Having people around for afternoon tea means two things: tidy the house and sort afternoon tea…here, it’s not quite so simple as just popping down to the eclair shop for some ‘clairs and lamingtons; more so when the message comes through “…on our way, just leaving Whakapapa now…” and I’ve got nothing ready but an idea…

Speed cooking is, for me, analogous to speed dating: just not something I do…I like a more deliberate planned kitchen experience…but not today…it normally takes me about 15 minutes to drive from home to Whakapapa so time was the one ingredient I was short off…I had selected a good Kiwi recipe the night before and dug the muffin tray out of the back pantry but that was it in terms of preparation…

I am quite chuffed that I managed to get it all together and into the oven before my guests arrived:

What I used:

• 125g Melted Butter
• 1 Cup of Sugar
• 1 Egg
• 1 t Baking Soda
• 3 T warm milk
• 2 Mashed Bananas
• 1 1/2 Cups of Flour
• 1 1/2 t Baking Powder
• 1 – 2 Cups of Blueberries

How I used it:

Heat the oven to 180 degrees.

Mix the butter and sugar together.

Next time remember to add the egg – just realised that I forgot to add this: not quite so chuffed then…

Dissolve the baking soda into the milk and mix in to the rest.

Add the bananas. I used frozen bananas that I had remembered to take out of the freezer earlier to thaw out. Today’s lesson is that you can squeeze the banana – in toothpaste fashion – from the skin by cutting the stalk off and squeezing…way less messy…I mashed them as I blended them into the mix but this would have been better if I had mashed them, THEN added them – didn’t seem to make a lot of difference to the final product though…

Blend in the flour and baking powder.

Mix in the blueberries – I used about a cup and a half – using frozen ones means you don’t have to be so gentle with them plus I am saving our fresh ones for breakfast each morning…

I used a folded up paper towel to swab out the container that I had melted the butter in and quickly greased up the muffin tray. The tray seats sixteen but my mix only lasted for a dozen…

Place the tray in the oven and hit the fan bake.

Keep them cooking until a skewer comes out cleanly…

Now the bit I really mussed up: let them sit in the tray after you take it out of the oven until they have cooled down and ‘set’…I tried to remove them while they were still warm and it was just disintogram time…

I meant to come back to them once them had cooled but once we’d had a bit of a show round the property and an abortive attempt to walk down to the stream, and got into conversating, I forgot about them til latter…so muffins for the next few days…

My plan was to serve them simply with just butter – yes, “…pure poison…”, I know…but am keen to suss out some other ideas…

Insights

Remember to add the egg next time – although they seem to have come out OK regardless…

Let the muffins cool before trying to remove them from the tray.

Get a new muffin tray: this one came with the house and has seen better and more non-stick days, even when greased…time for retirement and replacement…

‘Toothpasting’ thawed bananas works well.

Frozen blueberries are easier to mix in…

The amount of sugar could be reduced and I’m wondering if the milk could be replaced by an alternative non-cow milk..?

They taste good with a crunchy crust that most likely comes from the sugar…I was worried that I would over-mix the ingredients and end up with a rubbery texture – all the muffin recipes seem to warn about this –  but nope, all good…

Definitely a keeper recipe and one I will try again just as soon as all the current muffins are consumed and I have a new muffin tray…