Curious eater: Baking addiction

Cooking Diaries, Rerai Murindiwa

Food preparation is a ritual, a way of life, a gathering of friends, it is togetherness and sharing.

This new column, Cooking Diaries, focuses exactly on that: Everything food, where it is found, how it is prepared and at times how it is eaten.

Apart from old and new recipes, we will explore the story of food and the traditions surrounding it that have endured to this day.

Christmas and, of course, all the accompanying festivities (loud music, lavish food and drink) are gone: The festive atmosphere which had enveloped us has since been replaced by a fast.

Some went for a 10-day fast while others are going all the way for a 20-day fast.

How best can you break a fast than having a cup of hot well-milked tea with a little something to bite? Imagine, sinking your teeth into a moist, soft and sweet muffin?

A moment to slow down, indulge and reflect.

Now let’s whet your appetite a bit with this delicious Blackberry Muffin recipe.

I hope you will try it at home .

Blueberry Muffin Recipe

Makes 8 Muffins

Takes 40 Minutes

Ingredients

1. 1 ½ cups all purpose flour
2. ¾ cup white sugar
3. ½ teaspoon salt
4. 2 teaspoons baking powder
5. 1/3 cup vegetable oil
6. 1 egg
7. ½ cup milk
8. 1 ½ teaspoon vanilla essence
9. 1 cup fresh blueberries

Method

1. Pre-heat the oven to 200 degrees Celsius.
2. Grease muffin cups or line with muffin liners (I personally love muffin liners, not the commercial ready-made ones, the ones you make using 15cm by 15 cm parchment paper. The folding is a bit of fun for the whole family.)
3. Combine dry ingredients in a bowl.
4. Mix the wet ingredients in a bowl.
5. Add the wet ingredients to the flour mixture (stir in gently as this will give the muffin a soft texture that makes it crumble to the bite).
6. Fold blue berries to the mixture. (The berries add to texture and taste as they provide chewy bits of the muffin and an elevated sweetness, not only that they add a bustling dark blue to purplish colour to the muffin making it a visual feast.)
7. Fill muffin cups right to the top. (So either you are using the ready-made liners, home-made liners which you have lined inside the muffin cups on the tray before filling or simply the muffin cups on the tray.

Fill eight and for the remaining four unfilled cups fill them with water, this will make your muffins bake evenly and retain the much needed softness)

8. Sprinkle some white granulated sugar on top of each.
9. Bake for 15-20 minutes.

There! We are done, serve the muffin with a beverage of choice.

The blueberry muffins can be taken either hot or cold.

Sit back, relax, spoil yourself and enjoy the muffin as it crumbles to your bite, satisfying that nagging sweet tooth and filling your famished being!