I woke up the other day and the morning light outside looked different. The harsh, bright light of the summer had gone, and in its place was a slightly mellower, more golden glow. Right on cue, the change of season had arrived. The time of year where there are cool mornings and warm afternoons; bare legs and long sleeves; and golden leaves and green grass. That change of light also changed my mindset about food – suddenly frozen icy treats didn’t seem appealing, but something warm and pudding like – yes please.
So one afternoon I whipped up a batch of muffins. Half trusted recipe, half made up recipe and I’ve discovered they’re just the thing for these early autumn days…
The base for these muffins is the Australian Women’s Weekly basic muffin recipe. It’s dead easy and gives consistently good results – exactly what you want when you want to play around with different flavour and ingredient combinations.
The only major change I made to the basic recipe is swapping out the dairy milk for oat milk. In the last year or so I’ve developed a sensitivity to lactose. Milk is the main offender, so that’s why I’ve made the switch to oats. I’ve discovered in that time though, that lots of dairy products contain very little lactose (but lots of good nutrients), so instead of a completely eliminating them from my diet I’m finding what works for me. Butter and a lot of cheeses are fine, but I find lactose free yoghurt and sour cream easier to digest.
What you’ll need
- Two cup of self-raising flour
- 1/2 cup of caster sugar
- 3/4 cup of milk (whichever variety you choose to consume)
- 125g of melted and slightly cooled butter
- Two eggs
- One teaspoon of vanilla extract (I prefer vanilla bean paste)
- 300g of raspberries (both fresh and frozen work)
- A few spoonfuls of chocolate hazelnut spread (this one is delicious, vegan friendly and is currently in my pantry)
How to do it
- Line a 12 hole muffin pan with paper cases and preheat your oven to 180°C .
- Sift the flour into a large mixing bowl and stir in the sugar.
- In a large jug, whisk the milk, eggs, butter and vanilla extract together.
- Make a well in your dry ingredients and add in the milk mixture, mixing lightly to just combine.
- Fold in the raspberries.
- Spoon in mixture into your muffin cases until they’re about half full. Drop a small dollop of chocolate hazelnut spread onto the muffin mixture, then top with the remaining mixture.
- Drop a second dollop of chocolate hazelnut spread onto the top of your muffins and using a toothpick swirl the two together.
- Bake for about 20-25 minutes, checking with a skewer to ensure muffins are cooked through. Let cool in the pan for five minutes or so, then remove to a wire rack to cool completely.
I like that these muffins aren’t overly sweet, it means the tartness of the berries really shines through. Depending on your own preferences, you could add as much or as little chocolate hazelnut spread as you like. I like it in moderation – enough to be able to get that decadent chocolate hit, but not too much that overpowers the muffins completely. These muffins aren’t the prettiest to look at (a dusting of icing sugar would assist I imagine) but they really are very tasty and work wonderfully mid afternoon with a cup of tea.
Have a wonderful week.
M. x
Wattle and Ash 