Cheering Hybrid Muffins

 I was meant to go for a walk at lunchtime, but meetings and builders clashed (we have work going on, I timed coinciding with their lunch break badly). Builders also meant that I had a choice of staying in one room with the windows open so they could get power, or sitting in the other one which has the noise. It was not the most cheering of afternoons and very much not helped by the absolute downpour at 4pm that resulted in not going for a walk then either. Cue massive grump and the decision to make muffins to cheer myself up (then risotto for dinner, which was planned). Rachel's treacle post inspired me and I wanted gingerbread, but my preferred gingerbread recipe is for Nigella's chocolate gingerbread which makes a LOT. The same recipe book has a recipe for gingerbread muffins, so I decided to mix the two.

Sift together 250 plain flour, 1.5 tsps ginger, 1 tsp cinnamon, .25 tsp cloves and 1 tsp each bicarb and baking powder. For the hybrid version, add a dessert spoon of cocoa and then decide if it looks about right when it's all mixed. Add more cocoa if need be.

In a different bowl, whisk together 1 egg, 50g dark brown sugar, 50g light brown sugar and 250ml milk. Add 0.25 tsp of balsamic vinegar (add a sigh that it's the proper Aceto Balsamico di Modena that you bought in Italy last year and long for further travel) and 6 tbsps vegetable oil. Nigella says to then use the oily spoon to measure out your treacle and golden syrup as the oil stops them sticking (4 tbsps each). I always stick the tins in a pan of hot water for a few minutes before using them anyway to make it a bit easier. I also carefully checked that my treacle was well within date (it was, the aforementioned chocolate gingerbread uses half a tin of it so I do get through it). Whisk that all together and stir into the flour/spice mix. I added about 60g of finely chopped dark chocolate as part of my hybrid recipe - ideally it would have been more, but that was all I had.

Put in muffin cases and bake for 20 minutes at 200C. They were done by the time I'd washed up, de-treacled the worktop and written the first paragraph of this blog post. I feel less grumpy now and my kitchen smells amazing.Win all round - who needs a walk? (Me)