RECIPE: Plum, almond and marzipan muffins

My plum, almond and marzipan muffin

These muffins are the perfect autumnal afternoon tea treat, and I have to say, one of the scrummiest things I've baked in a while. I whipped them up for my housemates to give myself a break from work this afternoon, and they went down a treat with us all. Except my housemate who's allergic to nuts. Obvs she didn't have any. But the rest of us loved them.

I adore baking with ground almonds, and combined with the yoghurt in this recipe, they make the muffins delightfully moist. Stone fruits always go well with almonds, so feel free to substitute cherries, peaches, nectarines, apricots or whatever's in season (have a lookie at my nectarine, raspberry and almond cake). The plums add a fab little tang to the sweetness of the marzipan which reminded me of warming winter crumbles.  These muffins are best eaten when still warm from the oven, as the marzipan will still be a little bit melty. Don't worry if the marzipan bubbles out while baking and then becomes chewy on the top, as that's still super yummy. The muffin top (yes, that's where the name for your wobbly bits comes from) is always the best bit, and these have a delightful golden crust.

This recipe made 14 muffins (slightly awkward if you've got a 12 hole baking tray, soz), and to be honest I did eat a fair amount of mixture by itself, but who's judging, eh?

Ingredients

150g caster sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 egg
125g unsalted butter, melted
175ml natural yoghurt
200g plain flour
1 tsp baking powder
100g ground almonds
100g white marzipan, broken/cut into little pieces
250g plums (about three), stoned and cut into little pieces


Method

1. Preheat the oven to 180C. Line a muffin tin with muffin cases. Mix the sugar, vanilla, egg, butter and yoghurt together by hand.

the wet ingredients well mixed together

2. Sift the flour, baking powder and almonds into the bowl of liquid ingredients and mix quickly, then add the plums and marzipan and mix them in well again.

my little pieces of plum and marzipan

3. Divide between the muffin cases, filling them until about 1cm from the top of the case, and bake for 20-25 minutes or until risen and golden. Leave for a couple of minutes in the tin, then take out and leave to cool for a little longer on a wire rack before nomming them up. Deee-lish!