It was Scott’s birthday this weekend so I asked him what he wanted cooked to celebrate his birthday. He chose muffins, one of his favourite food groups. I even got him to choose the recipes so he picked his favourite flavours. All these recipes are by Family Circle, in the new Muffin cookbook. They’re pretty easy (if you don’t stuff them up), and for the recipe that reads like a story, I’ll rework into a traditional ingredients and method, so it’s easy for you to know if you can get the ingredients to make it yourself.
I love that all of these recipes start with “pre-heat the oven” because that’s a step that I often forget to do first (and some books have “put the tray in the pre-heated oven” at the end of the recipe). I also use silicon muffin cups to save on greasing muffin trays and because they’re reusable. I recommend them (they’re not very expensive), if you like baking lots of muffins.
I have a fan forced oven, and the recipes seem to be made for standard non-fan forced ovens. Reduce the temperature by 10 – 20 degrees (depending on your fan forced oven) if you have a fan forced oven.
Lemon and poppy seed muffins
Ingredients:
- 2 1/2 cups self-raising flour
- 1/4 cup poppy seeds
- 1 cup caster sugar
- 2 eggs
- 1 cup sour cream
- 2 tablespoons finely grated lemon rind
- 1/3 cup lemon juice
- 200g cream cheese
Method:
- Preheat the oven to 180C. Grease 12 regular muffin holes. Sift the flour into a bowl and add the seeds and 3/4 cup of the caster sugar. Make a well in the centre.
- Place the eggs, sour cream, lemon rind and 2 tablespoons of the juice in a jug, whisk together and pour into the well. Fold gently until combined – the mixture should be lumpy.
- Divide the mixture among the muffin holes. Bake for 20 minutes, or until the muffins come away from the side of the tin. Cool for 5 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack.
- Put the cream cheese and remaining sugar and lemon juice in a bowl and beat well with electric beaters. Spread on the muffins.
Notes on this recipe:
- I forgot the eggs… this was not a good thing. I did remember them before I baked them, but I didn’t mix them in well, so mine were all a bit crumbly. Tasty, but crumbly.
- You probably don’t want to put the cream cheese frosting on until the muffins are completely cool.
Apple and cinnamon muffins
Ingredients:
- 400g can of pie apple
- 2 1/2 cups of self raising flour
- 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
- 2/3 cup soft brown sugar
- 1/2 cup finely chopped walnuts
- 1 1/3 cups milk
- 2 eggs
- 1 teaspoon vanilla essence
- 150g melted and cooled butter
Method:
- Preheat the oven to 200C and lightly grease 48 mini muffin holes/12 regular muffin holes/6 Texas muffin holes.
- Place pie apple into a bowl and break up with a knife.
- Sift flour and cinnamon into a large bowl. Add brown sugar and chopped walnuts. Stir together and make a well in the centre.
- Place the milk, eggs, vanilla essence and butter in a jug, whisk together and pour into the well. Add the apples, then fold gently until just combined 0 the batter should be lumpy.
- Divide the mixture evenly between the muffin holes. Bake for 20 – 25 minutes, or until the muffins come away slightly from the side of the tin. Cool for 5 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack.
Notes on this recipe:
- This was the recipe that was written as a story, so I missed the melted and cooled butter bit… so that required so fancy kitchen work (melt butter, immerse container of melted butter in cold water, swirl around a bit to cool).
- I also wasn’t sure about the liquid from the pie apples, because the recipe doesn’t say to drain the apples, so I didn’t and just added it all to the mixture. It made for a wetter batter, but the muffins were incredibly moist and very tasty.
Double chocolate chip muffins
Ingredients:
- 2 1/2 cups self-raising flour
- 1/2 cup cocoa powder
- 1/2 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
- 3/4 cup firmly packed brown sugar
- 1 cup milk choc bits
- 1 cup white choc bits or chopped white choc melts
- 1 1/4 cups milk
- 2 eggs
- 100g unsalted butter, melted and cooled
Method:
- Preheat the oven to 200C. Grease 12 regular muffin holes. Sift the flour, cocoa and bicarbonate of soda into a large bowl and stir in the sugar and 3/4 cup each of the choc bits. Make a well in the centre.
- Whisk together the milk, eggs and butter in a jug and pour into the well. Fold gently – the batter should be lumpy.
- Divide the batter among the muffin holes. Sprinkle with the remaining choc bits and bake for 20 – 25 minutes, or until the muffins come away from the side of the tin. Cool, then transfer to a wire rack.
Notes on this recipe:
- So tasty, so moist, so melty… yum
- Be careful to not burn the chocolate (on the outside of the muffin), that’s not so tasty.
- This is really very easy, and the results are great.
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