Dark chocolate and blackberry muffins

I don’t know about you, but for me the idea of being a mum has always been synonymous with images of angelic flour-splattered children standing on chairs in the kitchen next to an apron-clad serene-looking woman, joyfully stirring cake mixture before licking the spoon. Well, Finn is too young to help out at the moment and I am anything but serene, but I’ve been working on getting my bake-on. For me, mum’s bake. And to date, I’ve been a miserable failure on that front. So, time to rectify…

Now that I’m home rather a lot, I find that sometimes (read: often) I like to have some treats to nibble on, or to serve to droppers-in along with their coffee. My favourite offering at the moment are these Dark Chocolate and Blackberry muffins. They are deeee-licious and you can whip them up in no time at all, and happily, even I seem unable to mess them up – and I have even been known to shake up my own buttermilk when I can’t be arsed to go and pick some up (with a delightful side-product of your own butter – wickedy).

To make your own buttermilk, simply shake double cream in a jar for about 10 minutes. Builds good armstrongs too!

Makes 12 muffins

• 300g plain flour
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 100g caster sugar
• 100g dark chocolate, broken up into small bits (I just roughly chop mine with a sharp knife)
• 2 eggs, lightly beaten
• 250ml buttermilk
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 100g butter, melted
• 150g punnet blackberries

Preheat your oven to 180°C. Line a muffin tray with paper cases. I made my cases by cutting out 5″ squares of baking parchment. I then scrunched them up, then unscrunched them and put them in the muffin tray. They give the muffins a coffee-house look.

Sift the flour and baking powder into a large bowl, then add the caster sugar and chocolate bits. Stir until well combined.

Whisk your eggs, buttermilk, vanilla extract and melted butter together in a separate bowl. Then, using a large metal spoon, stir the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients until just combined. Don’t over-mix as this will make your muffins dense. Finally gently swirl through your blackberries.

Spoon the mixture into your muffin cases and bake for 25 to 30 minutes. They’re done when a toothpick comes out clean. Leave to cool in the tray for five minutes or so, then turn out onto a wire rack.

They are best devoured as soon as they are cool enough to eat.