Apricot, walnut and white chocolate muffins

These muffins are great, filled with fresh apricots, walnuts and white chocolate, moisture and very sweet. I made them for my guests and they liked them very much. Recipe comes form this website.

Ingredients for 12 :

• 200g flour
• 60g cane sugar
• 75g sugar
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 160 ml milk
• 120 ml melted butter
• 2 eggs
• 2 tsp vanilla sugar
• 150g diced fresh apricots
• 170g chopped white chocolate
• 90g chopped walnuts

Wash and dice the apricots, chop the chocolate and walnuts, set aside.

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

Sift the flour, sugars, vanilla sugar, baking powder  into big bowl and combine together. Melt and cooled down the butter. Pour the milk, butter add the eggs into dry ingredients mixture. Whisk everything together. Gently fold in the apricots, walnuts and chocolate. Spoon  the batter into paper cases, bake for 30 min. Cool down on wire rack and enjoy :)

Cinnamon muffins with orange

Recipe comes from this web site.

Ingredients for 8 muffins:

• 180g flour
• 50g butter
• 150g sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1tsp baking powder
• 40g cream
• 1 tsp cinnamon

Peel off the orange, set aside 8 pieces of orange, dice rest of them, put into bowl and sprinkle with cinnamon.

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

Melt the butter, leave it to cool down. Put rest of the ingredients to the butter and whisk for a while. Gently fold in diced orange. Spoon the batter into muffin cases, put one piece of orange into each muffin. Bake for 30-35 min. Cool them down on wire rack, Enjoy !!

Raisin and rum muffins

When I found recipe for rum and raisin muffins I just had to try it. Muffins were a little bit thick but filled with rum raisins were moisture enough to break dryness of the dough. And, what is a good news for all rum lovers, the rum aroma was perfect. As far as I am concerned, they came out tasty but not indulging. They reminded me rather raisin buns than muffins. In my opinion they were not sweet enough, so next time I will add more sugar than recommended  2 tbsp. All in all, I think I will bake them again in future :)     

Ingredients for 10 muffins:

• 280g flour
• 2 tbsp cane sugar
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 100g raisins
• 120 ml rum
• 1 egg
• 180 ml milk
• 80g melted butter

Chocolate cover:

• 3/4 bar dark chocolate
• 3 tbsp milk

Put the raisins into bowl pour the rum and leave overnight.

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

Sift the flour, baking powder, sugar and combine. Melt down the butter, when it is cooled down add milk and egg and whisk with fork. Pour the wet mixture into dry ingredients add soaked raisins and rum leftovers. With a fork combine all ingredients together. Spoon the batter into paper cases. Bake for 20-25 min.

In a meantime melt down the chocolate stirring continuously add the milk. Pour the chocolate mixture over warm muffins. Enjoy !

Whortleberry mufffins

Definitely my favourite type of fruit muffins. I have already baked something similar, just look at plum muffins. I like them very much, they are spongy, not too moisture and the  fruits ... very tasty :). Not to mention that fruits in this type of batter do not sink at the bottom. This recipe comes from this web site.

Ingredients for 12 muffins:

• 150g fresh whortleberries
• 1 and 1/2 mug of flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp bicarbonate of soda
• 30g almond flakes
• pinch of salt
• 2 eggs
• 150g icing sugar + some for dusting
• 2 tsp vanilla sugar
• 150g soft butter
• 12 tbsp milk

Preheat the oven to 200C. Line muffin tin with paper cases. This time I used free standing muffin cases.

Wash the berries and set aside. Put all ingredients into big bowl and whisk them with wooden spoon as long as they change into thick, yellow batter. You can use electric mixer for that purpose. When then batter is ready gently fold in whortleberries. Spoon the batter into muffin cases. Bake for 25-30 min. Cool them down on wire rack, dust with icing sugar and enjoy :)

Banana muffins with sunflower seeds

These are easy to make, tasty breakfast muffins. Recipe comes from this web site.

Ingredients for 12 muffins:

• 120g wholegrain flour
• 120g plain flour
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 100g brown sugar
• handful sunflower seeds + some to sprinkle
• handful raisins
• 100 ml sunflower oil
• 3 ripe bananas
• 2 eggs
• 2 tbsp milk

Preheat the oven to 200C. Line muffin tin with paper cases. This time I used free standing paper muffin cases.

