Very Merry Christmassy Muffins

This is a very easy and satisfying muffin recipe which you can enjoy anytime of the year.
However, somehow, the flavour of almond, orange and dried fruit creates a very Christmassy aroma.
It's a great treat coming back from a brisk wintry walk to have these with a warm drink of coffee, tea or even mulled wine. :)
These are best as they are still warm. But they can be reheated by oven or microwave.

Ingredients (for 10 muffins)   

• 1 egg
• 60ml of veg oil 

• 125ml of milk

• 100g caster sugar 

• 200g self-raising flour 

• 75g dried cranberries 

• 75g raisins

• 50g of mixed peel 

• Zest of half an orange

• 1/2 tsp of almond extract 

• A handful of flaked almonds 

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 180°C and line a muffin tray with 10 cases.
2. Whisk the egg until it is well combined, then add milk, oil and sugar and continue to whisk.
3. Using a sieve, add the self-raising flour, cranberries, raisins, mixed peel, orange zest and almond extract to the egg and gently mix in.
4. Pour the batter into cases and top with some flaked almonds. Then bake for around 20 minutes until they have risen and are lightly golden.
5. Allow them to cool and then dust the top of the muffins with some icing sugar. 

Very Lemony Muffins

If you love lemon flavour it can't get more lemony than this.

All sweet Valentine Day's treat with a tangy twist. Classic. :) 

Ingredients (makes approx 12 muffins)

For Muffins: 

• 280g/10oz plain flour
• 1 tbsp baking powder
• pinch of salt
• 115g/4oz caster sugar
• 2 eggs
• 200ml milk
• 6 tbsp/ 90ml sunflower oil
• juice of one lemon and zest of 2 lemons
• approx 4 tbsp lemon curd (optional)

For the lemon syrup

• Juice of one lemon and a bit of zest
• 80g granulated sugar

Method 

1. Preheat the oven to 200 C/400 F/Gas Mark 6 and grease muffin tin or place cases in muffin tin.
2. Sift together the flour, salt and baking powder then stir in the caster sugar.
3. Lightly beat the eggs in a separate bowl and then beat in the milk, oil and juice of one lemon. Make a well in the dry ingredients’ bowl and pour in the beaten liquid then stir gently until combined but try not to over mix. Then stir through the zest of two lemons (You could leave a little for the lemon syrup to make it extra lemony).
4. Spoon half of the mixture into the prepared muffin tins or cases then add a teaspoon of lemon curd into the centre of each one before spooning the rest of the muffin mixture on top if you would like the muffins to have a lemony creamy surprise. However, the muffins are just lovely without this.
5. Bake in the preheated oven for about 20-25 minutes until they are well risen, golden brown and firm to the touch.
6. While baking the muffins, make the lemon syrup with the juice of one lemon, granulated sugar and lemon zest. Mix the lemon juice and granulated sugar in a small bowl to give a runny consistency.
7. Then transfer to a wire rack. Prick the warm muffins all over with a skewer then pour over the drizzle – the juice will sink in and the sugar will form a lovely, crisp topping

Spiced Apple Muffins

Apple and spices like cinnamon and ginger are a great combo.
I add the spices quite generously as I love the flavour of them.
Chopped apple pieces make the muffins moist but keep them light.
I found if I mix grated apple rather than chopped apples the muffins turn out quite dense. I prefer light muffins like these.
Make sure to add the apple pieces into the dry mixture first to stop the apple pieces sinking to the bottom.
These are great to enjoy when they are still warm.

