Blueberry Muffins

I bought a cheap punnet of blueberries and was looking for something exciting to make with them but inspiration was lacking so muffins it was. I haven't got a tried and tested muffin recipe so turned to Google and ended up even more confused than ever. Some recipes are made of some very dodgy things and others are just extra ingredients added to cake mix. Where is the fun in that? Most of them claim to be the 'bestest ever in the world x1000' (exaggerating now) so I took a stab in the dark and just chose one that hadn't got weird stuff in and they were fantastic! The recipe does seem a bit odd with the quantities but who am I to argue? I added some demerara sugar and cinnamon to the top as well. I'm also running out of ways to photograph my cakes, can you tell?

Blueberry Muffins
Makes 12

2 eggs
1 cup milk (250ml)
1/4 cup melted butter

1.5 cups plain flour
3tsp baking powder
half tsp salt
2tbsp white sugar

1 cup blueberries
1/4 cup plain flour
1/2 cup white sugar

• In a small bowl, whisk first 3 ingredients together till the sugar has dissolved
• In a large bowl mix the next 4 ingredients.
• Stir the wet ingredients into the dry
• Add the blueberries, flour and sugar and gently fold in
• Fill 12 muffin cases and bake for 20 minutes at 190c/Gas 5
  

Raspberry and White Chocolate Muffins

I saw some raspberries in the supermarket and they were calling to me so I bought them and put them in the fridge and couldn't think of a thing to do with them that didn't involve cake. So cake it was. I had a choice of 2 recipes that are quite similar, the Ainsley Harriott one and this one on Muffin Recipes. As I had to use up all the raspberries I went for the second one. It made 20 cupcake size and 4 muffin size which came out a bit tougher than I would have liked, maybe could have done with reducing the oven temp a bit. I made the small ones to prevent the kids from eating too many. I've tried cutting up larger muffins and only giving them half but they are wise to it now and expect the rest! The smaller ones took about 17 minutes to bake.

Raspberry muffins with white chocolate chips

400g plain flour
3 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
100g white choc chips

2 eggs
125 ml vegetable oil
250 ml milk
1 tsp vanilla extract
200 g sugar

150g raspberries

• Preheat the oven to 200°C (gas mk 6, 400°F). Place the egg, oil, milk, vanilla essence and sugar in a mixing bowl and beat together until sugar has dissolved.

• In another large bowl, thoroughly mix the flour, baking powder and salt. Add the white chocolate chips - mix.

• Add the liquid mix to the dry, and roughly mix it in - it does not have to be absolutely smooth. Add the raspberries last and mix very, very carefully not to break up the fruits (you can never avoid a few of them mixing in with the dough...).

• Fill a muffin tray with paper muffin cases, and then fill each case approximately two thirds with the muffin mixture. Bake the muffins for 25 minutes.

Orange muffins

These went so quickly I only have a half-eaten one to show you! The recipe is from a fellow Damsel, who being Kiwi, bakes using measuring cups so I finally relented and bought some. I was very dubious at first about processing a whole orange. It didn't seem quite 'right' somehow, whizzing up the bit you aren't meant to eat. I changed my mind though when I tried some made by the lady herself (who is a fab hostess btw) I think they would also taste great with cranberries, I'll try that next time.

Orange muffins

Makes 12

1 whole orange
1/2 C orange juice (more if you're not using butter)
1 egg
1/2 C chopped dates or sultanas
125g melted butter (optional)
1/2 C wholemeal flour
1 t baking powder
1 C plain flour
1 t baking soda
3/4 C sugar

Cut orange into pieces and remove pips. Place in a food processor with the juice, blend until finely chopped. Drop in the egg, fruit and butter and blend briefly.

Sift dry ingredients into a bowl, add sugar and pour over orange mixture. Stir till just combined, spoon into greased muffin tins.
Bake at 190/Gas 5 for 15 - 20 mins

Mini Muffins

Have a bit of catching up to do!! I made two batches of mini muffins for my sister-in-law to take into work as she has been there a year. Muffins used to be one of those things I just couldn't get right, I have spent ages looking for and trying out different recipes. The Delia one for Chocolate Drop Mini Muffins , I spent so long reading the damned recipe I left the butter in the microwave (cue temper!) Even when I calmed down and made them again properly they weren't quite right. I wanted ones that don't stick to the cases for a start.
I eventually found one online that I changed around a little bit to make the quantity slightly different as I hate having any spare mixture left over, it's a pet peeve of mine. I like them to all fit in the oven in full trays. Also I changed a couple of the ingredients so I think I can now claim it as my own.

Double Chocolate Mini Muffins
Makes 24

75g/3oz plain flour
1tsp baking powder
25g/1oz cocoa
75g/3oz granulated sugar
75g/3oz milk chocolate chips or chopped up chocolate
50g/2oz melted butter, cooled slightly
100ml/4 fl.oz milk
1 large free-range egg, beaten

1. Sieve the flour, baking powder and cocoa into a bowl. Stir in the sugar and chocolate
2. Make a well in the middle and pour on the butter, then the milk and egg.
3. Mix roughly with a fork until just combined. The mix will be very runny.
4. Fill tray with mini-muffin cases and divide the mixture carefully between them. The choc chips cause it to splash everywhere!! I find it best to put it in a jug and pour, or if you have a bowl with a spout use that from the start. Keep close to the cases to minimise ploppage.
5. Bake at Gas 5, 190c, fan oven 180c for 12 minutes. They will be well risen and lovely and shiny. Can be eaten warm or cold.

To make plain choc chip ones replace the cocoa with 25g/1oz more flour and add a bit of vanilla essence. I was also after a recipe for white chocolate and cranberry ones as this one didn't work out at all. They didn't rise and were very sticky and too sweet. I tried it out for the first time with the plain muffin recipe and they turned out fab. 50g/2oz of white choc is enough as too much tends to make them erupt a little but it does go all nice and caramelly. I didn't add the cranberries to the mixture as they make the aforementioned ploppage problem 10x worse. I half filled the cases, added 2 dried cranberries to each and then covered them over with more mixture. I find they take a couple of minutes longer to bake than the double choc ones.

I was making 48 at once so I decided to put all the ingredients ready to save any 'Crap I forgot the sugar/butter' moments. Made me feel very Blue Peter.