Lemon and white chocolate muffins with Lemon Spice Drops®

Spice Drops® is a unique range of concentrated extracts of herbs and spices and two new citrus varieties have just been added to the collection - Orange Spice Drops® and Lemon Spice Drops®.

Both are made from fresh fruits grown and pressed in local farms in Kerala, India and they are so convenient - using an extract instead of grating the rind of the actual fruit saves time and mess. Four drops of the Orange Spice Drops® is the equivalent of the zest of half an orange while only two drops of Lemon Spice Drops® equates to the zest of one whole lemon. Both can be used to enhance and intensify the orange or lemon taste of cakes, biscuits, desserts or chocolate and even soups, drinks and sauces.

The nice people at Spice Drops sent me some citrus drops to try and I have to say I was really impressed with the amount of flavour in such a small drop. I made some lemon muffins and just used the lemon drops instead of lemon zest and lemon juice and it was so much quicker, easier and less messy than it would normally be. I'm looking forward to experimenting with them in all sorts of recipes.

Here's the recipe for the lemon muffins I made using the Lemon Spice Drops®. I have also used concentrated lemon juice for the topping because you need a pouring lemon/sugar sauce to soak into the cakes. The good thing about using Lemon Spice Drops® and concentrated lemon juice is that you can keep these ingredients in the cupboard and they're ready to use whenever you need them without having to go out and buy fresh lemons (or have the mess of grating and squeezing).

Ingredients

250g butter, softened

400g caster sugar

3 eggs, lightly beaten

4 tbsp white chocolate chips

250g self-raising flour

2 tsp milk

Lemon Spice Drops®

3 tbsp concentrated lemon juice

Method

- Heat oven to 160C/140C fan/gas 3

- Line a muffin tin with 12 muffin cases or if using cupcake cases then 14 cases should be enough

- In a large mixing bowl, mix the butter and 250g of the sugar until light and fluffy

- Add the eggs, flour and up to 10 drops of Lemon Spice Drops® (depending how lemony you like you cakes!) mix until just combined

- Fold in the milk and white chocolate chips – don’t over-mix

- Fill the cases two thirds full, then bake on the middle shelf of the oven for 30-35 mins, until a skewer poked in comes out clean.

- Cool for 10 mins, then transfer cakes on to a tray, place on a cooling rack and poke each a few times with a skewer

- Pour the concentrated lemon juice over the remaining 150g sugar, quickly mix together then immediately spoon over the cakes. Leave to cool

More about Spice Drops®

The full Spice Drops® range is completely natural and retains the goodness and flavour of the herbs, fruits and flowers from which they are made. They contain no salt, sugar or artificial colouring, flavouring or preservatives, as well as being gluten free and suitable for vegans. They are also ethically sourced and ethically produced; the products are handmade in the factory in Kerala which is a women’s enterprise employing mainly disadvantaged women. In a traditionally male dominated society, employment in the factory gives these women much needed self-confidence and independence, making a genuine difference to their lives.

Spice Drops® have been praised by Nigella Lawson, Tom Kerridge, Anthony Worrall Thompson, Atul Kochhar and Cyrus Todiwala for their ease of use and the authentic flavour they add to any dish. If it's good enough for Nigella, it's good enough for me!

The full Spice Drops® range, including new Orange Spice Drops® is available now online from Ocado, Amazon or from www.holylamaspicedrops.com and instore at selected Whole Foods Markets.