Strawberry muffins with cheese cream topping

First of all I would like to thank those from whom I receive  beautiful paper cases. Thank you very much I do appreciate it.  I have recently received lovely muffin cases with strawberry pattern. It triggered me to bake muffins with these fruits. As I mentioned earlier I love strawberries, so this is not my first recipe with that particular fruit. I have already baked strawberry muffins with almond crumble and strawberry muffins with cream cheese. This time I decided to bake plain strawberry muffins according to the recipe from this web site and decorate them with cream cheese topping from this website. To be honest, muffins were just average, moisture, not too sweet but with the added cream they were delicious. All in all, they are worth trying.

Ingredients for 12 muffins:

• 210g strawberries
• 60g caster sugar + 1 tbsp for dusting
• 190g flour
• 75g whole-wheat flour
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• 250ml buttermilk
• 60ml canola oil
• 1 egg
• 1 tsp vanilla paste

Line muffin tin with muffin cases.

Wash strawberries, remove green leafs and slice strawberries. Stir in sugar and mash a little with potato masher, set aside.

Preheat the oven to 200C.

Sift the flours, baking powder, soda, salt and cinnamon into big bowl and mix together.

In a jug whisk the egg, buttermilk, oil and vanilla paste.
Pour wet ingredients and the strawberries into dry ingredients and combine, do not over stir. Spoon the batter into paper cases, sprinkle top of each with remaining sugar and bake for 17 min. Remove from oven and cool down on wire rack. They can be eaten immediately after baking but if you want to decorate them with cream cheese you have to cool them down completely.

Ingredients for topping:

• 150g Philadelphia soft cheese
• 125g soft butter
• 160g icing sugar

In electric mixer whisk the butter on medium speed until soft then add alternately soft cheese and sugar. Whisk on higher speed as long as you achieve light, fluffy, white butter cream. Place ready butter cream in the fridge for about an hour to chill. Then pipe the butter cream on top of each muffin. Enjoy !

Tuna and onion muffins

Recently I came across tuna muffin recipe and because I like tuna  decided to bake them immediately. They were tasty, although some might not like the fishy smell of these muffins. They were like soft buns, crunchy with onion, good warm and cooled down. Good with bear and ketchup. 

Ingredients for 12 muffins:

• 125g whole-wheat flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 130g tinned drained tuna
• 60 ml yogurt
• half of medium size onion chopped
• 1 tbsp powder garlic 
• 1 egg white
• 110 ml milk
• 50 ml canola oil

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

Sift all dry ingredients (the flour, baking powder, soda, salt garlic)  into big bowl. 

Drain the tuna, put it into bowl and with a fork flake the tuna. Chop the onion add to the tuna. Stir in the yogurt.

In a jug whisk the egg white, milk  and oil. 

Pour this mixture into dry ingredients, add tuna and combine together. Spoon the batter into paper cases, bake for 20-25 min. Cool down on wire rack. Enjoy !

English muffins

It would not be a blog about muffins if I did not bake and write about English muffins. In Britain they simply called muffins but to the rest of the world they are English muffins. Their name comes from times when an English baker who emigrated to America introduced them to the local people. They do not look like typical muffins, more like ugly bread rolls :). They are chewy and their taste reminds me about bagels. I like to eat them spread with butter and orange marmalade. They are classic base for egg Benedict. There are lots of recipes for English muffins, I think every baker have its own. This time I used Rachel Allen recipe published in cookbook 'Bake' and I was not disappointed.   

Ingredients for 10 muffins:

• 500g strong white flour
• 1 tsp salt
• 350 ml milk
• 2 tbsp caster sugar
• 1 1/2 tsp dried yeast or 15g fresh yeast (I used fresh)
• semolina for dusting

Heat up the milk in microwave until it is warm, then stir in the yeast and sugar. Set aside for 5 min until the mixture is frothy. 

In a meantime sift the flour and salt into big bowl. Pour milk into dry ingredients. Knead the dough with hand or electric mixer with  dough hook for 6-8 min. The dough should change into springy ball. Place the dough into an oiled bowl, cover with cling film and leave in warm place for 1 hour or until it has doubled in size. 

