Mini barnbrack

I have nearly forgotten I have this recipe to publish. I have baked those muffins during Halloween time. If you try to make them  I promise you will enjoy them even now. Barnbrack is traditional Irish Halloween cake usually baked with some hidden surprises so people who find coin, ring etc..could foreseen their future. Anyway it's very tasty. Packed with dried fruits and spices served with butter... yum. The recipe comes form this website . 

 Ingredients for 12 barnbracks:

• 225g dried fruits (raisins and cranberries)
• 2 cups strong tea
• 55 ml warm milk
• 2 tsp dried yeast
• 2 tsp sugar
• 350g flour
• 80g sugar
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp cloves
• 1/4 tsp nutmeg
• 1 egg
• 35g soft butter
• 1 tsp salt

 Fruits place in a bowl and cover with tea. Leave them to soak overnight or at least one hour.

Pour milk into a cup add yeast and sugar stir well and set aside for 10 minutes.

In a meantime put the flour, sugar, cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg into an electric mixer bowl and mix them until combined. Then make a well in the middle and pour in the yeast mixture add egg, butter and salt. Knead with hook attachment for about 10 minutes. After that time dough should be smooth. 

Drain the fruits, chop them into smaller chunks. Add to the dough and knead until fruits are well incorporated. 

Transfer the dough into a bowl, cover with cling film and set aside for minimum an hour to rise. 

Grease muffin tin holes or round baking tin.

Transfer the dough on the worktop and knead it for a few minutes. Then divide into 12 pieces and place each dough ball into muffin tin hole. You can easily place whole piece of dough into round cake tin. Set aside to prove for 30 to 60 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 200C. Bake for 20 - 30 minutes for muffins or 35 - 45 minutes for cake.

Serve sliced with butter and hot tea.

Enjoy !

Recipe in Polish

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 !

For recipe in Polish have a look here.

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.   

For recipe in Polish please have a look here.

Enjoy !

Cinnamon, courgette, carrot and cranberry muffins

I have recently came across this interesting recipe. And because I had all necessary ingredients home I gave it a try immediately. I was especially happy to use frozen cranberries as I had a pack of them in my freezer for ages. Muffins were very tasty. Soft, moist, not too sweet a little bit sour  with lovely crust. I think one of my favourite. What more important my children eat them despite the fact they were packed with vegetables.

Ingredients for 12 big or 24 smaller muffins:

• 320g flour
• 3/4 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp soda
• 3/4 tsp salt
• 3/4 tsp cinnamon
• pinch of nutmeg
• 220g sugar
• 230 ml canola oil
• 2 eggs
• 1 medium size carrot about 80 g
• 1 medium size courgette 180g
• 1 and 1/2 tsp vanilla
• 120g frozen cranberries

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

Finely grate the carrot and courgette.

Place the flour, baking powder, soda, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg ans sugar in a big bowl and mix all ingredients together. 

In separate bowl whisk the eggs, oil and vanilla. Pour this mixture in a  bowl with grated veggies add frozen cranberries and mix. Add everything into a dry ingredients. Mix everything until just combined.

Spoon the batter into paper cases, about 3/4 full. 

Bake 25 - 30 minutes. When ready remove form the oven. Let the muffin cool for a few minutes in baking tin then transfer to the wire rack to cool down completely.  

Repeat with remaining batter.

Enjoy ! 

For recipe in Polish look here.

