Juicy Plum Muffins

I thought I’d continue in the same vein as my last post and bring you yet another delicious recipe with which to use your lovely juicy plums. This will be the last of the plum themed posts for now though, as although we had a very large amount of plums we only actually made muffins and chutney – 11 jars of the stuff. I think the next summer fruit recipe I’ll tackle will be Blackberry jam, but I need to find time to go out and pick them first.

I have to admit these were the first muffins I ever made, but they turned out very well considering. In fact they were rather a nice change from the muffins one gets in shops – usually either chocolate or blueberry. I think this recipe works so well because the plums aren’t overpowering in the mixture, it’s more like eating a delicious sweet muffin complimented by a fairly frequent sharp plum flavour. I guess if one wanted the plum to be more obvious in every bite one might use more plums than the recipe suggests – I don’t think it would be at all detrimental to the overall texture. On the topic of texture I think it is important to stress that the batter mixture of muffins needn’t be lumpless like that of cupcakes. There shouldn’t be any dry ingredients showing, but it needn’t be one uniform mixture – it is better if it is a little lumpy.

I feel I must say thank you to those of you who have embraced my blog over the past couple of weeks. I’ve really been making a conscious effort to integrate myself within the blogging community, something which I hadn’t really done up until recently. Lots of thanks for your compliments and I’m really glad you enjoy my foodie wittering.

Plum Muffins {recipe}

Makes 11-12

Ingredients:

• 280g/10oz plain flour

• 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda

• ½ tsp salt

• 110g/4oz granulated sugar

• 1 egg

• 240ml/8fl. oz. buttermilk

• 3 tbsp water

• 90ml/3fl. oz. oil

• 170g/6oz chopped plums

Method:

1. Prepare the muffin tins with cases. Pre-heat the oven to 190C. In large bowl, sift together the flour, bicarbonate of soda, salt and sugar.

2. Beat the egg in another bowl, before mixing in the buttermilk, water, oil and plums. Combine the ingredients by pouring the wet into the dry, stir until there is no visible dry flour.

3. Spoon the batter into the muffin cases, making sure each case has a roughly equal share. Bake in the oven for 20-25 minutes until they are lightly browned and stop trying to talk to you.

Cost: With self-picked plums these muffins should cost no more than £1.10 to make. However, if you’re having to buy plums they should come in at around £1.70. The saving isn’t massive, but if you factor in the fact that home-picked plums taste a lot better than those from the supermarket the deal becomes even sweeter.