Alright, so I got the urge to bake something cozy the other day, and fruit cake muffins popped into my head. Not everyone’s cup of tea, I know, but I like ’em sometimes.
Getting Started with the Fruit
First thing, I tackled the dried fruit mix. Had some raisins, currants, maybe some mixed peel lying around. The usual stuff. I remembered reading somewhere, or maybe someone told me, that boiling the fruit first makes a difference. Sounded a bit strange, honestly, just boiling fruit in some liquid – water, some folks use juice or booze, I just used water this time with a bit of spice.
So, I threw the fruit into a small pot, covered it with water, and let it simmer for a bit. Maybe 10 minutes? Just until the fruit looked like it had soaked up the liquid and gotten all plump. Took it off the heat and let it cool down while I sorted out the batter.
Mixing It All Up
The batter itself was pretty straightforward. Nothing fancy. Just the usual suspects: flour, butter, sugar, eggs, a bit of milk, and definitely some warm spices like cinnamon and nutmeg. Mixed the wet stuff, mixed the dry stuff, then combined them. Didn’t overthink it. Once the batter looked okay, I gently folded in those cooled, boiled fruits. They definitely seemed softer than just chucking them in dry.
The Baking Part – Trying Something New
Now for the muffin tin. I recalled a tip I saw online, something about how bakeries get those really high tops on muffins. The trick was, apparently, to only fill every other cup in the muffin tray. Leave the ones in between completely empty.
- Spoon batter into cup 1
- Leave cup 2 empty
- Spoon batter into cup 3
- Leave cup 4 empty
- …and so on.
Felt a bit wasteful not using the whole tin, but I was curious. So I did just that, filling the cups maybe two-thirds full, checkerboard style.
Then into the oven they went. The kitchen started smelling pretty good, that warm, spicy, fruity smell. Baked them until a skewer came out clean. Standard procedure.
The Result
Pulled them out, let them cool a bit. And you know what? That half-filled tin trick actually seemed to work. The muffins definitely puffed up more than usual, got a nice dome on top. Maybe it gives them more room to expand or better air circulation? Who knows, but it looked good.
And the taste? Pretty decent! The boiled fruit made the inside really moist, not dry or overly dense like some fruit cakes can be. They were soft, plump bites of fruit studded through the muffin. It wasn’t a revolutionary bake, but it was a successful little experiment. Happy with how they turned out, especially the texture from boiling the fruit and the shape from that weird muffin tin trick. Definitely worth doing again.
