Last week, my friend Carmen consulted me on one of her ongoing baking projects:

Linzer muffins.

(She is currently in the midst of another baking project, a baby, due any second...)

The muffins sounded great. You make a hazelnutty batter and then hide a secret blob of raspberry jam inside. Yum.

But Switzerland has its own version of Linzer, the St Galler Klostertorte (recipe here) which adds chocolate to the mix. So I thought I'd make a batch and swissify these muffins by adding some cocoa powder.

I also got caught up in a few tangential Wikipedia sprees related to the Kloster St Gallen itself, the 8th century monastery in the centre of St Gallen (and namesake of the Klostertorte).

More on that—Irish saints! Bears! Vikings!—in my post here.

The perfect combo, delicious facts and interesting muffins.

An update on Carmen's baking projects: the muffins were a hit at work. And this very morning her other baking project was finally at its end and her new baby boy was welcomed into the world!

150 g butter, soft

150 g sugar

3 eggs

100 g flour

50 g cocoa powder

10 g baking powder

1 tbsp cinnamon

salt

200 g ground nuts

raspberry jam

Preheat oven to 200 C / 400 F / gas mark 6.

Line a muffin tin with paper muffin liners.

In a large bowl, beat the butter and sugar until fluffy. Whisk together the eggs in a small dish, then add them to the butter mixture, beating until smooth.

In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, cinnamon, salt and ground nuts. 

Fold the dry ingredients gently into the wet.

Fill the paper muffin liners with about half the batter. Use the back of a spoon (or your finger) dipped in water to make a small indent, then fill this with a blob of raspberry jam.

Cover the muffins with the rest of the batter.

Bake for about 20 minutes or until you can smell them and the tops look dry.

• If the batter looks split after you mix in the eggs, don't worry. Just add the dry ingredients and it should even itself out.
• Traditionally, hazelnuts are used, but you could use almonds, or a mix.
• Other jams would also work as well, especially apricot.