Ugli, Chocolate and Cardamon Muffins

U.G.L.I you ugly! No i'm not talking about the Daphne and Celeste song, its a citrus fruit and a hybrid of grapefruit, tangerine and orange. The fruit however is quite ugly on the out side but is easy to peel and break into segments. Like a Jaffa cake I've paired the citrus with chocolate and ground my own cardamon you'll need a mortar and pestle for the job.

450g plain flour
200g sugar
100g butter melted
50g dark chocolate drops
2 eggs
100ml buttermilk
100ml milk
1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

POACHED UGLI:
3 ugli fruit
12 cardamon pods
100ml water
100g sugar

METHOD:
First poach the ugli, place water, sugar and 6 cardamon pods in a sauce pan and bring to a simmer, peel ugli fruit and separate the segment. Place the segments into simmering water and cook for about 5 minutes, then leave the fruit to cool completely.
In a small fry pan place the other 6 cardamon pods and put on a medium to high heat, toast the pods till they turn brown and fragrant then remove from head and using a mortar and pestle ground the pods into a powder.
In a large mixing bowl add the flour, sugar, chocolate, baking powder, soda, cinnamon and cardamon mix together till evenly combined. Cut all the ugli fruit segment in half, reserve 12 pieces and add the rest to the dry mixture. In a small bowl mix together the butter and egg then add to dry mixture along with milk and vanilla. Using a butter knife cut through the mixture and slowly blend together add some of the poached syrup if the mixture is too dry, combine till just under mixed. Grease a 12 muffin pan with spray oil or butter then evenly distribute the mixture into the muffin tray, garnish the muffins with a piece of ugli and sprinkle a little extra sugar on top. Bake muffins in 180oC pre-heated oven for 25 minutes, once cooked leave to cool slightly before removing from tray.