Tuesday 31 July 2012

Honey and yogurt muffins

A little bit chewy, very moisture and without a bit of sugar. Not everybody will like them. They are perfect for people who prefer mild sweetness. I think they are good for breakfast with glass of milk. The recipe comes form this website.

Ingredients for 12 muffins:
  • 50g butter
  • 75g honey
  • 250ml yogurt
  • 1 egg
  • 1 lemon zest
  • 1 lemon juice
  • 150g flour
  • 175g whole wheat flour
  • 1 and 1/2 tsp soda
  • 1/4 tsp nutmeg
  • icing sugar for dusting
Preheat the oven to 190C.

Grease the muffin tin. I used muffin cases but I don't think it was good idea in case of this recipe. Muffins get stuck to the paper cases and it was hard to take them out.

Put the butter and honey into a sauce pan and heat up until butter melts. Stir well this mixture. Set aside.

Into a big bowl put the yogurt and egg and whisk them well. Add freshly grated lemon zest and squeezed lemon juice. Pour in cooled down melted butter. Mix all ingredients together.

Into a separate bowl sift the flours, soda and freshly grated nutmeg. Whisk all ingredients together. Then add them into  the bowl with wet ingredients. Mix all ingredients until just combined. 

Divide the batter evenly among the muffin tin holes about 3/4 full.

Bake 20-25 minutes until well risen and spongy. Test with toothpick if bake in the middle. Dust with icing sugar and enjoy :)





 

Sunday 22 July 2012

Snickerdoodle mini muffins

Those are one of my favourite muffins. Soft, nutmeg cake hidden inside crunchy cinnamon and sugar crust. They are perfect !
Not to mention that they are very easy to make :)
The recipe comes from this website.

Ingredients for 30 mini muffins:
  • 113g margarine or butter
  • 113g sugar
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract
  • 1 egg
  • 1/2 tsp baking powder
  • 1/2 tsp soda
  • 1/2 tsp cream of tartar
  • 1/2 tsp freshly grated nutmeg
  • 125g thick sour cream
  • 300g flour
Ingredients for cinnamon sugar coating:
  • 100g sugar
  • 1/2 tbsp cinnamon
To make cinnamon sugar coating sift the cinnamon and sugar into a small bowl and mix them together. Set aside.

Put the butter, sugar and vanilla into electric mixer bowl and beat together until smooth. Add the egg and beat until well incorporated

In a meantime sift the flour, baking powder, soda, cream of tartar and nutmeg into a bowl and whisk together. 

When the wet ingredients mixture is smooth and creamy start adding the dry ingredients alternately with sour cream. When batter is ready set aside.

Preheat the oven to 190C. Grease mini muffin tin. Do not use the paper cases as the cinnamon and sugar crunchy crust may stick into the paper.

Take the bowl with batter and small bowl with cinnamon sugar. With a small spoon form small balls of batter, place them one by one into sugar mixture. Cover evenly with sugar and drop each into each muffin tin hole.

Bake for 10-12 minutes. Enjoy warm and cooled. :)



Wednesday 11 July 2012

Apple muffins with raisins and ricotta cheese

Moist, chewy with crunchy crust, filled with chunks of apples and raisins that I think would be the best description of those muffins. The cake is very like pancake batter. If you like pancakes you will like them. This time I baked my muffins in extra large muffin cases. They look huge but we ate them all.

Ingredients for 6 big or 12 standard size muffins:
  • 4 small apples
  • 1 tbsp lemon juice
  • 250g flour
  • 2 and 1/2 tsp baking powder
  • pinch of salt
  • 100g raisins
  • 250g ricotta cheese
  • 150 ml milk
  • 100g sugar
  • 125g melted butter
  • 2 eggs
  • icing sugar for dusting
Peel off the apples, remove seeds. Dice the apples, place them in a small bowl add the lemon juice and set aside.

Melt the butter and set aside to cool down.

