Easy Peasy Muffins

We are mid-winter nesting here in the Attic, and I confess it feels rather lovely. I've been wholeheartedly embracing these weekends spent at home loafing around in fluffy, cosy clothing doing fluffy, cosy things with my family. My particular fluffy-cosy activity consists of crochet and baking/eating the baking, with a smidge of meal making, fire lighting, laundry duties and floor tidying thrown in when absolutely necessary. Not a lot is being achieved, but our family is happy and content it seems.

My cosy fluffy baking (and eating) has been mainly muffin based of late, and I blame Alicia P entirely for this. Her words and pictures sent me into a spin of craving and I just had to go and create a warm, light, fluffy, fresh-from-the-oven muffin experience for myself. I was quite powerless to resist.

I have a basic recipe I use, which I would like to pass on to you. It's an Easy Peasy recipe which contains straight forward ingredients and is easily adaptable depending on the fruit content available at the time the muffin need hits.

I make small batches of only six muffins at a time. Two reasons :: 1) I love fresh from the oven muffins very much more than out of a tin muffins and 2) Little B adores baking and we bake many times a week together, so no need to make huge batches of anything.

The above muffins are Apple and Apricot and were lovely. I experimented with a bit of a streusel topping on these ones, but truthfully I think the effort of making the streusel bit was not actually worth it.

On Sunday I made raspberry muffins, and oh my, they were divine. The raspberries (from Spain) were quite sharp, but had a beautiful tangy flavour and made the muffins very moist and mmmm.

My method of making fresh berry muffins (raspberries or blueberries) is to first make the basic batter without adding the fruit. Dollop about 2/3 of it into the paper cases, then drop the fruit on top. This way, each muffin gets the same juicy amount of fruit sitting nicely right inside the muffin.

Add a little more batter on top of the fruit layer, then top with a little bit more fruit and a sprinkling of light brown sugar.

All being well, they should rise up beautifully and look all lush and plump and golden, with lovely bits of bright juicy fruit nestling on top.

And when you break into one, the texture is light and fluffy and moist. Fruity but not too sweet. Oh mmm mmm, really, they are completely yummy.

Easy Peasy Muffins (makes 6)

In a large mixing bowl, put 125g self raising flour, ½ tsp baking powder and 50g caster sugar. Mix well.

In a large jug, put 4 tbs (60ml) milk, 2 tbs (30ml) sunflower oil, 1 egg and ½ tsp vanilla flavouring. Mix well.

Tip the liquid into the dry mix and stir well to combine. You'll end up with a thick, lumpyish batter.

For apricot and apple muffins, stir in 1 grated apple and 50g chopped dried apricots (you could also use 50g any other dried fruit eg sultanas, raisins or cranberries).

For fresh raspberry or blueberry muffins, add the fruit to each individual muffin in a layer (as described above), with a few bits on top.

Divide between 6 muffin cases and sprinkle with brown sugar if you like (not essential, but nice)

Bake at 180C/Gas 4 for 25 mins.

I think technically speaking the muffins should be placed on a wire rack and allowed to cool, but that doesn't really happen around here. They kind of get pounced upon the minute they come out of the oven, ripped open and shoveled away whilst still steaming.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Edit to add :: about the paper cases....you need large muffin cases to makes these beauties as they rise a lot whilst baking and ordinary bun/cup cake cases are a bit too shallow. I buy mine from a really lovely local baking shop, they are made by a US company called MeriMeri, see here.

 Another edit to say :: re the fresh berries....in the UK they can be very expensive to buy, but are sometimes on offer in the supermarkets which is when I buy them. Also I never seem to be able to use a whole punnet before they go a bit soggy and mouldy in the fridge, so what I do is buy them when they are on offer and freeze them straight away. Scissor-snip the raspberries into smaller bits first, then open freeze them (ie lay them out on a sheet of baking paper/greasproof paper on a tray to freeze them so they don't all clump together). When they are frozen you can bag them up and they can then be added to the muffin batter straight from the freezer.

One more edit! :: I had this very useful comment from Hannah in the US...it's a conversion from grammes to cups....

"For American bakers, here are the conversions I figured out, because none of my measuring cups have the metric unit. 1 c flour 1/2 tsp baking powder 1/4 c sugar 4 T milk 2 T sunflower oil 1 egg 1/2 tsp vanilla 25 minutes at 350 degrees Fahrenheit "

Please note that the flour needed is self raising flour (self rising flour in the US?)

Happy Baking!!

 xx

 

 

Comments

[Heather F]

Yum!!!! Going to print this out at work tomorrow & give it a whirl this weekend. Thanks for posting! (and Alicia P is an enabler for all sorts of lovely things!)

[Kathy, FRANCE]

I have lived in France for more than 20 years and LOVE your blog - having just returned from a trip to England (unfortunately for a funeral) I am amazed that anyone makes anything - let alone cakes or muffins - the price of these in the supermarkets there are so - incredible really - that I was amazed!!! but having bought some of these they were very lacking in taste etc. so bravo to you for doing it when it would be really easy to just buy it!! here we can go to a patissiere and buy the same thing but at a cost of about €2 (£1.75 approx) per cake - but the quality is superb - so it's financially worth it to maybe do it yourself - I felt that in Britain they had cheated you out of doing it yourself somehow!! does that sound strange???

