Fast and tasty muffins

Some people don't believe me when I tell them I find it faster and easier to bake than I do to buy a cake or biscuits. Because I have a well-stocked pantry, I can mix up flour, eggs, butter and sugar into a tasty cake as quickly as if I loaded two children into the car, drove to the supermarket, agonised over the multitude of choices in the biscuit aisle and then queued to pay.

Of course, there are always times when convenience will win out, but a recipe such as for these tasty muffins shows that baking can be just as quick and easy. There's also the added bonus of minimising preservatives and additives and, to me, home-made always tastes better.

Not only are these muffins, which come from Allan Campion and Michele Curtis's excellent In The Kitchen cookbook, very quick to whip up, they are also toddler-friendly: it's easy for little hands to mix together, although you might find a few of the white chocolate bits make it into little mouths rather than the finished product!

Raspberry and white chocolate muffins

Recipe from In The Kitchen by Allan Campion and Michele Curtis

200g self-raising flour

150g caster sugar

Zest of 1 lemon, chopped

60g melted butter

125ml milk

1 egg

100g raspberries

95g white chocolate chips

Icing sugar to serve

Preheat oven to 180 degrees. Line a muffin pan with paper cases.*

Mix the flour, caster sugar and lemon zest together. Beat the butter, milk and egg together in a separate bowl. Mix the dry and wet mixes together to form a smooth batter, then fold through the raspberries and chocolate.

Divide the mix into the muffin cases and bake for 20 minutes, or until risen and golden brown. Allow to cool, then dust with icing sugar to serve.

* Note: the recipe says this makes 10 muffins, but I found it made 18 small-sized (not Texas) muffins.

We made it: homemade crumpets with raspberries and lemon

There is something quintessentially English about crumpets. To me, they evoke images of lazy breakfasts in summer, taken at a little table on the terrace overlooking sweeping gardens brimming with the colours and scents of masses of flowers.

Of course, the supermarket variety aren't that glamorous and I'm more likely to eat them in winter slathered with melted butter and honey.

But Jamie Oliver's recipe for homemade cinnamon and lemon crumpets with raspberries and honey in the Dec/Jan issue of delicious magazine sounded heavenly and perfect for a summery morning, especially with berries from our recent berry picking expedition in the Otways.

I've made Bill Granger's homemade crumpets before, which are absolutely divine but a little fiddly, requiring a long proving time for the yeast to activate (not the thing you can whip up for a hungry tummy after a sleep in). The beauty of this Jamie Oliver version is that the yeast requires only 10 minutes and the crumpets can be cooked. The drawback is that they take up to 25 minutes to cook, so you might want to have several fry-pans on the go at once or you will be spending a long time at the stove while everyone else is tucking in! Aside from this minor qualification, these crumpets were delicious - heavier and more bun-like than the supermarket variety but more hearty and delicious because of that - and the honeyed ricotta and raspberries are a perfect combination - all the flavours of summer packed into one small dish.

This recipe is part of the "We Made It" challenge that Suzie from Munch+Nibble and I are giving ourselves: the challenge is to actually use our food magazines rather than just bookmarking them.

Jamie Oliver's homemade cinnamon and lemon crumpets with raspberries and honey

Recipe from December 2009/January 2010 issue of delicious

250g fresh ricotta
Zest of 1 lemon
2 Tbs honey, plus extra to drizzle
3 large handfuls fresh raspberries
Sunflower oil, to grease

Crumpets
500g strong (baker's) flour
1 tsp caster sugar
7g sachet dried instant yeast
A pinch of bicarb soda
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

Place all the crumpet ingredients into a food processor with 2 tsp of salt. Pour in 600ml tepid water. The water needs to be warm enough to activate the yeast but not so hot that it kills it. Blitz all the crumpet ingredients together until you've got a loose batter. Leave to stand for 10 minutes to let the yeast develop. The mixture should be quite wet, just about dropping consistency.

While the yeast develops, make the topping by putting the ricotta, lemon zest and honey into a bowl and beating together until light and fluffy. Place half of the raspberries into another little bowl and mash up with a fork. Fold the mashed raspberries into the ricotta - don't be tempted to over-mix it, as you're looking for a beautiful pink rippled effect.