Ingredients

• 200g Plain flour
• 100g Caster sugar
• 50g Soft brown sugar
• 2 teaspoons Baking powder
• 2 teaspoons Cinnamon powder 
• 2 teaspoons Ginger powder
• ¼  teaspoon Salt
• 90ml Milk
• 80ml Vegetable oil
• 1 large Egg, beaten
• 2 large Apples - peeled, cored and chopped

Method

1. Preheat oven to 200 C / 180 C (Fan) and add paper cases to a muffin tray.
2. Measure out flour, sugar, baking powder, salt and spices in a large mixing bowl. 
3. Mix the dry ingredients well and then add the chopped apples. Make sure the apple pieces are well coated by the flour mixture.
4. In a separate jug, mix milk, oil, and egg. Stir until just combined.
5. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients. Fold in but do not over mix.
6. Fill the muffin cases equally. 
7. Bake for 20 minutes or until golden brown on top.

Chocolate & orange muffins

Chocolate and orange is a good combination. 

These muffins have a quite pronounced flavour of orange, but they don't have any actual orange segments or even juice. Fresh orange zest really gives an aromatic flavour. 

I added chopped white chocolate to compliment the fresh orange flavour. You could add more white chocolate if you wish.

Ingredients 

• 200g plain flour
• 150g caster sugar 
• 25g cocoa powder
• 2 tsp baking powder
• ¼ tsp salt
• 150ml milk
• 50ml vegetable oil  
• 1 egg
• 50g white chocolate chopped
• zest of 1 orange

Method

1. Preheat oven to 200 C / Gas 6 and add paper cases to a muffin tray.
2. Measure out dry ingredients in a large mixing bowl.
3. Measure milk and oil in a large measuring jug. Add egg and whisk well.
4. Add the wet mixture (3) into the dry mixture (2).  Stir until just combined. The mixture will be lumpy. Do NOT over mix.     Then, gently fold in chopped white chocolate and zest of orange.
5. Bake for 20 minutes or until golden brown on top. 

Dairy free cranberry and chocolate muffins

No milk in the fridge .... fear not ... you can still make muffins without milk. 

If I say without milk, that doesn't mean you need substitute stuff like soya milk or oat milk.  

You can actually make muffins simply using water instead of milk.   

I recently discovered that I could bake cake without eggs and milk when I tried to make vegan cupcakes. When I found there was no milk in my fridge, I thought to myself I still could make muffins using water like I made vegan cupcakes the other day.  :)

I used an egg as I had some eggs in the fridge. So, these muffins are dairy free but not totally vegan. 

They have a lovely chocolaty flavour and very light.  

Ingredients 

• 200g plain flour (if you use self raising flour, no need to add baking powder) 
• 150g sugar
• 20g cocoa powder
• 2 tsp baking powder
• ¼  tsp Salt
• 100ml water 
• 60ml vegetable oil
• 1 egg
• Vanilla extract
• 120g fresh cranberries 

Method 

1. Preheat oven to 200 C / Gas 6 and add paper cases to a muffin tray.

2. Measure out flour, sugar, baking powder and salt in a large mixing bowl and mix the dried ingredients well.

3. Measure water and oil in a large measuring jug. Add egg and vanilla, then whisk well.

4.  Add the wet mixture (3) into the dry mixture (2).  Stir until just combined (mixture will be lumpy).        Do NOT over mix!

5. Gently fold in cranberries.

6. Bake for 20 minutes or until golden brown on top.

Fresh Cranberry Muffins

I think it's very easy to get fresh cranberries at supermarkets at this time of the year because lots of people tried to get fresh cranberries to make cranberry sauce for their Christmas turkey dinner. 

Jars of cranberry sauce are popular, but more and more home cooks try to make home made sauce as it's actually easy to make and tastes great.  

Well ...., I didn't make cranberry sauce this year, as I was invited to a big family Christmas and the lovely cranberry sauce was made by one of the family members..... and tasted so good. 

After Christmas I found lots of packs of fresh cranberries at the supermarket with an amazingly reduced price. So, I thought to myself why not make cranberry muffins?  Here they are juicy and tangy. 

They have a very refreshing flavour and are just the right sort of thing to eat after a lot of rich Christmas food. 

