I'll always remember this batch of muffins. I made these on a Monday night and it was by no means your regular Monday night. It was the night I was dialling The Fat Duck in London to make a reservation for dinner/lunch. I wasn't quite so lucky the prior two times I tried and this was my last go at it before I had to park the idea for another trip (which to be honest, probably would've been another couple of years down the track). 30 minutes in, the phone line still wasn't connecting and not much luck an hour into it. Had dinner and with the irritation levels high, I thought I'd get busy in the kitchen and make myself a batch of muffins to calm the nerves.
Preheat oven to 200 degrees. Line a 12 hole muffin tin. In a large bowl, sift together 150g plain flour and 1 tsp baking powder. Add 100g caster sugar. In a large jug, mix together 6tbsp smooth peanut butter, 100ml grapeseed oil, 1 egg and 175mL milk together with a fork. Pour the liquid ingredients into the flour mix and stir gently to combine. Stir in 100g chocolate chips. Divide the mixture equally between the muffin cases.
Bake for approx. 20 minutes until the muffins are firm and golden. In the meantime, I kept calling and calling The Fat Duck Reservation line.
And by the time the muffins were done, I still hadn't gotten through.
Leave the muffins to cool on a wire rack. I ate one to put myself out of my misery. These muffins are rather tasty and I love how peanut butter sticks to the roof of your mouth, especially when topped with melty chocolate chips.
With the muffin eaten, I tried the reservation line for the one last time (mind you this was a good 2 hours and 20 minutes after the reservation lines had opened) and yay, I got through and got myself a booking! Every thanks goes to this batch of muffins which kept me sane. Like I've said before, I find baking really calms my nerves and keeps me relaxed - though now I'm giddy with excitement and ever so looking forward to this meal. Will report back!
