Raspberry Muffins

I'm a big fan of the muffin. It's easy, quick and a great lunchbox filler or if you have guests coming a fast treat to whip up. Then there's the choice of ingredients...so many choices. Sweet or savoury? Cheesy or chocolately? Spicy or syrupy?

Today I've gone with sweet and simple. Raspberry sweet with a little bit of chocolate thrown in for good measure. Because I can't help it - I try to put chocolate in as much as I can.

These I whipped up for school lunches and for the big man to take to work. They're big enough so he feels manly eating it (no delicate dainty cupcakes for him) and big enough for the kids to probably have half at morning tea and the other half at lunch!

So here's the ingredients: 

Yield: 6 Texas size muffins or 12 regular size.

Prep time: 10mins

Cook time: 25-30mins

75g butter, softened

1/2 cup sugar

2 eggs

1/2 cup milk

1 cup plain yogurt (as in, no added sugar)

1/2 cup frozen raspberries

handful of choc chips (white chocolate goes REALLY well with this muffin, but I only had dark chocolate drops...so I used them instead)

1/4 teaspoon baking soda

2 cups self raising flour.

Preheat oven to 200 deg C and line a Texas muffin tin. I don't have big sized liners so I just cut up cooking paper into squares and fit them in - or just oil the tin and have no liner. It's your call.

Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs one at a time. Add milk and yogurt and mix well. Then add the raspberries and chocolate, flour and baking soda and CAREFULLY fold through with a spatula (not your electric mixer). 

The trick to a successful fluffy muffin is the care you take in folding through the mix so its just incorporated - its okay if you still see bits of flour. Thorough mixing will only result in a flat and heavy muffin.

Spoon into the muffin tin and bake for 25-30mins.

These are best served on the same day you make them, as muffins tend to dry out fairly quickly.

This is also my entry for August's Sweet NZ hosted by Sweets & Brains -  I haven't participated for a few months. So its time to get back into it.