SUMMER MUFFINS, HAPPENED SO FAST

The warm weather is kicking in and so to are the endless barbecues and picnics of summertime. More often than not meat, salads, beer, wine, bread, cheese, fruit and other delicious nibbles make their way into your summer menu. It’s always hard, however, to think of any easy hassle free dessert to add to a warm weather, casual occasion. Anything too creamy curdles in your stomach as you lie in the sun, fruit salad isn’t perfectly satisfying for our inner child’s sweet tooth and trying to be a master-chef is just too tricky. These white chocolate and raspberry muffins are fresh from my family recipe book, take a maximum of 15 minutes to make and nothing you can do will stop them from tasting delicious.

Add the butter, try to leave it out for a while first so it softens.
Then you won’t have to use a beater, you can just gently mix it with a wooden spoon.
Because these muffins are for summer, we don’t want to over work the mixture and make it dense.
Keep it light and fluffy by folding the mixture slowly and thoroughly.

Add the sifted self raising flour, you can sift as you measure it or at this point now.

You’ll notice the mixture getting quite dry and harder to mix. Time for that 80ml splash of milk.

If there is any huge lumps try to smooth them out, but your mixture does not need to be completely smooth.

Throw in your raspberries, anywhere between half a cup and three quarters of a cup is fine, it depends what kind of ratio you’re after.

After stirring in your white chocolate buttons, spoon the mix into muffin tins. Be wary of how much self raising flour is in the mixture and don’t fill it all the way to the top. You can either line it with patty pans or grease the tin. Please use your fingers to rub butter around each muffin case instead of spraying it, the nonstick spray will ruin the taste.

To get a wholesome, rustic look press extra raspberries and white choc bits into the top of each muffin.

Bake at moderate heat for around half an hour or until the tops are nice and golden.

Now chuck them in your picnic basket with a bottle of apple cider and head to a park or open air cinema on a Sunday afternoon this summer.