After that time knock back the risen dough and knead with hands another 2-3 minutes. The dough should look like the one on the picture. Sprinkle the work surface with semolina and place the dough on it. Cover with an upturned bowl and leave for further 30 min. Without knocking back the dough, roll it into a log about 20 cm long (second picture). Then slice it into 10 pieces 2 cm each (third picture). Place each slice on dusted with semolina work surface (fourth picture). Dust the top of each muffin with semolina and using your palm flatten them slightly so they are about 1.5 cm high. Cover again with tea towel and leave to rise for about 30 min. Meanwhile heat up the pan, Rachel Allen recommends heavy cast-iron grill pan or frying pan, I had Teflon frying pan. When the pan is hot, reduce the heat to very low and cook the muffins (sixth, seventh picture). When they are cooked, they will be golden brown on both sides (mine were too brown but still tasty)  and will sound hollow when tapped on the base. Remove cooked muffin from the pan and wrap in paper towel so they will not get too crusty (eight picture). When they cooled down remove form the paper towel and place in bread box.

Serving suggestion something like egg Benedict

Serving suggestion with marmalade

   

Pear and fudge muffins

My house was filled with divine, sweet fragrance mixture of baked pears, fudge and coconut, today. I used recipe from this website and changed  it a little bit. Muffins were sweet, moisture and sticky. And this fragrance, I mentioned earlier about, made me to eat one muffin just after being baked and I burned my mouth a little bit.

Ingredients for 12-18 muffins:

• 300g self rising flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 2 tsp cinnamon
• 85g brown sugar
• 250 ml buttermilk
• 2 eggs
• 100g melted butter
• 3 pears
• 100g soft fudge
• some dessicated coconut

Peel of the pears and dice them on smaller pieces, set aside. Dice the fudges into smaller pieces. Melt the butter.

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

In a big bowl sift the flour, baking powder, cinnamon, sugar. Whisk them together. Add the pears and part of the fudge pieces.

In a separate bowl whisk the eggs with buttermilk.

Pour this mixture along with melted butter into dry ingredients. Stir everything together but do not over-stir the batter. Spoon the batter into paper cases, sprinkle evenly with leftover fudge and with coconut. Bake for 25-30 min. Place on wire rack to cool down. 

Do not eat hot, as the fruits and fudge needs more time to cool down. Enjoy !

Banana and chocolate muffins

There were 3 riped bananas in the fruit bowl. They were perfect for a cake, so I decided to bake banana muffins according 'Chocolate bakes' recipe. This recipe, as most of muffins recipes, was very easy to make. Muffins were  moisture, sweet  and I could not stop eating them, so I ask my husband to share with his workmates. I hope they do enjoy them now :) 

Ingredients for 14 muffins*:

• 350g flour
• 25g cocoa
• 2 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 100g caster sugar
• pinch of salt
• 2 eggs
• 300 ml buttermilk (there is milk in original recipe)
• 125g melted butter
• 2 bananas, peeled and diced, plus 1 banana, peeled and sliced
• 75g dark chocolate chips
• icing sugar for dusting

* I used standard size muffin cases and baked 28 muffins, which was quite surprising for me

 Dice 2 bananas, slice 1 banana and set aside. Melt the butter.

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

In a big bowl sift the flour, cocoa, baking powder, caster sugar, salt and chocolate chips and whisk them together.

In separate bowl whisk the eggs with buttermilk and butter. Pour this mixture into bowl with dry ingredients, add diced bananas. Fold all ingredients together until just combined. 

Spoon the batter into paper cases, place 1 banana (or more) slice on top of each muffin. Bake for 15-20 min  (check after 15 min) until risen. Cool down on wire rack, dust with icing sugar. Enjoy !

 

French toast muffins

What french toast is, I think, everybody know. Just to remind you, it is a slice of bread or brioche dipped in beaten egg, milk, cinnamon and grated nutmeg mixture, fried on a pan, served with maple syrup. Tasty breakfast :) When I found french toast muffins recipe on Sprinkle Bakes blog I had to bake them. Those muffins are spongy, fluffy, with spicy scent, not too sweet, a little bit sticky from maple syrup. I like them :)

Ingredients for 12-18 muffins:

• 290g flour
• 60g caster sugar
• 1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 2 tsp cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp freshly grated nutmeg
• pinch of salt
• 2 eggs
• 250 ml buttermilk
• 45g melted butter
• maple syrup
• icing sugar for dusting

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

Melt the butter.

In a big bowl sift the flour, sugar, soda, baking powder, cinnamon, nutmeg and salt. Whisk them together, set aside.

