Raspberry & White Chocolate Muffins

Gorgeously sweet muffins, oozing with plump juicy raspberries and hunks of creamy white chocolate.

We chose this recipe especially as we had an abundance of raspberries whilst on the Isle of Skye, you could substitute the raspberries for other soft berries: blueberries, or blackberries, for instance – whatever you have.

We served our Muffins with more fresh raspberries, but they’d be as scrumptious with cream, or ice-cream, or even on their own, warm from the oven.

The Skye’s the limit

Isle of Skye, Wild Raspberries

Foraging for berries in england at this time of year usually means one thing: blackberries.  Copious amounts of fat purple fruits that seem to grow everywhere, be it along old train tracks, your neighbours overgrown garden, or the park. We had an apple tree in our back garden when I was growing up so any blackberries I collected were always made in to an apple and blackberry crumble that bubbled and filled the air with its sweet berry and apple smell when it was cooked. 

Fancy a brew?

North Tea Power in the Northern Quarter, Manchester

North Tea Power (@northteapower) is situated  on Tib Street, in Manchester’s Northern Quarter.  It also happens to be two doors down from my hairdressers. Having had my hair done yesterday, I needed a brew and North Tea Power was my first port of call.

Lunch, from the Yarden

We don’t have anything quite substantial enough to call a garden, but nor is it just a yard – there’s far too many plants in it to call it that. So, it is my ‘yarden’ in which I grow strawberries, blueberries, goji berries, tomatoes, chilis, garlic, onions, potatoes, mange tout, beetroot, herbs, roses and wild flowers (for the butterflies) in pots all shapes and sizes. 

Some food should only be eaten when one is alone…

Sometimes I use a spoon to eat peanut butter, othertimes I bypass the spoon and go straight for the jar.

I’m not usually a stickler for etiquette when it comes to eating. I for one quite often rest my elbows on the dinner table and lick my plate clean when I think nobody is looking.

My Top 5 – Teapigs Tea

I did it. I tasted every tea by teapigs in my cupboard. All 19 teas!

If you have been following ‘Operation Tea-rrific’ you’ll know by now that the aim of the project wasn’t just to drink lots of tea, but to choose the top 5 teas that teapigs have to offer (in my humble opinion). I rated seven out of nineteen teas 5/5, making this final decision trickier than I had first imagined. The first four were easy, clear winners in my mind, but choosing between the three teas remaining was so difficult, I had to try them both again – oh the anguish!

Operation Tea-riffic Day 7

I’d originally calculated eight days of tea tasting, but it seems that I have come to the last of my teas today (and yes, I’m rubbish at maths). Here we are then, my very last tea from the cupboard, the lowdown on teapigs’ silver tips white tea:

Operation Tea-rrific Day 6

As you might have guessed I didn’t write my usual post first thing this morning, I was busy putting together a healthy, stuff we don’t usually eat, menu for the coming fortnight and it took forever! So I’m tea drinking this evening instead. It’s OK though, because I’m drinking Rooibos teas and they’re naturally caffeine free, phew.

Operation Tea-rrific Day 5

Chilis - Delhi, India

The three teas up for tasting this morning are: teapigs’ chai tea, organic dragon well green tea (can’t seem to find on website) and chilli chai.

Operation Tea-riffic Day 4

I have decided to taste three ‘black’ teas today, all by teapigs again, we have: chocolate flake tea, tung ting oolong and darjeeling earl grey.

I started off with:

Chocolate Flake tea

Chocolate Flake Tea

I have a couple of chocolate teas in my cupboard and this is the only one I haven’t tried to date.  I’m intrigued to see how the real chocolate flakes will taste with the tea – I tend to steer clear of the choccy biscuits with tea, preferring instead to stick to malted milk or original hobnobs – because I don’t like the way the chocolate does that strange half-melting thing at the bottom of the cup.