Raspberry and White Chocolate Muffins

One of my favourite muffin flavours is raspberry and white chocolate muffins but I've only ever bought them from cafes. After eating a particularly nice one whilst on holiday (more on that later!) I declared to Graeme that I would attempt baking my own version. Graeme found me a recipe online which I adapted slightly out of sheer laziness and for quicker mixing times!




Here goes....

Ingredients:

• 2 1/2 cups self raising flour
• 100g butter
• 1 cup caster sugar
• 1 cup milk
• 1 egg (lightly beaten)
• 1 cup raspberries (frozen or fresh)
• 1/2 cup white chocolate bits
• Icing sugar (for dusting)

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 190degrees (I have a fan oven so set it at approx. 170degrees)
2. Lightly grease muffin tins (I use silicon trays so spray them lightly with spray oil)
3. Add the flour and sugar to the bowl and mix
4. Melt the butter in the micowave (for approx. 40 seconds if the butter is chopped) and pour into the dry mix
5. Add the milk, the egg, raspberries (straight out the freezer) and white chocolate bits
6. Give it all a stir until mixture is just moistened (don't mix until completely smooth)
7. Spoon into muffin cups
8. Bake for 20 mins (I checked them after 15 and they definitely needed the extra 5)
9. Stand for 5 minutes and then turn onto a wire rack to cool
10. Dust with icing sugar
11. Eat and enjoy :-)

The original recipe suggested rubbing in the butter to the flour but that seemed like too much effort to me and they came out fine with melted butter instead.

They are truly delicious and were particularly tasty warm.

This recipe makes 12 (large-ish) muffins.

Recipe for Malteaser Tiffin (Fridge) Cake

A brief break in Holiday in Review posts. I haven't got my Dublin photos organised yet but wanted to post something :-)


While we were in Scotland I got this recipe from Graeme's Gran. I tried making it recently and it's amazing!


It is very sweet and even I (Queen of Sweet!) can't eat more than one piece at once. I took some to work and they loved it so much they all wanted the recipe.



Here's what it looked like in my baking tin....

And here's the recipe....

Ingredients:

• 100g margarine (I used butter and it worked fine)
• 3 tbsp syrup
• 150g milk cooking chocolate
• 225g digestive biscuits, roughly crushed
• 225g malteasers, halved or crushed
• 400g white or milk cooking chocolate

Instructions:

• Melt the first 3 ingredients, then add the biscuits and malteasers.
• Mix well and spread over a swiss roll tin.
• Cover either with melted white or milk chocolate.
• When chocolate is set cut into squares.

My notes:

• We couldn't find milk cooking chocolate at supermarket so it was standard plain cooking chocolate and it was yummy but the milk might go better with malteasers.
• I put the tin in the fridge to set but kept checking on it and before the chocolate set hard I made cut lines which I think made it easier to cut up. It was a bit tricky getting the first bit out of the pan though!
• 550g chocolate is a huge amount - we only got about 500g or just under and that was still plenty to give it a thick chocolate top.

Enjoy and do let me know what you think if you try it :-)

I blinked and when I opened my eyes again 9 days had passed...

....and other excuses about why it's been longer than a week since I last posted include:

* a 15 hour work day in Auckland + an afternoon arrival back home the next day
* two days + 1 night in Wellington for work
* walking by the river with my boys and taking photos of windmills
* fun new squeaky cow toys to play with
* taking Rhett-ster to the vets for his annual check-up and jabs and getting a clean bill of health
* deciding to decorate the lounge and dining room when the pair of us have more days away from home than we have at home between now and Easter
* making copious amounts of chocolate cornflake cakes...just because they taste good
* trying to plan a wedding
* hand making envelopes because it's really quite fun
* framing the coolest art ever - personalised especially for G from me
* baking bread
* drinking wine for the first time in ages and miraculously not getting a hangover
* spending 2 hours on the phone to an old (that's a reference to the length of our friendship and nothing whatsover to do with the fact she is older than me!) friend

It's not just Graeme that's awesome at the moment. Life is pretty damn good too. Busy as a beehive but good with it :-)

Happy Pancake Day

My belly is full of pancakes and sugar and lemon juice (fresh from the lemon tree in our garden).
I am content.
And I can totally recommend THIS recipe.
BEST. PANCAKES. EVER.

Happy Pancake Day!