Preheat the oven to 180C. Line muffin tin with paper cases.

In a big bowl whisk the flour, baking powder, salt add the raisins.

Into electric  mixer bowl put the ricotta, milk, sugar, cooled butter and eggs. Beat until the mixture is smooth and creamy. Beating continuously add spoon by spoon dry ingredients. When all ingredients are incorporated gently fold in diced apples.

Spoon the batter into muffin cases, 3/4 full. Bake for 20 - 30 minutes, until toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean. When ready remove form oven and cool down on wire rack. You may dust with icing sugar but for me they were sweet enough.

Enjoy !

Tuesday 10 July 2012

Yeast cupcakes with rose petal jam

Preparing those cupcakes is very easy although is time consuming as the dough needs a time to rise. In my opinion those cupcakes are good enough to give them a try. They taste like yeast buns, soft but chewy filled with sweet jam.  The dough recipe comes from this web site, petal jam form store and icing takes two minutes to make. 

Ingredients for 12 cupcakes:
  • 4g dry yeast
  • 125g sugar
  • 125 ml milk
  • 300g flour + some to add while kneading
  • 55g butter
  • pinch of salt
  • 2 eggs
  • one petal jam jar
Melt down the butter and heat up the milk. Set aside.

Into electric mixer bowl sift the flour, add yeast and salt. Combine all ingredients.

Into a separate jug pour the warm butter add sugar and eggs whisk them for a while. Then add the milk. Pour this mixture into dry ingredients and with a yeast dough hook, knead the dough. If the dough is too runny add spoon or two of flour. The dough will not form a ball it is going to be sticky instead. Transfer the dough into a bowl sprinkled with small amount of flour. Put the bowl into warm place for 40 minutes and let it rise.
While the dough is rising grease muffin tin and preheat the oven to 190C.

Remove to dough form the bowl and put it on dusted with flour surface. Whit a rolling pin roll it to make a rectangular shape (about 15 by 25 cm.). When ready spread rose petal jam over the dough leaving 1 cm frame all around. 
Roll the dough along the longer side to create a jelly roll. Divide the roll into 12 slices, cut it and put  each slice flat into muffin tin hole. Brush each muffin top with milk.

Put them into the oven for 20-25 minutes until well risen and golden. When ready remove from oven. Leave them for a while in baking tin. In a meantime prepare icing.

Ingredients for icing:
  • 100g icing sugar
  • 3 tbsp water
Sift the icing sugar into a bowl add the water and mix it with a spoon until smooth and creamy.

Transfer the muffins to the plate and cover with icing. Enjoy !



Thursday 5 July 2012

Upside - down pineapple cupcakes

I have always liked upside - down cakes. There are very easy to make and look nice. This time I decided to bake upside - down cupcakes. That was a dessert for my family so we did not need all big cake, small cupcakes were more than enough. The recipe comes form this website.

Ingredients for 4 cupcakes:
  • 4 tbsp golden syrup
  • 4 pineapple slices
  • few glace cherries
  • 85g self - rising flour
  • 1/2 tsp baking powder
  • 100g sugar
  • 100g margarine
  • 2 eggs

Preheat the oven to 190C.

Grease 4 heatproof baking tins. Pour 1 tbsp golden syrup to each tin. Then place in the middle of each baking tin one pineapple slice and cherry in the middle. For one cupcake I chopped some glace cherries and sprinkled around pineapple (see the first picture)

Into an electric mixer bowl sift the flour, baking powder. Add the sugar, margarine and eggs. Beat all ingredients for 3 minutes until smooth and creamy. 

Spoon the batter into prepared earlier baking tins. Place in the oven for 30 minutes. Bake until the toothpick inserted in the centre comes out clean.
Remove form oven and left in the baking tins for a few minutes to cool down a little bit.

Place the plate over the top of each tin and turn upside down. Lift the tin away.  Enjoy !