Staying in: Step by step vanilla muffins

COOKING with your children is a great way to wile away an afternoon together, writes Englishmum. 

Not only do you get to have fun and make a mess, but there’s the fact that you get to polish off your spoils afterwards – what’s not to love?

So grab a child or two, an apron and a few basics and get stuck in!

Now it just so happens that I have a spanking new bottle of something called Madagascar Bourbon Vanilla Bean Paste nabbed in the fantastic Williams Sonoma in the Largest Mall in the World, on our recent trek to Walt Disney World.

But if you’ve got some vanilla extract that’s fine too (vanilla essence, however, should be consigned straight to the bin, having never been anywhere remotely near a vanilla pod in its life).  Firstly for the ingredients, then, you’ll need:

• 200g plain flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• ½ tsp salt
• 75g caster sugar
• 50g brown sugar
• 100g butter
• 2 eggs
• 125ml milk
• 1 tsp vanilla extract or vanilla bean paste
• 100g chocolate chips (optional)

You’ll also need a few basic tools of the trade:

• A set of scales
• A bowl
• A sieve
• Two measuring jugs
• a microwave oven (or a saucepan on the stove)
• A small whisk or fork
• A spoon
• A spatula to scrape, otherwise a small child to lick bowl
• Paper muffin cases
• A muffin tin
• An oven.  Duh.

And here’s how to do it:

1. Firstly, and most importantly, make sure you’ve got all the ingredients.  Preheat the oven to 180ºC/gas mark 4.
2. Grab a large bowl, a sieve and some weighing scales.  Weigh out the flour, add in the baking powder and salt, then sieve it into the bowl.  You can leave the salt out but it does add a lot of flavour, especially if you’re using the chocolate chips.
3. Now weigh out the sugars (if you don’t have any brown sugar it doesn’t matter, use all caster sugar – I just like it as it gives a slightly toffee flavour to the end result.)  Add them to the floury stuff in the bowl and stir it all together.
4. Put that bowl to one side.  Now measure out 100g butter.  Put it in a microwaveable jug and melt it in the microwave, or melt it (carefully!) on the hob:
   

    

5. Take another jug and measure out the milk.  Plop in the two eggs:
   

   
    
   and the teaspoon of vanilla:

   
   

   
   

   
   

   …it looks yucky but don’t worry, just whisk with a fork or something until it’s all combined. 

6. Get the butter out of the microwave and pour carefully into the eggy milk mixture, whisking all the time.
7. Now grab the bowl of dry ingredients and pour the wet ingredients in.  Stir gently with the spoon until just combined.  Don’t over mix (this is the reason why everything your child makes turns out like rock cakes – overworking the gluten if you must know) - if there’s a tiny bit of powder left that’s fine:
   

   

   …and if you’re using chocolate chips, stir these in now.

8. Now get the paper muffin cases and put them into the muffin tin.  Spoon one tablespoon full (or use an ice cream scoop) into each muffin case:

   

9. Bake in the oven for about 20 minutes until golden brown and a gentle push on the top makes it spring back up.  If it’s squelchy and your finger disappears into the muffin, it’s not done!
10. Remove from the oven, allow to cool and either eat as they are or decorate with a little icing or melted chocolate:

    
    

    … an icing footballer or two (although we think he’s slightly too rotund to play for Liverpool):

    
    

    

    
    

    Oh and if you have Mickeys that you stole from a Disney resort, so much the better:

    
    

    

And that’s it.  Good luck!  And we’d love to see photos of your results.

No related posts.