and the party might even come close to the ones in Hollywood. Some guys covered movie classics like "Dirty Dancing" or "Ghost Busters" with our teachers (a lot of alternative acting careers have been revealed... ;D). To sum things up: it was AWESOME!

Yet instead of sleeping in 'til noon and having an overall lazy day I woke up quite early this morning (concerning the fact that I was home at ... am a little later than usual - but hey, one does only graduate once ;-)). As I tiptoed into the kitchen to prepare an indulgent family brunch the only thing that kept coming back to my mind was a celebrational bake! Truth to be told, I've actually thought about it for the whole week already, as in my opinion stories and food are a meant to be combination. And what's better than a special graduation cake?!

In the end I settled for muffins, 'cause cake for breakfast is only allowed on birthdays (even if a graduation might be a whole new level). This doesn't mean that you won't find a piece on my plate sometimes early in the morning - but let it be one in loaf shape, then you can call it bread and everything's fine, right? ;-)
Another mandatory ingredient for celebration: chocolate, dark luscious chocolate. And what makes a nice bakery style chocolate muffin even better? A nice portion of coconut - we're all fans at heart of the chocolate-coconut combo aren't we?

One hour later the coffe was brewed, the fresh from the bakery rolls were arranged in the bread basket and right next to the homemade strawberry jam stood a plate full of coconut-chocolate goodness. I am sneaking some crumbs away from the plate right now - just imagine a soft and moist chocolate dough filled with a generous cheesecake-coconut swirl in the middle and I think you can get a close picture of how fast those disappeared! So, enough said for today - whip these muffins up and experience the magic how fast they can be gone yourself! Have a nice day!

Chocolate and Coconut Muffins
-makes 12 regular sized muffins
- 250g Sour Cream
- 150g Grated Coconut
- 190g sugar
- 1 Tbsp Butter
- 1 egg
- 60 ml milk
- 50 g Dark Chocolate, melted and slightly cooled
- 5 Tbsp Dark Cocoa Powder
- 250g Flour (I used Whole Wheat here, but All-purpose works just as good)
- 1/2 tsp Salt
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1 Tbsp vinegar


1. Prepare the Coconut Cream filling: mix the grated coconut with 90g sugar, 1 Tbsp flour and 200g sour cream and set aside.
2. Preheat your oven to 450 °F/225°C. Line a muffin tray with parchment paper.
3. Beat the butter together with the egg and the remaining sour cream on high for about 2 minutes.
Stir in the milk.
4. Add in the melted chocolate, cocoa powder, flour, salt, remaining sugar, baking soda and vinegar. Mix until just combined. The batter should be thick yet not dry. In this case add a little splash of milk.
5. Spoon 1 Tbsp of the batter into each muffin tin. Press a little hole in the middle, then divide the coconut filling between the muffins - pressing it in slightly. Top with the remaining batter and spread so no coconut filling is visible.
6. Bake in the preheated oven for 8 minutes, then lower temperature to 350°F/175 °C and continue baking for further 10-12 minutes, until a skewer inserted comes out clean. Remove and let cool for 10 minutes, then take out of the muffin pan and allow for further cooling or serve when they're still warm. Enjoy!