Just like Julie and Julia before her...

I'm on a mission to find the best muffin recipe. I found myself measuring and weighing last night, when I made these little beauties, and wondering how Julie would have made them. The fact that I had used olive oil instead of sunflower oil, a medium egg instead of a large egg, caster sugar instead of soft brown sugar was not a great start. And, 'Quelle dilemma!'... how small should I cut the rhubarb if it says 'finely diced?' I reckoned on smallish, 5mm chunks so they'd mix in well and there would be enough choice bits of rhubarb flavour in each muffin.

It's the first time I've ever used buttermilk. It's an odd consistency, similar to yoghurt really and not a bit like milk. It's supposed to make them lighter and fortunately, I had remembered to buy some earlier when I was shopping.
This recipe came from a recipe book Nick bought me, Rachel Allen Home Cooking, which is a lovely book to browse on a rainy Saturday morning! It's packed with practical recipes that use good basic ingredients with none of the weird stuff that you often find in recipe books. I'm not a daytime tv guru so hadn't heard of Rachel until I received this book as a present for my birthday. She's an Irish cook, tv presenter, author, newspaper columnist and does something I love. She always writes a quirky standfirst to describe the recipe and what it can do for me. How it will make me feel or what time of the year the recipe is best for. It's a great way to make me feel included in the book and is more likely to make me try something I've not attempted before.
Anyway, back to my 12 little rhubarb muffins which have now become 10. They have turned out well and although not like those I can buy, they are still worth a six and a half out of ten :)

ps it's Saturday morning and the score has just gone up to an 8! True - day old rhubarb muffins are better than fresh ones straight from the oven !!