Ragamuffin - Local Favourites

You know that Ice Cream advertisement tag line "No boring bits"? Precisely the same thing can be said for these little Ragamuffins. Having lived in Leichhardt for the past few years, I've been meaning to blog about these guys for some time. Selfishly, I've been keeping them all to myself but am now ready to share with the rest of the Sydney. 

Steamed and then baked, these muffins a quite different to the ones you're used to. Not overly cakey, the steaming gives the slightest skin which the baking then crisps up. The steaming helps to keep the muffins nice and moist without having to go overboard with butter or oil. The other feature that separates these from other muffins is that each one harbours a savoury or sweet filling. Soft centred muffins - a masterstroke that ensures that the muffin tops will never overshadow the much maligned muffin stumps. 

Onion Jam Centre (front) and Chocolate Ganache (back)

 

With over 30 flavours, there is an abundance of choice. In fact, the hardest task is choosing your flavours as they all look and sound so tempting. Baked throughout the day, I enjoy the 'lucky dip' factor and unpredictability of what is coming fresh out of the tins and ususally base my decision on this. In fact, I usually go for a half dozen to ensure good coverage. As with anything, come early to ensure the best variety. 

Then there are a few odd flavours which have a foot in both sweet and savoury such as the pumpkin cheesecake and mandarin marmalade. How about a USA sweet pumpkin style muffin now that they are coming into season?  

 

Smoked Salmon

The savoury muffins (which include smoked salmon with a cream cheese/dill centre, 4 cheese with rhubarb and onion jam, sun dried tomato and fetta) combined with a coffee, make for a satisfying 'light' breakfast. My next request for a new flavour would be a 'Croque Madame' (cheese, egg, ham/bacon) - oh yeah...... 

The sweet muffin range will satisfy all tastes from chocolate lovers (double chocolate ganache, lamington with blackberry jam) to fruit fanatics (lychee, lime and coconut, passionfruit and orange/poppy). There are also clever plays on classic desserts like Spotted Dick, Raspberry Jam Doughnut and Banana Sundae. Flavours do change and new ones are added. To check the flavours of the day, go to: https://www.facebook.com/steamedmuffins or https://twitter.com/_ragamuffin 

Raspberry Jam Doughnut

Because they are not buried under a mountain of butter cream or icing, they are not overly sweet and arguably 'kinder' to your waistline than the all style, no substance cupcake. The best bit of course, is getting to the good stuff in the middle. 

  

Originally set up facing the dining area, the La San Marco lever action coffee machine now operates from the kitchen for practicality's sake. Like the lever action machines of the 19th and 20th centuries, it's great to see this machine in action and have someone actually pull an espresso. Coffee is sourced locally from the excellent 'Little Marionette' roasters just a few blocks away in Annandale. Other beverage options include milkshakes which I have not yet sampled.

La San Marco Lever Coffee Machine

My only other wish is that they offer a muffin and coffee 'package' so we could save a little bit of 'dough' if we bought them together.  

 

Ragamuffin

157 Norton St, Leichhardt NSW 2040

(02) 9568 1806