Sift the flours, sugar, baking powder, sunflower seeds and raisins into big bowl and mix them together. Mash the bananas. Whisk the eggs in separate bowl, add the oil  and milk. Pour wet ingredients and bananas into dry ingredients. Combine all ingredients together. Spoon the batter into muffin cases, sprinkle each muffin with sunflower seeds. Bake for 25 min. Cool down on wire rack. Enjoy :)

 

Dulce de leche cup cakes with frosting

Another recipe for dulce de leche cupcakes but this time with frosting. This recipe comes from 'Cake days. Recipes to make every day special. The hummingbird bakery.' These cup cakes are spongy, fluffy and tasty with or without frosting. I baked them as their frosting is almost exactly the same as the one for cherry cupcakes. As I had difficulties with this particular frosting last time I wanted to try it again. Have to say this time frosting came out prefect :).

Ingredients for 18 small cup cakes (these are not mini muffins, these are smaller as my muffin cases were slightly smaller then average):

• 40g butter
• 140g caster sugar
• 120g flour
• 1/2 tbsp baking powder
• 1/8 tsp salt
• 120 ml milk
• 1/4 tsp vanilla bean paste
• 1 egg
• 70g dulce de leche

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

Put the butter, sugar, flour, baking powder and salt into electric mixer bowl and beat on low speed as long as they achieve breadcrumbs consistency. In a meantime in separate bowl whisk egg and combine it with milk and vanilla bean paste. Pour half of  this mixture into 'breadcrumbs'. Continue beating on low speed as all ingredients are well combined. Add the rest of the milk and dulce de leche, increase the speed. The batter is runny. Pour the batter into prepared muffin cases. Bake for 20 min. Check with toothpick if baked inside. Leave the cup cakes to cool down.

   

Frosting ingredients:

• 125g icing sugar
• 40g soft butter
• 2 tbsp milk
• 25g dulce de leche + some for decoration

Put the butter and icing sugar into electric mixer bowl and beat on low speed until their consistency turn into breadcrumbs. Add milk, the mixture should became more like thick cream. Increase the speed and beat it for a while until it became fluffy. Gently add the dulce de leche and beat a little bit longer. 

Whit a knife spread the frosting over each cup cake top and decorate with small pieces of dulce de leche. Enjoy !!

Chocolate chip coffee muffins with oats

Recipe for these muffins comes from the taste traveller web site . I wanted to bake them as the combination of ingredients was very interesting. It is a really healthy and low in sugar snack. Thanks to being filled with fibre and some dark chocolate it is good energy kick for those who are tired in the middle of the day. The fibre in these muffins comes from oats and wheat germ. The last one is not only source of fibre but is rich in vitamins such as E and B complex and minerals as well. The health benefits of wheat germ include high protein levels, plus doses of vitamins, fibre, and iron. More information  about wheat germ is available on this web site  Wheat germ might be added to yogurts, milk, breakfast cereals. Another recipe for muffins with this particular ingredient is healthy muffins with pineapple and carrot .

Ingredients for 12 muffins:

• 225g plain flour
• 100g porridge oats
• 3 tbsp espresso powder
• 60g wheat germ
• 70g brown sugar
• 1 tbsp baking powder
• 1 tsp soda
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp nutmeg
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 300 ml milk
• 1 egg
• 60 ml canola oil
• 1 tsp vanilla paste
• 100g chocolate chips
• 12 bigger chocolate chips (I used Rachel Allen dark chocolate chips) or cubes of chocolate

Preheat oven to 200C. Line muffin tin with big muffin cases.
In a big bowl sift the flour, oats, espresso powder, wheat germ, brown sugar, baking powder, soda, cinnamon, nutmeg, salt and whisk them together.
In separate bowl with fork whisk the egg, pour milk and oil and whisk them together.
Pour the wet mixture into dry ingredients, add chocolate chips and combine everything. Do not over stir them. spoon the thick batter into muffin cases, place piece of chocolate on top of each muffin. Bake for 20 min. Cool them down on wire rack. Enjoy.

