Fab muffin recipe - so simple!

I found a great, highly recommended muffin recipe on the Australian Simple Savings website, in the forum section.  It is economical because you can bung in whatever you have handy for the flavourings, and it uses a very simple base recipe that anyone could remember!  We have a Simple Saver called Lauren to thank for this one!

The recipe is basic, so basic, but SO effective.  This is what we did:

I took two cup measures of SR flour, and added a cup measure of caster sugar to it, and mixed them together in a bowl.  In a separate bowl, I mixed together half a cup of oil with half a cup of milk and an egg.  I beat them together before adding them to the dry ingredients.

For the flavouring of this batch, I wanted lemon, so I grated the rind of one [rather old] lemon, and put that in a little dish with some caster sugar and gave it a jolly good stir.

I prepared the muffin cases in the tins, and then put a blob of mixture in the bottom of each case, before adding a half a teaspoon of lemon curd to each.  I topped each one off with a little more mixture, and then sprinkled each with about half a teaspoon of the lemon sugar mixture.

I was then surprised to find that the quantities only made a dozen, so I set to and made it all again!  These cook in about 15 minutes in my oven, set at 160C [it is a fan oven].  The top of each one went beautifully crisp and golden, and the family thought they were delicious.

Since I had the oven on to cook a chicken for supper today, I made a further double batch of these, and another double batch of chocolate ones, in which I added two dessertspoons of cocoa to the dry mixture and added a tiny square of chocolate to the middle of each one!  The YFG says they are lovely.

I have all the remaining chocolate ones and two dozen lemon ones in the freezer, and the YFG has stashed one lemon one in her lunchbox for tomorrow.

I haven't worked out how cheap these are to make, but I know that each one is going to cost just pennies, and the basic recipe is so versatile that I am sure I will be trying out other variations!