White Chocolate and Raspberry Muffins

Some of my earliest memories are with mum, in the kitchen, making blueberry and chocolate chip muffins - they are some of my favourite memories too. My brothers would often join in and then we’d all fight over who got to lick the bowl and who was given the spoon.

Looking back, those moments were where I first found my love of food. I owe so much to my mum and making those little muffins that fitted so perfectly into the hand of a child - unlike the muffins you buy in stores today. The muffins we made growing up (and still make) were half to a third of the size - perfect for little hands and people of all ages.

In that regard, these white chocolate and raspberry muffins follow in their predecessors’ footsteps. It’s probably a good thing these muffins are small. as the butter to everything else ratio is quite high (and quite delicious).

White Chocolate and Raspberry Muffins
Makes 12 Muffins
Prep time: 15 minutes
Cook time: 25 minutes

1 cup plain flour
1 Tsp baking powder
150gms butter
1/2 cup sugar
1 Tsp vanilla extract
2 eggs
1 cup raspberry
100gms white chocolate chips

Place all your ingredients on the bench, allowing them to come to room temperature. With baking, it is best to make sure all your ingredients are the same temperature. While it does not necessarily need to be room temperature, I find it is the easier temperature to maintain throughout.

Start preheating the oven to 180°C (350°f) fan bake. While the oven is heating up and the ingredients are coming to room temperature, start to prepare your muffin tray.

Line 12 muffin holes with either baking paper or muffin wrappers. There should be no reason to grease or butter these linings as the muffins should just pop out.

Once at room temperature, dice the butter into cubes and add to a food mixture - using the beater attachment. If you don’t have a food mixer, you could also use a food processor or an electric hand mixer.

Add the sugar to the butter and beat on medium/high for around 5 minutes. You may need to pause the mixer every few minutes and scrape down to sides to make sure the butter and sugar cream evenly. You know it’s done when the butter has gone pale in colour and the mixture is light and fluffy.

Once light and fluffy, continue beating on medium/high and add the vanilla extract and eggs one by one - make sure the first is fully combined before adding the second. I usually break the eggs into a bowl opposed to straight into the mixture. While this also makes rogue eggshells easier to pick out, I once ruined an entire cake mixture by cracking a rotten egg straight into it.

While continuing to beat the wet ingredients, in a separate bowl, combine the flour and baking powder. Slowly pour the flour and baking power into the wet ingredients, beating 1/3 of the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients at a time. Once fully combined add the raspberries and white chocolate – be careful not to over mix at this point. Over-mixing flour can make it tough

When all the ingredients are mixed together, spoon the batter into the lined muffin tins. To ensure they are filled evenly, I use two large dessert spoons – with one, I scoop a spoon full of batter and then cradle it back and forth between the two spoons.

Place the muffin tray in the pre-heated oven and bake on fan-bake for 25 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean. My rule of thumb when baking – when you can smell it, they’re either done or nearly done.

Once cooked, remove from the oven and let cool for a few minutes before diving in. These little morsels are best served warm and go great with a tea or coffee.