Ingredients 

• 200g plain flour (if you use self raising flour, no need to add baking powder) 
• 150g sugar
• 2 tsp baking powder
• ¼  tsp Salt
• 100ml milk 
• 60ml vegetable oil
• 1 egg
• Vanilla extract
• 100g fresh cranberries 

Method 

1. Preheat oven to 200 C / Gas 6 and add paper cases to a muffin tray.

2. Measure out flour, sugar, baking powder and salt in a large mixing bowl and mix the dried ingredients well.

3. Measure milk and oil in a large measuring jug. Add egg and vanilla, then whisk well.

4.  Add the wet mixture (3) into the dry mixture (2).  Stir until just combined (mixture will be lumpy).        Do NOT over mix!

5. Gently fold in cranberries.

6. Bake for 20 minutes or until golden brown on top.

I added some crushed chocolate chips, 60g ish, to the cranberry muffin mixture.

I didn't know cranberry and chocolate is such a fab combo. 

I'm loving them. :) 

Seriously dark chocolate and banana muffins

These are not ordinary chocolate muffins or banana muffins.  They are seriously dark. 

I used quite a lot of cocoa powder for this recipe as I didn't have a bar of chocolate ..... surprise? 

Anyway, bananas made the muffins sweet and moist.  They are lovely with creme fraiche.   

Ingredients

• 3 bananas (ripe or over ripe) 
• 100 ml vegetable oil or 100g lowfat margarine
• 50 ml milk
• 2 medium eggs
• 100 g soft light brown sugar
• 200 g plain flour
• 50g cocoa powder (sifted)
• 1 teaspoon baking powder 

Method

1.  Preheat the oven to 200°C/gas mark 6 and line a muffin tin with papers.
2. Mash the bananas by hand or with a free-standing mixer. Add the oil (or margarine) followed by the eggs and sugar. Mix well.
3. Mix the flour, cocoa powder and baking powder together and add this mixture, beating gently, to the banana mixture, then spoon it into the prepared papers.
4. Bake in the preheated oven for 15–20 minutes, by which time the muffins should be dark. Allow to cool slightly in their tin before removing to a wire rack.

Apple and Walnut Muffins

Ideally, muffins should be eaten or frozen on the same day that they are baked. Otherwise they become a bit dry.  However, I found out that if I put grated apple in the batter, the muffins stay moist. When I added apple to ginger cupcakes the other day, they stayed moist for a couple of days. :)  So, I added 1 grated apple to these muffins. These muffins are extra moist but very fluffy. 

Ingredients 

• 200g plain flour
• 100g sugar (50g soft brown + 50g white caster) 
• 2 tsp baking powder
• ¼ tsp salt
• 100ml milk
• 50ml vegetable oil  
• 1 egg
• 1 apple grated
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• 50g walnut chopped 

Method

1. Preheat oven to 200 C / Gas 6 and add paper cases to a muffin tray.
2. Measure out dry ingredients in a large mixing bowl.
3. Measure milk and oil in a large measuring jug. Add egg and whisk well.
4. Add the wet mixture (3) into the dry mixture (2).  Stir until just combined. The mixture will be lumpy. Do NOT over mix.     Then, gently fold in grated apple and walnuts.
5. Bake for 20 minutes or until golden brown on top. 

Spiced Fruit Muffins. Christmassy!

Feeling a bit Christmassy? These muffins have a hint of winter festive taste. Ginger, cinnamon and dried fruit are the main ingredients for Christmas cake. But these muffins are much quicker to make. When the dried fruit are soaked overnight and are plump and juicy, it's ready to bake. If you soak the dried fruit in brandy or sherry, the muffins would be even more Christmasy. I decorated the muffins with cinnamon icing sugar to spice them up.

