Mixed Berry Muffins

These muffins are perfect for breakfast and also my favourite muffins to make so I thought I would share with you all. The recipe is based on a Women's Weekly one but I have tweaked it a bit. It is a very versatile recipe and I have added some substitutions for berries if you want to make different flavours. Note: there is nothing worse than having all the berries sink to the bottom of your mixture. The key is to add the berries last, work quickly when putting the mix into the patty pans and to keep some berries to sprinkle on top just before you put them into the oven. Then you will have berries throughout your muffins every time ;) Here is my recipe:

Ingredients

1 1/2 ups self raising flour
1/3 cup rolled oats
3 eggs
3/4 cup brown sugar, firmly packed
3/4 cup yoghurt
1/3 cup olive oil
180g frozen mixed berries (you could use fresh but then you can't have them all year round!)

To Bake

Preheat the oven to 200 deg C.
If you are not using silicone pans grease the pans.
Combine the sifted flour and rolled oats in a large mixing bowl. Make a well in the centre and add all the other ingredients except the berries.
Combine all ingredients with a wooden spoon (only do this until jus combined. Over mixing muffins makes them tough!)
Gently fold through the berries - keeping a handful aside.
Quickly put the mixture evenly into the patty pans (I used cup cake sized patty pans and made 12 muffins).
Sprinkle the top of each muffin with the remaining berries.
Bake for 15mins and then turn the pan around and bake for another 10mins. They are ready when they are golden on top and a skewer comes out clean.
Serve hot or cold with or without butter. Sprinkle with cinnamon if desired :)

Variations

Apple and cinnamon muffins: replace the berries with the same amount of stewed apples (or pie apples out of a tin if you like) and add 3 tsp of cinnamon to the mix. Spread the muffins with butter on top whilst still hot and sprinkle with more cinnamon (cinnamon sugar if you feel so inclined)
Banana and walnut muffins: replace the berries with 1 1/2 over ripe bananas mashed up. Replace the oats with the same quantity of roughly crushed walnuts.