Muffins

I love muffins...

I don't know anybody who doesn't.

They are THE easiest thing to bake. Incredibly forgiving, you can measure by eye, not by gram, make lots of substitutions, make them lean and mean, full of fibre, or an embarassment of riches topped by a melting pat of butter or some heavy whipped cream.

There is a very basic ratio involved, wet to dry. Once you know how to make a basic muffin you can play with the recipe and turn banana muffins into gruyere and sundried tomato muffins.

Basic Banana Muffins (adapted from the Joy of Cooking)

• 1 cup AP flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp baking soda
• 1/8 tsp salt
• 1 medium egg
• 1/3 cup sugar
• 3/4 cup mashed banana
• 1 heaped tbsp yoghurt or sour cream or the equivalent in milk, cream or buttermilk
• 3 tbsp vegetable oil or 3 1/2 tbsp melted butter

1. Heat oven to 375f
2. Grease or line a 6-muffin tray
3. Mix wet ingredients in a large bowl
4. Mix dry ingredients together very well in a separate container.
5. Add dry ingredients to the wet ones. Barely mix them together - it's ok if there is still a bit of dry flour showing. I NEVER stir more than 20 times, and usually only about 13!
6. Fill the muffin tins 3/4 full and then put the tray into the preheated oven.
7. Check the muffins after about 15 minutes - when tapped a muffin will sound hollow and a toothpick will come out clean.
8. Let the muffins cool for 2-3 minutes after they come out of the oven and then take them out of the tins.

Enjoy hot, warm or toasted the next day, smeared with butter, jam, honey, sour cream, butter or just plain.

The muffins in the pictures substituted stringy halvah for the sugar {I actually used about 2/3 cup halvah because it is not as sweet}, and exchanged 1/3 of the AP flour with wholewheat flour, I also threw in a bit of lemon zest and real vanilla.

I also made these in mini muffin tins and ended up with about 20 3-bite muffins

Grated carrots can be substituted for the banana, or grated apples, mashed persimmons, orange juice or part lemon juice part yoghurt {not forgetting to include the zest}.

Or try this using grated zucchini, mashed feta cheese, chili flakes and fresh thyme and/or oregano.