Mary Fraser's Lemon Coconut White Chocolate Muffins

NOTES:

1. This is the second of Mary Fraser's recipes that the she gave us at Shetland Wool Week in 2017. If it's anything like her recipe for shortbread, the original recipe isn't quite specific enough for us to work with as written -- and it will be worth it to experiment with!

2. This recipe calls for "SR flour," which Liz believes is self-rising flour, which according to many websites is simply flour with a bit of leavening and salt. (There is no salt in the recipe.) Mary clearly wrote "1 tsp baking powder" separate from the self-rising flour.

3. If you don't have self-rising flour, you can make your own:

          For each cup of flour, mix together 1 cup high protein all purpose flour 
          (such as King Arthur flour) + 1-1/2 tsp baking powder + 1/4 tsp (up to 1/2 tsp) salt.

4. Substitute baker's sugar for caster sugar.

5. Liz suspects that "grated lemon rind" is the zest of a lemon, and that the white chocolate should be chopped coarsely, or maybe use white chocolate chips.

6. Another "best guess" is to use plain regular yogurt, not Greek yogurt or low fat yogurt.

7. Since other lemon coconut muffin instructions say to use paper liners for the muffin tin, and to fill the tins only 2/3 full, Liz included those details in the preparation info below.


INGREDIENTS:

8 oz self-rising flour (see Note above)
1 tsp baking powder (it's unclear if this is actually needed, since self-rising flour already has baking powder)
3 oz desiccated coconut
1 block white chocolate, chopped
3 oz caster sugar (or baker's sugar)
6 oz plain yogurt (not low-fat)
2 oz cooking oil
1 egg
1 lemon grated rind


PREPARATION (best guess):

Oven to 350; rack on middle shelf.

1. In separate bowls, prepare the following dry ingredients:

• In a medium bowl, mix together the flour, baking powder, and coconut. Set aside.
• In another bowl, measure out the coconut. Set both aside.
• If using a bar of white chocolate, coarsely chop one block and set aside.

2. In a large bowl, whisk egg, sugar, lemon zest vigorously together.

3. Stir in the yogurt and oil, then add the

4. Fold in the flour mixture until mixture is just barely moist and then gently add the white chocolate. [this is our best guess, at least initially]. Small spots of flour may remain and batter will likely be thick. Avoid overtaxing.

5. Use spoon to drop into lined muffin tins, filling them about 2/3 full.

6. Bake for 20 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Remove from oven and invert muffins onto wire rack and set upright to cool for a few minutes.


ORIGINAL RECIPE, as written:

Whisk egg and sugar; add yogurt and oil. Add dry ingredients and rind then chocolate. Stir into muffin cases. Medium oven 20 minutes.