Rocky road muffins

Muffins are easy to make – just remember not to stir too much and overwork the batter or you will end up with a dense texture instead of light, fluffy muffins. Here’s our rocky road muffin recipe.

• makes

  12

• prep

  15 minutes

• cook

  40 minutes

• difficulty

  Easy

Ingredients

• 350 g plain flour
• 3 tsp baking powder
• ½ tsp bicarbonate of soda
• 135 ml grapeseed oil
• 3 eggs, lightly beaten
• 100 g natural yoghurt

Rocky road

• 150 g marshmallows, torn
• 100 g pitted fresh cherries
• 100 g almonds, slivered and toasted
• 100 g milk chocolate, roughly chopped

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 165°C, fan-forced. Lightly grease a ½-cup muffin pan and line with baking paper.

Place the dry muffin ingredients in one bowl, the wet muffin ingredients in the other. Mix all the rocky road ingredients into the wet muffin ingredients, keeping aside a little of each to put on top of the muffins when they are baked. Stir the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients until just combined. Overworking the batter will result in a dense muffin, not a fluffy one.

Spoon the mixture into the prepared muffin pan and bake for 40 minutes. Check with a skewer – insert in the centre of a muffin – if it comes out clean, the muffins are ready.

When the muffins have cooled, melt the reserved chocolate, put some on top of each muffin and add some marshmallow and almonds – as the choc cools it will stick there very firmly.

Recipes and images from Three Blue Ducks by Mark LaBrooy & Darren Robertson, published by Plum, rrp $39.99.

Cook's Notes

Oven temperatures are for conventional; if using fan-forced (convection), reduce the temperature by 20˚C. | We use Australian tablespoons and cups: 1 teaspoon equals 5 ml; 1 tablespoon equals 20 ml; 1 cup equals 250 ml. | All herbs are fresh (unless specified) and cups are lightly packed. | All vegetables are medium size and peeled, unless specified. | All eggs are 55-60 g, unless specified.