Though it sounds crazy, bakers having been adding tomatoes to sweet baking for at least the past 50 years as a way of enriching the flavour and helping the texture stay soft for longer. Probably the best-known example is the Campbell's Tomato Soup chocolate cake, invented by American baker Rose Levy Beranbaum many years ago and now a classic. These muffins are rich with melted chocolate, using tomato paste and juice in place of soup. The texture is beautifully soft and fudgy.
Ingredients
150g tomato juice
30g tomato paste
300g brown sugar
2 tsp vanilla extract
50g cocoa
50g unsalted butter
50g dark chocolate
50g olive oil
4 eggs (60g each)
200g plain flour
50g cocoa
1 tsp baking powder
Coffee glaze
25g boiling water
1 tsp instant coffee
½ tsp ground coffee beans
1 tsp vanilla extract
200g icing sugar
Method
1. Line a deep muffin tray with paper cases and heat the oven to 180C (160C fan-forced).
2. Put the tomato juice, tomato paste, brown sugar and vanilla in a bowl and whisk until smooth. Melt the butter, chocolate and oil together gently then whisk this in, followed by the eggs, whisking in one at a time until smooth.
3. Sift in the flour, cocoa and baking powder then fold this through evenly without over-mixing. Divide the mixture between 10 muffin papers, filled almost to the top, then bake for 20 to 25 minutes until a skewer poked in the centre comes out clean.
4. Remove the muffins from the tray, onto a cooling rack and leave until cold before icing.
5. To make the espresso glaze, pour the boiling water into a small bowl and dissolve both the instant and ground coffee in it. Stir in the vanilla and icing sugar and mix until smooth. Adjust the consistency with a drop more water if it's too thick. Then spoon this over the muffins and leave to set.
If you like this recipe, try my roasted peanut, rosemary and tomato cookies.