Mojito Mini-Muffins

Guys, I’ve got a good one for you today! I mean, a really really good one.

I decided to make these mojito mini-muffins as a kind of experiment. It was one of my best friend’s birthday earlier this week, so I wanted to bake something nice for her. Mojitos are my favourite cocktails and although I’m not sure if they’re her favourite as well, I do know we have drunk a whole lot of them together (her girlfriend makes a mean mojito!). It only seemed fitting to try to turn this amazing drink into an amazing muffin.

While I thought about using rum extract for this recipe, in the end I decided to use actual white rum and I’m pretty glad I did! After tasting the first mini-muffin I went kind of crazy with excitement (I might have yelled I’M SO GOOD a couple times…). I’m not even going to be modest you guys, these muffins are perfect. It’s like an explosion of flavours in your mouth. The first thing that hits you is the rum (yum!), closely followed by the fresh and fruity taste of lime, and then there’s finally room for the mint which you realise was there all along.

If you like mojitos and you like muffins, I’d say give these a try! I promise you won’t be disappointed.

You’ll need… (for 24 mini-muffins OR 10-12 regular muffins)

• 250 g plain flour
• 1½ teaspoon baking powder
• 200 g sugar
• pinch of salt
• 120 ml sunflower oil
• 2 eggs (medium)
• 1½ limes (both zest and juice)
• 1½ tablespoons finely chopped mint leaves
• 2 tablespoons white rum (or ½ to 1 teaspoon rum extract – I’m not sure)
• mini muffin tin and, optionally, paper cases
• and an oven, of course! These mini-muffins need to be baked at 180 °C (don’t forget to preheat your oven!)

So, let’s get baking!

1. Mix the dry ingredients together Firstly, you need to take a large bowl and mix together the flour, sugar, salt and baking powder. Baking powder tends to be a bit lumpy, so I always sieve it above the bowl so it gets distributed evenly throughout the mixture.

2. Mix the wet ingredients together The wet ingredients basically means: everything else. Take a smaller bowl and mix together the sunflower oil and the eggs. Add the lime juice and rum and mix it all through. Then add the lime zest and the finely chopped mint leaves and mix again.

3. Add wet ingredients to dry ingredients Create a little well in the middle of the dry ingredients, and pour in the wet mixture. Use a (wooden) spoon to gently fold everything together. Do not overmix — it is okay to still see little bits of flour. If you overmix the batter, your muffins will turn out too tough.

4. Divide the batter over the paper cases Divide your paper cases over the muffin tin (or grease it, if you don’t have paper cases) and then spoon the mixture into the cases.

5. Bake! Put the muffin tin into your preheated oven and bake the muffins for about 20 minutes, or until an inserted skewer comes out clean (they will stay kind of pale). When they’re done, take the tin out of the oven and let the muffins cool for 5-10 minutes before transferring them to a wire rack and letting them cool completely. If you’re making regular muffins, bake them for about 25 minutes.

And there you have it! Your own mojito mini-muffins. Let me tell you, I think that these might well be the best muffins I have ever made. I hope you enjoy them, too!