So my self-challenge to cook all the recipes from Nigella Lawson’s How to Be a Domestic Goddess continues with two muffin recipes: Lemon-Raspberry Muffins and Blueberry Muffins.
I cooked the lemon-raspberry muffins first, as I had a pressing need to get rid of the absurd amount of frozen berries I had filled up our tiny freezer with (what? They were on special at the supermarket!). We could no longer fit a loaf of bread in the freezer, and thus our bread was going stale. In the spirit of Marie Antoinette, I cried “let us eat cake!” and Nigella’s recipe was the result.
Batter stage…
Lemon and raspberry is a great combination, as I discovered when making cheesecake. Two things I learnt from this recipe: one – I did not have any baking powder (just soda), so I substituted Nigella’s plain flour and baking powder combo with an equal weight of self-raising flour. This worked fine. Well, it’s the same thing in essence, isn’t it? I don’t know why she includes baking soda AS WELL but I guess she is going for lightness… and I included it.
In the wrappers…
Two: frozen raspberries work fine. The muffins, by no means large, turned out nice and fine for ‘tea-time muffins’. They were much better on the day of baking than the following couple of days, as is the way with all muffins…
Lemon raspberry muffins baked and…
(Mid) action shot
Buoyed by this success, the other night I wanted to use up some of the citrus-as-art display I’ve got going on. Mr Behemoth likes to remark sourly (see what I did there with the sour and the citrus jokes? Oh don’t mind me, I’m just taking the pith…) that it is citrus-as-decaying-art if I don’t eventually do something about the 20 oranges and 10 lemons gradually mouldering in the bowl.
Looking for a recipe that used oranges, I stumbled across the blueberry muffins recipe in which Nigella suggests adding orange zest. I squeezed the orange as well and used the juice to replace some of the milk in the recipe. This muffin recipe uses either buttermilk – which I didn’t have – or plain yoghurt mixed with milk. I used Greek yoghurt (it’s what I had) and a bit of the aforementioned OJ as well as milk to make up my liquid component, along with an egg and melted butter.
Muffin mix – dry and wet components (most muffin recipes are like this, mixing one into the other)
I don’t know if it is because of the yoghurt in this recipe, but the muffins stayed moist and delicious past the initial day of baking. They were tangy – probably due to the Greek yoghurt and the increased component of juice – but just sweet enough with the relatively moderate 1/4 cup of sugar. I also used mixed berries instead of blueberries, because, well, that’s what I had – my answer to everything.
I’m like one of those Taste commenters who reviews the recipe 5 stars then outlines the 50 changes (s)he made to the ingredients and method…
Filled trays
Oh, and these seemed to rise a little more than the lemon-raspberry muffins – I followed the plain flour and baking powder route this time (yes I’ve bought some!) and … maybe it made a difference!
One left after housemates descended…
I was pleased with this recipe. Quick, easy, and the results were yummy, even if I didn’t do as Nigella says and eat them “broken with fingers and smeared, mouthful by mouthful, with good unsalted butter and blueberry jam”.
Fresh Bread 