Raspberry, White Chocolate and Orange Muffins

Finally……I’m back!!!!! What a crazy few months it’s been… Can’t believe I didn’t have any time for food blogging and recipe hunting/testing over the last 3 months.

It certainly was a crazy few months, with a great learning curve. Being up to my eyes in pancakes and full irish frys and whatnot, Serena’s Medium Rare unfortunately had to take a back seat.

When I initially started the B&B people said, ‘its hard work you know’……..and I did understand that it would be, but boy oh boy I couldn’t have imagined how much work it takes. Not that any day felt like work, mind you. In fact the summer flew and I relished cooking for guests and getting great feedback on my cooking and baking, not to mention chatting with a vast variety of interesting people on a daily basis. It’s most definitely the job for me!

Now that the B&B is closed until Summer 2013 and I’m back to my ‘day job’, I’ve had time to breathe and reflect on what has been a wonderfully successful summer.  We brought our modest little B&B from #89 on Tripadvisor, to …….(drum roll please)…. #3 on Tripadvisor!!!!!

I really found a big passion for baking this summer, which before used to scare me. After many experiments with muffin recipes my Raspberry, White Chocolate and Orange Muffins proved to be the most popular. I ended up baking these so often in the finish I’m convinced I could bake them in my sleep.

It must be said this recipe is adapted from Clodagh McKenna’s Blueberry Muffin recipe from her book Homemade…

Ingredients

·         400g Plain flour

·         150g Caster sugar

·         85g Butter

·         2 eggs

·         1 tbsp Baking powder

·         Zest of an orange

·         Juice of half an orange

·         260ml Buttermilk

·         Salt

·         200g raspberries

·         200g of white chocolate chips

Method

1.       Sieve the flour into a bowl, along with the baking powder, salt and sugar.

2.       Melt the butter over a low heat.

3.       Zest the orange over the flour mixture

4.       Lift the flour mixture high from the bowl and let it fall between your fingers, do this maybe 10 times. This helps to lighten the flour.

5.       Beat the eggs in a jug with the buttermilk and add the melted butter once its cooled slightly and the orange juice.

6.       Fold the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients.

7.       Add the raspberries and chocolate chips and gently fold.

8.       Have the oven preheated to 200 degrees.

9.       Line a muffin tray with paper cases and using a dessert spoon fill each case.

10.   Bake in the oven for 23-25 minutes.

11.   Remove and cool on wire rack.