Lilac muffins: when white chocolate meets Hibiscus tea

#Pink# I’m not talking about one of the most popular Aerosmith song (even if I love it!) but I’m referring to the colour: it’s quite easy to understand that I love pink, you can tell it from my blog layout, isn’t it? Yesterday I was feeling like muffins, and I wanted them pink! I decided to use an Egyptian Hibiscus tea, a gift from a friend for Christmas. This was the first time I have made Hibiscus tea: what a wonderful aroma and colour!

Then, the drama! As I poured Hibiscus tea into ricotta cheese, it turned out a soft and light pink, but as I kept on adding ingredients, it got darker and darker, until I reached a light blu – green – violet colour as I removed muffins from the oven: alien muffins! The final icing – made with white chocolate and Hibiscus tea – helped to balance the chromatic impact

Now, let’s talk about the positive sides of these Lilac Muffins: first of all, the large use of ricotta cheese makes them soft, light and fondant, they melt on your tongue. Then, white chocolate and Hibiscus tea is a superb marriage, as white chocolate is sweet while Hibiscus tea enriches the taste with a fresh and fruity touch.

Dry ingredients:

• plain flour, 400 gr
• sugar, 150 gr
• baking powder, 4 teaspoons
• salt, 1 teaspoon
• white chocolate, 100 gr (roughly chopped with a knife)

Liquid ingredients:

• ricotta cheese, 300 gr
• sunflower seeds oil, 85 ml
• Hibiscus tea, 300 ml
• eggs, 2 albumens and yolks separated

Icing ingredients:

• white chocolate, 100 gr
• Hibiscus tea

Pour in a small pot at least about 400 ml of water (it will reduce simmering) and bring to the boil. Add a large tablespoon of Hibiscus and let it boil for 10 minutes. Remove from heat and keep aside.

Preheat oven to 185°C. Mix dry ingredients and liquid ingredients (all but albumens) in two different bowls. Whip albumens until they form soft peaks and finally mix all the ingredients.

Fill muffin moulds (I obtained 18 muffins – if you want you can line moulds with nice and colourful cake cases) and bake for 15 minutes or make the skewer test.

To make the icing, melt white chocolate on a bainmarie or using your microwave, then stir in some hot Hibiscus tea tablespoons, mixing throughly, until you reach a velvety and liquid texture. Drizzle muffins with the lilac icing and let the icing cool down and get firm before you serve them.

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Jamie Oliver’s Two-nuts Chocolate Cake Chocolate and banana muffins + rum My family tiramisu, a step-by-step recipe A tiramisu in an eggshell, or my sweetest wishes for a Happy Easter