Tuesday, October 18, 2011

Muffins - Fast and Fantastic

The title of my post is actually the name of a book by Susan Reimer, unsurprisingly about making great muffins quickly!



Susan is the wife of one of Husband's colleagues from Edinburgh and we always laughed that this little book had sold more copies than those of all the academics put together (until a little one about Star Wars obviously...!).  I just found mine again in a box in the garage at the weekend and spent Saturday evening half watching a film and half reading the intro and Notes on Muffin Making.  Susan came to the UK from North America and was thrown by the different use of weight and volume, different types of flour and different temperatures so she experimented until she got what she wanted.  These experiments often made their way to New College and Dr Reimer's office was the place to be in the morning.

I never really got on with my oven in the UK, not sure why, and have various scribbles in my copy to adjust times, temps etc.  There are all kinds of notes from Susan herself to adjust this if using that etc, which all helps.  This afternoon we went with the Summer Fruit Muffins and they turned out to be even lighter and fluffier than any I've made recently.  I managed to make enough for everyone for afternoon tea, then enough for packed lunches tomorrow.  I guess I'll be making more in the morning!


2 comments:

  1. Mmmmm, I love muffins and these ones look delicious Sandra! I guess these are the perils of a larger family, the baking doesn't stretch too far or for too long. But there is nothing better than seeing your goodies disappear quickly, I'm always quietly chuffed when my baking hits the spot :o) xo

    ReplyDelete
  2. Yum, that looks picture perfect! My food never looks quite as I intend, but usually tastes good so that's the main thing.

    I love to put homemade cakes in my kids lunch boxes, it feels very right! A few months ago a member of staff at my sons' school commented that they would be better off having a packet of crisps than a piece of cake, my oldest happened to mention it and I saw red I can tell you. Don't get me wrong I love crisps, but they are empty calories where as a cake (in this case banana loaf) is filling, tasty and has some goodness too.......bitter moi? It's a lovely thing to have a family who enjoy their food and eat all your bakes within a day!

    ReplyDelete

Please feel free to leave comments, I'll do my best to get back to you!