On the farm, our veld will take some time to recover, but the antelope are eating less and less of the dry lucerne we put out and more of the young, fresh, sweet grass that is starting to appear.

The days are still hot and baking is not the first thing that comes to mind! But we are celebrating muffin February and bake, we will bake.

Since my last blog, I’ve discovered that there is actually a technical difference in the baking methods between cupcakes and muffins, hence a muffin can never be a cupcake and vice versa. 

According to the website www.stackexchange.com a muffin is made by using the muffin method, i.e. combining wet ingredients in one bowl, dry ingredients in another bowl and then incorporating the two with minimal mixing to avoid gluten development.  This also gives the muffin a coarser crumb.

A cupcake, which really is just a small cake, is made by one of the traditional cake methods such as the creaming method, reverse creaming method, the chiffon method and so on.  They also tend to have a finer crumb.  We’ll there you go!

TOP 500 WENRESPTE – LEMON MUFFINS

I love lemon in sweet things.  In fact, I love lemon in savoury things too!  And after having several shots of ice cold home-made limoncello at a friend’s house recently, I can confidently say that I like it in alcohol as well! 

These lemon muffins were a first attempt for me.  They came out beautifully, with the brown sugar topping giving the whole muffin a crunchy exterior.  Next time, I’ll definitely add more chopped nuts.  According to the recipe, the batter can be kept in the fridge for up to two weeks.

Makes 12 muffins

500 ml cake flour

10 ml baking powder

2 ml salt

125 g soft butter

100 white sugar

5 ml finely grated lemon peel

1 extra large egg, whisked

250 ml milk

200 ml sultanas (optional)

Topping:

80 ml soft brown sugar

50 macadamia or pecan nuts, finely chopped

2 ml grated lemon peel

Preheat the oven to 180?C and buttering a muffin tin or spraying it with non-stick cooking spray. 

Sift the flour, baking powder and salt together. Cream the butter and sugar together, then mix in the grated lemon peel.  Beat the milk and egg in a separate jug, then start incorporating the milk mixture alternating with the flour mixture into the butter and sugar.  Once it has all been incorporated, add the sultanas if using.

Spoon the batter into the muffin holes (¾ full).  For the topping, mix the sugar, nuts and lemon peel and sprinkle over the top of the muffins.  Bake for 20 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean.  Let it cool slightly in the pan, before taking it out and letting it cool completely on a cooling rack.

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ooOoo