Pumpkin muffins with cranberries and black treacle

This recipe comes from Carol Pastor cookbook '75 best - ever muffins'. We liked them very much. They were very tasty, spicy, sweet, moist.  The cake was fluffy and a little bit crumbly. Adding pumpkin pure to the batter  is a good idea to introduce veggies into a children diet

Ingredients for 12 muffins:

• 115g soft butter or margarine
• 150g Dark Muscovado sugar
• 60ml black treacle
• 225g pumpkin pure*
• 1 egg
• 225g flour
• 1 tsp soda
• 1 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• 1 tsp freshly grated nutmeg
• 15g dried cranberries

 * I have bought a pumpkin recently so I made my own pumpkin puree. There is a method. Cut the pumpkin into smaller pieces. Remove the seeds (set them aside) and cut off the skin. Place the pumpkin on baking tray one piece beside another and bake them in the oven for 45 minutes in 180C. Poke the pieces of pumpkin with fork to check if they are soft. Then place them into a blender and bled for pure. You can store them in a jars in a fridge for a few days or freeze. If you like the pumpkin seeds, wash them and place on the same baking tray, keep them in a warm oven (60C) until they become dry. Then remove the with shell and enjoy !

pumpkin puree

Coming back to muffins.

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

Into a big bowl put the butter and sugar. Beat them together until fluffy. Then add black treacle and beat until well incorporated. 

Next add the pumpkin pure and and whisked egg.

In separate bowl combine the flour, soda, cinnamon and nutmeg. Fold them into wet ingredients mixture. And last, but not  least, gently fold in the cranberries.

Spoon the batter into baking cases, 3/4 full. Sprinkle pumpkin seeds over the top of each muffin. Bake 12-15 minutes. When ready transfer to the wire rack to cool down. Enjoy !

 

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 !

Merry christmas muffins

Happy New Year to everyone ! I haven't got enough time for posting before Christmas that's way you can see this recipe now. Those muffins were baked according two muffin recipes. I liked both so much I couldn't make up my mind which one to bake. For muffin batter I used recipe from this website while the topping comes from this blog.They were very tasty, soft and moisture.

Ingredients for 12 muffins:

• 100g melted butter
• 275 ml buttermilk
• 200g sugar
• 300g flour
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 2 eggs
• 100g fresh cranberries
• 100g marzipan
• 50g little pieces of candied orange peel
• pinch of salt
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• 1 tsp vanilla bean paste

 Ingredients for topping:

• 3 tbsp flour
• 2 tbsp brawn sugar
• 1/4 tsp cinnamon
• 2 tbsp soft butter

Prepare topping first. Place all ingredients into small bowl and mix them with fingers until crumble. Set aside.

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

Melt the butter and set aside. Dice the marzipan into small cubes. 

Into big bowl sift the flour, baking powder, sugar, salt and cinnamon, whisk them together. In separate jug whisk the eggs, buttermilk and vanilla. Pour this mixture into dry ingredients, then add the marzipan, cranberries and orange peel. Stir everything together until all ingredients all combined. Spoon the batter into muffin cases, sprinkle with earlier prepared topping and bake for 20-25 minutes. When ready transfer to the wire rack to cool down.

Ingredients for icing:

• 1/3 mug of icing sugar
• 2 tbsp orange juice

Place those ingredients into a jug and whisk with a fork. 

Gently drizzle over each muffin top.

Enjoy !

Raisin, cranberry and chocolate muffins

I will start with the easiest in my opinion muffin recipe. Making those muffins it is great fun for children and adults. You can add different additions into batter. I have chosen dried cranberries, raisins and milk chocolate chips. I found this recipe in 'Avoca. Tea Time' cook book.

Ingredients for 12 muffins :

• 300g self rising flour
• 150g caster sugar
• 1 level tsp baking powder
• 150 ml milk
• 150g unsalted butter
• 2 medium - sized eggs, beaten
• 1 tbsp dried cranberries
• 1 tbsp raisins
• 1 tbsp milk chocolate chips

Preheat the oven to 180C and line 12 hole muffin tin with muffin cases.

In large bowl mix the flour, sugar, baking powder, dried cranberries, raisins and chocolate chips together. Heat the milk and butter together in a souse pan until the butter melts. Allow to cool, then add to the dry mixture. Add the eggs. Combine all ingredients together. 

Do not over - stir the mixture.

Spoon into muffin cases and bake for 20 min.