Rhubarb pie tartlets

Delicious small tartlets filled with tasty rhubarb homemade jam the best served with whipped cream or vanilla ice cream. Although they are easy to make it take time to prepare them as the dough has to be chilled. The recipe comes from this website.

Ingredients for 18 mini tarts:

• 300g flour
• 50g cornflour
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp sugar
• 150g cold butter
• 60 - 125ml iced cold water

Make the crust. Place the flours, salt and sugar into a food processor bowl and pulse to combine. Dice the butter into small chunks. Add the butter and processes until mixture reassembles coarse meal. While the machine running pour in the ice cold water in a slow steady stream until the dough just holds together. Turn the dough onto a work surface, divide into two. Wrap each piece into cling film, flatten a little bit and place into a fridge for at least 1 hour.

In a meantime prepare the rhubarb filling. 

Ingredients for rhubarb filling:

• 400 - 500g of rhubarb
• 100g sugar
• 50g brown sugar
• 25 - 30 g cornflour
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Dice the rhubarb, place it in sauce pan stir in the sugars, cornflour and salt. Place the sauce pan over medium low heat. Cook it stirring the mixture occasionally until rhubarb releases its juice, break down and creates chunky sauce. Set aside to cool down. 

   

Preheat the oven to 180C.

Remove the chilled dough from the fridge. Place it on floured surface and roll with rolling pin until 0,5 cm thick. Cut out the circle shape 9 cm diameter. Place each circle in tartlet baking tin fill with rhubarb jam brush with egg and sprinkle with sugar.

Bake for 20 - 25 minutes until crust turns gold and filing is bubbling. Remove from the oven cool it down and enjoy.

If you don't have the tartlet baking tin you can place dough circles on a baking sheet fill them with rhubarb jam and fold the dough border over rhubarb filling. Again brush with egg and sprinkle with sugar. 

Serve with whipped cream or vanilla ice cream.

Enjoy !

Blueberry cream mini tarts

Those tarts are made of digestive cookies, filled with custard cream and topped with fresh berries. Have you ever seen something that looks so delicious ?  Those mouth - watering, delicious and pretty mini tarts are worth the effort. They easy to make although it takes a while to prepare them. The recipe some from Anna Olson show.

Ingredients for 12 tart shells:

• 175g flour
• 140g digestive cookies (11 whole ones)
• 4 tbsp sugar
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 100g butter

Preheat the oven to 180. Slightly grease then muffin tin wholes.

Melt the butter and set aside to cool down. Put the cookies into a blender and turn them into fine crumbs.

Transfer the crumbs into a big bowl add the flour, sugar and salt and mix all ingredients well. Then pour in the butter. Stir well. The mixture should resemble wet sand.

Spoon about two tablespoons of the mixture into each muffin tin whole. Press with back of the spoon or with fingers to shape tart shells.

Put into preheated oven and bake for 10 minutes. Remove the tin from the oven and set aside to cool down completely.  When cooled gently remove from tin. 

baked tart shells

Prepare custard cream.

Ingredients for custard cream:

• 250ml milk
• 1 tsp vanilla bean paste
• 3 egg yolks
• 3 tbsp sugar
• 2 tbsp corn flour
• 2 tbsp unsalted butter

Prepare the big bowl in which the custard will be cooling down. Put butter on the bottom of the bowl. Set aside.

In a medium sized sauce pan heat up the milk. Add the vanilla bean paste. 

In a separate bowl whisk the egg yolks with sugar and corn flour. When the milk is almost boiling pour a small amount of it into an egg mixture stirring all the time. Gently pour in all the milk stirring the mixture continuously. When all the milk is combined with egg yolks pour the mixture back into a sauce pan. Cook it on medium heat stirring all the time until starts bubbles. Remove form heat. Pour immediately through the strainer to the prepared earlier bowl with butter on bottom. Stir the custard with the butter. Place the piece of plastic wrap directly over the surface and set aside to cool down to the room temperature.

When cooled transfer the custard into icing bag and squeeze into baked earlier tart shells. On top of each tart put some berries. I used blueberries but any berries will do. 

 Enjoy !

Cheese muffins

Those savoury muffins are like buns. They can be served with soups, stews or sliced and spread with butter. The recipe comes form ' Home baking cookbook'.

