Lazy Days

One of the loveliest things about a public holiday is taking your time: taking your time to roll out of bed, taking your time before you have a shower and staying in you PJs as long as possible, and taking time to put together a real treat of a breakfast.  Public holidays are special days, pancake days, eggs benedict days....muffin days.

This morning's breakfast is definitely a treat: warm and fluffy Raspberry and White Chocolate Muffins.  These  muffins are very loosely based on Nigella's Blueberry Muffin recipe in How to be a Domestic Goddess with a few added flourishes.  Muffins are the perfect lazy day breakfast food.  You can literally put in WHATEVER you like.  Having no blueberries, I used the frozen raspberries that I always keep handy in case of such emergencies.  I roughly chopped up about 6 squares of the raspberry's perfect partner, white chocolate and threw in a dash of vanilla.  A quick grating of orange rind finished off the batter, taking the edge off the sickly sweet white chocolate.

Raspberry and White Chocolate Muffins - My Way

75g unsalted butter, melted

200mL buttermilk

1 large egg

1 tsp vanilla extract

200g plain flour

1/2 tsp bicarb soda

2 tsp baking powder

35g caster sugar

40g raw sugar

pinch of salt

handful of frozen (or fresh) raspberries

handful of chopped white chocolate

sprinkling of orange zest

Preheat your oven to 200 degrees.  Grease a muffin tray or spread baking cups on a baking sheet.
Combine all of your dry ingredients in a large bowl and roughly combine.  Use a measuring jug and beat together the buttermilk, egg, melted butter and vanilla.  Pour your wet ingredients into the dry and mix gently to combine.  Don't worry about trying to beat out lumps, a light hand works best as you don't want to over-work your batter.  Fold the berries, zest and chocolate into the batter with minimal mixing.  Spoon the mixture into your baking cups or tray.  I use an icecream scoop to do this. It seems to be a lot less messy and also means that each muffin contains the same about of batter.  Bake the muffins for around 20 minutes, depending on your oven.  A skewer should come out clean and the muffins should be golden brown and smelling gorgeous.  This recipe makes 12 medium sized muffins.

Accompanied with a traditional English Breakfast, these muffins are sure to provide a gorgeous start to a gorgeous day.  May your lazy days over this Easter break be truly delicious and well-enjoyed.

F.x