Ingredients 

• 200g plain flour
• 100g sugar
• 2 tsp baking powder
• ¼ tsp salt
• 100ml milk
• 50ml vegetable oil  
• 1 egg
• 1 dash of lemon juice
• 1 tsp ground ginger
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• 100g dried Fruit (20g mix peal + 80g mix dried fruit) soaked in 50ml of warm water (preferably overnight)
• zest of 1 orange   
• cinnamon icing (cinnamon, icing sugar and water mixture to decorate the muffins) 

Method

1. Preheat oven to 200 C / Gas 6 and add paper cases to a muffin tray.
2. Measure out dry ingredients in a large mixing bowl.
3. Measure milk and oil in a large measuring jug. Add egg and whisk well.
4. Add the wet mixture (3) into the dry mixture (2).  Stir until just combined. The mixture will be lumpy. Do NOT over mix!
5. Gently fold in soaked mixed fruit.
6. Bake for 20 minutes or until golden brown on top.

Ruislip woods Blackbery Muffin

Here are the muffins made with the lovely blackberries from our local woods in Ruislip.
There were absolutely loads of them in September and early October. These little gems are fantastic for muffins. The recipe for them is the same as summer forest berry muffins. I picked so many of them and wondered what to do with the last of the berries after making muffins. They wouldn't keep so long in the fridge. So, I froze them. Freezing soft berries is a bit tricky as they stick together. I used a polystyrene sheet for the first freezing.
You know the tray like sheet which comes with ready meal pizzas from the supermarket. I simply place the berries on the polystyrene pizza tray and pop it in the freezer. Make sure they are not really squashed together. When they are frozen, put them altogether in a container to keep then in the freezer. They are all individually frozen... like little precious stones. When you make muffins with these frozen berries, put them into the dry mixture first then mix with wet ingredients. This process has to be done quickly when the berries are still frozen. Do not defrost the berries. If you do, the muffins will be a purple mess.... Anyway, these frozen berries are very useful. Great addition to yoghurt, desert, trifle, etc.

Lemony Golden Syrup Muffins

Golden syrup is a kind of comfort food, isn't it? So, here are the muffins which make you feel "ahhhh". I was looking for a muffin recipe and found one in Nigella.com. Her recipe suggests adding extra golden syrup to the middle of each muffin, but I decided to pour "lemony golden syrup" into each muffin instead. It makes the muffins lovely and moist with a hint of lemon flavour. :)  

Ingredients 

• 200g flour
• 50g caster sugar
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• ¼ teaspoon salt
• 3 tablespoons (90g) golden syrup
• 1 dash of vanilla extract
• 1 egg
• 50ml vegetable oil
• 130 ml milk
• golden lemon syrup (golden syrup + lemon juice) 

Method

1.     Pre heat the oven, 200  (190 fan oven)

2.    Mix all the dry ingredients together in a bowl.

3.    Mix all the wet ingredients together in a separate bowl.

4.    Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and lightly mix.

5.    Spoon the mixture into the muffin cases and bake them for 20 minutes.

6.    When the muffins are baked, poke a few holes into each muffin with a very fine skewer and pour the golden lemon syrup into each muffin.

Serve while still hot, with a cup of tea or coffee. 
They would also be great turned into a pudding with a big dollop of custard.

Lemon Drizzle Muffins

Yes, I did it. :)  I baked 8 Lemon Drizzle Muffins, 8 Mixed Berry Muffins, 8 Double-Chocolate & Banana Muffins and 24 Oat & Fruit Cookies in 2 hours including washing up this morning.  Phew... 

I was preparing for a coffee break party for friends this afternoon. Muffins should be eaten on the day baked, ideally, so I decided to bake them all in the morning of the event. It was fun. :)  

I added some pieces of chocolate to my Banana and Cocoa Muffins to make them more chocolatey. 

