Baker Mary-Jane Duncan, who won the The Courier Menu Food and Drink ambassador award in 2019, shares her simple recipe for “grown-up” muffins.
Gin and muffins… those are two things most of us love, but wouldn’t necessarily think to combine.
Well, now you can, after an award-winning baker and café owner from Fife shared her scrumptious one-bowl recipe for blueberry gin and lemon muffins.
Mary-Jane Duncan, who runs Kitschnbake in Newport-on-Tay, had to close the café shortly after lockdown was announced, due to being in the vulnerable category and having to shield.
Despite being in self-isolation, she has been active on social media by sharing virtual recipe cards for some of the café’s most popular products on the business’s Facebook page.
Last week she partnered up with the Gin Bothy, an artisan gin producer based in Glamis in Angus, to design an easy muffin recipe with a grown-up twist. Mary Jane’s blueberry gin and lemon muffins can be made with simple cupboard ingredients and Gin Bothy’s flavoured gin, or alternatively any gin of your choice.
“The good thing about this recipe is that it’s really adaptable”, said Mary-Jane.
“As long as you keep to the bare bones of the recipe, you can substitute things like the type of fruit, you can have gin some of the muffins and no gin in the rest, if they’re for kids, for example. The gin won’t significantly alter the flavour, it’s just a little bonus and very subtle – it enhances the flavour and is a bit of a treat, a ‘grown-up’ muffin if you like.
“Gin is very popular these days, and it’s no longer just about your standard gin and tonic. You get all sorts of flavoured gins and you can really do a lot with them. The quality of the gins being produced in the Tayside and Fife areas are just fantastic.
“I’m a real fan of the Gin Bothy’s products and I know the owner, Kim, as we collaborate a lot. When she asked me to come up with a recipe for her blueberry gin I was more than happy to do so.
“We’ve had really good feedback from people about the recipe. During lockdown people don’t tend to want to make massive cakes, as there are no celebrations like birthday parties taking place. But muffins are really popular because they’re smaller and easy to make.
“From our recipe you can get eight or nine big muffins in the tulip-shaped cases, or lots of smaller-cup-cake sized ones. And it’s all prepared in one bowl, all you do is mix the ingredients there and spoon them into the muffin cases.”
Blueberry gin and lemon muffins
(Makes 8-9 muffins)
Ingredients
- 700g plain flour
- 300g caster sugar
- 300ml milk
- 170g unsalted butter, melted and cooled
- 3 large eggs, lightly beaten
- 2 large unwaxed lemons, zested and juiced
- 250g blueberries
- 2 heaped tsp baking powder
- Pinch of salt
- A splash of vanilla extract
- A single measure of gin – Mary-Jane recommends Gin Bothy’s blueberry gin
Method
- Pre-heat the oven to 160°C and line a cupcake tray with “tulip” muffin cases.
- Melt butter gently over low heat and leave to cool.
- Sift all of the flour, sugar, lemon zest, salt and baking powder into a large bowl and stir with a metal spoon.
- Then add the butter, eggs, vanilla and the gin. Gently mix together and add a large handful of blueberries.
- Fill each muffin case with the mix.
- Pop into the oven and bake for around three minutes, until golden brown.
Mary-Jane’s Hints and Tips:
- The recipe works well with any citrus fruit – you can switch it up by swapping the lemon for lime or orange.
- You can make icing by mixing a few spoonfuls of gin with icing sugar until the mixture is gooey, pouring it over the cooled muffins. Or, you can simply dust the muffins with icing sugar.
- If you don’t have tulip muffin cases, you can use smaller ones of any size and simply have a larger number of muffins.
- You don’t have to use blueberry gin – raspberry or rhubarb flavoured ones also work well.
