Meadow Churn is the only real butter I have found that does not have plastic elements in their wrapping, but having discovered this I have been unable to find it again on sale.

What has this got to do with muffins?

I use butter in my baking, until I re-discovered a cook book of mine with a recipe for muffins made with sun flower oil, not butter or margarine.

Why this is if interest to me is that I buy my oil from the local refill shop in Darlington, Mutiny, where I take my empty bottle to refill. Some brands are also sold in larger supermarkets in glass bottles.

I have slightly adapted the recipe by replacing the plain flour with self raising to do away with the need to add baking powder which I have not been able to find plastic free.

This recipe makes 8 muffins.

Ingredients

140 g self raising flour

Pinch if salt

60g caster sugar

1 medium sized egg

125 ml Carnation (or other brand) evaporated milk

3 tablespoons of sunflower oil

1 teaspoon of vanilla essence (a brand called Nielsen and Massey is sold in little glass bottles with a metal lid)

Method

Beat the egg with the sugar then beat in the milk and oil

Sift in the flour and salt to get as much air in as you can

Gently incorporate the flour in the egg mix. I use a figure of eight motion with my spoon. The mix will be wet enough to drop off the spoon and will still have lumps of flour visible, but that is fine

Spoon the mix into a paper lined or well greased a muffin tin and bake at 180 degrees centigrade for about 20 minutes. Do not open the oven whilst they are baking or they may not rise. Cool on a rack.

Now to take these to another level, how about spooning or piping some white chocolate ganache on top?

Carnation also make tinned thick cream, which is delicious on scones, but I have also started using it to make chocolate toppings for cakes. This has become the only cream I now buy as its the only cream I have found that is not sold in plastic pots.

1 tin of Carnation thick cream is gently heated (Don’t allow to boil) then poured over a bowl of equal weight in chocolate that has been broken into pieces. Leave the chocolate to melt in the hot cream then gently fold the mixture together. Put the bowl somewhere to cool. Then give it another stir to soften a little before spread or pipe on your cake.