[another Hannah]

Thank you for the conversion to US. Yes, we do have self rising flour here. But, why are you adding baking powder to this when self rising flour already contains baking powder? Does it need more than the flour contains? I need to be very careful if I want to bake this (which I do!!) because I live in the US, but at high altitude. We always have to reduce the leavening here. Tricky.

[Shannon]

Thanks for posting, including the US measurements. My muffin recipe has been disappointing of late, can't wait to try yours!
Also - loving your Tulips. I nearly bought a bunch at the market yesterday, but decided to hold off and use it as a reward after I tidy the house. Motivation is needed!

[melissa]

I have your carrot cake recipe, made into muffins, in the oven as we speak :-D My daughter is bringing a little friend home for tea and it will be a lovely treat for them!

[Claire]

The Alicia P photographs had the same effect on me too! Great tips about the frozen raspberries & layering the fruit in the muffins. Yum!

[Claire]

The muffins look great, good with Spanish raspberries, but we have a few raspberry canes in the garden so will be keen to try with out own raspberries later in the year!

[Lise]

I made this recipe for breakfast this morning (just amended to make gluten free and used frozen blueberries) - lovely! Thanks for the recipe!

[Sara Jenkins]

I thought I'd make a batch before posting. Your muffins are delicious!
Really easy to bake too - I made a batch after work today.
I understand why they don'[t hang around long - but I'm hoping there will be a couple left to take on a "picnic" tomorrow when we go to watch my son play rugby.
Keep warm and dry! x

[Lizzie]

Thank you for the recipe, i'll definitely be baking up a bit of my own cosy-fluffiness this weekend. Great tip for freezing raspberries too.

[Hannah]

For American bakers, here are the conversions I figured out, because none of my measuring cups have the metric unit.

1 c flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 c sugar

4 T milk
2 T sunflower oil
1 egg
1/2 tsp vanilla

25 minutes at 350 degrees Fahrenheit

[Twolittleflowers]

Nut spread!!!! Not butt spread!!!!

[Twolittleflowers]

Ok, I am officially drooling! I can taste them through my screen... I had planned to make banana choc chip muffins tomorrow, might have to do a fruity batch now too. Tonight, however, I plan on making a chocolate, macadamia but spread! A belated Christmas present. Best I not eat it before I deliver it! I hope this afternoons baking was delicious?
Keri

[Catherine]

These sound absolutely delicious. Thanks for the tip for adding the fruit

[Cheryl]

Thank you Lucy for the lovley looking muffin receipe. Now I have to have a math class to figure out what you said - mg/g to tsp/cups - ooh my poor brain. ;)

I love your colorful, cheerful home.

[Malvina]

What a lovely muffin wrap!
I would love to try them, but here in Buenos Aires we can't get fresh raspberry. There are great ones in the south of the country, but they don't get here.
Have a nice week.
Malvina
www.tejememucho.com

[Jones]

Ohhhh they look scrummy! Thanks for sharing :)
Jones x
PS love your flowery cake plate!

[Maria]

Just pinned them! They look so delicious!
I just wanted to tell you that I recently discovered your wonderful blog and you're the reason that I've been crocheting granny squares like crazy over the weekend! I always had trouble following crochet patterns but not yours! Thank you so much for the inspiration!!!

[steph]

gosh i can almost smell them!!! (and I will soon really be smelling them!!!)

[Jane in U.S.]

Must pass on something I've learned on Pinterest and that ACTUALLY WORKS. Like magic. As soon as you get home with your beautiful berries, toss them in a bowl of 1 part vinegar and 3 parts water. Whirl them around, leave them for a few minutes, then rinse in clear water. (They say you don't need to rinse, but I do.) I then toss them in a colander, and refrigerate. You will be astounded at how many days they will last. No mold. They will wrinkle before they mold. Please try!
Love your blog.

[Maria João]

The muffins seem so delicious that I'm going to try... thank you.

[Mary]

Lucy, I tried your recipe right away with apples, and the muffins were perfect! I'm buying you a coffee! Thanks for taking the time to explain:

[Julia Lask]

I have just been to the shop to buy some fruit to make your muffins. You not only inspire me with your wonderful crochet, now with baking too. My son is going to love these muffins, I can't wait to get started.
Thank you for the recipe,
Julia :)

[sara]

Hi Lucy - lovely post as ever, reminding me of those happy family weekends so many years ago now, when the weather was cold and it was ok just to "mooch" about the house, bake, sew or knit, and keep the rest of the world out. Enjoy these years as they are so precious and they go so fast. I should know as my babies are 33 and 28 and it seems a lifetime ago now. I haven't baked for ages but I think I will go and buy a muffin tin and some cases and have a go.
The days are slowly getting longer and the outside world will soon be calling :)

[Mineya Giordani]

Lucy,
these look amazing! Probably were delicious..
I really enjoy visiting you, everything is so colorful!
Thanks for all!
Kiss, Mi.