EGGNOG MUFFINS

Oooh this is delicious! – exclaimed he when he bit into a muffin. I don’t know why he is so surprised when I feed him so well. But as they say don’t look a gift horse in the mouth and surely a compliment is just that. The rest of the muffins went into his stash he keeps in the freezer. What does he have in there? Slices of pies, squares, sweet buns and cookies… Come morning he selects one, heats it up in the microwave and eats it for breakfast. Well there are eggs in them! Besides he weighs the same as he did 55 years ago. 

As with all substitutions, by replacing buttermilk in my base recipe with eggnog albeit doctored with apple cider vinegar produced great, though fewer muffins; one less to be precise.

EGGNOG MUFFINS

1/2 cup eggnog

1 Tbsp apple cider vinegar

1/2 cup soft butter

4 Tbsp oil

3/4 cup sugar

2 eggs

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

2 tsp rum extract

1/2 cup Greek yogurt 10%

2 1/2 cups flour

1/2 tsp ground nutmeg

1 cup currants [optional]

The very first thing to do is to combine the eggnog and the apple cider vinegar in a small measuring cup. Set it aside.

Preheat oven to 425F.

Line a muffin tin with large size parchment liners. 

Next add the soft butter, oil, sugar, eggs, baking powder, baking soda and rum extract to a beater bowl and beat it fluffy.

Add the yogurt to the eggnog mixture.

Whisk the flour and the nutmeg.

Alternating, gradually add flour and the yogurt mixture to the butter mixture and stir it with a wooden spoon to combine. [From here on end don’t beat the batter]

Gently fold in the currants if using.

Divide the batter in the prepared muffin tin.

Pile the batter high, these muffins will only grow upward; they won’t spill out of the muffin cups. [I got 11 muffins.]

Bake the muffins in the preheated oven for 8 minutes.

Reduce the heat to 400F and bake 12 minutes longer.

Test for doneness with a sharp knife and bake 2-3 minutes longer if needed.

Remove muffin tin from the oven and place it on a wire rack.

Yields 11 muffins