April's bake of the month

I love muffins. Unlike cupcakes, which tend to be all butter icing and hardly any cake, muffins are all cake.

I’m not a big fan of blueberries as I find them pretty bland and have no taste. However add them to muffins and they take on a whole new personality.

When I first made these muffins, as per the recipe, I added all the blueberries to the batter with the rest of the ingredients.

Although they tasted delicious, all the blueberries had sunk to the bottom.

The second time I made them I kept the blueberries to one side and didn’t add them until the batter had been poured into the cases. Each muffin then had about eight blueberries sprinkled on top.

This time the reverse happened. They all stayed at the top….

On the third attempt I added half of the blueberries to the batter mix and sprinkled the other half on top. This should give me muffins with blueberries at the top and bottom. Nope – they all sank again !!

I have the same problem with cherries and chocolate chips too. They always sink no matter what I do with them.

As long as they tasted good (which they did) then I wasn’t bothered.

This recipe is adapted from ‘GoodFood 101 cupcakes and small bakes book.’ I made 10 large muffins. However if you want them slightly smaller make 12 instead.

Blueberry muffins

Ingredients:

• 5oz/125g caster sugar
• 9oz/250g self-raising flour, sieved
• 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
• 3oz/75g margarine (or butter but you prefer)
• 2 large eggs
• 7fl oz (1/3 pt)/200ml milk
• 7oz/200g blueberries
• Zest of one small lemon

Method:

• Pre-heat oven 200º c/Gas Mk 6. Fan oven 180ºc.
• Using a muffin tin line 10 (or 12) holes with paper cases.
• Melt the margarine in a microwave or pan then leave to cool.
• In a large bowl add all the dry ingredients then stir to combine.
• Add the eggs to the milk, beat together, then add to the melted margarine and stir.
• Pour the liquid to the dry ingredients then gently mix until just combined. Don’t be tempted to give it one more stir as over mixing will make the muffins tough.
• Carefully fold in the blueberries. I’ll leave it up to you to decide if you wish to add in all the blueberries, or half now then sprinkle the other half on top.
• Divide the batter into the paper cases. You can use a spoon, or better still, an ice-cream scoop.
• Bake for 15 – 18 minutes until they are golden brown.
• Remove from the tin and leave to cool slightly before testing one……

Gertie xx