I found it. Years of searching and experimenting and finally, here it is. The best recipe for muffins. It works perfectly every time and the muffins stay moist (sorry to all those cringing at the sight of this word) for a few days. And what’s best is that you can use the base recipe and make it with various extras, and it will work. Berry muffins? Check. Kinder chocolate muffins? Check. Nutella muffins? Check. Bolognese muffins? Che… okay, let’s not go that far. But as far as sweet, reasonable goodies go – you can put them in these muffins and nail it.

Ingredients (for 12 muffins):

• 340g plain flour
• 180g sugar
• 125ml sunflower oil
• 3 teaspoons baking powder
• 2 eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 250ml buttermilk*

Also:

• 100g frozen mixed berries
• 100g white chocolate, chopped up

* No buttermilk? No problem. Mix 250ml milk with 1 tablespoon of white wine vinegar and leave for 5 minutes. Homemade buttermilk done!

Pre-heat the oven to 200°C.

Line a 12 muffin tray with paper muffin cases.

In a bowl, mix flour, sugar and baking powder.

In another bowl, mix eggs, oil, buttermilk and vanilla. Whisk briefly to mix everything together.

Pour wet ingredients into the mixture of flour and gently stir with a spatula. Don’t overdo it – the rule number one of making muffins is only roughly combining wet and dry ingredients.

Stir your extras into the muffin batter. I used frozen mixed berries and white chocolate this time. On another occasion, I replaced them with 200g Kinder chocolates and the muffins were a-m-a-z-i-n-g too. Definitely worth a try if you’re feeling more indulgent!

Fill the muffin cases with batter.

Bake for 5 minutes in 200°C, then decrease the temperature to 180°C and bake for another 15 minutes. Do the skewer test to make sure the muffins are baked: insert a skewer in a muffin and see if it comes out clean and dry.

Enjoy!

• Sweet