Lifestyle Chatter: Not Quite Ready for Bake Off

As the blog is about as neglected as a garden after winter, here’s yet another attempt to resurrect it. Hopefully successfully. I think about it all the time and new posts I could write but life has other ideas.

This Saturday however, in a *coughs* mildly hungover state, I did a bit of baking. This in itself is worthy of a medal – as my colleague Nat said today when I told them about my efforts for someone who never cooks or bakes: “Lindsay, may I remind you that you are a wife?”. Cheeky sod.

I’m the first to hold my hands up and say that cooking and baking are not high on my list of priorities. Of course the former should be, the latter is a luxury. I’m much more of a “grab a quiche and stick it in the oven” or “whip up a quick stir fry” person. I claim I don’t have time but who does quite frankly? It’s not a reasonable excuse. The state of my current kitchen is a bit more viable, it’s definitely taking me time to adjust to my fan-only oven and ceramic hob over which I feel I have no control.

Undaunted, I grasped my Waitrose recipe card and decided if I was going to come over all domestic, then it had to be something sweet. Here’s my take on their Apple and Fudge Muffins.

muffinsprep

What you’ll need:

225g self-raising flour
1 tsp baking powder
65g tub Cooks’ Homebaking Fudge Chunks
2 Waitrose Pink Lady Apples, cored
1 medium Waitrose British Blacktail Free Range Egg (I used whatever egg I had in the fridge)
200g golden caster sugar (I used white caster sugar because I had some knocking around. Not sure if the golden stuff makes any difference?)
60g essential Waitrose Salted Dairy Butter, melted
170ml pot essential Waitrose Soured Cream
1½ tbsp clear honey or golden syrup (this has to be syrup. I don’t do honey *vomits*)

What to do:

~Pre-heat the oven to 180 degrees. As mine is a fan only, I went for 170 which seemed to work. You’ll need a 12-hole muffin tray lined with muffin cases.
~Take half of one apple and slice it thinly (to use for decoration on top of the muffins). Dice the remaining apple.
~Mix the flour, baking powder and fudge chunks in a big bowl until all combined (Mr and I both decided we should quality control the fudge by eating a little piece first. Delicious). Set aside
~In another bowl, beat the egg into the sugar. Add the melted butter and soured cream to this mixture (the recipe recommends to whisk, I just used the same fork I used for egg beating). Finally, add this mixture to the flour one, mixing well but don’t overdo it.
~Spoon the mixture evenly between the muffin cases and top with a slice or two of apple. Pop into the oven for 20-25 minutes then cool on a rack, brush with a bit of syrup or honey if you must and ENJOY! Perfect with a cup of tea.

muffinsfinished

I was so proud that these came out abs0lutely beautifully. They are wonderfully moist and the ingredients are evenly distributed throughout the muffin. The apple retains a slight crunch whilst the fudge makes them chewy. Apparently they’re best eaten on the day but with all the eating will in the world, OH and I cannot manage 12 muffins between us in one day. It’s now Day 3 since I made them and they’ve kept just fine. I can’t recommend this recipe enough and I’m sure it would work with any other fillings combination.

*Next time I’ll take more photos. So pessimistic am I about my capabilities I didn’t even think it would be worth photographing*

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2 Comments

  1. Lucy
    August 10, 2015 / 4:58 pm

    Just clicked through a couple of links from your most recent post (the Bake Off title caught my eye!). Don’t take this the wrong way but I’m glad that not all the blogs I read have always been so fervently updated. It’s great you have stuck with it as, from a selfish viewpoint, I really enjoy reading it. Can I ask if you have a routine as such for blogging? Trying to work out if I should be setting aside more time to post and develop my site, but am wary of overwhelming myself and losing motivation again. x

    • Lins
      August 10, 2015 / 9:22 pm

      Aww thanks lovely, it definitely took me a while to get into the swing of it but now I really enjoy it. Check the posts I write on Wednesdays, I link up to a #HomeEtc linky which is really lovely and encourages me to make sure I post on those days. Linkies definitely help, as well as realising that in order to get it to grow I need to be blogging around 4 times a week… :/ X

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