White chocolate and raspberries Muffins

Our church is fairly big - with over 4,000 people visiting the 2 services every Sunday. Hence one usually only gets to know others by being connected to a cell group.

A cell group is an informal gathering of people once a week, during which different topics from the Bible are discussed, with the main intention of getting to know God more and grow deeper in the word. 

Over the past 3 years, we´ve had the opportunity and privilege to lead a group of young people every Tuesday. They are the sweetest people ever and we look forward to seeing them every week. They´re sorta like our spiritual children. :) 

Once in a blue moon though, we have a regional church service instead of a cell group. This is so that people who live within close proximity would get to know each other. We would have potluck together, for which everybody would have to bring some finger food. I used to fret over what to bring, since I didn´t cook when I first came to Germany in Aug 06. Now I just make whatever comes to my mind with the mindset of "If nobody likes it, I can still take it home and enjoy it myself". :)

I´ve been wanting to make these muffins for the longest time, since seeing them on Karen Cheng´s blog. However, each time I bought the white chocolate, my hubby ended up eating them up first before I could get down to baking them. Finally when I decided to bake them, guess what? I couldn´t find the recipe! AND I couldn´t find them on Karen´s blog any more. Hence, I had to google for a recipe and ended up with a brand-new recipe, which was cool too, because this recipe is butter-free.

My pinky girly muffins before putting them in the oven. Can you see the huge chunks of raspberries inside? Ooh Lala.....

The final product! Don´t the colours look so unique? Brown crust, pink raspberries and vanilla white chocolate.

Moist on the inside and crispy on the outside, they tasted awesome! I got rave reviews for it and one friend even suggested that they tasted like ice-cream!

White chocolate and Raspberries Muffins

2 teaspoons lemon juice

250ml milk
125ml oil
1 large egg / 2 small eggs
300g self-raising flour / 300 g all-purpose flour + 1 tsp salt + 2 tsp baking powder
150g  caster sugar
200g white chocolate chopped into small chunks
200g berries (I used raspberries, but you can mix strawberries and raspberries)

1. Preheat oven to 190 degrees Celsius (170 degrees Celsius fan-forced).

2. Line 12 holes of a muffin pan. I found this recipe makes about 14 - 15 muffins.

3. Whisk lemon juice, milk, oil and egg in a medium bowl until well combined.

4. Place self-raising flour, caster sugar and white chocolate in a large bowl. Stir to combine.

5. Add berries. Gently stir to combine.

6. Gently stir wet ingredients into dry ingredients. Stop stirring once the ingredients are combined (do not over mix). The batter should be quite wet.

7. Divide mixture evenly between muffin cases.

8. Bake for about 22-27 minutes until done. A knife inserted into the centre of a muffin should come out clean.

9. Serve the muffins warm or at room temperature, dusted with icing sugar if desired. They are at their best on the day they are baked.

Store muffins in an airtight container. Muffins can be reheated in the microwave. Suitable to freeze.

Adapted from: www.exclusivelyfood.com.au

3 more days to skiing and I sooo can´t wait! Woo hoo! And got the all-clear today from my bladder infection! I´m SOooo happy! One victory on the health front!