From Scratch

There’s always jam in the fridge or pantry but I don’t always have berries, so I was happy to run across this recipe for the frequent times when the muffin-making mood strikes too early to run to the store. As happened this morning.

It’s from Swan’s Down Cake Flour, which has a small but good website. In addition to their classic recipes, such as 1-2-3-4 Cake, there are several downloadable cookbooklets in PDF format. Their version is with blueberry jam but I have raspberry on hand and used that. I wondered if cake flour would make them more like cupcakes in terms of texture and lightness, and they are. In fact the taste and mouthfeel remind me of a very light pound cake.

The really surprising thing about this recipe, coming from a  food company, is the imprecision of portions, 8 - 12. That’s quite a range and not much flour. I got four with my jumbo silicone cups, so I’d guess 8 or 9.

I find silicone needs more oven time and I went with 27 minutes. I sprayed them in case they became jam-gooey and they did; if you use a tin you’ll need liners, but I don’t think the muffins would have been quite so gooey if I’d used jam straight from the fridge. The metric and temperature conversions are mine; I bake by weight and used grams.

Blueberry Jam Muffins

3/4 cup Swans Down Cake Flour (3 oz/84g)
3/4 teaspoon baking powder 
1/8 teaspoon salt 
1/4 cup butter (2 oz/56g)
1/2 cup sugar (3-1/2 oz/105g)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract 
1 egg 
1/4 cup milk (2 fl.oz)
6 tablespoons blueberry jam 
 
Sift flour with baking powder and salt. Cream butter.  Gradually add sugar, creaming well after each addition. 

Stir in vanilla and egg. Beat well.Add flour mixture alternately with milk, beating well after each addition until smooth.

Spoon batter into greased and floured muffin pans, filling 2/3 full. Place 1/2 tablespoon of  blueberry jam on the center of each muffin and press lightly into batter. Bake 25 minutes at 375 degrees. (190C/gas mark 5) Cool in pan for 10 minutes. Makes 8 to 12

Recipe Copyright © Swans Down Cake Flour

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