THE HIATUS IS OVER

I have been on a long-standing muffin hiatus for two reasons.  Reason one?  Nearly one year ago I suddenly encountered a muffin/cupcake craze wherever I turned on the streets, with stores offering every flavour combination imaginable, most of which were sub-par quality.  Reason two?  Once I found a decent offering I would always go back for more, starting off a vicious cycle of less-than-nutritious breakfast & coffee outings at 9am each morning.

To be fair, you simply cannot turn a blind eye to something and pretend it doesn’t exist.  So with great trepidation one morning when I was presented with a “come on, just try a bite – it’s actually very good” from a colleague, the hiatus officially ended.  Who would have though the oh-so-average office building café downstairs from my work could produce a muffin of such excellent quality?  Well I certainly didn’t.  Besides, now that the cupcake craze has died down and only the strong stores survived, I am willing to hop back on the wagon.  And I am going to start with these miniature morsels of goodness - technical goodness, that is (because they have fruit AND coconut in them).

coconut, raspberry and white chocolate muffins

  2 cups self-raising flour

  3/4 cup caster sugar

  3/4 cup white chocolate, chopped

  1 cup raspberries

  1 egg, lightly beaten

  1/2 cup macadamia oil

  3/4 cup milk

  1/3 cup desiccated coconut

Preheat oven to 200 degrees celsius.  Line a 12 hole muffin pan with cases or grease well and line with baking paper.

Sift the flour into a bowl and add the sugar, coconut and white chocolate (if you are using fresh raspberries, add them now; however if you are using frozen, do not add yet as they will thaw and the colour will bleed through the mixture).  Stir to combine and make a well in the centre.

Place the egg, oil and milk in a separate bowl and whisk together.  Gradually pour into the flour mixture, gently stirring as you go until the mixture is just combined.  If you are using frozen raspberries, add them now and very gently stir through the mixture.

Spoon mixture evenly into the muffin pan and bake for 15-20 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the middle comes out clean.  Remove from oven and set aside for 5 minutes before ravenously wolfing down whilst still warm.  Be sure to keep one for morning tea envy (such as I, demonstrated below).