Cocoa muffins with bananas

Another ripe bananas in my fruit bowl but I am no going to waste them. There is another banana muffin recipe I would like to try. This time I used Nigella Lawson recipe published in 'Kitchen' cookbook.

Ingredients for 12-15 muffins:

• 3 ripe bananas ( I had only two)
• 125 ml canola oil
• 2 eggs
• 100g soft brown sugar (I had 30g brown sugar and 70g caster sugar)
• 225g plain flour
• 3 tbsp cocoa powder
• 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda

One hungry tiny person was stealing muffins while I wanted to take picture

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

Sift the flour, soda, cocoa and sugar into big bowl and whisk them together. 

In separate bowl mash the bananas as much as possible. Then add oil and eggs and with a fork whisk them together. Pour this mixture into dry ingredients. Combine all ingredients together. 

Spoon the batter into paper cases. Bake for 15-20 min until well risen. You may cool the down on wire rack before eating ;) Enjoy !

Rocky road muffins

Rocky road is one of my favourite snacks, so when I found rocky road muffins recipe I had to give it a try. Muffins are lovely, very chocolaty, filled in half baked marshmallows, melted white and dark chocolate... divine. Perfect for today's rainy day. Although I added more ingredients to them than there were in original recipe I think next time I will add handful of nuts as well.    

Ingredients for 12 muffins:

• 225g flour
• 60g cocoa
• 1 tbsp baking powder
• pinch of salt
• 110g caster sugar
• 100g chopped white chocolate
• 90g chopped dark chocolate
• 60g mini marshmallows
• 5 digestive cookies broken into pieces
• 1 egg
• 250ml milk
• 6 tbsp canola oil

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

Sift the flour, cocoa, baking powder, salt, sugar, chopped chocolate, marshmallows, cookies and whisk them together.

In separate jug whisk together the milk, egg and oil.

Pour wet ingredients mixture into dry one. Combine all ingredients, do not over stir them. Spoon the batter into the paper cases. Bake for 20 min until well risen. check with toothpick if they are baked in the middle.

White chocolate muffins

This recipe comes from 'Chocolate bakes' cookbook. Muffins are easy to made and very tasty. They are soft, spongy, sweet. 

Ingredients for 12-18 muffins:

• 100g butter 
• 175g caster sugar
• 2 eggs
• 275g plain flour
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 100g white chocolate melted
• 125ml warmed milk
• 25g melted white chocolate for decoration
• sprinkles

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

Put the sugar and soft butter into electric mixer bowl and whisk on medium speed until white and fluffy. Beat in the eggs one at a time. In a meantime melt the chocolate and set aside. Warm up the milk and set aside.

Add the flour and baking powder into butter mixture and gently fold them in. Then add melted chocolate and milk, whisk for a while. Spoon the batter into paper cases. Bake for 20-25 min until well riosen and golden. Cool down on wire rack.

Melt the remaining chocolate and spread it over each muffin top then sprinkle with spinkles. Enjoy !

Custard muffins with pears

There was last, lonely pear in the fruit bowl and I decided to try recipe I found some time ago. The custard muffin with pears were really nice, soft, spongy and very easy to make. I modified the original recipe and I was really happy with the result.

Ingredients for 12 muffins:

• 110g flour
• 2 tbsp custard powder
• 1 tsp baking powder
• pinch of salt
• 55g caster sugar
• 30g brown sugar
• 85g milk
• 1/2 tsp vanilla bean paste
• 1 egg
• 55g melted butter
• 1 pear

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

Peel of the pear, remove the core and dice the pear on smaller pieces.

Sift the flour, custard, baking powder, salt and sugars and whisk the together, set aside. In separate jug melt the butter (for example in microwave) cool it down, add egg, vanilla and milk and whisk together. Pour wet ingredients into dry add pear and combine together. Spoon the batter into muffin cases, bake for 20 min and enjoy !

