Plum, Toblerone White & Cinnamon Muffins
I have something to announce. No, I’ve not got a boyfriend, or gotten a car, or won a courtesy/good citizen award or struck the lottery. Really, nothing fancy at all. I’ve merely started running. Yes, around the neighbourhood huff and puff and sweat and go red like a beetroot I go. Truly, I’m exuding glamour and thoroughly enjoying it, NOT. But for health and fitness reasons I have decided to put my running shoes back on. For the sanity of my clothes, belt buckles and zippers, out of kindness to my poor mirror, I’ve made this big decision.
And then guess what happened after a week of running? The soles of my running shoes fell off. Right off, cleanly. And then my black and white spotted dog (one of out 5 hungry buggers) thought it would be fun to pounce on it and rip it to shreds. The story of my life. What did I think then? Ah what a joke. Even the world is bent on getting me fat!
The pair of destroyed shoes are by now probably on its way to the recycling dump or something. No hard feelings. I’m moving on to my mama’s running shoes and let’s see if those get destroyed by my out-of-these-world feet. On the lighter side of life, I ventured into the kitchen and baked. Whoever needs rubber soles and running shoes when I can equip myself better with wooden spoons and mixing bowls? Let’s get to that then… Ottolenghi has some serious reputation in London. And although I lived in the Hoxton/Shoreditch area, it was just too easy to wander up to Islington for a takeaway of Ottolenghi cakes, a lunch with friends or a special candlelit dinner with visiting family. I don’t think anyone ever has anything bad to say about Ottolenghi – the food is clean, honest, simple, modern and utterly delicious. I am a fan. And I know many others who are too. Similarly, anything that comes from the Ottolenghi cookbook is rumoured to be good and never a letdown. Out of the recipes I’ve tried, it’s so far been beyond good: great, brilliant, sublime, mindblowingly reliable, success rate 100% and also fairly idiot-proof. Moreover, most of their simple baked treats can double up as a dessert course in both the looks and taste department, as this one proves with a sexy compote topping. I love getting the best of both worlds. Maybe I didn’t win the lottery, but I felt like I’d pulled out trays of sweetened gold from my oven. I especially love making things that produce deep, dark shades of red like a good Chanel lipstick. This compote had me charmed completely. The amount of baking time for it will depend on the ripeness of your fruit. Mine was just ready to eat, firm to bite and slightly tart. Hence, I added another 15 mins to the bake time. On second thought, I should also have increased the amount of sugar for the compote as it was a little too tart for some. Nevertheless, these muffins were gone within a day. Food in our house either gets left over forever with a poltergeist of unwillingness to eat it lingering in the house, or it disappears in a flash. Thankfully, these muffins belong to the latter group, compliments to Ottolenghi. And the only thing it’s missing is a lovely cuppa tea. If you’re a tea lover and fancy some good leaves, or wish to try your luck at winning a flowering tea diva set from JING Tea, don’t forget to check out my previous post here. The original recipe calls for marzipan rather than white chocolate but I overestimated my local supermarket and the state of our pantry cupboard. The substitute of Toblerone White chocolate wasn’t so bad and it meant the muffins weren’t as sweet as I was worried they would turn out to be. Yields 10-12 regular sized muffins. Plum, Toblerone White (Marzipan) & Cinnamon Muffins Make the plum compote first. Preheat oven to 170d Celsius. Place plums in a shallow baking dish and add the sugar and cinnamon stick to it. Mix together. Place in the oven and bake for 10-20 minutes, until the plums are soft and their skin starts to separate from the flesh. Cooking time will vary significantly, depending on the ripeness of the fruit. When cooked, remove from oven and set aside to cool. (MY NOTE: The plums might still appear fairly whole and of their initial raw colour. Mix it around and ensure that it is coated in its juices. The process of cooling will cause the plums to break down further into a compote and deepen in colour) For the muffins: Place the sugar and eggs in a large mixing bowl and whisk together. Add the milk and cooled melted butter. Whisk to combine. Grate the marzipan or chop the Toblerone and add this to the batter, together with the orange zest. Now add 80g of plum compote (pulp & juices) and stir together. Set the rest of the compote aside for later. Using a rubber spatula, gently fold the flour mixture into the wet ingredients until just combined. A lumpy mixture with pockets of flour is ideal. Line your muffin tray with paper cases and spoon in the batter, filling them all the way to the top. Bake for 25-30 minutse, until a skewer inserted comes out clean. When cool enough to handle, take the muffins out of the tins and leave on a wire rack to cool completely. Just before serving, dust with icing sugar and top with plum compote. 
fresh out of the oven
a plum compote that simply smells like Christmas!
(Original recipe from Ottolenghi Cookbook)
IngredientsFor the muffins:
480g plain flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1 tsp ground cinnamon
a pinch of salt
200g caster sugar
2 free range eggs
110g unsalted butter, melted and cooled
280ml milk
grated zest of 2 oranges
120g Toblerone White (marzipan)
icing sugar, for dustingPlum Compote:
700g ripe dark red plums, stoned and cut into quarters
60g caster sugar
1 cinnamon stick (or 2 short ones)
Sift the flour, baking powder, bicarb, cinnamon and salt into a bowl. 
