The fall is here. I started to bake some bread and muffins again on the weekends. It's one of those rare days we could eat fresh muffins as breakfast.

One of the benefits of home made muffins is that the ingredients can be varied or even exotic. For instance, in this one I used longan, which is called "Dragon Eye" (龍眼) or Guiyuan (桂圓) in Chinese. The texture of the fresh ones tasted a bit like lychee. I still remember long time ago when I was traveling in Vietnam, I got a whole bunch at such a low price, I ate a lot of them to the extent that I skipped the dinner as I don't have a fridge in my hotel room. The dried ones are less gorgeous to be eaten, so I usually prefer to use them as ingredients in baking instead.

Kitchen Gadgets: Oven

Makes 12

Ingredients

• 1 cup (250ml) rye flour
• ½ cup (125ml) whole-wheat pastry flour
• ½ cup (125ml) wheat germ
• 4 tsp (20ml) baking powder
• ½ tsp (2.5ml) salt
• 1 cup (250ml) water
• ¼ cup (60ml) canola oil
• ¼ cup (60ml) agave nectar
• ⅔ cup (160ml) raisins
• ⅓ cup (80ml) dried longan
• ½ cup (125ml) brandy or white wine (optional)

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 200°C (392°F).
2. Soak the raisins and longan in the brandy or white wine. If not using alcohol, soak them in lukewarm water.
3. Mix the water, canola oil and agave nectar and beat with a whisk.
4. Mix the rye flour, whole-wheat flour, wheat germ, baking powder and salt together.
5. Dig a well in the dry mixture and pour in the wet mixture then lightly mix them with the whisk until just combined. Add the soaked fruits and fold in with a spatula. Never beat or mix vigorously otherwise they would turn out be a rubber brick!
6. Ladle the batter into muffin cups and fill ¾ full.
7. Bake 20 to 25 minutes. When an inserted toothpick comes out clean or with crumbles they’re done!