QUICK AND EASY CHOCOLATE CHIP MUFFINS

These muffins take about 10 minutes to prepare and 20 minutes to cook.  They are delicious and are great for when you need to prepare something quickly and only have the basics in the cupboard!  I used olive oil in these instead of butter and I think the results were great.  If you don’t want to though, you can use melted butter instead of the oil.

What you need

2 ¼ cups self-raising flour

1 cup chocolate chips

½ cup sugar

½ cup olive oil

2 eggs

1 cup milk

1 teaspoon vanilla essence

How to make them

Sift the sugar and flour into a large bowl.  Add the chocolate chips.

In a separate jug, combine the milk, vanilla, oil and eggs.  Give this mixture a bit of a light whisk with a fork to combine and then add it to the dry ingredients.

Mix everything together until combined.

Spoon mixture into a pre-prepared muffin tray or tall cup cake patty pans for a prettier look!

Place in pre-heated 180° oven for approximately 20 minutes or until lightly golden.

Remove muffins from tray and place on cooling rack.

Serve and enjoy!  

Chocolate Chip Cookies (with peanut butter option)

These cookies are from the good ol’ Women’s Weekly Cakes & Slices Cookbook.  They are very good, very easy and don’t tend to last too long!  If you want to vary them, try adding a couple of tablespoons of organic peanut butter!

What you need:

• 125grams butter, softened
• ½ cup sugar
• ½ cup brown sugar, lightly packed
• ½ teaspoon vanilla essence
• 1 egg
• 1 ¾ cups self raising flour
• ½ teaspoon salt
• 125grams chocolate chips
• 2 tablespoons organic peanut butter (optional or you can do what I do and add it after you have used half the mixture preparing the balls)

How to make them

Cream butter, vanilla and sugars in a bowl (mixture should be pale when creamed).

Add lightly beaten egg, combine.

Add flour and salt – sift these into the mixture.

Add chocolate chips (and peanut butter if you wish).

Combine everything.

Make dessert-size balls and place on a lined baking tray.  Make sure you space them or they will turn into one giant cookie (this has happened to me before…).  If you want half peanut butter flavour, when you have used half of the mixture, add a tablespoon spoon of peanut butter and combine before continuing to make the balls.

Bake in a moderate oven (180°) for about 10 – 15 minutes.  If you like chewy cookies like I do, keep a close eye on them so they don’t go too brown!

Allow to cool.  Serve.  Enjoy!  They won't last long!