Ingredients for 12 muffins:

• 115g flour
• 1 tsp soda
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp salt
• 225g cornflour
• 120g grated Cheddar cheese + some to sprinkle on the top
• 55g melted butter
• 2 eggs
• 1 clove of garlic
• 300 ml milk

Preheat the oven to 200C.  Line muffin tin with paper cases or grease the muffin tin holes.

Into a big bowl put the flour, baking powder, soda, salt and cornflour. With a spoon stir all ingredients together. Set aside.

Grate the cheese if you haven't got already grated. Add the cheese into a bowl with dry ingredients.

Melt the butter and set aside to cool down. Crush the garlic.

Brake the eggs into a separate bowl. Whisk them with a fork. Add the milk, butter and garlic, stir them together. Pour this mixture into the dry ingredients mixture. Stir all ingredients together until just combined.

Spoon the batter into muffin tin. Sprinkle each muffin top with gated cheese. Bake for 20 minutes until well risen and golden on the top. Leave them in a baking tin for a few minutes then transfer to the wire rack to cool down. Enjoy !

Fairy cupcakes

What fairy cakes are everybody knows. Please have a look on those I baked. The recipe comes from this website.

Ingredients for 18-24 cupcakes:

• 140g soft butter
• 140g caster sugar
• 3 eggs
• 100g self-rising flour
• 25g cornflour

Preheat the oven to 190C. Line cupcake tin with paper cases.

Put all ingredients into electric mixer bowl and beat about 2 minutes until smooth. Divide the batter between paper cases no more than 1/2 full. Bake them for 12-15 minutes until risen. Insert the toothpick in the middle of cake to check if it comes out clean. When baked transfer to the wire rack to cool down.

Ingredients for icing:

• 400g icing sugar
• 4-7 tbsp water (or half water half lemon juice)
• food colourings
• sugar sprinkles

Sift the icing sugar to the bowl and add 4 tbsp water. With a spoon mix them together. If the mixture is too thick add more water but be careful as the mixture may became to runny. If you want to achieve different colour than white add small amount of chosen food colouring. Decorate the cupcakes with the icing and sprinkle with sugar sprinkles. 

Boston cream cupcakes

Boston cream cupcakes are very good. Those vanilla, super soft sponge cupcakes are filled with vanilla custard and coated with chocolate fluffy frosting. If you decide to make them for your guest they going to be a success. My children and we both couldn't not stop eating them. The recipe comes form 'Cake days. Recipes to make every day special. The hummingbird bakery.' cookbook.

Ingredients for 6 cupcakes:

• 40g soft unsalted butter
• 140g caster sugar
• 120g plain flour
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/8 tsp salt
• 120 ml milk
• 1 egg
• 1/2 tsp vanilla essence

Preheat the oven to 190C. Line muffin tin with paper cases.

In a electric mixer bowl whisk on a low speed the butter, sugar, flour, baking powder and salt together until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs. In a separate jug with a fork whisk the egg, milk and vanilla essence. Pour some of this mixture into the dry ingredients and mix to combine. Pour the remaining mixture into the batter. Increase the speed to medium and keep whisking until smooth and thick, scraping sides if the bowl occasionally. 

Spoon the batter into paper cases 2/3 full. Bake for 18-20 minutes. When baked transfer the cupcakes to the wire rack to cool the down completely. 

In a meantime prepare the custard.

 

Ingredients for custard:

• 125 ml milk
• 1/2 tsp vanilla essence
• 1 egg yolk
• 25g caster sugar
• 1/2 tbsp plain flour
• 1/2 tbsp cornflour

Pour the milk an vanilla essence into the sauce pan and bring  to the boil. Meanwhile whisk the remaining ingredients together by hand  in a small bowl until smooth.

When the milk is boiling remove from the heat. Add 4-5 tablespoons of hot milk into egg mixture and stir immediately. Then return this mixture into the saucepan and stir to incorporate. Return pan to the heat and bring to the boil whisking constantly. Boil for 1 minute. When thickened pour the custard into  a bowl and cover with clingfilm to prevent a skin forming. Then leave to cool completely.

In a meantime prepare the frosting.

