Tuesday 8 September 2015

Muffins




So hey. I've not posted in a while and it's the first time I've posted from my flash new phone (just an iPhone 5c, don't get excited). Anyway I made some nice muffins today which was a complete surprise because I always thought that this perfectly round-topped fluffy light creation was the stuff of Starbucks dream world. I found out today that this ideal baked good is not so unachievable as we all think. The recipe I found was from littlesweetbaker and the ingredients are all in cups. If you are clever and have a contraption with the cup measurements on it, use that. If you're like me just pick a mug - any mug- and use it to measure everything where the word 'cup' is mentioned. 
In the rewrite here I missed out bicarbonate of soda from the original recipe purely because I didn't have any and I wrote the oven temperature which I used on my oven after translating it. The article along with the recipe on littlesweetbaker.com discusses how to achieve that bakery style idealised iconic muffin we all dream of and apparently it's simply down to raising agents and temperature: the raising agent to make the batter rise and the high temperature at the beginning of the bake to make that top spring out straight away. Obviously after that happens it becomes necessary to turn down the heat to avoid book ends for muffins. If you want to read it for yourself go ahead, very interesting stuff! And if you're reading this littlesweetbaker...props to you! 

Here's the recipe anyway: 

2 1/2 cups plain flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup milk
1 cup sugar
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup butter (melted)
2 eggs (beaten)
1 cup chocolate chips

1) Preheat oven to 220 degrees / gas 5. Line a 12 hole muffin tin with paper cases.
2) Place the flour, baking powder and salt into a big mixing bowl and stir to combine. Mix through the chocolate chips and set aside.
3) In another bowl, mix together the sugar, eggs, milk, vanilla and melted butter. Gradually pour into the dry ingredients, stirring as you go. Once both wet and dry ingredients are just combined, stop what you're doing and take a step back.
4) Divide the mixture between the 12 cases, filling them right to the top. Bake in the oven for 5 minutes and then turn the temperature down to 180 degrees or Gas 4. Bake for a further 15 to minutes. Once springy to the touch get the muffins out of the oven and allow to cool or eat warm.