This weekend I had a friend coming over for lunch, so I wanted to bake something nice, but I didn’t feel like going all out with ingredients. In fact, I didn’t want to leave my warm and cosy home to go to the supermarket, so it had to be done with stuff I already had at home. But since I’m a student who already struggles to find space for all of her belongings in her tiny little home as it is, that didn’t leave me with much to choose from. So, I decided to make these simple but sweet muffins.
(Oh, and then I found out I only had about 200 g of flour left, so I had to go to the supermarket anyway.)
You’ll need… (for 12 muffins)
– 260 g plain flour
– 120 g caster sugar
– 3 teaspoons of baking powder
– pinch of salt
– 7 table spoons of sunflower oil (or 100 g butter)
– 3 eggs
– 200 ml milk
– 2 teaspoons of vanilla flavouring
– cherry jam (you can use any kind of jam made from red fruit)
– a bit of sugar to sprinkle on the top
– a muffin tin
– 12 paper cases (if you don’t have these, or don’t like them, just butter the tin)
– and an oven, of course – these muffins need to be baked at 200 °C, don’t forget to preheat the oven!
So, let’s get baking!
1. Mix the dry ingredients together We start by sieving the flour, baking powder and salt above a bowl, and mixing them together. Then add the caster sugar to it, and whisk again.
2. Mix the wet ingredients together In a second bowl, lightly beat the eggs. Then gradually add the milk while whisking. Next up is adding the sunflower oil and vanilla essence. Whisk everything together until it’s evenly mixed.
3. Mix everything together Now, let’s get back to the dry ingredients. Make a small hole in the middle of the mix, and pour in the egg-milk-oil-vanilla mix. Gently mix everything together with a spoon. It’s important to not over stir: the mix is supposed to be a bit lumpy, and it’s okay if there are still a few patches of flour visible — you just have to moisten the dry ingredients. If you over stir the mix becomes too tough.
4. Put the batter in the cases and add the jam We’ve already reached the final part of the recipe — told you it’d be simple! Now, put about 1 tablespoon of the batter in every paper case (which you’ve already put in the tin, as in the picture above). Once you’ve done that, it’s time to add the jam. Put a generous teaspoon of jam in every paper case, on top of the batter. Then add another tablespoon of the batter on top of the jam, or until the jam is completely covered. The cases should be about 3/4 filled. Mine are quite often filled completely, which results in flat muffins. They still taste good, but they’re less pretty. And pretty is good.
5. Bake the muffins Now, sprinkle some sugar on top of the mix in every paper case (this makes for a crunchy top) and put the tin in your preheated oven (200 °C)! Bake the muffins for about 20 to 25 minutes. Don’t bake them any longer than that, even if they’re not yet golden brown on top. They’ll come out really tough if you do. Believe me, I’m speaking from experience — that’s what I did the previous time I baked these muffins, since it was one of the first times I used my new oven. They came out a lot better this time!
Once the muffins are done baking, take them out and leave them to cool in their tin for 5 minutes, then take them out of the tin to cool completely. Although, they do taste pretty delicious when they’re still warm…!
What’s your favourite muffin recipe? And if you made these, how did they turn out? Let me know in the comments!
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mmmm these look super yuumy 🙂
Thank you! They really were… 😉