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extra recipe
Speculaas-Muffins
Dutch version
of this recipe
"Speculaas" with rich almond filling
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An extra recipe, because I felt
like it.
There are two kinds of muffins, English ones, and American muffins.
Muffins originate from England, but are also very popular in the United States.
They were first mentioned in the eighteenth century.
The English muffin is made from a yeast-dough that is baked on a griddle on the
stove instead of in the oven. After baking the muffin is split open with the
fingers, butter is inserted, and the muffin is closed again. Then you eat the
muffin while it is still warm, butter dripping down your chin.
The American muffin is made from a batter with baking powder that is baked in
the oven. It can be eaten either warm or cooled to roomtemperature. You can add
all kinds of extra's to the batter, like blueberries, peanutbutter, bananas,
orange-peel, currants in sweet muffins, and cheese, sun-dried tomatoes, herbs,
olives to savoury muffins.
Muffins are fun to make, all it takes are ten minutes preparing the batter and a
maximum of twenty muffins in the oven.
The recipe below is for an
American muffin with speculaas-spices. If you wonder what "speculaas"
is, look at my recipe for speculaas filled with almonds.
In the Netherlands you can buy pre-mixed spices for speculaas. If you can't find
them where you live, you can make your own mixture
of speculaas-spices.
Some basics regarding the baking
of muffins::
1. Always grease the muffin mould carefully. Your muffins will never be
demoulded whole if you haven't done that, they will stuck to the one tiny spot
you forgot to grease.
2. Use two bowls, one for all dry ingredients, and one for liquid
ingredients.
3. A teaspoon is not just any spoon laying about. It is a fixed measure of 5
mililitres, which equates the volume of 5 gram water. A tablespoon equates 3
teaspoons, or 15 mililitres.
4. Always add the content of the dry bowl to the liquid one, NOT the other way
around.
5. Stir the combined ingredients only till they are just blended. The batter
must remain lumpy.
6. After baking, let the muffins rest for five minutes after removing them from the oven
before demoulding.
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Ingredients for a mould for
twelve muffins:
Dry bowl:
250 gram (2 cups) ordinary, unbleached wheat flour
125 gram (2/3 cup) sugar
1 1/4 tsp. baking soda (bicarbonate of soda)
3/4 tsp. baking powder
3/4 to 1 tsp. salt
1 Tbsp. speculaas spices
40 gram (1/2 cup) flaked almonds, crumbled (NOT ground)
Liquid bowl:
1 egg
2½ decilitre (1 cup) buttermilk
125 gram butter (1/2 cup), melted but not browned
Extra:
butter to grease the mould
25 gram (1/4 cup) flaked almonds
Preparation in advance:
Preheat the oven to 180EC/355EF.
Grease the muffin mould with butter. If you don't have a special mould for
muffins, use a cake tin. Just remember that in that case the baking time will
increase to fifty minutes.
Mix flour, salt, sugar, rising agents, almonds and spices. This is the "dry
bowl".
Mix egg, buttermilk, melted butter. This is the "liquid bowl".
Preparation:
Add the contents of the dry bowl to the liquid bowl, mix with a fork until you
have a lumpy batter.
Pour the batter into the muffin-holes, fill for not more that three quarters. The
batter will rise during baking. Scatter some flaked almonds over the batter.
Place the mould in the middle of the oven, bake for fifteen minutes. Check
whether the muffins are done by inserting a wooden toothpick into a muffin. If it comes
out dry it is done, if not, bake a few minutes longer.
Remove the muffin mould from the oven, leave for five minutes.
Demould the muffins. I beat the mould lightly on the worktop until the muffins
jump loose.
Place the muffins on a cake-rack to cool.
To serve:
You can eat the muffins either warm or cooled to room temperature.
To keep muffins:
When the muffins are cooled completely, you can store them in a box for a day or
two. But they are best when eaten fresh.
Spice mix for Speculaas:
In The Netherlands you can buy the spices for speculaas premixed. I doubt
whether that is the case elsewhere in the world. So here you have a mixture to
make yourself: Take cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, white pepper, ginger and cardamom
(everything powdered) in a ratio of 8:2:2:1:1:1 (whether you use grams,
teaspoons or tablespoons, the proportions must be the same). The used spices
betray the age of the recipe for speculaas: this combination of spices can be
found in many fifteenth century recipes.
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