Here is my new recipe for Lemon drizzle muffins. I put lemon curd in the middle of each muffin to make them even more lemony. :) 

Ingredients 

• 200g Plain Flour
• 150g Sugar
• 2  tsp Baking Powder
• ¼  tsp Salt
• 100ml Milk 
• 1 tsp Lemon juice
• 50ml Vegetable Oil
• 1 Egg
• Vanilla extract
• 1 tsp Lemon curd for each muffin
• Lemon syrup ( Juice of one lemon + 1 Tbsp Sugar)   

Method 

1. Preheat oven to 200 C / Gas 6 and add paper cases to a muffin tray.
2. Measure out flour, sugar, baking powder and salt in a large mixing bowl and mix the dried ingredients well.
3. Measure milk and oil in a large measuring jug. Add egg, lemon juice and vanilla, then whisk well.
4. Add the wet mixture (3) into the dry mixture (2).  Stir until just combined (mixture will be lumpy).        Do NOT over mix!
5. Add the mixture up to halfway in each muffin case, then drop 1 tsp of lemon curd into the centre of each muffin. Gently top up the muffin mixture to cover the lemon curd.
6. Bake for 20 minutes or until golden brown on top.   
7. Make 6 holes in each muffin with a fine skewer.
8. Make a syrup with lemon juice and sugar and pour over the muffins.

Summer Forest Berry Muffins

We have been having really rainy summer this year in Britain. Where has summer gone? 

So, here is another rainy weekend, but still I can enjoy baking. :)

First, I baked a batch of flapjack (click for the recipe) with walnuts and prunes. While the flapjack was baking in the oven, I prepared the muffins. I really love fresh blueberry muffins, but here are "Summer Forest Berry Muffins" which are inspired by my favourite English Summer Pudding, which includes several kinds of berries. Yes, you can see lots of berries in the muffins. I used frozen mixed berries, raspberries, blackberries, blueberries, redcurrants and blackcurrants. It's quite handy keeping a bag of frozen mixed berries in the freezer as you can get almost the same lovely juicy flavour as fresh berries.... and you can bake whenever you feel like it without rushing to the supermarket. The only thing you have to remember using frozen berries is NOT to defrost the berries before mixing the batter. Put the frozen berries straight from the freezer into the dry mixture, them add the wet mixture as usual. As I love berries I put about 170g of berries in this mixture... and they were delicious!! But you may not need that much. 125-150g of frozen berries would be just lovely! 

Ingredients 

• 200g Plain Flour

• 150g Sugar

• 2 tsp Baking Powder

• ¼ tsp Salt

• 100ml Milk

• 75ml Vegetable Oil  (5 Tbsp)

• 1 Egg

• ¼ tsp Vanilla Extract 

• 1 tsp  Lemon juice 
• 125g Frozen mixed berries   

Method

1. Preheat oven to 200 C / Gas 6 and add paper cases to a muffin tray.

2. Measure out flour, sugar, baking powder and salt in a large mixing bowl and mix well. Then add the frozen mixed berries. (DO NOT defrost the berries. When the berries are added do not mix until the wet mixture is added)  

3. Measure milk and oil in a large measuring jug. Add egg, lemon juice and vanilla, then whisk well.

4. Add the wet mixture (3) into the dry mixture (2).  Stir until just combined. The mixture will be lumpy.     Do NOT over mix.    Bake for 20 minutes or until golden brown on top

  

double yolk egg muffins ... lovely!

Hey, I found a double yolked egg. :) I cracked the egg and there were two yolks in one egg.
So I baked fruit muffins with my easy muffin recipe adding 100g of dried fruit.
I baked them as usual, but somehow, they rose more than usual. Is this an effect of 2 yolks?
I don't really know.....
Anyway, it was a lovely surprise and I'm very pleased about how the muffins turned out. :)

Banana and Cocoa Muffins

Banana and chocolate .... a winning combo, isn't it?
So, here are Banana and Cocoa muffins. I could have used a melted bar of chocolate, but I used cocoa instead for a light texture. They tasted really chocolatey and yet very light. The walnut crumble topping worked really well with the chocolate flavour. The crumble topping I used is, actually, leftover from making Apple Crumble Muffins. I made too much crumble topping that day, so I froze the leftover. It was great just to take it out of the freezer and to sprinkle it on top of these banana and cocoa muffins before putting them in the oven. These are lovely warm, but can be nicely reheated to enjoy the "just out of the oven" effect.

