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.

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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

[Mellie]

Oh my they look yummy ... !! xxx

[Bonnie]

thanks Lucy for the recipe! I have made quite a few of your recipes and really enjoyed them all-especially the little oat cookies-they were gone in no time!

[Rose Petal]

Dear Lucy, these look so yummy! What a brilliant idea you had to add the fruit the way you have shown. I never thought to do it that way. My berry muffins always end up pink or purple depending upon which berries I have added because I mix them into the batter.

[Bee]

Your muffins look amazing ... I shall have to give them a go ... thanks for sharing ... Bee xx

[Angie]

Mmmmmm, Yummy, I suspect I might be making these this afternoon!
Angie x

[hesta]

Did I dream it or did you have wellies with a wool patten on them ,and were would I get them.your blog is great,BUT I'M SURE YOU KNOW THAT YOUR HARD WORK HAS PAYED OFF. OPPS WENT INTO CAPS. any way I,m very much starting out now making travelling woollberries crochet project bags.doing my own lino printing on 100% made cotton bags .hope you like them http://green-glamour.blogspot.com . Also your little wooden hearts with sayings on are i found country bloomers web site with nice ribbons to. yum to the muffin .

[Carol]

Hi Lucy, so happy I found your blog, I find it very amusing, it all looks so nice in your home, so warm and cosy. Anyway, you got me making these in the weekend!!
Greetings from Holland.

[Cockney Blonde]

Thanks for the recipe and yummy photos. I'm seriously back into my baking since we moved into new 'hobbit' home. May have to give these a try, x

[Nikki]

Lovely muffins! Funnily I posted this week aboutaking raspberry jam - I should of kept some raspberries back to make muffins!

[Anna]

Lovely recipe !My husband would like these muffins! thanks for sharing, they look delicious in your performance. Lucy :)
have a wonderful day!
Hugs,
Anna.

[Elena]

Thank you for the recipe. I was looking for an (easy) one as I just bought the muffin form. Muffins are not so popular in my country, but there's some movement in this issue as recipes start to appear in magazines and cooking blogs. Thanks again.

[Beate]

Oh they look lovely and I'm sure they are very tasty as well. Are there any substitutes that can be used instead of the self-raising flour? As far as I've checked, we don't have that in Norway. Help? LOVE the muffin cases!

[Pauline]

looking very jummy indeed! Great idea, to add a layer of soft fruit rather than stirring it in. Will have to give it a try.

[Jess]

Ohhhh! These look so delicious! And sound so easy! Especially since you can add anything you like - never have the same muffins twice in one week. Your pictures are drool-worthy! xoxo, Jess

[Taylor]

Those muffins looks devine!!! I might have to try them.

[ale balanzario]

Thanks for the recipe, muffins really look good!

[Angela-Southern U.S.A.]

Sounds like lovely mid-winter activities.Alot of the same here,cept the baking has been more savory,meat pies and breads.The blanket is coming along nicely I see.Love the tulips,I'll soon have daffodils blooming,if a freeze doesn't come along..Now I'm in the mood for muffins!

[Attila]

You can use frozen fruit in these; it works really weel; I tend to stir in the blueberries but poke individual raspberries into each muffin with my finger. I then have to lick my finger at the end but such hardships are the lot of all cooks...

[maypole]

As ever, cosy warmth and colour spill from your page, lovely.

[Anne]

Thanks for the recipe! These really look good, and I like the way you add the fruit, layered, not into the batter, which if using blueberries will turn the mix a gross shade of purple/yellow.:-)
I love the first photo ~ such beautiful tulips ~ vase, mug, and the yellow on the fireplace tiles. You have such a warm, bright, cheerful home. I really enjoy visiting here.
Thanks for sharing,
Anne♥

[Paula]

Lovely! I thought the same thing (about Alicia) when I saw your post ~ she was very funny about muffins being her 'thing'! We all need to have our thing, right?! These muffins look lovely and as always you always give a wonderfully detailed account ~ thank you for that!
Our winter here in New England is much like yours, I believe. Time for cozy and comfy...spring and busy-ness will be here soon enough :)

[Cassandra]

Mmm those muffins look yummy! You may have started a muffin craving here!

[Tarnyia]

Thank you for sharing your recipe they look so yummy xxx

[Kate]

The only thing to be said for leaving muffins to cool is they they come out of the cases more readily so you don't need to pick all the left-over yummy bits out. Rarely happens in this house, we just have to pick all those hot sticky bits out the cases...

[5ladybirdlane]

They look delicious! I might give them a try, cold weather and baking/eating go hand in hand. Sarah