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| An unwrapped muffin, mmm look at that raspberry gooey goodness :) |
A note about muffin cases: I find the Dr Oetker muffin cases to be the perfect size, I'd discovered them in my "quest" to find the perfect large cupcake case to hold plenty of frosting, but it was actually great to use them for their actual purpose - the almighty muffin.
OK another note!! THESE ARE SO EASY TO MAKE!!! Muffins are practically fail proof . The basic recipe for muffins are simple - the essential idea is "mix dry ingredients together", "mix wet ingredients together", combine the two until JUST combined (the lumpier the better!!!!) fold in the flavourings (in this case, raspberries and white chocolate). I would say that the only way you can make a muffin that isn't ideal is if you put too much effort into it. barely combined = light, fluffy, moist muffin. well beaten = hard, rubbery, chewy muffin (even if the flavour is still nice).
Preparation time was 10 minutes, and that includes going to the cupboards to pick everything out. yes i'm serious. From start to finish, it was ~30 minutes, ideal for last minute "oh shit what am i going to take on the picnic" thoughts :D
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| I should note that I added a large amount of raspberries, because i like a super-moist and fruity muffin :) |
2 cups plain flour (I used "00")
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 cup golden caster sugar
1 egg
1 cup milk (i used low fat)
a couple of tablespoons of vegetable oil (like sunflower or rapeseed)
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract/paste.
1-1.5 cup frozen raspberries (or fresh if available)
150g white chocolate, roughly chopped
Preheat oven to 180 C (**)
Place 12 large muffin cases***(see note below) into a muffin pan.
In a large bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder and sugar.
In another bowl, whisk together egg, milk and butter.
Add liquid mixture to dry ingredients, mix with a large spoon until just combined. I cannot stress that you should NOT NOT NOT mix this until smooth, as this will make for a heavy rubbery muffin. The less effort the better. Lumps are fine. lumps are encouraged. lumps are what makes a muffin a muffin. Don't worry abotu the lumps of floury bits, as long as the thing is "generally" combined, it's fine.
Add raspberries and white chocolate, fold through until just about combined. again. the less effort the lighter and tastier the muffin is :)
Spoon the mixture into the muffin cases, Distribute the batter between patty cases and bake for 20-25 min, or until a toothpick comes out clean and muffins are golden on top.
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| At the picnic, offering muffins :D |
**My oven is slightly hotter than others, so this temperature might even be 190 in a regular oven. Please note that even though I have a fan forced oven, I never use fan force when baking cakes etc. fan force tends to over cook the outside before the inside is done, and I find that not using fan force is a great help to make a lovely tender soft light baked good :)
***A note about muffin cases: I find the Dr Oetker muffin cases to be the perfect size, I'd discovered them in my "quest" to find the perfect large cupcake case to hold plenty of frosting, but it was actually great to use them for their actual purpose - the almighty muffin.
****Variations
You can make these muffins with any ingredients - you can use brown sugar instead, you can use another type of berry, and omit the chocolate, or omit the berries and just keep the chocolate (i would suggest using dark choc chips in this case)... you can vary these muffins so easily, reduce the sugar to 1 tablespoon, add a bit of salt and then add grated cheddar cheese, some herbs and bacon bits to make a nice savoury muffin :) u get the idea... I will definitely be making more muffins now that i remember how much easier they are to make than cupcakes! :D
mooooo fin
ReplyDeleteGreat! I failed in my attempt to make similar muffins once as the white chocolate tasted plasticy and the muffins tasted terrible in general :/ Thanks for the tips!! Will keep them in mind!
ReplyDeleteCan u tell me what type of white choc u used? And where did u buy those type of muffin cases please?
Hi Sue - to be honest the white chocolate wasn't the best - i have no idea what brand it was (i hadn't bought it myself, which is why i hadn't ended up using it over xmas cos i wasn't sure!) -it was fine in the muffins though.. but next time I think i'll go for a good quality swiss one (maybe lindt or something). I don't like white chocolate at all, so I'm not really sure of the brands that make a good white choc...
ReplyDeleteOooh and the muffin cases - I think i got them either at Pavi or at Shopwise in Qormi - i honestly can't remember which! Check out the link (in the above post, in the muffin case note) for a picture of what the packet looks like - they are the best muffin cases I've found in malta - they are large (for cupcakes this is fantastic as they hold lots of frosting AND cake yay!) and for muffins they are the perfect size. they also hold their shape pretty well and don't fall apart once you try and unwrap the cake!