Ingredients for frosting:

• 200g icing sugar
• 50g cocoa powder
• 80g soft, unsalted butter
• 40 ml milk
• chocolate to decorate

To make a frosting use the electric mixer to slowly beat together the icing sugar, cocoa powder and butter until sandy in texture. Gradually pour in the milk, then increase the speed to high until soft and fluffy.

Now it is a time to put all pieces together. Take a cupcake and with a sharp knife make a hole in a centre. The hole should be about 2 cm in diameter and 3 cm deep. Put the cut off cake aside as you will need it later to cover the cake. Fill the hole with cold custard and cover with trimmed cake, so the hole and custard will not be visible. Then spread over the chocolate frosting, sprinkle with some chocolate and enjoy :)

Corn muffins

Those corn muffins tasted like plain, butter cookies. They were really nice spread with butter and jam. This is Ina's Garten recipe, which comes form Foodnetwork website. 

Ingredients for 12 muffins:

• 225g plain flour
• 75g sugar
• 75g corn flour
• 1 tbsp baking powder
• 1tsp salt
• 180 ml milk
• 125g melted butter
• 1 egg

Preheat the oven to 180. Lightly grease muffin tin cups.

Melt the butter in microwave or in a saucepan and leave it to cool down.

In  a big bowl sift together the flour, sugar, corn flour, baking powder and salt.

In separate bowl whisk the egg, milk and butter. Pour this mixture into dry ingredients mixture. Stir all ingredients together until just combined.

Spoon the batter into muffin cups, filling each up to the top. Bake for 25 minutes until toothpick inserted into the middle comes out clean. 

Enjoy !

Chocolate chip and coffee muffins

Today I would like to present my own recipe for chocolate chip and coffee muffins. I am particularly happy about this one as muffins taste exactly as I like them. They are soft and fluffy with crunchy tops. Really nice :)

Ingredients for 6-8 muffins:

• 95g flour
• 40g corn flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp bicarbonate of soda
• pinch of salt
• 1 tbsp ground coffee
• 1 egg
• 70g icing sugar
• 70g butter or margarine
• 1 tsp espresso brewed in 50 ml hot water
• 25 ml milk
• 3 tbsp dark chocolate chip + some for melting

Preheat the oven to 200C. Line muffin tin with paper cases.

In a big bowl sift the flours, baking powder, soda, salt and coffee and whisk them together. In a measuring jug pour the espresso coffee with hot water. Pour the coffee into dry ingredients mixture. Add the milk and egg. Combine all ingredients together. Then gently fold in chocolate chips. 

Spoon the batter into paper cases about 3/4 full. Those muffins rise nicely. Bake them for 15-20 minutes until toothpick picked in the middle comes out clean. When baked leave them for a few minutes in the baking tin. Then transfer to the wire rack to cool down completely.

Melt some dark chocolate and pour over each muffin top. 

Lemon muffins with cranberries

Recipe for those muffins comes from Eating Well website . Unfortunately I could not make exactly the same ones, as white whole wheat flour wasn't available for me. I have replaced it with whole grain spelt flour. Those muffins are really delicious. They are lemony, very fluffy and soft covered with crunchy sugar and lemon zest mixture. They are also low in calories.

Ingredients for 12-16 muffins:

• 110g sugar
• 200 ml low fat yogurt
• 80 ml canola oil
• 1 egg
• 2 tsp lemon zest
• 2 tbsp lemon juice
• 1 tsp vanilla bean paste
• 205g whole grain spelt flour
• 86g cornflour
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 140g fresh or frozen cranberries

Ingredients for sweet topping:

• 2 tbsp sugar
• 1 tsp lemon zest

sugar and lemon zest mixture

Start with making lemon zest and sugar mixture. Finely great the lemon, only yellow part, take 1 tsp of it add sugar and combine together. Set aside.

Preheat the oven to 200C. Line muffin tin with paper cases.

In a big bowl sift the sugar, add yogurt, oil, egg, lemon zest and juice, vanilla. Whisk all ingredients together.

In separate bowl whisk the flours, baking powder, soda, sat. Pour the yogurt mixture into dry ingredients mixture. Combine them together. Do not over stir the batter. At last fold in the cranberries. 

Spoon the batter into muffin cases.  Sprinkle top of each muffin with prepared earlier sugar and lemon zest mixture. 