You may need to cook the crumpets in batches. First, grease the inside of metal crumpet rings (I used egg rings) with some sunflower oil. Place a non-stick fry-pan on medium heat, and put the rings into the pan. When it's nice and hot, spoon some mixture into each ring, to about 1cm deep. Turn the heat to low and leave for 15 minutes to cook through. Check the pan is not getting too hot and burning the bottom of the crumpets. After about 15 minutes - once the bubbles on top have formed into crumpet-like dimples - turn them over, using tongs to lift away the rings. Cook for another 5-10 minutes, until cooked right through.

Serve the crumpets with a generous spoonful of ricotta, an extra drizzle of honey and some lovely raspberries.

A day in the country

The sky above the green hills was bruised with rainclouds and the cool rainy weather was a shock after several days of heat. But the Otway region of Victoria always seems cool and green to me. Although it was five hours' drive from my home, it was where my mother grew up and we spent most school holidays here visiting my grandparents. I know we visited Lorne in summer, so there must have been hot days, but my memories are mostly of cool, rainy weather or rambles over green hills under grey skies.

My grandparents died many years ago, so it's been a long time since I stayed at Deans Marsh, a little town of nearly 700 people midway between Winchelsea and Lorne. But now a new tradition has begun, as we visit once a year to go berry picking at the Pennyroyal Raspberry Farm, a five-minute drive from Deans Marsh.

I don't think the berry farm existed when I was a child, although I remember visiting the Pennyroyal Tea Rooms on this site (and eating some of the best scones I can ever remember eating). Thankfully scones, freshly made, are still available at the farm now, served with homemade raspberry or blackberry jam - or pickles, if you choose the cheese scones.

The blackberries, brambleberries and boysenberries were abundant and we quickly filled our containers with ripe, juicy fruit. One for me, one for the container...



The raspberries had been heavily picked, so we had to hunt among the leaves to find ripe berries and it took longer to fill our punnets.

I find berry picking relaxing and fun and it's great fun with kids. Daniel quickly learned the colour of ripe berries and which ones he should pick.

It's also very economical - we paid $16 a kilo for our berries. I've seen 125g punnets of raspberries in the shops for $5, which works out to be about $40 a kilo.

The first thing I did when I got home was to make a batch of raspberry jam. This is one of the easiest jams to make, as raspberries are high in pectin and you don't have to worry about adding lemon juice or commercial pectin. If you are new to jam-making, I suggest that you try raspberry jam as your first - it will give you confidence.

The raspberry jam recipe I use is extremely easy and is from Cookery the Australian Way, the textbook I used in my year eight home economics class. This classic book is still an essential reference and provides simple, clear instructions for many basic dishes (eg jams, sponges, scones), as well as advice on why dishes may fail (eg undercooked sponges that flop).



Raspberry jam

Put 500g of raspberries into a heavy-based saucepan and mash with a wooden spoon. Bring to the boil over medium-high heat. Add 2 cups of sugar (if you wish, you can warm the sugar before you add it). Bring back to the boil, boil for six minutes and then test* to see if it's cooked. Once cooked, pour into hot sterilised jams, let cool a little and then seal.

* I do the saucer test to test if my jam is cooked: place a saucer in the freezer for a few minutes. Remove from freezer, place a little jam on the saucer and return to freezer for a few more minutes. Remove from freezer and push the jam with your finger. It should wrinkle as you push it - this means the jam is cooked. If it doesn't, cook jam a little longer and then repeat the test.

Pennyroyal Raspberry Farm, Division Road, Murroon (between Birregurra and Barwon Downs), phone 5236 3238

Pick of the crop

This year's berry season is sadly drawing to a close. Plump, luscious berries of all colours are my favourite fruit. All winter, I look forward to the first appearance of the new season's berries. Usually I have frozen some of last season's fresh-picked berries to tide me over but it's not the same as dipping into a container full of fresh berries that taste like you're eating sunshine.

Half the fun of berry season is the picking and gathering. Berries are easily picked, as long as you watch out for thorny bushes, and it is cheaper and more rewarding than buying them ready-picked. Although you can get a wide variety of berries from the markets (sadly I'm yet to find punnets of mulberries), there are several excellent berry farms close to Melbourne and it makes for a fun day out.

As children, berry season meant stained mouths, hands and clothes. Our neighbours had a magnificent mulberry tree growing on their farm and they would often invite us to come over and pick our fill. Mum would dress us in our very oldest clothes, as mulberry stains are impossible to remove, and we would arm ourselves with buckets and ice-cream containers. The tree had big, broad branches, so it was easy to climb and find a comfortable perch where we would proceed to fill our buckets and stomachs with the dark wine-coloured berry. Mum always made mulberry swirl afterwards, a cake-like pudding with rich berry juices bubbling through the crust. Mulberries remain my favourite berry, perhaps because it is not readily available unless you are lucky enough to have a tree or know someone who does (sadly, our neighbours' tree has long since died).

