LAWRENCE MURPHY: A recipe that's far from scary to follow

On Monday I headed to Tuppenny Barn to meet with Mrs Murphy from Chidham Primary School. We had arranged to show 10 pupils around the smallholding and give them a field-to-fork experience.

Abi from Tuppenny gave the children a great tour explaining how the wildlife helped to keep the bugs from the plants and that no pesticides were necessary to produce some smashing fruit and vegetables.

As halloween is fast approaching we decided to show the pupils how to make pumpkin muffins.

After weighing out the ingredients and beating them together they produced some lovely cakes which we then decorated with scary faces.

Here is the recipe which you can try at home and you don’t have to decorate with anything scary at all.

Ingredients

280g plain flour

1tsp ground cinnamon

1/2tsp ground nutmeg

1/2tsp ground ginger

Pinch ground cloves

Pinch salt

1tsp baking powder

1/2tsp bicarbonate of soda

110g butter

200g caster sugar

60g soft brown sugar

2 eggs

180ml milk

250g pumpkin, cooked and puréed

Method

1. Beat the sugars and butter together until soft.

2. Add the eggs and beat together with a little bit of the flour.

3. Add the remaining flour and spices and stir in with the baking powder and bicarbonate of soda.

4. Stir in the milk and puréed pumpkin.

5. Spoon into muffin cases and bake in a preheated oven (190C/gas 5) for 25 minutes.

6. Allow to cool before eating.

Lawrence’s restaurant is Fat Olives, Emsworth. Visit fatolives.co.uk or call 01243 377 914.