Christmas Muffins
These muffins are full of Christmas flavours – fruit, spice, and orange but are lighter than the traditional Christmas pudding and a lot quicker to cook! They can be served instead of the pudding or cake or can be eaten for breakfast on Christmas morning. The fruit really does benefit from at least 24 hours soaking but you can speed things up a bit by mixing all the ingredients and wazzing in the microwave for 30 seconds. This does help to plump the fruit up and absorb the flavours of the spices. I quite often soak double the quantity as it will keep over the Christmas period in a closed container in the fridge and a spoonful will perk up all sorts of things – left over red cabbage, sliced brussel sprouts, glazed carrots in the veg line and of course, its handy for making more muffins!
Ingredients
- zest of ½ an orange
- 80g raisins
- 25g cranberries (I used the ones pre-soaked in apple juice)
- ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
- ¼ teaspoon ground nutmeg
- 3 Tablespoons brandy
- 30g dark brown sugar
- 250g SR flour
- 5 teaspoons doves baking powder
- ½ teaspoon bicarb powder
- 100g castor sugar
- ½ teaspoon mixed spice
- juice of an orange
- 150ml milk (approx)
- 75 g melted butter
- 1 large egg
Directions
The day before cooking the muffins (see note above), place the raisins, cranberries, spices and the brandy in a small bowl. Bring a small saucepan of water to the boil and add the orange zest. Simmer for 5 minutes, drain and refresh with cold water. This removes any bitterness in the rind. Drain thoroughly and cut into the most narrow strips you can. Add to the bowl and cover, shaking from time to time to mix all the lovely flavours and to make sure all the spirit is absorbed by the fruit.
When you are ready to cook preset the oven to 210°C and line a muffin tin with paper cases. Mix the dark brown sugar into the spiced fruit.
Combine the flour, baking powder, bicarb, spice and castor sugar in a large bowl. Mix the milk and orange juice in a measuring jug, topping up to the 200ml mark with milk. Beat the egg lightly and add to the jug. Pour in the melted butter, give it a quick stir and pour into the dry ingredients, lightly mixing everything together. I find a large fork best for this as the mixture is quite stiff and the fork helps to smooth the lumps out without beating it too much.
When everything is mixed, put into the paper cases with two teaspoons – the cases should be about ¾ full. Put a heaped teaspoon of the fruit mixture in the centre of each and place in the hot oven. After 10 minutes, turn the oven down to 200°C and cook for a further 8 – 10 minutes when they should be risen and golden brown. Test they are cooked with a toothpick, which should come out clean when inserted into the spongy part. Serve with cream or brandy butter if you like.
