Online supermarket shopping: the devil’s business or working mum’s salvation? I’m never quite sure. My attempts to get it right usually result in fury, comedy or both. Fury that I never - ever - receive everything I’ve ordered (and am offered risible replacements) and hilarity from the children as they unpack Borrowers-size tubes of toothpaste or behemoth boxes of breakfast cereal, ordered in haste-induced error.
This time it was raspberries. Instead of the plump, matt-ruby jewels I had in mind for Girl Child’s birthday lunch we had boxes of scarlet mush; mamma the buffoon had ordered frozen instead of fresh and then let them defrost in the fridge. So into the pot they went with icing sugar and a vanilla pod, and although the resulting compote was a thing of beauty spooned on full-fat Greek yoghurt for breakfast, we were never going to eat the lot before it turned. Boy Child draws the line at cooked fruit and I wasn’t sure about refreezing frozen the frozen stuff. (Can you?)
This is where the rest of the glinting bowl of simmered raspberries went. When I set out to make these, I had in mind something completely different - a jam doughnut type of affair, sugary on the outside with a jammy surprise at the centre. In the end, the tart compote didn’t lend itself to that type of confection, so I went the other way with something virtuous and delicious. The crumb of these is properly muffiny - not cupcake dressed as muffin as so many are. I haven’t provided a recipe for the compote - just throw a large punnet of raspberries into a pot, sprinkle over a couple of teaspoons of icing sugar and add some vanilla if you like. Simmer for 5 minutes or so until the fruit has released its juice, but it’s nicer if you don’t cook it down completely. I wouldn’t bother sieving to remove the seeds as a stint in the oven will soften them to nothingness.
Boy Child - who truly hates cooked fruit and doesn’t have much time for fresh raspberries for that matter - could not get enough of these. I had to place one under lock and key, lest someone scoffed it before I took the photo.
Virtulicious raspberry oat muffins
Makes 16 small muffins
- 125g light brown sugar
- 80ml vegetable oil
- 2 medium eggs
- 190g raspberry compote
- 50g oats
- 100g plain flour
- 50g almonds ground
- 3 teaspoons baking powder
- 50g spelt flour
- Preheat the oven to 180°C. Beat the sugar, oil and eggs together until thick and creamy
- Stir in the raspberry compote until well combined and amalgamated.
- Add the oats and ground almonds and stir.
- Sift together the plain flour, spelt flour and baking powder and sprinkle over the batter. Gently fold through until only just combined.
- Distribute between 16 cupcake cases and cook for about 20 minutes.
