Bonaparte - Mad About Muffins

'I like muffins, I like bread, All this food goes to my head!' Corin Bonaparte. Muffins are one of my son's favourite things - which is fortunate as I just love making them! It's been such fun experimenting with all kinds of ingredients for this book, from traditional chocolates, fruit and nuts to some really wild and wacky savoury options. Inspiration and experimentation are the name of the game.

A home-baked muffin is worlds away from a shop-bought one: the interior texture is light and moist, the top and the topping are crisp, and the whole thing is fresh, full of flavour and thoroughly packed with best-quality ingredients. Muffins are also really easy to make. You'll appreciate this once you have had a go yourself. They are a simple introduction to baking and would be ideal to make with children or anyone who hasn't baked before.

Muffins can be either sweet or savoury; they can be eaten on their own or as part of any meal. A soft, warm, moist muffin with its characteristic crisp top, fresh from the oven, really is something special and must be tried! As for me, I love muffins at any time, including breakfast. Most often, however, I have them for lunch and my savoury muffins also make an appearance with evening meals. Some are substantial enough to make a main meal on their own, such as my Pepperoni and Sun-dried Tomato Pizza muffins or Peanut Butter, Chilli, Coriander and Chicken muffins, for example. Others are lighter and make a perfect accompaniment to salad - just try my Goats' Cheese with Thyme or Fresh Dill with Cottage Cheese with a bowl of fresh green leaves. Muffins can also be used as bread to mop up sauces - hummus muffins in particular are great with an evening meal. Sweet muffins are wonderful just as they are, but they can be dressed up too. Remove a sweet muffin from its paper wrapper, add a dollop of ice cream (maybe with a drizzle of chocolate sauce), warm custard, softly whipped cream or even clotted cream - pure heaven!

Muffin recipes are very quick to make - most can be made, baked, eaten and washed up in an hour (wash up while the muffins are baking - this helps make the time go quicker while you are waiting!) More complex muffins - those containing fillings that need to be prepared or cooked first - may take a little longer. But don't be put off. All muffins are easy to make: just mix together the dry ingredients, mix together the wet ingredients, fold the two together and bake.

The majority of muffin recipes need only basic cooking kitchen utensils. Aside from the muffin tin and paper liners, you probably have most of these already: scales for weighing, a sieve (strainer), a chopping board, measuring spoons, a large metal spoon, a whisk, a knife, a fork, mixing bowls, ramekins (custard cups) and a wire rack for cooling. For some recipes, you might need a few extra things, such as saucepans, a frying pan, a box grater, a vegetable peeler, a manual juicer and a baking (cookie) sheet. Other useful items include a microplane grater, a food processor, a nut or coffee grinder and a mortar and pestle. But none of these is essential.

Your muffin tin, of course, is a must! I have a standard 12-section muffin tin and a half-size 6-section tin. Both tins can be bought in good cook shops. You will find that many of my recipes make more than 12 muffins, so if you have two muffin tins, then obviously use both. If not, simply place the muffin papers into ramekins or individual pudding basins, fill with batter and bake directly on the oven rack alongside the muffin tin or on a shelf underneath. Muffins baked in a ramekin or pudding basin tend to have smooth tops, but it gets the job done and still tastes great! If you have the patience, your other option is to portion the extra batter into loose muffin paper or papers after you have filled the sections of the muffin tin, ensuring that the batter is portioned evenly. Bake the first 12 muffins in the tin, then, when they are ready, remove them and place the extra muffins, in their papers, in the tin and bake.

Muffins are at their best fresh from the oven - try to give them 10 minutes or so to cool down so you can taste all the flavours; but even cooled (at room temperature), they taste fantastic! Muffins go stale quickly, so it is best to store any leftover muffins in the freezer as soon as they have cooled to room temperature - they freeze very well. You will find that if you store sweet muffins overnight in an airtight container, the crisp top (and crunchy topping, if there was one on that particular muffin) will go soft and the muffin will be a bit stale - though this has never stopped me eating one! But to enjoy them at their very best, eat them fresh - within an hour of cooking if possible. The same applies to savoury muffins, particularly those containing meat or fish. Let them cool to room temperature and then freeze any that are not eaten straight away.

Muffins reheat successfully too. Which is great because then they are there ready for you to bring out and serve at a moment's notice! If you are in a hurry, you can just defrost a muffin in the microwave and then give it 15 seconds or so on High to warm the muffin through. However, the top will still be soft, so the best method is to defrost the muffins, then place them on a baking (cookie) sheet in a preheated oven at 180C/350F/gas 4/fan oven 160C for 8-10 minutes. This way the tops go crisp again and the muffins are nice and warm.

Most of the ingredients you need to make my muffins can be found at your local supermarket. There are just a few items you may need to go to your local health food shop to buy: for example, raw red-skinned peanuts, big bags of cashew nuts, buckwheat flour, cornmeal, molasses and jumbo oats. You may also find that they are more readily available in bulk. Having bought your ingredients, it's important that you use them in the right way.

Baking powder and bicarbonate of soda (baking soda): Always use a measuring spoon and scrape the excess off the top of the spoon with a knife to get an accurate level spoonful, or weigh carefully where possible. You must measure accurately or you will get strange results and a poor taste.

Black pepper: I always use this freshly ground from the pepper mill and it should be measured once it is ground. So, if a recipe calls for a teaspoon of freshly ground black pepper, grind a teaspoonful of black peppercorns in a mortar and pestle, then use the teaspoon again to measure out the correct quantity for the recipe - quite often there is more than you need. Or you can just grind the black pepper out of the pepper mill into a small bowl and then measure it; it takes a while and your arm will ache, but it works!

Butter: I always use real butter, which gives a far better flavour than margarine. Use unsalted (sweet) only if it is stated in the recipe.

Chocolate: You will need milk (sweet), white and plain (semi-sweet) chocolate. I have found that supermarket own-brands from the baking section give perfectly good results so there is no need to buy expensive brands. Do check the percentage of cocoa solids in the plain chocolate as this affects the texture and flavour. For my recipes you will need two types - 50 per cent and 70 per cent - and I have specified which type is required in every case. You'll also use packets of plain, milk and white chocolate chips.

Coconut: I use the sweetened desiccated (shredded) variety. When it is called for as a topping, don't toast it first. If you do, it will continue to toast in the oven and come out burnt. I also use canned coconut milk - full-fat, not the low-fat variety.