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Chocolate And Cherry Muffins
I currently seem to be spending more time traveling from point a to point b than I do actually being places. For some reason, after I decided not to go on holiday this year, my calendar instantly filled up with 2-3 day trips that are a slightly exhausting mix of family stuff, work related things and weddings. The end result is that I am once again doing all my food shopping in the train station and my food choices are largely determined by what I can eat in the ten minutes before I pass out on my bed fully dressed.
However, to combat the traveling blues, I decided to make something I could actually take with me on the train and that would not get confiscated by airport security (I may still be bitter that they once took my lipstick off me). Muffins are surprisingly good travel food. They are much less messy than their daintier cupcake relatives and can sustain you when you have been left stranded somewhere in the Midlands because a shocking 5 minutes of rain has made the entire train system collapse.
You can pretty much add whatever extra ingredients you have lying around to this recipe. I went for cherry and chocolate because quite frankly it’s a classic combination and it feels marginally more healthy than just plain old chocolate. I think banana and chocolate, or all kinds of nuts, would be a great alternative.
200g halved cherries (stones removed)
100g dark chocolate chips
2 eggs
100g butter melted
280ml butter milk
400g self raising flour
1tsp bicarbonate of soda
150g sugar
2tbs muscovado sugar
Makes 12 muffins
1. Line a muffin tin with paper wrappers, otherwise you will have to do the whole butter and flour routine 12 times and I just don’t think it is worth the hassle. Pre-heat your oven to 180C (160 fan).
2. Melt the butter, doing it in the microwave for about 30 seconds should be easiest. Don’t do what I did and accidentally set the microwave to 3 mins and then forget about it, because you will be cleaning butter out of your microwave for about a week.
3. Stir together your eggs, butter and butter milk. If you can’t find buttermilk in a shop simply add 1tbsp lemon juice to normal milk and leave it for 5 mins.
4. In a separate bowl combine the flour, bicarbonate of soda and plain sugar then add to the liquid ingredients until you have a still fairly wet mix.
5. Stir in the cherries and chocolate chips.
6. Spoon a generous amount of muffin mix into each muffin shape. There should be enough mixture to fill each one nearly to the top.
7. Sprinkle with muscovado sugar and bake for 20-25 mins until golden brown on top. Best eaten within 2-3 days.
