Chocolate and Blackberry Muffins

It's that time of year when the blackberries are being stolen by the birds, so I thought I had better beat them to it and pick some to put in the baking. And being as I was asked to go to help out at a photoshoot last night for the Benjamin Generation's first CD cover, I threw together a few muffins to keep us all going through the evenings shinanaghans using blackberries from the garden.

In a large bowl sieve together:

300g self-raising flour

50g cocoa powder

Stir in 220g caster sugar and mix together

In a small bowl mix together:

90g melted butter

half cup sour cream

three quarters cup milk

1 teaspoon vanilla essence

1 large egg

Mix the wet into the dry ingredients 

Stir in:

100g milk chocolate chips

half cup blackberries

Divide the mixture between 12 muffin cases

Bake Gas 5/6 

For 20-25 mins

Leave in the tin for a few minutes before removing onto a wire rack to cool

P.S. The band loved them

Apple and Blackberry Muffins

With an abundance of cooking apples at this time of year, we had to think of variations on a theme. Apples go with loads, particularly blackberries - which mostly get given to our hens - they go crazy for them. So I left the house this morning with a passing comment to my son and our house guest, that you can bake some muffins if you feel like it. I came back from Church today to the smell of Apple and Blackberry Muffins, and a fruit Crumble - the contents of which were primarily apple and blackberry, but then I heard mention of banana, pear, and even lemon curd. Either way it tasted delicious with cold custard for lunch, I'll have my main course at tea time! The muffins too, are delicious - they followed the recipe for apple and cinnamon crunch (below), but knowing Jack and Sean (and judging from the crumble) there are some weird ingredients in there too.