spring apricot smiley muffins

things I am crazy about:
- Winnie the Pooh
- sunny days in spring
- apricots, peaches and cherries
- Smarties

these muffins somehow combine all of the above, which made them the ultimate smiley factor on my first working Saturday after coming back from vacation (I went to France, but the French cuisine deserves a special post coming soon on the blog ;)

I prepared these for a workshop at work, so that we can mix the useful with the enjoyable :) and they not only turned out full of taste, they brought the sunshine on my Saturday morning...

actually, you could never tell, but the muffin cases have Winnie the Pooh drawings on them; once baked they  are not visible any more, but hey I finally found the right muffin recipe to open this muffin cases pack, given to me as a Christmas gift by my friend Alex :) 

Ingredients

1 1/2 cup all purpose flour

1 cup sugar (or half crystal/brown sugar)

3/4 tsp baking powder

1/2 cup melted butter

1 large egg

150g apricot yoghurt

1 cup chopped apricot pieces

100g chopped almonds

50g chopped white chocolate

Smarties candy for decoration

for my friends I am sometimes Plami Smarties - this turned out to be my nickname since the Erasmus times in Portsmouth 2010, where we used to have a small group called "my middle name is candy"; the trend did not last long, but i kept my candy middle name, since it is so me :)

anyway... back to the muffins:

1. in a large bowl flour, half of the sugar and baking powder are combined well.

2. the butter is melted, while egg, sugar and yoghurt are beaten together in a smooth cream; butter is added in the end

3. "wet" and "dry" ingredients are mixed together to form the dough (if it is too thick, add a splash of the apricot juice from the can; in this case i used the canned apricots since it is still early for the fresh ones)

4. in the end chopped apricots, chopped almonds, white choc pieces are added to the dough and mixed evenly through it.

Smarties are generously pored over the mufins, but be careful to press them a bit into the dough, since they tend to slide when in the oven because the sugar coating is melting...

baking process: takes 15-20 minutes in a pre-heated (180C) oven :)

... and since this spring is all about pastel colours, don't forget to add them often to your days :)