Mincemeat (with cassis) muffins

Still refusing to give up that Christmas spirit, I whipped up these mincemeat muffins using some leftover mincemeat with cassis (that I raved about here). I used baking parchment for their cases, after seeing a friend last week who thought they were awesome. To be honest, pre-this bake, I just thought they were a bit of a fad, turns out, they are also a bit of a faff, though I do have to admit, aesthetically, they look pretty cool. More importantly, the muffins tasted pretty awesome too.

Here is what to use:

175g soft butter

175g self raising flour

100g light muscovado sugar

3 eggs

2tbsp milk

a dash of two of mixed spice

mincemeat (with cassis if you’re lucky)

Here is what to do:

1. Heat up your oven to 190˚C (170˚C fan), line the muffin tin (easier said than done when you’re using for the baking parchment technique).

2. Bar the mincemeat, beat everything together until light and fluffy.

3. Pop a spoonful of the muffin mix into the prepared cases.

4. On top of this put a rounded teaspoon of mincement.

5. Followed by another spoonful of the muffin mix.

6. Shimmy them down in their tin, until they look vaguely level (again, easier said than done using the parchment cases).

7. Bake for about 25 minutes, or until they look golden (keep an eye on them from about the 20 minute mark).

8. Dust with icing sugar.

Now, the faff of the baking parchment cases. After a bit of testing, I used square-ish pieces of parchment, spritzed the tin with sunflower oil spray, and just pushed the pieces in, trying to ensure I got all sides covered. What I found the trick to be, was not to line them too early, as in, line as you go. They have a tendency to want to break free and pop out. My advice - push the parchment down and swiftly follow with a spoon of muffin mix.