Cream cheese muffins with almonds, coconut and white chocolate

I have been experimenting recently and I created my own muffin recipe. I used my favourite ingredients and, have to say, muffins were not only edible but tasty as well. To be completely honest they were I little bit thick for me but my family like them very much and they disappeared immediately.

Ingredients for 12 muffins:

• 270g cream cheese
• 1 tsp vanilla bean paste
• 5 tbsp cream
• 2 egg whites
• 7 tbsp sugar + some for dusting
• 100g flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 100g white chocolate chopped
• 145g grated almonds
• 30g dessicated coconut + some for dusting
• 75 ml buttermilk

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

Put cream cheese, cream, vanilla, egg whites sugar and whisk them together, set aside.

In separate bowl whisk together the flour, baking powder, chocolate, almonds, coconut. Sift dry ingredients mixture into wet ingredients, add buttermilk and combine all ingredients together. Spoon the batter into muffin tin, sprinkle each muffin with pinch of sugar and coconut, bake for 30-35 min. Serve warm or cold. Be careful, when they warm it is difficult to remove them from paper cases.

Chocolate muffins with pears

When I sow this picture for a very first time, I put chocolate muffins with pears and syrup recipe on my must to bake list. In my opinion those muffins look very fancy and, after baking them, have to say they very tasty too. The muffin dough is rich in chocolate and little bit dry, syrup makes it moisture and sweet pear breaks chocolate bitterness. They were not so difficult to make as one my think after seeing the picture. To bake them there is need for large muffin tin (150ml muffin hole capacity). once you  equipped with this tool you may start. 

Lets start with pears. There must be 5 small pears, first they have to be peeled and cored. I used apple core remover, inserted it from the bottom and put in only half way so the stalk intact stayed on in place, then removed core with a knife.  Set aside prepared pears.

Ingredients for syrup:

• 380 ml water
• 1 tsp vanilla bean paste
• 160g sugar
• 2 tbsp cocoa

Put water, sugar and vanilla into big sauce pan over low heat. Cook, stirring until sugar dissolves. Bring it to boil. Put prepared pears into hot sugar. Cook for another 10 minutes until pears became tender. Drain pears, put them on a plate and leave for later, add cocoa to hot sugary water. Leave the syrup to simmer for 15 min or until syrup thickens slightly.

Preheat the oven to 200C. Grease muffin tin.

Ingredients for batter:

• 100g dark chocolate
• 100g butter
• 95g flour
• 1tsp baking powder
• 80g sugar
• 1 egg
• 15g cocoa 

Place the chocolate and butter in a big bowl and melt them in microwave. When melted stir well to combine them. Then add the flour, baking powder, sugar, cocoa and egg whisk all ingredients together. Divide the batter evenly between 5 muffin holes and gently press the pears into the centres. Bake for 20 min. When it is ready (check with tooth pick if batter is baked inside) leave in a baking tin for w while then transfer to plates. Do not leave longer in baking tin as removing might be difficult. When they transferred to plates gently pour over prepared earlier syrup. Enjoy !

All-bran muffins

This is very easy to make recipe and it comes from Kellogg's website.  These muffins were approved by my children and their friends, so I think they might be good option for lunch boxes. Muffins were not only tasty for children but adults liked them, as well. Warm they were fluffy, cold they became a little bit thick but it did not affected their taste. Muffins were sweet and moisture. I think the best option is to give them a try. 

Ingredients for 12 muffins:

• 185g flour
• 110g brown sugar
• 1 tbsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 160g All-bran Kellogg's cereal or similar
• 310 ml milk
• 2 egg whites
• 60 ml sunflower oil

Muffin batter before baking

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

 

Sift All-bran Kellogg's cereal and pour the milk, let them soak for 2 min.

 

In a meantime sift the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt into big bowl and whisk all ingredients together. 

Add the egg whites and oil to the cereal mixture and stir well. Sift dry ingredients into this mixture and combine the together. Spoon the batter into paper cases. Fill the evenly, muffins do not rise a lot. Bake them for 20 min. Check with wooden toothpick if batter is baked inside. These muffins are very good warm. 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 !