Although the blackberry is classified as a noxious weed in Australia, another favourite childhood memory is blackberry picking at Bright, a picturesque town in north-eastern Victoria. We'd put on big sun-hats, wear long-sleeved tops to avoid scratches from the bush's thorns and carry big buckets. Our stomachs were usually faster to fill than the buckets!

Because mulberries are rare to find, raspberries are my favourite berry. As Stephanie Alexander says in The Cook's Companion, raspberries are "the most heavenly of fruits. One swallows a perfect berry and the flavour swells around the mouth like the finest wine."

I've visited berry farms in both Kinglake and the Otways. Kinglake Raspberries is about an hour's drive north-east of the CBD (you can get there either through the Yarra Valley or the Plenty Valley). As well as offering PYO (pick your own), you can buy jams, sauces and cordials and there is an annual raspberry fair with live jazz, entertainment, childrens' rides, food and wine, market stalls and, of course, lots of berries!

Although it is further away (about two hours from the city), my current favourite berry farm is the Pennyroyal Berry Farm in Murroon (between Birregurra and Barwon Downs). This is because it is about a 10-minute drive from my grandfather's former farm at Deans Marsh and I remember visiting this farm as a child when it was the Pennyroyal Herb Farm. As my grandfather died 15 years ago, it's an area I've rarely visited since until I discovered the Pennyroyal Berry Farm and its near-neighbour, Gentle Annie's Berry Gardens and Tea-Rooms. For the past two years, we've picked at both these places. Pennyroyal Berry Farm has raspberries and many blackberry hybrids, such as boysenberries, youngberries, marionberries, brambleberries and jostaberries. The first year we went on the last weekend before the season ended and had to scavenge hard to fill our buckets. This season, we went before Christmas and the berries were abundant, despite the drought. We quickly filled our buckets and then it was time to retire to the tearooms for enormous scones, fresh from the oven, served with homemade raspberry and blackberry jam and a big pot of thick cream. The scones are made to a secret recipe and are to die for!

Gentle Annie's is a bigger farm and is on the Pennyroyal Valley Rd. It has raspberries, gooseberries, red and black currants, silvanberries, boysenberries, marionberries, blackberries and blueberries. You can also pick heritage apples, nashis, plums and apricots and their tearooms serve devonshire teas and light lunches with many berry dishes, including pancakes, pies and sorbets.

The first thing I do with my fresh raspberries when I get home is make a batch of raspberry jam. Raspberries make a wonderful jam because they are high in pectin and set easily. I also like to mash some berries into butter to serve on hot toast and crumpets and I've included a family favourite dessert that Mum discovered years ago in The Age's Epicure section. This dessert was often served up at her dinner parties.

RASPBERRY JAM

Place 500g (1 pound) raspberries into a saucepan and mash with a wooden spoon. Stir over medium heat until the pulp boils. Warm 2 cups of sugar and add. Continue stirring until the mixture boils and then cook rapidly for six minutes. Cool slightly, then pour into sterilised bottles, cover and label.

BERRY BUTTER

Place 1 cup of berries (I think blackberries or brambleberries work best), 1-2 tablespoons of caster sugar and 1 tablespoon of lemon juice into a saucepan. Bring to the boil and then reduce heat and simmer until syrupy (about five minutes). Soften 125g (4 ounces) butter in a bowl and whip until light and fluffy. Mix through the berry mixture. Spoon into a small bowl or ramekin and refrigerate, covered, until required. This is delicious spread onto hot sourdough toast, muffins and crumpets.

RASPBERRY AND YOGHURT CREAM

1 cup yoghurt
4 tablespoons caster sugar
grated rind of 1/2 lemon
1/2 cup cream
1 cup raspberries
100g (3 ounces) dark chocolate

Mix the yoghurt, sugar and grated lemon rind together. Lightly whip the cream and fold into the yoghurt mixture. Crush the raspberries on the back of a plate. You want some juices to run but you also want some pieces of berries. Scrape the chocolate with a knife and add to the cream mixture, along with the raspberries. Don't mix too thoroughly, as it should have a nice marbled effect. You can serve within 30 minutes or leave to stand for six hours before serving.