Season: 

Type:  Sweets

Difficulty:  Easy

Serves:  6

Fresh from the garden:  plums, lemons, eggs

Recipe source: Lou’s recipe

• metric measuring spoons and cups
• small saucepan
• pastry brush
• muffin tins
• scales
• sieve
• bowls – 1 medium, 1 large
• grater
• whisk
• spatula
• tablespoon
• wire rack

• 10 g butter
• 100 g white self-raising flour
• 40 g wholemeal self-raising flour
• ¼ teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
• 1 egg
• 75 ml yoghurt
• 75 ml buttermilk
• 65 g brown sugar
• 25 g butter or vegetable oil
• ½ lemon
• ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
• preserved plums

• Preheat the oven to 200^oC.
• Set out your equipment and ingredients.

Grease the muffin tins

• Using the scales, weigh 10 g of butter then melt it in the small saucepan.  Use the pastry brush to grease the holes of the muffin tin with the melted butter.

Prepare the wet ingredients

• Grate the rind off ½ the lemon and put in the medium bowl.
• Melt the remaining butter in the saucepan.
• Place the yoghurt, buttermilk, eggs, melted butter and vanilla into the medium bowl and whisk well.

Prepare the dry ingredients

• Using the scales, weigh the flour, then sift it with the bicarbonate of soda into the large bowl.  Stir in the sugar.

Mix the wet and dry ingredients together

• Make a well in the flour mixture and pour in the wet ingredients.
• Stir lightly using the spatula, but do not over-mix or the muffin mixture will become tough.  It’s OK if the mixture is lumpy – it should be.

Spoon into the muffin tins and bake

• Use the tablespoon to drop the mixture into the greased muffin tins, filling each hole just over two-thirds full.
• Poke a slice of plum into each muffin.
• Bake for 10 – 12 minutes until the muffins are firm and golden brown.  Remove from the oven.  Allow the muffins to rest for a few minutes in the tin, before turning out onto the wire rack to cool.

Interesting techniques used in this recipe are:

• Making a well in dry ingredients
• Testing a cake by feeling its surface