In separate jug whisk with fork eggs and butter milk. Pour this mixture into bowl with dry ingredients and the butter. With spoon combine all ingredients, do not over stir them. Spoon the batter into paper cases, 1/2 full. Bake for 10-15 min, check after 10 min. 

When baked, leave them for a while in baking tin. Later place them on wire rack. While they cooling down with toothpick make a holes on muffins, spoon over the maple syrup gently, let the syrup sink in the muffins, 2 tsp each. When finished dust with icing sugar. Enjoy !

Apple and cinnamon muffins

Today simple, easy to make apple muffins. They are moisture, tasty, not too sweet, perfect for real muffin lovers. The recipe comes from 'Home baking cookbook'

Ingredients for 6 big or 12 smaller muffins:

• 90g wholemeal flour
• 70g plain flour
• 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
• pinch of salt
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• 50g caster sugar
• 2 small apples
• 125 ml milk
• 1 egg
• 55g butter

 Topping:

• 2 tbsp brown sugar
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon

Wash the apples, peel off the skin, remove stones and chop them on smaller pieces. Set aside.

In small bowl mix  brown sugar and cinnamon. Set aside.
Melt the butter in microwave.

Preheat the oven to 200C. Line muffin tin with paper cases.
Sift the flours, baking powder, salt, cinnamon together into large bowl and combine them. Add prepared earlier apples and sugar. In a separate bowl whisk egg, add milk and stir together. Pour wet ingredients into dry ones and stir until just blended. Do not over - stir the mixture it is fine for it to be a little lumpy.

Spoon the batter evenly into paper cases. Sprinkle each muffin top with sugar and cinnamon mixture. Bake for 20-25 min, until well risen and springy in touch. Leave the muffins to cool slightly in the tin then transfer to wire rack to cool down completely. Can be served warm with vanilla ice cream or whipped cream. Enjoy !

Hazelnut muffins with nutella

I wanted to bake this muffins a long time ago so when I received this lovely, flowery paper cases I decided to give them a try. They are spongy, reasonably sweet, a little bit crunchy with nice, moisture nutella filling. They are slightly dry though. In my opinion the best option to serve them is with coffee for adults and with milk form children. This recipe comes from 'Cake days. Recipes to make every day special. The hummingbird bakery.'

Ingredients for 12-16 muffins (I had 16 as muffin cases were smaller):

• 300g plain flour
• 115g brown sugar
• 1 tbsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 250 ml milk
• 1 tsp vanilla paste
• 2 eggs
• 85g unsalted butter melted
• 80g hazelnut spread - nutella + 16 tsp for filling
• 30g chopped hazelnuts
• 30g caster sugar

Chop the hazelnuts, place them in a small bowl and mix with caster sugar. Set aside.

Preheat the oven to 170C. Line muffin tin with paper cases.

Melt the butter in microwave.

Sift the flour, baking powder, soda, salt and sugar into electric mixer bowl. In separate jug whisk the eggs, add milk and vanilla and stir them together. Pour this mixture into dry ingredients and mix on a low speed. Scrape down the sides of the bowl occasionally. Increase the speed of mixer and pour in the butter, whisk a little bit more. At last but not at least add nutella and mix thoroughly. Next spoon the butter into paper cases, one spoon each. Then put one tea spoon on nutella and cover with batter, do not over load muffin cases 3/4 hfull is enough. Sprinkle each muffin top with the nut and sugar mixture. Bake for 25-30 min. Cool them down on wire rack and enjoy :)

Wholewheat honey muffins with walnuts

I wanted to bake something for breakfast. Muffins which can be eaten as bread rolls, sliced, spread with butter, jam or honey. Some kind of healthy muffins or at least healthier than usual sweet muffins. When I found this recipe I decided to try it immediately. They were tasty a little bit dry but not too dry, perfect with cup of tea or coffee.

Ingredients for 8 muffins:

• 225g whole-wheat or wholegrain flour
• 4 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 egg, beaten
• 175 ml milk
• 75 ml honey
• 50 ml sunflower oil
• 50g chopped walnuts + 8 halves 

Chop the walnuts an set aside.

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

Sift the flour, baking powder, salt into big bowl. Whisk all ingredients together and make well in the middle.

In separate bowl whisk the egg, pour milk, honey, oil and whisk them together. Add  walnuts. Pour the wet ingredients mixture into bowl with dry ingredients. Stir them together. Do not over stir. Spoon the batter into muffin cases, place walnuts on top of each muffin. Bake for 20min. Enjoy :)