Caribbean Rum Muffins with Lime Kulfi

This started with a simple idea one Saturday morning to cook some muffins and evolved into an international dessert with influences as far apart as India and the Caribbean, the Mrs was away for the weekend and i get bored quite easily if i'm not kept entertained...

We were in the middle of a particularly vicious 'cold snap', minus 5 outside, and i was looking for something spicy to warm me up, the sash windows may look lovely but they let in a bit of a draft... Noticing the remnants of a bottle of Havana Club rum on the shelf i could feel my belly warming already and grabbed the bottle. About to take a big swig i remembered that despite the snow on the ground my lacrosse game was still on and i was due to be running around a field in a few hours time. So, realising that getting half drunk was probably not an option anymore, at least until the official call came that the game had in fact succumbed to the weather, i decided to bake some muffins and add some rum into the mix, along with a good sprinkling of nutmeg and cinnamon.

These were great as a warming snack with a big mug of coffee but once the game was finally called off the mind started wandering to how they could be improved, what goes great with rum....? Well Coca Cola obviously but i couldn't think of how to add coke to the muffins... What else? Lime, perfect!

So first of all i made a thick lime cream from whipping cream, a little condensed milk and lime juice, which went well but didn't add enough wow factor and i still had almost a whole can of condensed milk left over... It was then that i remembered seeing a recipe some time ago for Kulfi and that basically it was made with whipped cream and condensed milk, so decided to have a go at that. kulfi is Indian ice cream, denser and creamier than normal ice cream, stopping it melting so quickly (handy in India), and creating an even more luxurious taste.

We first tried Kulfi in Mumbai, purchasing 2 generous slabs, served on large banana leaves, from a kulfiwallah on Chowpatty Beach and sitting back to enjoy the intense and creamy flavours while people watching during a monsoon downpour. We were told by many happy men that the rain was 'very very good', i don't think Rachel or i could really get on board with how 'very very good' the rain was but we sure thought the Kulfi was head wobblingly splendid!

 

Ingredients -

Approx 10 Muffins:

125g unsalted Butter, softened

110g Sugar, i used golden caster

2 large Eggs

300g Plain Flour

2 tsp Baking Powder

1/2 tsp Salt

1/4 tsp ground Cinnamon

1/4 tsp freshly grated Nutmeg

125ml Milk

5 tbsp Caribbean Rum

3 tbsp Dark Muscovado Sugar (or whatever you have in)

Lime Kulfi:

300ml tub of fresh Whipping Cream

350g Sweetened Condensed Milk

6 tbsp freshly squeezed Lime Juice

Start by making the kulfi -

• Whip the cream until firm
• Stir together the lime juice and condensed milk in a separate bowl
• Fold the lime mixture through the cream
• Whack it in the freezer in a large tub or small individual containers and cover with cling film.

Next the Muffins -

• Preheat oven to 175c/190c (fan/non fan)
• Beat almost all of the butter until creamy in a large bowl, keep a little aside for greasing later
• Add the caster sugar and continue beating
• Break the eggs in one at a time while still beating
• In a separate bowl mix the flour, baking powder, salt, cinnamon and nutmeg together
• Combine 3 tbsp of the rum with the milk
• Add a quarter of the flour mixture to the butter mix along with a quarter of the milk mix, beat until smooth. Repeat the process until it's all mixed in.
• Rub the last little bit of butter evenly into the inside of a muffin tin and spoon the mixture into approx 10 of the pans, you should fill them approx 3/4 full.
• Bake until golden, 20-25 mins
• Remove from oven, take out of the muffin tin and allow to cool on a wire rack.
• Add the muscovado sugar and remaining 2 tbsp of rum to a small pan, warm on a low heat and stir until fully dissolved.
• Brush this over the warm muffins to give a lovely even glaze (unlike mine, i didn't have a brush so tried to pour it over, i was tempted to use Rachel's tooth brush but it may have added a weird minty taste and i like my girlfriends to have teeth)