Plum Jam Muffins

This is Just To Say

I have eaten 

the plums 

that were in

the icebox

and which

you were probably

saving 

for breakfast

Forgive me

they were delicious

so sweet

and so cold

William Carlos Williams

       I haven't eaten so much  plums all my life as I've eaten in Sarajevo for the last three years. Plums are everywhere here. There are plum trees in almost every garden and so it's not surprising to find them at very low prices in the grocery shops, street markets and supermarkets. They eat them both fresh and dried. Locals enjoy them as part of their daily diet all summer long.

      

      We also made some plum jam with dark chocolate and rum extract two weeks ago. It was Emir who had the idea and spent his whole afternoon in the garden boiling plums and stirring constantly to get in the end a dozen jars of fantastic jam. It's worth all his effort. Even Milou likes it particularly with fresh whole wheat bread. Well, here is a photograph of the jam before we added the chocolate and rum extract. I'd prefer it without rum extract but it was the first time Emir had made some jam and that's why he stuck to the recipe with rum extract which he found on the Internet.  

 Ingredients

• 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 1 cup granulated sugar

2 large eggs

1 cup vegetable oil

1 cup milk

Filling

Chocolate Plum jam

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 185 °C and lightly grease or line a muffin pan with paper liners. In a bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda, and salt.
2. In a large bowl, beat eggs and sugar with a mixer until light and fluffy. Add oil, milk beating well. Stir in vanilla. With mixer on low, alternately add flour mixture.

3. Divide batter among muffin cups. Fill the cups halfway with batter and use a spoon to make a shallow well in the center of each. Fill each well with a rounded teaspoon of jam and then cover the jam with more batter. Bake for 20 minutes until a toothpick inserted in the centre of a muffin comes out clean, there may be jam on it. Let cool in pan 10 minutes; transfer muffins to a rack to cool more.