I do like our garden – I
doubt it would ever make it into any self-respecting country garden magazine,
but it is a lovely wilderness of berry bushes and fruit trees that provide us
with delicious, organic fruit from June all the way through to the winter (one
of our apple trees keeps its fruit on until well into December!)
The raspberries are already well
on their way. We eat them fresh off the bushes by the handfuls and enjoy them
with yogurt, ice-cream or cream.
Redcurrants and blackcurrants are
next and I look forward to the rich bounty nature provides us with this year.
For many hours everybody helps
picking the berries and taking them off the stalks, then there is jam to be
made and cordial and jelly - and of
course cakes!
I like the idea of using less fat in muffins, especially as the fruit provide enough moisture for the
cakes.
This is for a large load of
muffins (24+):
100g butter
4 eggs
400g sugar (brown caster sugar,
icing sugar, caster sugar – any of them are fine)
500g self-raising flour mixed
with 1 tsp of baking powder
200 ml milk
a few drops of vanilla extract (or
some vanilla sugar)
600g redcurrants
50g demerara or granulated sugar
to sprinkle on
Cream butter and sugar and add the eggs one by one (beating the mixture thoroughly after each egg). Add vanilla extract. Then little by little add flour and milk.
Use a wooden spoon to gently mix
in the redcurrants. Divide between the muffin cases and sprinkle sugar over
each muffin. Bake in a pre-heated oven until golden brown (175 -180°C).
They are absolutely lovely! You
could of course use your favourite Blueberry Muffin recipe and use redcurrants instead of the blueberries. Just sprinkle a bit of sugar on before baking to counter some of the natural tartness of the
redcurrants.
If you haven’t got any self-raising flour at home, you can also use plain flour plus 4 tsp of baking powder.
