A drink is too wet without one

 

Time for my morning cuppa, and fortunately this morning, it comes with a side of muffin! I love to bake, and muffins are a bit of a regular feature on the Farrar menu. A few months back I bought a book called 750 Best Muffin Recipes by Camilla Saulsbury. One quick flick through it, and I was tempted to do a 'Julie and Julia' with it, and bake muffins for the next couple of years straight. However, 'Kimberley and Camilla' just doesn't have the same ring to it, and I couldn't decide who would play me in the blockbuster movie.

 

So I settled for dabbling, dipping and casually experimenting instead. So far so good. In fact, so far, so completely brilliant. If my love affair with Slow-Cooker Queen Judith Finlayson doesn't pan out, then I may give Camilla a call - the woman has serious muffin-chops (and yes, my husband knows, and is happy with this kind of open relationship, as long as he gets regular muffins).

 

Today's delectable example of Camilla's prowess is a Mandarin Muffin. Now, I confess, in the original, it is a Tangerine Muffin, but I didn't have any of those, so I substituted mandarins. I'm guessing tangerines work wonderfully, but mandarins did pretty superbly as a substitute:

 

 

 

Mandarin Muffins

(makes 16 regular sized muffins)

 

1 1/4 cups granulated sugar

2 TBSP finely grated mandarin zest (or tangerines...)

3 cups AP flour

1 TBSP baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

2/3 cup unsalted butter, softened

2 eggs

1 cup Greek yoghurt (plain whole milk yoghurt in original, but I couldn't find it)

1/2 cup freshly squeezed mandarin juice (or tangerine...)

 

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Line muffin tins with paper liners.

2. In a small bowl, use the back of a spoon to mash together the sugar and the zest. Set aside.

3. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt.

4. In a large bowl, using a mixer on medium-high speed, beat 1 cup of sugar/zest mixture with the butter until light and fluffy. Beat in eggs, one at a time, until fluffy and pale yellow. Beat in yoghurt and juice until blended.

5. With mixer on low speed, beat flour mixture into the yoghurt mixture until just blended.

6. Divide batter equally among muffin cups. Sprinkle with remaining sugar mixture.

7. Bake in preheated oven for 25-30 minutes, or until tops are golden and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Let cool in pan on rack for 5 minutes, before removing muffins to a cooling rack.