Christmas Mini Muffins

Don't shake your head!! I do realise Christmas was a while back and we are approaching mid-January..some of your New Year resolutions are probably already crumbling! But here's the story..this blog was to make its debut in December and these muffins were to be its first post, just in time for Christmas, you see!

Unfortunately, yours truly didn't take into account the various technological aspects that go into creating a blog. I thought it would be a breeze and I would be good to go in a day or two ..the perils of naivete, I rue!! To cut a long story short, technology and procrastination saw the blog making its debut only this week. And so I plead leniency on account of being a new blogger to present these Christmas muffins in the middle of January! Because, frankly, the next opportune time to post this recipe is toooo far away!

The recipe is fairly straightforward and adapted from a recipe given on the BBC Food website. The only thing I had to prepare in advance was the mincemeat. And for that I turned to the Web's most popular meatless mincemeat recipe by David Leibovitz. Not only is this mincemeat recipe simple and does not require any meat fat (as the traditional recipes) but it is also a life-saver for last minute Christmas baking as it needs to be made only three days before use. Trust me, a whiff of it once its ready will evoke every Christmas food memory that you treasure!!

The muffins are simple to make and best eaten warm. The mini muffins are a perfect size for a time when festive eating is already creating havoc on the weighing scales. I tried to jazz them up by dunking the top of the muffins in white chocolate and sprinkling them with red and green edible decorations that I had on hand. I'll leave you to decide on which version you prefer!!

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Christmas Mini Muffins

Adapted from recipe by Sue Lawrence on BBC Food website

Prep time: 25 mins
Cook time: 20 mins
Total time: 45 mins
makes 24 mini muffins

Ingredients:

• 200 gms plain flour
• 100 gms demerara caster sugar
• 100 ml vegetable oil
• 75 ml milk
• 1 large egg
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 100 gms dark chocolate, roughly chopped
• 3 heaped tbsp mincemeat (Mincemeat recipe from here)
• 75 gms white chocolate
• Edible red and green sprinkles

Cooking Directions:

• Pre-heat the oven to 190 deg C and line your mini-muffin tins with cases.          
• Mix the flour, baking powder and sugar in a bowl.
• In another bowl, whisk together the milk, egg and oil.      
• Slowly pour the liquid ingredients into the dry ingredients and mix the two until combined.    
• Add the chocolate and the mincemeat to the mixture.    
• Fill the muffin cases with the mixture and bake for 20 mins or until golden brown.
• To decorate, let the muffins cool down. Melt the white chocolate in a double boiler. Then, top-side down, immerse the top of the muffins in the white chocolate until coated. While still liquid, immediately sprinkle on some red and green edible decorations and let the white chocolate set.