Before I moved to Cambridge in 2003 I lived near 770 in Crown Heights, Brooklyn. Most days I would be up early, and on my way to 770 to learn and daven I would pick up a freshly baked muffin and a coffee from Albany Bakery.
Sadly, we do not have a kosher bakery in Cambridge and in any case, none of the kosher bakeries in England seem to know how to make a really good muffin.
Over the years I have tried to fill the gap but have never been able to recreate the nostalgic experience.
Then recently, when I was making a cake (Earl Grey Loaf from Jamie's Great Britain) and had some left over batter. I baked it in a muffin tin and voila! I discovered a comparably good muffin.
Ingredients:
Earl Grey teabags x 4
Dried Fruit (raisins, cranberries, cherries etc.) x 400g
Orange x 1
Egg x 1
Golden Caster Sugar x 200g
Self-Raising Flour x 400g
Nutmeg x 1tsp
Sugar for sprinkling
Method:
Pour 300ml of boiling water over the four teabags and leave to brew for a few minutes then pour the liquid over the dried fruit and add the zest of the orange. Give it a good stir and leave for a few hours until the fruit rehydrates.
Add the whisked egg, caster sugar, flour, nutmeg and the juice of the orange and mix until you have a dough-like consistency.
Spoon the mixture into the muffin cases until they are three quarters full, sprinkle the top with some sugar, and put in your pre-heated oven at 180/350 degrees for approx. 20 minutes or until crispy on top.