Bake for 20-25 minutes. check with toothpick if baked inside. After baked let them cool down in baking tin for a few minutes. Then transfer to the wire rack. The muffins are very tasty as much warm, but not hot, you might burn your mouth with hot fruits,  as cold. Enjoy !

Apple crumble cupcakes

This recipe comes from 'Cake days. Recipes to make every day special. The hummingbird bakery'. This cookbook authors say that this recipe is for more experienced baker but I think it is for very patient one. This recipe involves a few stages and each stage result needs time to cool down before added to previous one so patience is a must. The result did no disappointed me. Cupcakes were very nice, spongy moisture with apple surprise in the middle, coated with vanilla custard and sprinkled with oat crumble. Delicious !

To start with this recipe is to make apple filling. I have to be honest I used ready one, which I bought in jar. I love these apples and always buy them for apple pie so I could not replace them, even with home made apple filling. 

Ingredients fro 24 cupcakes:

• 80g unsalted butter
• 280g caster sugar
• 240g plain flour
• 1 tbsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• 2 eggs
• 240 ml milks
• 1/4 tsp vanilla bean paste

Preheat the oven to 190C. Line muffin tin with paper cases.

Put the flour, butter, sugar, baking powder, salt and cinnamon into electric mixer and on medium speed beat them together until they remind fine breadcrumbs. In the meantime in separate jug combine the eggs, milk and vanilla paste. Pour this mixture into 'breadcrumbs' and beat for a while, increase the speed and beat until the batter is smooth. The batter texture is liquid. Spoon three table spoons of batter into each paper case, then place in the middle two tea spoon of apple filling. This will sink into the cupcake batter. Do not fill more than 2/3 full.  Bake for 18-20 min. Remove them from oven and place on wire rack to cool down. The cupcakes are soft be careful not to squeeze them while removing from baking tin. 

Ingredients for custard topping:

• 500ml milk
• 1/2 tsp vanilla bean paste
• 5 egg yolks
• 200g caster sugar
• 30g plain flour
• 30g corn flour
• 200 ml double cream

To make custard topping pour the milk and vanilla into sauce pan and bring to boil. In a meantime combine the egg yolks, caster sugar, flours to make a paste. If the paste is too thick add 1 tbsp of the hot milk to thin it. When the milk has boiled mix 4-5 tbsp with the paste, then add the paste to the remaining milk and stir well. Return the mixture to the hob. Bring back to boils stirring continuously. Cook further to ensure the flour is cooked. Ready custard pour into wide dish, so it will cool down quickly. Set aside for 30-40 min.

In the meantime prepare crumble.

Ingredients for crumble topping:

• 55g plain flour
• 55g oats
• pinch of cinnamon
• 55g unsalted butter
• 40g soft brown sugar

Put all ingredients into heat proof dish and rub them using your fingertips, until they come together in an even, crumb-like consistency. Spread this mixture evenly on the bottom of the dish and bake them for 15 min in 200C. From  time to time open the oven and shake the crumble or break with fork so it will be easy to sprinkle over cupcake tops. Remove from oven, set aside to cool down.

Go back to custard. Remove cream from fridge, pout into electric mixer bowl and whip until it forms soft peaks. Check the cool down custurd, mix it with spoon to break up any lumps. When whiped cream is ready add it to custurd and stir in.

With a spoon put about two table spoons of custurd cream over each cupcake and sprinkle with crumble. Enjoy !

 

Blueberry muffins

Today I have reached for Nigella blueberry muffins recipe. They are lovely. Golden brown with purple spots. They are soft and moisture with crunchy top. We really enjoyed them. 

Ingredients for 12 muffins:

• 125g flour
• 100g corn flour
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp bicarbonate soda
• 150g caster sugar
• 125 ml canola oil
• 125 ml buttermilk
• 1 egg
• 125 g blueberries

Preheat the oven to 200C. Line muffin tin with paper cases.

In a large bowl mix together the flour, corn flour, baking powder, soda, sugar. In separate bowl pour the oil, buttermilk, egg. Whisk them well. Stir in this mixture into bowl with dry ingredients. Do not over stir the mixture. Fold in half of blueberries into the batter. Divide the batter evenly between muffin cases. Drop remaining  blueberries on the top of each muffin. Bake for 15-20 min. Cool them on wire rack. Serve warm.