Ready for a tempting, fragrant and irresistible recipe? The Black Forest muffins are the single-serving version of the famous Black Forest cake! Yes, I still haven’t made the full cake but I couldn’t resist the temptation of the muffins! You know I adore these little cakes, with a soft texture, a decadent heart thanks to Fabbri 1905 amarena cherries and made even more creamy and irresistible by the whipped cream and mascarpone frosting!
These small and indulgent muffins with amarena cherries and dark chocolate chips are easy and quick to make. I explain every step in the recipe text and, if you like, you can also watch the video recipe below the first photo! Needless to say, they won over everyone — my family and my colleagues. We’re all big sweet-tooths and these treats are truly a flavor bomb! The amarena inside is the real surprise, bite after bite. The frosting is creamy and fresh and makes them even more beautiful. The extra touch of indulgence is the amarena that first catches the eye and then the palate! Perfect for afternoon snack or to finish a dinner with family or friends — no one will resist their aroma and they’re so cute too!!!
Below you’ll find other recipes you can make all year round: from tarts with pastry cream and amarena cherries, to Easter with puff pastry eggs filled with cream and amarena cherries, up to panettone with amarena cherries and lemon cream! A recipe for every season thanks to the iconic Fabbri 1905 amarena cherries!
For readers of my blog a 20% discount will be applied on your purchases by entering, before payment, FABBRIRICETTEDIBEA20 in their official store! You can then buy the amarena cherries and all the other products from the Fabbri family you like most!
Let’s now move on to the Black Forest muffins recipe with amarena cherries and chocolate chips!
- Difficulty: Very easy
- Cost: Budget-friendly
- Rest time: 1 Hour
- Preparation time: 20 Minutes
- Cooking time: 25 Minutes
- Portions: 10 Pieces
- Cooking methods: Oven
- Cuisine: Italian
- Seasonality: All seasons
- Energy 363.07 (Kcal)
- Carbohydrates 40.72 (g) of which sugars 20.94 (g)
- Proteins 4.76 (g)
- Fat 22.21 (g) of which saturated 9.75 (g)of which unsaturated 2.85 (g)
- Fibers 2.95 (g)
- Sodium 63.50 (mg)
Indicative values for a portion of 80 g processed in an automated way starting from the nutritional information available on the CREA* and FoodData Central** databases. It is not food and / or nutritional advice.
* CREATES Food and Nutrition Research Center: https://www.crea.gov.it/alimenti-e-nutrizione https://www.alimentinutrizione.it ** U.S. Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service. FoodData Central, 2019. https://fdc.nal.usda.gov
Ingredients for 10 Black Forest Muffins
- 1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour (for soft cakes)
- 5 tbsp potato starch (or cornstarch)
- 5 tbsp butter (softened at room temperature)
- 3 oz granulated sugar
- 3 oz dark chocolate chips (I used dark)
- 6 tbsp milk (at room temperature)
- 1 egg (at room temperature)
- 4 tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder
- 2 tsp baking powder (preferably non-vanilla)
- 10 amarena cherries in syrup (Fabbri 1905)
- 1 pinch salt
- 7 oz mascarpone
- 1/2 cup heavy cream
- 1/3 cup powdered sugar (sifted)
- 10 amarena cherries in syrup (Fabbri 1905)
Tools to Prepare the Black Forest Muffins
- 2 Bowls
- 1 Electric mixer
- 1 Muffin pan
- 12 Paper liners
- 1 Scale
- 1 Spoon
- 1 Spatula
- 1 Sieve
- 1 Oven
- 1 Cooling rack
- 1 Piping bag
Recipe steps for Black Forest Muffins
Little tips before you start the recipe: remember to take the required amount of butter out of the refrigerator for the muffins at least 30 minutes before starting so it can become soft and easy to work with.
I recommend freezing the chocolate chips during this time: doing so will prevent them from sinking to the bottom during baking of the Black Forest muffins. A little trick I’ve learned over the years. If you forgot to freeze the chips, you can lightly dust them with flour, again to prevent them from sinking to the bottom of the paper liners.
The first thing to do is preheat the oven to 356°F (conventional mode), placing the rack in the middle position where we’ll put the muffin pan to bake. Let’s start preparing the muffin batter. Take a bowl, break the egg into it and add the sugar, sprinkling a pinch of salt. Beat the mixture with the electric mixer for several minutes until you obtain a creamy and airy batter.
Now add the butter, the milk and the unsweetened cocoa powder to the bowl and continue mixing with the mixer. Adding the cocoa powder together with room temperature milk helps incorporate it better and prevents lumps. Once all the ingredients are well combined, we can continue.
Sift the flours: the cake flour (all-purpose in this translation), the potato starch and the baking powder (preferably non-vanilla). You can do this directly in the bowl like I did. Turn the mixer on again and work these ingredients. Once the mixture is nice and thick, switch to a spatula.
If you froze the chocolate chips as I did, fold them into the batter with gentle under-and-over movements using the spatula. Prepare the muffin pan and place the paper liners. This recipe yields 10 cocoa-and-amarena muffins!
Using a spoon, pour the batter into each liner, filling them about halfway. Place one amarena cherry in the center of each liner, pressing it slightly to keep it in the middle. Cover with more batter, filling up to 3/4. Bake the pan and let them bake for 25 minutes at 356°F.
Once they’re ready, after performing the toothpick test, transfer the muffins to a cooling rack and let them cool for at least one hour before decorating with the mascarpone and whipped cream frosting, which we’ll prepare shortly.
Take a bowl and add the mascarpone, the cold heavy cream straight from the fridge and the powdered sugar. Beat the ingredients with the mixer at medium-high speed. Transfer the cream into a piping bag fitted with a medium-large tip and decorate the now-cooled muffins, adding the amarena cherries and a little syrup from the jar to add color and flavor to our treats.
I can only wish you a hearty enjoy and remind you that I wait for you every day here on my cooking blog with many easy, quick and delicious recipes like these Black Forest muffins with amarena cherries and chocolate chips.
Tips and storage:
Useful tips: I recommend beating the egg with the sugar as much as possible with the electric mixer to obtain a light and airy cream. Sifting the dry ingredients is essential to avoid lumps and obtain a soft batter like mine. You can freeze the chocolate chips before using them in this recipe.
Storage for Black Forest muffins: if you decorate the treats immediately, store them in the refrigerator so the frosting doesn’t melt in warm temperatures. If you don’t decorate them right away, you can keep the muffins in a covered cake carrier for a couple of days and prepare the frosting only shortly before serving the treats.
