Beez Neez Honey Muffins

These were adapted from recipe for plain muffins for my bestie who has a hate-hate relationship with cane sugar and, subsequently, a pretty much non-existent sweet tooth.

The muffins on their own have a subtle flavour which and tender, airy texture (thanks to the beer) that I find quite nice. They do have a bitter aftertaste thanks to the hops in the beer, but as the initial flavour/sweetness of the muffins is from honey it’s kind of like eating Beez Neez beer; which is quite a strange feeling but definitely a positive one.

The icing (more of a sauce really) has an intense chocolate flavour and a bit of a tang from the cream cheese and works really well with the muffins. It adds a bit more depth to the flavours and returns that refreshing “ahh” moment you get from your first sip of an ice cold beer on a hot summer day.

Muffins

• 2 ½ cups self-raising flour
• 1 cup honey
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 2 eggs
• 1 ¼ cup Beez Kneez beer
• 160g butter, softened

‘Icing’

• 1/2 cup cream cheese
• 1/4 cup butter, softened
• 4 tbsp Beez Kneez beer
• 2 tbsp honey
• 2 tbsp cocoa

Extra

• Honey for serving

Before you begin make sure your oven racks are in the middle and pre-heat your oven 180 degrees Celcius (160 degrees celcius for fan forced ovens). Also, line your muffin tray

Please note that as this was a test batch the pictures show only half a dozen muffins, but the recipe amounts are for a dozen of them.

So I mixed the dry ingredients (flour and baking powder) in one bowl, then the wet ingredients (honey, beer, eggs and butter) in another, then added the wet ingredients to the dry ones.

However, to save you some washing up you should combine the dry ingredients in a bowl then make a well in the middle of the dry mix. Add the wet ingredients and give them a quick stir together with a spoon to combine so that you don’t end up blowing flour everywhere when you turn on the electric mixer.

Beat the mixture with electric mixers for a couple of minutes. The mix will become lighter colour and grow a little in volume.

Spoon the mixture into your muffin tray and bake in the oven for 20 minutes until a nice golden brown.

Put all the icing ingredients into a bowl and mix them together with electric beaters until smooth. It’s going to be pretty runny - more like a thick sauce than a stiff icing.

Take your muffins and cut out a cone from the top of each one as in the picture. Fill the resulting hole with the chocolate sauce and place the muffin piece back in place, pressing down gently until some of the sauce oozes out.

Just before serving drizzle some honey over the muffin then enjoy!