In short a tea muffin is exactly what it sounds like- A muffin flavoured with tea. Now I know it sounds weird, I mean a tea flavoured muffin really? But you would be surprised to know how well this familiar flavour works in muffin form. This recipe could not be easier and leaves room for your own changes to make these muffins perfect for you and your tastebuds.
The idea for a tea flavoured muffin came about quite randomly after I was set a project in food tech to make an ultimate version of your chosen recipe. So I chose muffins and as I thought about different flavours that I could do, having cycled though a savoury muffin trial (Very very unsuccessful will not be attempted again) I thought why not combine a cup of tea with the sweet treat that lots of people enjoy with it! Once I made them my apprehensive family became obsessed so I thought that I would share the recipe.
AND these muffins are gluten free and can easily be made dairy free to and nobody will be able to tell. This makes them perfect for lots of different occasions obviously they are great for afternoon tea, but they could also be a great quick breakfast option or easy snack or dessert to!
To make them dairy free all you have to do is ensure that you use either oil or dairy free butter and ensure that you use a dairy free milk. To make this vegan you would need to do the dairy free substitutes as well as change the two eggs for a vegan substitute. You could change the eggs to something like:
2 Tbsp Ground flaxseed and 6 Tbsp Water
1/2 Cup of Applesauce
1/2 Cup Pumpkin puree
2 Tbsp Chia seeds and 6 Tbsp Water
Artificial egg replacer from a supermarket
2 Mashed bananas
I haven't tried these egg substitutes so if you do let me know how it goes as I would love to know!
Theres lots of changes and additions that you could do with these muffins, so I thought that I would suggest a few ideas in case you want to try any of them:
You could add a filling to the muffin such as Jam or creme pat
You could add an icing to the muffin for example a creme cheese icing
You could experiment with topping the muffins with different things such as different fruits or chocolates
You could add fruit or chocolate into the batter
You could use different flavoured tea bags like chamomile, mint, earl grey, Jasmine etc
Let me know if you make these and what you thought and if you made any fun changes to the muffins. Anyway here's the recipe...
Ingredients
2 Medium eggs
125ml Oil or Melted butter
250ml Your chosen milk
250g Caster sugar
400g Gluten free self raising flour
1 1/2 tsp Baking powder
4 Tea bags
Fruit to top (Optional)
Method
Preheat the oven to 180 Fan and Line 2 muffin trays with muffin cases (This recipe will make around 13 large muffins or more smaller ones depending on how big you want to make them).
Put the milk and tea bags in a pan on a low medium heat and heat for 15-20 minutes. Once heated pour into a bowl and leave to cool.
Whisk the eggs in a bowl with an electric beater. Add the oil and milk and beat again until combined.
Beat in the sugar to the liquid mix until combined.
Sift into the mix the flour and baking powder and beat until just combined.(Be cautious not to over mix as this will make rubbery muffins!)
Distribute the batter into the muffins cases (I use an ice cream scoop to make this distribution even but this makes quite large muffins so if you'd like smaller ones then use a smaller utensil like a tablespoon or a few teaspoons).
If decorating with fruit add to the top of each muffin before baking.
Bake the muffins for around 20-25 minutes or until a knife inserted in the middle of them comes out clean (Cooking time will depend on the size of the muffin).
Let them cool a little bit and then take them out the pan and enjoy!
Thank you for reading,
Ruby xxx