Muffins – three recipes

The big difference between cupcakes and muffins is in the recipe for the batter. A cupcake recipe is generally plain and simple, and the embellishment and decoration go on the top. Muffins are not as showy and are not generally decorated, but make their mark with the special flavours or fillings inside, whether sweet or savoury.

Confusion reigns over what muffins actually are. The word initially referred to a plain, flat yeast bun from the north of England. It was always split by hand, never cut with a knife, and was sometimes toasted over the glowing coals of on open fire, after which it was smothered in fresh butter. Yeast muffins are still made and sold in Britain and some of its former colonies, such as Australia.

Today the word `muffins’ more generally refers to larger, taller cakes like very big cupcakes. These muffins originated in the US, where muffins were once also called ‘gems’ and were much smaller than the modern muffin.

Chocafé Muffins

4 eggs
3/4 cup caster sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
50g butler softened
1/2 cup plain flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 cup cocoa powder
2 tablespoons instant coffee

Topping
6 x 4cm chocolate mint squares
icing sugar for dusting
chocolate, finely grated

1 Preheat the oven to 190°C. Grease a 12-muffin pan. Beat eggs, sugar and vanilla extract together until thick and creamy. The mixture should hold a figure-of-eight shape when it reaches this stage.

2 Melt the butter. Sift flour baking powder, cocoa powder and coffee into the egg mixture and fold in with butter.

3 Three-quarter-fill muffin cups with mixture. Bake for 12-1 5 minutes or until muffins spring back when lightly touched. Allow to cool for 5 minutes before turning onto o wire rock.

TOPPING
1 Cut a 1cm slit in the top of each muffin. Cut the chocolate mints in half diagonally and push the cut side into the slit in each muffin. Dust with icing sugar and sprinkle with grated chocolate.

Strawberry Filled Muffins

2 cups plain flower
55g sugar
3 teaspoons baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 egg
1 cup of milk
2 tablespoons of melted butter (cooled) or oil
85g strawberry jam

1 Preheat the oven To 200°C. Grease a 12-muffin pan. In a large bowl, stir together flour sugar baking powder, salt and nutmeg. Make a well in the centre.

2 ln a medium bowl, beat the egg with milk and melted buffer or oil. Pour egg mixture into the dry mixture, stirring until dry ingredients are just moistened.

3 One-third-fill the muffin cups, using half the butter. To each muffin cup, add about 1 teaspoon of strawberry jam. Use remaining mixture to fill pans two-thirds full. Bake for 20-25 minutes until well browned. Serve warm.

Classic Blueberry Muffins

2 ½ cups self-raising flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/3 cup sugar
2 eggs, lightly beaten
1 cup buttermilk or milk
60g butter, melted
125g blueberries
2 tablespoons coffee sugar crystals or demerara sugar.

Preheat the oven to 200c. Grease a deep 12-muffin pan. Sift the flour and baking powder together into a bowl, add sugar and mix to combine

Combine eggs, buttermilk or milk and butter. Add egg mixture and blueberries to the dry ingredients and mix until combined.

Spoon mixture into muffin cups. Sprinkle with coffee sugar crystals and bake for 20-30 minutes or until muffins are coked when tested with a skewer.

baking with Bill & Sheila
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