Wednesday 29 January 2014

Gluten free, peanut butter & banana muffins with nutella filling

Today's recipe is especially for peanut butter lovers. This peanut butter muffins do not contain any flour and still taste like regular muffins with hint of nuts and banana. They were soft, spongy, moist but neither wet nor dense. The nutella filling was perfect. The recipe comes form this website.  

Ingredients for 12 muffins:
  • 270g peanut butter
  • 2 small bananas
  • 2 eggs
  • 1/2 tsp baking soda
  • 1 tsp vinegar
  • nuttella
  • chopped peanuts
Preheat the oven to 200C. Line muffin tin with paper cases. 

Blend peanut butter and bananas until smooth. Then add the eggs one at the time and blend after each addition. At last add the soda and vinegar and blend again. The batter is quite thick.

Fill muffin tin cups with few teaspoons of batter. Then drop a heaping teaspoon of nutella and top with more batter. Sprinkle with chopped nuts.

Bake in preheated oven for 10 - 15 minutes until well risen. To check if baked insert skewer into a cake if comes out clean  then muffins are ready. 

Saturday 25 January 2014

Coconut, white chocolate and cranberry muffins

Very tasty, soft white chocolate muffins with dessicated coconut and fresh and dried cranberries. The best when freshly baked a little bit dry later but still good with cup of freshly brewed tea or coffee. 

Ingredients for 12 - 18 muffins:
  • 125g white chocolate
  • 250ml milk
  • 250g flour
  • 2 tsp baking powder
  • pinch of salt
  • 150g dried cranberries (I had only 90g)
  • 50g dessicated coconut
  • 2 eggs
  • 100g sugar
  • 90ml canola oil
  • 65g frozen cranberries (I added the as I didn't have enough of dried cranberries)
 Preheat the oven to 200C. line muffin tin with paper cases. 

Break the chocolate and place it in a bowl then add the milk. Place the bowl over a pot with boiling water and stir until chocolate melts down. Remove form heat and set aside.

Into separate bowl put the flour, baking powder, salt, dried cranberries, coconut and mix them all. Set aside.

In third bowl place the eggs and sugar and whisk them until pale and fluffy. Then add the canola oil. Add half of the flour mixture and half of milk and stir them together with a spoon until smooth. Then add the remaining flour and milk and stir again. At last fold in the frozen cranberries. 

Spoon the  batter into prepared earlier muffin cases, 3/4 full. Bake in preheated oven for 25 - 30 minutes until well risen and golden on the top. 

Enjoy !



Tuesday 21 January 2014

Spinach and feta mini pie

Today I would like to present spinach, feta and ricotta mini pies. First time i have been eating this snack years ago in Greece and really enjoyed that. I have recently decided to recreate that flavour and, have to admit, with good result. As usually on my blog they were very easy to make and bake :)



Ingredients for 12 mini pies:
  • 450g frozen spinach thawed
  • 2 eggs
  • 250g ricotta cheese
  • 270g feta
  • 1/2 tsp nutmeg
  • pepper
  • 6 sheets filo pastry
  • olive oil

Thaw the spinach and drain all excess liquid. Place the spinach in a bowl. Add the eggs, ricotta, nutmeg, pepper and mix them together. Then add crumbled feta cheese and fold the chunks in. Set aside.

Preheat the oven to 200C. Brush muffin tin cups with olive oil. Cut the filo pastry into squares 12 x 12 cm approximately. Line each muffin tin cup with few pieces of filo pastry. Make sure to push the pastry down so it is in the corners of each muffin hole. 
filo pastry
When all pastry is divide among all muffin cups. Spoon the filling into each one. Then fold over the excess of filo pastry so all filing would be covered. 
Brush the pastry with olive oil.

Insert the tin into preheated oven. Bake about 20 minutes until pastry turns gold and filling won't be wobbly. 

baked

Keep the pies in muffin tin for a few minutes until they slightly cool down. Then transfer to the plate. 
Enjoy warm or cooled down.

Saturday 18 January 2014

Oatmeal muffins with apple, banana, cranberries, cashews and pinch of cinnamon

This is perfect meal to go. If you like a warm, dense, rich in goodness porridge for a breakfast and you don't have a time to prepare one for yourself this is perfect solution. Those muffins are dense, chewy, moist .... just delicious. Oatmeal muffins are made with wholegrain flour and porridge oats packed with fruits, nuts .. everything your body need in the morning The recipe comes from Eat Good 4 Life.  
Ingredients for 12 - 14 muffins:
  • 2 ripe bananas
  • 1 egg
  • 60 ml canola oil
  • 75 ml milk
  • 165g sugar
  • 2 apples
  • 130g wholegrain flour
  • 170g oats
  • 3 tsp baking powder
  • 45g cashews (used those one instead of walnuts)
  • 45g dried cranberries
  • pinch of cinnamon
Preheat the oven to 200C. Line muffin tin with paper cases.

Peel  the apples remove cores. Cut the apples into a small chunks and set aside. Chop the nuts into smaller chunks and set aside.

Place peeled  bananas in a bowl and mash them. Add the egg, canola oil, milk and mix them together.
In separate bowl put sugar, flour, oats, baking powder, cinnamon and mix them. Pour in the mixture of wet ingredients and stir until just combined. Then fold in the apples, nuts and cranberries. 

Spoon the batter into prepared earlier muffin tin paper cups about 3/4 full. Bake them in preheated oven 25 - 30 minutes until skewer inserted in the middle comes out clean.   



Monday 13 January 2014

Poppyseed marzipan muffins

Welcome everyone on 2014. Happy New Year to all !!
This year I would like to welcome you with poppy seed and marzipan muffins. They are really tasty, sweet, moist but not dense with beautiful almond aroma. I would recommend them to everybody.

Ingredients for 9 big or 12 standard size muffins:
  • 140g flour
  • 3 tbsp poppy seeds
  • 1 tsp baking powder
  • 100g sugar
  • 100g marzipan
  • 2 eggs
  • 100g natural yogurt
  • 150g margarine
  • almond flakes to sprinkle
Preheat the oven to 200C. Line muffin tin with paper cases.

Grate the marzipan into thick shaves, set aside.

Melt the margarine and set aside to cool down.
In a big bowl mix the flour, poppy seeds, baking powder, sugar and marzipan shaves. Set aside.

In a separate bowl whisk the eggs with yogurt.

Pour the yogurt mixture, cooled margarine into a bowl with dry ingredients. Stir everything until smooth.

Spoon the batter into paper cases up to 3/4 full. Sprinkle with almond flakes. Bake in preheated oven for about 25 - 30 minutes. Check with skewer if poked in the middle of the muffins comes out clean then muffins are ready. 
Remove form the oven and leave them in the muffin tin until cooled down. 

 
Enjoy !