Cherry cup cakes

I have been wondering which recipe to try first since I bought new cook book 'Cake days. Recipes to make every day special. The hummingbird bakery'. As I had a half jar of stewed cherries I decided to bake cherry cupcakes with frosting. Cupcakes were lovely but the frosting ... Well, something went wrong. Usually I make frosting and creams and they not are only tasty but look good as well. This time the frosting is tasty but it does not look nice. Maybe there was something wrong with the butter I used.  I think I will try this recipe again without frosting but, knowing myself, I will continue trying until I will achieve the perfect frosting.

Ingredients for 7 cupcakes:

• 40g unsalted butter
• 140g caster sugar
• 120g plain flour
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/8 tsp salt
• 1 egg
• 120 ml milk
• 70g alcohol soaked cherries

 Frosting:

• 125g powder sugar
• 40g unsalted butter
• 1 tbsp milk
• 40g alcohol soaked cherries

Day before baking drain the cherries, place them in a bowl and pour alcohol over them as they are covered. Leave them over night. Before baking drain the cherries and chop them into small pieces. 

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

Using electric mixer beat the butter, caster sugar, flour, baking powder, salt together on low speed until the ingredients are well incorporated and resemble fine breadcrumbs. In a meantime in separate bowl whisk the egg with fork, pour milk and combine them together. Pour half of this mixture to dry ingredients and mix in, on low speed scraping down the sides of the bowl. Add  the rest of the milk and beat again until the batter is smooth. With a spoon stir in the cherries. Divide  the batter evenly among paper cases. Bake for 25 min. Check with toothpick if bake in the middle. Cool down on wire rack.

To make frosting place the butter and sugar in electric mixer bowl and whisk them together on a low speed until sandy in consistency. Then gently add the milk. Once the milk is added increase the speed to high and whisk the frosting  until  light and fluffy. Gently, by hand fold in the cherries. 

Spread the frosting on top of each cooled down cup cake.  

Non-baking cup cakes

I made my daughter's favourite sweets yesterday. It is a mixture of rice krispies cereals and white chocolate, which I usually serve in muffin cases so I think it matches to my blog. This is great snack for teddy bear picnic. 

Ingredients for 7 cup cakes:

• 200g white chocolate
• 50g rise krispies
• sugar sprinkles for decoration

Break the chocolate into small pieces and put them in big bowl. Melt the chocolate in microwave. Stir in the rice krispies cereals as all well covered in chocolate. Spoon this mixture into paper cases. Sprinkle top of each cup cake with sugar sprinkles. Put them into a fridge for about an hour as they harden. 

Enjoy :)

Seed muffins

It was lazy Saturday morning. I was wondering what to prepare for breakfast when I found interesting recipe for seed muffins on this web site. As I had all ingredients at home I decided to bake them immediately. I would not be myself  if I did not change this recipe a little. I partly swapped plain flour with wholegrain one, and added more seeds on the top. Those muffins turn out to be a little dry, so I would recommend to slice them and spread with butter and eat with some vegetables. I believe that seed lovers would fully enjoy them.   

Ingredients for 7 muffins:

• 2 tbsp sesame seeds
• 2 tbsp sunflower seeds
• 25g pumpkin seeds
• 80g wholegrain flour
• 100g plain flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• pinch of salt
• 30g grated cheese (I used mix of mozzarella and cheddar cheese)
• 1 egg
• 125ml milk
• 60g melted butter
• 1 tbsp sesame and sunflower seeds to sprinkle on the top

All seeds place on frying pan and roast them as long as sesame seeds tour out brownish and set aside to cool down.

Preheat the oven to 210C. Grease muffin tin.

Sift the flours, baking powder, salt and cheese into big bowl and whisk them together.

Break the egg into separate bowl and whisk it with fork, pour milk into the egg and whisk together. Melt the butter. When the butter cools down pour it into dry ingredients mixture along with milk mixture. Combine all ingredients. Spoon the batter into muffin tin. Sprinkle with seeds. Bake for 20 min. Check with toothpick if batter is baked in the middle. Cool down on wire rack. Enjoy :)