FUEL FOR THOUGHT: Home-Made Blackberry Muffins

Today I went blackberry picking. It was great! After heading out on a bike ride yesterday through the Essex countryside I found loads of hot spots with bramble bushes brimming with ready to pick blackberries! I couldn't avoid this so I ventured out the next day, Tupperware in tow to get me some blackberries!

Two hours later, I got me a few:

After realising that I did in fact have around five kilos of blackberries, I had to get using them before they turn into a mouldy pulpy mess in the fridge. So first up was blackberry muffins. The reason being is that I am currently staying at my future in-laws and after rifling through their kitchen cupboards, I managed to collate all the ingredients I needed for these. 

I got the recipe off Tesco's website funnily enough. I never knew they had recipes on there but this one seemed simple and straightforward so I got to it straight away. The ingredients I used were:

75g Unsalted Butter

75g Caster Sugar

200ml Semi-Skimmed Milk

250g Self-Raising Flour

1 Egg

1 tsp Baking Powder

0.5 tsp Bicarbonate of Soda

1 punnet of blackberries (roughly 500g)

1. Firstly, I lined a cupcake tin with cases and then creamed together the sugar and butter. Normally at home, I would use an electric whisk but I couldn't find one of these so I used a hand held whisk and got my biceps hard at work! I will admit I didn't get it light and fluffy (my arms were killing!) but I made sure it was all whipped up. 

2. Next, in a separate bowl I whisked together the milk and egg before gradually adding this to the sugar/butter mixture. This makes it very liquidated so make sure you whisk all the ingredients together thoroughly.

3.  I then added in the flour (which I didn't sieve) and again, I did this bit by bit, folding the flour into the mixture each time until it was thick and gloopy.

4. Final step is to add the blackberries. The recipe advises to mash them up slightly so some are whole and some are mushy. Once these are stirred into the flour mixture, evenly decant into muffin cases and bake for 20 minutes at 180 degrees (gas mark 6).

Here's how they turned out - not bad for a last minute bake off! Mary Berry would be pleased (I hope). 

For the full recipe please visit Tesco's Real Food website HERE. 

Lipstick Runner.