Muffin Monday on a Tuesday

Muffin Monday is here, yay yay yay...and it's not really monday today. So here's how my muffin came about... My cousin and I were just having our usual chitterchatter about food and how hungry we were. Then if I recall correctly, we started talking about cheesecake because I mentioned my tofu cheesecake experiment (I'm too crushed to talk about it). So being our usual hungry selves, Adrian and I started listing all these ideas for cakes, cheesecakes...peanut butter cheesecakees. you get the picture. OHWELL! It got to the topic of Jammie Dodgers, oooh yummy ole jammie dodgers. Too bad there isn't any here, but my jammie dodger muffin sprouted! and TADAH! today after uni, I went to Safeway to find the closest thing I could to a Jammie dodger, and ended up with Arnott's Raspberry Shortcake, which wasn't that fantastic if I may say, but good enough. All the vital flvaours were present- the sticky jam and buttery crunchy cookie. I took the basic recipe from here and fiddled with it, substituting milk for buttermilk (because I love the moistness buttermilk gives to baked goods) and reduced the sugar because the shortcake was sweet already, added in huge swirls of strawberry jam and crushed up cookies. there you go, my Jam Shortcake Muffin =)

Ingredients:
2 cups flour
3/4 cup caster sugar
1 tsp baking soda
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp kirsch extract (or a little more, I couldn't taste much in mine)
1/2 tsp vanilla
250g Raspberry shortcake cookies, crushed
2 eggs
1/2 cup buttermilk
1/2 cup veg oil
1 cup sweetened flaked coconut, for topping
3/4 cup jam of choice (eg: raspberry, blueberry, strawberry etc), warmed

Preheat oven to 190 degrees celcius
Sift the flour, baking soda and baking powder together, and mix the sugar in
In another bowl, whisk the kirsch extract, vanilla, buttermilk, vegetable oil and eggs together until it is a homogenous mixture
Make a well in the middle of the flour mixture and pour in the liquids, stire to combine. Mixture will be thick
Add in 3/4 of the crushed cookies, reserving the rest to sprinkle over the top
Fill each muffin hole 1/2 full and add in 1/2 a tablespoon of jam.
Cover the jam with until muffin hole is 3/4 full
Sprinkle the crushed cookies over the top before baking, just like streusel
Bake for 12-15 minutes, checking regularly.
When muffins are done, place a heaping handful of the sweetened coconut flakes on top and serve. =)

YAYYY! I liked them alot, the cookies were like streusel and the jam enhanced the berry-ness of the whole cupcake. and finally, because it's so simple to make. =)