Baking with Burns: How to make cranberry muffins

There's a fruity flavour to Lisa's latest treat for you to try, which you can make in no time at all...

The festive period is always the busiest time in the kitchen.

What with pies, puddings, tarts and cakes to make, as well as the preparation for the rest of the Christmas food, the next few weeks can be a hectic time.

But this easy recipe can be whipped up in no time and is sure to go down well with the family over the winter.

It uses one little fruit - the cranberry. 

The juicy red fruits tend to get overlooked for the most part of the year and only seem to make an appearance on the big day itself. But these little fruits, bursting with flavour, make a lovely addition to the humble muffin.

Most types of fruit can be used in muffins – anything from blueberries to raisins, apricots to currants, so why not cranberries? 

Cranberries first became popular during the early settlement days in America when they were served alongside wild turkey during Thanksgiving celebrations.

Native Americans introduced the early settlers to the small, hard, shiny, red, wild berry. The Indians used the cranberry as both a food and a medicine.   

Sailors as well as settlers then began using cranberries, full of vitamin C, as a way to ward off scurvy.  On long sea voyages, to keep the cranberries fresh, the sailors would store the berries in barrels full of water.

The popularity of the cranberry also spread to Northern Europe when turkey became the dish of choice on Christmas Day.

Cranberries tend to be eaten dried with added sugar, as the fresh fruit has a bitter, acidic taste.

Here I have used slightly sweetened dried fruits in the muffins.

The recipe below makes around 12-15 muffins.

Ingredients

8oz/240g self-raising flour

Three-four tbls of caster sugar

Two eggs, beaten

7fl oz/200ml of milk

2oz/55g unsalted butter, melted

6oz/170g dried cranberries

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 375F/190C/gas mark 5.

2. Place 12-15 paper cases in a muffin tin.

3. Sift the dry ingredients in a large mixing bowl.

4. Beat the eggs, milk and butter with the dry ingredients to make a thick batter.

5. Gently fold the cranberries into the batter.

6. Spoon the mixture into paper cases.

7. Bake the muffins for around 25-30 minutes until well risen and just firm.

8. Remove from the oven and cool on a wire rack before storing in an airtight container.