Muffin Muffin Muffin

(i made this recipe originally with some Pfeuffer's (brand) mango preserves to end up with some yummy mango muffins)


I’ve probably tried a gazillion muffin recipes in search of the perfect soft and moist blueberry muffin. I have never been successful except for that one occasion when I followed the Betty Crocker label of a muffin mix – replete with artificial blueberries. I was only 11 then, so I still wasn’t educated about the virtues of eating fresh or real food.

I used to buy most of my muffins, but often find them too sweet for my taste. Often, I find them lacking in taste of whatever they were named after. The blueberry muffins always lack blueberries!

Blueberry or not, I still like muffins. They may not be as soft and fluffy as cakes, but definitely not as tough as breads. They’re in-between. They can be sweet or savory; served warm and freshly baked in the morning, or cold as a snack.

Whereas cupcakes have icing, muffins often do not. In most cases, they come with their built-in “icing” – the crumb topping. They’re really good, but I skip them in most recipes as its sweetness may overpower the flavor of the muffins.

I got the idea for this recipe from Alton Brown’s “I’m Just Here for More Food.” I modified it quite a bit to suit my preference. I don’t think he would even recongnize this recipe after all my modifications.

His original recipe calls for cranberry sauce, which is usually tart. For this recipe, I use fruit jam. I only use jams which I like for spreading on to my bread. Flavor is important! Because jam is sweet, I reduce the sugar to ½ cup. But it really depends on how sweet you like your food. Taste the jam. Now take note that you will be adding a CUP of sugar to this recipe! Do you think you need to add all that sugar? Ask yourself. You might need another spoon of that jam!

To make the muffins chunky, I add some chopped dried fruit. If you’re making this with mango jam, you have to use dried mangoes. Strawberry jam goes with dried strawberries, etc. If you can’t find the appropriate dried fruit to go with the jam, then just use FRUIT PRESERVES instead of plain old jam. Preserves have enough chunky fruit in it.

Fruit Muffin

Preheat oven to 350°F

Line muffin tins with muffin paper/ cupcake paper. Depending on how large you want these muffins to be, you will be making 12-24 muffins.

Combine the dry ingredients in a bowl: 2 cups all-purpose flour, ½ teaspoon, baking powder, 1 teaspoon baking soda, and ½ teaspoon salt. At this point, you can mix in 1 cup of dried fruit, if’ you’ve decided to add some in. Set aside.

With a beater, cream ½ cup unsalted butter with 1 cup sugar. Beat in 2 large eggs, one at a time.

To the butter mixture, mix in the following: zest of one orange, zest of one lemon, ½ cup plain yoghurt, juice of one orange (around ¼ cup), ¾ cup fruit preserves, jam/ marmalade/ cranberry sauce, etc.

Then, dump the wet ingredients/ mixture on to the dry ingredients. Stir with a wooden spoon just until the mixture comes together. Do not worry about the very small lumps.

Scoop or spoon batter into muffin tins. Bake for 30 – 35 minutes, or until toothpick inserted into the center of a muffin comes out clean.

Cool on tins before unmoulding.

(second time i made this, i used strawberry preserves and strawberry yoghurt. the result is this obscene pink hue. of course it was delicious!)

(i used strawberrye preserves and skipped the dired strawberries because i could not find any. but as you could see, the muffin ended up with small strawberry bits! yummy!)