Ingredients                

• 200g Plain Flour
• 100g Soft Brown Sugar
• 2 tsp Baking Powder
• 4 Tbsp Cocoa Powder
• ¼  tsp Salt
• 100ml Milk
• 2 ripe Bananas, mashed
• 50ml Vegetable Oil
• 1 Egg

For crumble topping 

• 30g Plain Flour
• 15g Granulated (or Demerara) Sugar 
• 15g Butter (or Low-fat Spread)
• Walnuts crushed  

 Method 

1. Preheat oven to 200 C / Gas 6 and add paper cases to a muffin tray.
2. Measure out flour, sugar, baking powder, cocoa powder and salt in a large mixing bowl.
3. Measure milk and oil in a large measuring jug. Add egg, vanilla, and banana then whisk well.
4. Add the wet mixture (3) into the dry mixture (2).  Stir until just combined (mixture will be lumpy).    Do NOT over mix!
5. Sprinkle the crumble topping on top of each muffin. 1 teaspoon full each would be enough.                    The crumble topping can be frozen if there is any leftover.
6. Bake for 20 minutes. 

  

Muffins should be eaten warm!

Blueberry & Yogurt Muffins

Some cakes improve as you leave them for a while. But Muffins do NOT.
They really should be eaten on the day, or I even have to say as soon as they come out of the oven.
It does make a huge difference. But what would you do if you had some left over muffins. No worries.
You can still have lovely flavour and texture almost as good as the muffins just baked.
This is how to reheat them.

1. Heat the oven to 200 C, and turn off the oven.
2. Place the muffins on an oven plate and put them in the oven.
3. Leave the muffins in the oven for 10-15 minutes.

Obviously, you don't need to cook the muffins again. Just add crispness on top and the soft spongy texture will come back.... and, of course, nice and warm. :)

So, do not forget to turn off the oven when it reaches 200c. 

You'll be surprised how much the muffins can get back to the "just came out from the oven" state by this simple method.  So, enjoy your left overs.  :)

Fruit & Yogurt Muffins

Yes, it's muffins again. :)
I noticed that milk, one of the ingredients of muffins, can be replaced by other types of dairy products such as buttermilk, sour cream and yogurt. So, here are my first yogurt muffins. I thought blueberries would be the best match with yogurt, but there was a nice crunchy apple in my kitchen, so I used chopped apple instead.  I suppose any fresh fruit which goes nicely with yogurt would make lovely muffins with this recipe. Chopped pear, pineapple, etc.
I was just curious how the yogurt would affect the texture of the muffins. The result was ... wow, better than I expected. The muffins had a really bouncy spongy light texture and pieces of apples made them moist, but not soggy at all. The very gentle tangy flavour of the yogurt complements the apple so well. Make sure that you do not over-mix the batter. That 's the muffin rule. :)

Ingredients 

• 260 g plain flour
• 100 g granulated sugar
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• ¼ teaspoon salt 

• 240 ml plain yogurt (regular or low fat)
• 1 large egg, lightly beaten
• 60 ml (¼ cup) vegetable or sunflower oil
• ½  teaspoon pure vanilla extract 
• 100 g fresh or frozen blueberries   ( Blackberries, raspberries, or cranberries …… or even chopped apple which I put in the muffins pictured here.)

