Coconut Berry Muffins

Playdates at home this week meant a batch of muffins was required, so I went back to an often used recipe and thought I would share. I find muffins easy when you have a bunch of kids over, no need for plates, forks etc… just give them a muffin and send them in the direction of the yard to eat on the grass.

I never (ever) have buttermilk at home so make it myself but for these I wanted a little bit of coconut flavour so decided to try coconut buttermilk. Did you know why buttermilk is preferred for muffins? While reading up on making my own coconut buttermilk, a few sources said the acidity of buttermilk reacts with the raising agent (either in Self Raising flour or baking powder/soda) to get a better rise. Anyway, back to the recipe..

To make your own buttermilk you just need 250ml milk with 1 tablespoon of white vinegar. Plain milk + vinegar will make your normal buttermilk, but I replace the milk with coconut milk or coconut cream. Now coconut milk is probably a better substitute, but I had some leftover cream in the fridge to be used,  so cream it was this time. Mix the milk/cream and vinegar together and leave for 5 minutes and voila, buttermilk.

Coconut Berry Muffins
Makes 10

Ingredients 
300g (2 cups) self-raising flour
155g raw caster sugar or brown sugar
280g frozen berries
60ml (1/4 cup) vegetable oil
1 egg, lightly whisked
250ml (1 cup) coconut buttermilk or buttermilk (instructions above)

Method

• Preheat fan-forced oven to 190°C and line your muffin trays with muffin papers
• Combine flour, milk, berries, coconut buttermilk and egg and stir until everything is just combined.
• Spoon batter into muffin papers and bake for 25 minutes or until a skewer inserted comes out clean. 
• Cool on a wire rack.