Nectarine & Blackberry Muffins

I love muffins and I don't make them as often as I should even though they are quick to make. After I found a punnet of nectarines for 25p in Tesco last week and a punnet of blackberries for 50p I knew I had to bake something good with them. Shopping in the evenings definitely pays off, it's quieter and there's more chance of picking up a good bargain. Whilst getting the rest of my shopping I decided to add buttermilk and bake some muffins when I got home. When I've made muffins in the past I've used natural yoghurt instead so I had to do some searching through recipes in order to work out the correct proportions of ingredients and this recipe is adapted from one I found on BBC Good Food which is a healthy muffin recipe. I've just realised that whilst writing this up that I should have used 2 tsp of baking powder instead of the 1 tsp that I used. The muffins still rose and were wonderfully light but didn't rise quite as much as they could have done. I made these to have for breakfast during the week as I wanted a change from bread. I'm a piggy and love a big breakfast so I've been having 2 of these at a time. I think I can get away with it as they do contain a lot of fruit and no butter so therefore they must be good for me!

Ingredients - makes 12 muffins

300g self raising flour
45g porridge oats
135g soft light brown sugar
1 tsp baking powder
pinch of salt
1 egg, beaten
284ml pot of buttermilk
1 tsp vanilla extract
5 tbsp sunflower oil
2 firm nectarines, cut into 1cm dice
150g blackberries

Preheat the oven to 190C and line a 12 hole tin with 12 muffin cases. In a large bowl mix together the flour, oats, sugar, baking powder and salt, breaking up any lumps in the sugar. In a second bowl mix together the egg, buttermilk, vanilla and sunflower oil. Add the liquid mix to the dry mix and stir with a wooden spoon until only just combined, a few streaks of flour are fine. Briefly stir through the fruit taking care not to overmix and then fill the muffin cases 3/4 full and bake for 35 minutes until risen and golden.

These muffins freeze well and if you want them for breakfast just remember to take them out of the freezer the night before.

I'm entering these muffins into Helen from Fuss Free Flavours Breakfast Club challenge as this month the theme is fruit. This month the challenge is hosted by Urvahsi from the Botanical Baker. I'm also entering these into Javelin Warrior's Made With Love Mondays and Ren from Fabulicious Food's Simple and in Season, this month hosted by Katie from Feeding Boys and a Firefighter. Finally as I got a bargain on the fruit I'm also sending these to Frugal Food Fridays also run by Helen from Fuss Free Flavours.