Nigella Lawson's Jam Doughnut Style Muffins

I decided today that I wanted to do some baking with my children and I would let my 7 year old son take the reins (with me anxiously/irritatingly hovering behind him).  After searching for a new recipe, I found Nigella Lawson's Jam Doughnut Muffin recipe in my How to be a Domestic Goddess cookbook.  They turned out really well and are definitely best eaten warm.  We all agreed we would use a sharper jam next time like blackberry or blackcurrant.

 

125ml milk
85ml corn or other vegetable oil, plus more for greasing
1 large egg
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
200g self raising flour
100g caster sugar
12 tsps strawberry jam
100g unsalted butter
150g granulated sugar
Preheat the oven to 190C/Gas mark 5.

Put 9 paper cake cases in a muffin tin.
With a fork, beat together the milk, oil, egg and vanilla extract. Stir this into the flour and caster sugar to just combine: the lumps don’t matter and overbeating leads to tough muffins. It should look like this.
Spoon the mixture into each paper cake case so that it’s just under a third full.
Then with a teaspoon add a dollop of strawberry jam and top with more muffin mix so that the cases are just about full.

Put them in the preheated oven and cook for about 20 minutes or until the tops feel springy and resistant and the muffins have puffed up.
Meanwhile, melt the butter slowly in a thick-bottomed pan, and pour the sugar into a wide, shallow bowl. As soon as the muffins are ready, remove them from their moulds, brush them in the butter and roll in the granulated sugar.