Much Ado About Muffins

I have a secret. If you ask any of my friends or colleagues to guess how many recipes for muffins I have, they'd probably guess dozens. 

They'd be wrong. 
I have one. One amazingly foolproof and fast muffin recipe. 

There's no creaming of ingredients, no secret technique, no melting of butter, you don't even have to sift the flour (though I'd recommend you do- muffins like a light touch). Just a simple combination of ingredients that make a tasty, light muffin. The beauty of this recipe is how easy it is to adapt to create limitless taste combinations. 

Preheat your oven to 180 degrees (gas mark 4 or 160 degrees in a fan oven). 

Combine your ingredients. Everything can go into the bowl of your electric mixer and blitzed in one go. 

• 4oz butter (should be at room temperature) 
• 6oz caster sugar
• 6oz self-raising flour, sifted
• 2 large eggs (room temperature)
• 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract (not essence)
• A sup* of milk. This can be added after the first 5 ingredients are mixed once you have an idea of the texture. The batter should be glossy, pale yellow and plops off a spoon when tapped once against the side of a bowl

*For those unfamiliar with Irish Mammy Measurements, a sup = 2-4 tablespoons

Now the fun starts. You can pretty much add anything to the muffin batter at this stage. Some of my usuals are:

• 200 gr raspberries, roughly chopped with 100gr white chocolate chopped into chunks
• 200 gr chopped strawberries with 100gr dark chocolate chunks
• Rind of one large, unwaxed, lemon and 50gr sultanas
• Rind of one orange and 75gr dark chocolate chunks
• 2 green apples, very finely diced and 1 teaspoon of ground cinnamon
• 2 finely diced pears with 1 teaspoon of ground cinnamon and 1/2 teaspoon of ground ginger

Once you'd added your flavours, spoon the mixture into a muffin tray lined with medium-sized muffin cases, filling each 2/3rds of the way up. You should yield approximately 12 muffins from this mix. 

Place in oven and check after 22 minutes. A pairing knife stabbed into the centre of a muffin should come out clean once they're done. Place on a wire rack to cool. 

Like the fillings, toppings can be adjusted to best match each case. For a simple raspberry and white chocolate muffin, I like to leave them untopped. Because of the high sugar content, these muffins have a crunchy top once they start to cool. 

A simple royal icing (icing sugar made up as per pack directions) works very well with the lemon or apple versions. 

Simple raspberry and white chocolate muffins