Method

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). 
2. In a large measuring cup or bowl whisk together the yogurt, lightly beaten egg, oil, and vanilla extract. In another large bowl whisk together the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt. Evenly fill the muffin cups with the batter, using two spoons or an ice cream scoop. Remove 1 tablespoon of the dry ingredients and toss it with the blueberries.
3. With a rubber spatula fold the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and stir only until the ingredients are combined. Gently stir in the blueberries. Do not over mix the batter or tough muffins will result.
4. Place in the oven and bake for about 15 -20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the centre of a muffin comes out clean.
5. Transfer to a wire rack and let cool for about 5 minutes before removing from pan. 

Blueberry and Yogurt Muffins 31.05.2012 

Fresh Blueberry Muffins

As far as my recent muffin making is concerned, this is my personal best. :)
The texture of the muffin base is really light and moist, but not soggy at all. There is a generous portion of blueberries in each muffin which makes them so juicy.
I was wondering why blueberry muffins are so popular, but I kind of understand why after making blueberry muffins for the first time. I think it's because a blueberry has a very delicate skin which, unlike other berries, does not burst until the muffin is almost cooked, which means that the juice doesn't affect the consistency of the muffin base. It's a lovely sensation when some of the blueberries burst in your mouth. No wonder blueberry muffins are so popular.
They are best still warm, but can be frozen when they have cooled. Because they are so light and more-ish, they won't take long to disappear and you might not have any to put in the freezer.  :)


Ingredients 

• 200g Plain Flour

• 150g Sugar

• 2 tsp Baking Powder

• ¼ tsp Salt

• 100ml Milk

• 75ml Vegetable Oil  (5 Tbsp)

• 1 Egg

• Vanilla Extract

• 125g Fresh Blueberries 

Method

1. Preheat oven to 200 C / Gas 6 and add paper cases to a muffin tray.

2. Measure out flour, sugar, baking powder and salt in a large mixing bowl.

3. Measure milk, oil in a large measuring jug. Add egg and vanilla, then whisk well.

4.  Add the wet mixture (3) into the dry mixture (2).  Stir until just combined. Mixture will be lumpy.     Do NOT over mix!

5. Gently fold in blueberries.

6. Bake for 20 minutes or until golden brown on top

Easy Muffins

Since I got this new muffin baking pan, I can't stop baking muffins. :)
Apple muffins, Savoury Muffins were successful, but, to be honest, there were some unsuccessful ones when I tried to create a new recipe. It's not easy to make nice and fluffy light textured muffins.
The 1-egg Muffin recipe in my blog has been my favourite, but it's a bit time consuming as I have to make a bread-crumb like mixture from flour, butter and sugar with my fingers before adding wet ingredients.
It's a messy job. I enjoy this when I have time to do it as I know the result has been good so far.
But I just wanted to make quick muffins. After a few trials, I came to settle with this recipe. This is a very basic muffin recipe, so you can add whatever you like ... chopped apple, berries, chocolate chips, nuts and various dried fruit. The very important tip of making soft and fluffy muffins is not to over-mix the batter.
I must confess that I have made very dense heavy muffins by over-mixing them.
Once you add the wet mixture to the dried mixture, don't mix too much! Less is better.


Ingredients 

• 200g Plain Flour

• 150g Sugar

• 2 tsp Baking Powder

• ¼  tsp Salt

• 150ml Milk for muffins with dried fillings like nuts, chocolate chips and dried fruit.  if you are making muffins with fresh fruit 100ml milk will be enough as the fruit contains moisture. 

• 50ml Vegetable Oil

• 1 Egg

• Vanilla extract

• Fresh/Dried Fruit, Nuts… etc.

Method 

1. Preheat oven to 200 C / Gas 6 and add paper cases to a muffin tray.

2. Measure out flour, sugar, baking powder and salt in a large mixing bowl and mix the dried ingredients well.

3. Measure milk and oil in a large measuring jug. Add egg and vanilla, then whisk well.

4.  Add the wet mixture (3) into the dry mixture (2).  Stir until just combined (mixture will be lumpy).        Do NOT over mix!

5. Gently fold in fruit, etc.

6. Bake for 20 minutes or until golden brown on top.