Cocoa muffins with cream cheese

I found this muffins by a chance. I was searching Internet to find recipe for a meal with Philidelphia cheese, which was sitting in my fridge. When I came across this recipe I simply had to make it. Firstly because those muffins are very easy to make, secondly I was curious to taste their flavour as they baked without eggs. There is no need for special kitchen equipment. They are very tasty, moisture and chocolaty. White cheese does not give a lot of flavour to them but it looks beautiful.  

Ingredients for cream cheese filling:

• 80g cream cheese I used Philadelphia
• 1 egg white
• 1and 1/2 tbsp sugar
• 1 tsp flour

Put all mentioned above ingredients in a small dish and with a spoon combine them all. Place this mixture into freezer for 30 min or overnight.

Ingredients for 6-8 muffins:

• 120g flour
• 90g sugar
• 25g cocoa powder
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• pinch of salt
• 100 ml water
• 100 ml buttermilk
• 100 ml canola oil
• 1 tbsp alcohol (I added Bizon vodka)
• 1 tsp vanilla bean paste

Preheat oven to 175C. Line muffin tin with paper cases. Remove the cream cheese mixture form freezer.

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

In separate jug pour the water, buttermilk, oil and stir them together. Add the alcohol and vanilla. Pour this mixture into dry ingredients mixture. Combine them together.   

Spoon the batter into paper cases 1/3 high, then add one heaped teaspoon of the cream cheese mixture and cover with batter no more than 2/3 high. Bake for 25 min. Remove form oven, let the muffins cool down in the tin for 5 min then place them on wire rack to cool down completely. Those muffin taste the best when cooled down.

 

English muffins II

This is second time I baked English muffins. I used to make English muffins before but this time I had slightly different recipe. This recipe comes form 'Home baking' cookbook. Even though I liked the other ones very much I was not disappointed with this ones ether. They were vary tasty, especially served with strawberry jam.

Ingredients for 10-12 muffins:

• 450g strong white bread flour
• 14g fresh yeast or 7g dried ones
• 250 ml warm water
• 125 ml natural yogurt
• 1/2 tsp salt
• some semolina for dusting
• vegetable oil for brushing

Mix the yeast with water until it has dissolved. Add the yogurt and mix well. Sift the flour and salt together into electric mixer bowl. Add the yeast mixture and mix until it forms soft dough. Knead with hands or electric mixer with dough hook for 5-10 min until smooth and elastic. Place the dough into a bowl cover with clingfilm and leave to rise in warm place for 30-40 min or until doubled in size.
In a meantime prepare a baking sheet, dust with the semolina and set aside. 
Sprinkle the surface with some flour and turn out the dough again and knead lightly. Roll it out to a thickness of 2 cm. 

dough after being rolled out

With a round cutter cut into 10-12 rounds. Place them on prepared earlier baking sheet and scatter the semolina over each muffin. As you can see I did not have round cutter so I used glass instead.

cutting rounds

Cover the muffins with tea towel and leave to rise in warm place  for 30-40 min.

 

 

 

muffins while rising

Heat a large frying pan over a medium heat. Lightly brush with oil. Add the muffins and cook for each side until sound hollow when tapped on the base, taking care not to burn them. Repeat with the remaining muffins.  

Serve freshly cooked with lots of butter and some jam. 

Rice krispies cupcakes

I have received square muffin silicone tin and was thinking what to prepare in it. One morning, when my children were eating their breakfast I saw this recipe on Kellog's Rice Krispies box. It was perfect for my new muffin tin. It was very easy to make. Cupcakes were lovely and I do not have to mention that children love them.

Ingredients for 10 cupcakes:

• 15g butter
• 100g marshmallows
• 60g rice krispies
• m&ms
• 10 white chocolate cubes

 As I  mentioned earlier I had silicone muffin tin so there is no need for greasing but  traditional one have to be greased.
Prepare your muffin tin. To decorate your cupcakes with m&ms sprinkle a few into each muffin tin hole.
In a large sauce pan melt the butter over low heat. When butter is melted add marshmallows and stir until completely melted. Remove from heat. Gently fold in Rice Krispies. Stir until well coated. Be careful this mixture is very sticky. Before you spoon this mixture into muffin tin butter spoon. Evenly press mixture over sweets. Place your tin in a fridge to cool mixture down. After about an hour remove from muffin tin. Cupcake might be still sticky so lightly butter your fingers.
Melt white chocolate in microwave and pour it over each cupcake top. Enjoy !

Ginger and lemon muffins coated with lemon icing

These muffins are just perfect :). Spongy, moisture, with lemon aroma .. yummy. Ginger and lemon muffins recipe comes from this website but lemon icing was my idea. They are easy to make but a little bit time consuming and electric mixer is recommended.

Ingredients for 12-15 muffins:

• 300g flour
• 3/4 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 220g sugar, divided into 60 g and 160 g
• 4 tbsp minced ginger
• 100g unsalted butter
• 2 eggs
• 175 ml plain yogurt
• juice and zest form one lemon

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

In a bowl whisk together the flour, soda and salt, set aside.

In a sauce pan heat over medium temperature 60g of sugar, minced ginger. If the mixture is too thick you may add 1 tbsp water. Stir and cook until sugar is melted and ginger is soft. Remove from the heat and add lemon zest. Set aside.

In electric mixer bowl beat up butter on medium speed and gradually beat in remining sugar. When the mixture is fluffy add egg one at a time. Continue to beat at a low speed for about 2 minutes. Then add yogurt, lemon juice and ginger mixture.  At last, but not at least, add the flour with soda and salt. Ready batter spoon into paper cases 3/4 hight. Bake for 20 min until well risen and golden on the top.When ready leave them for a while to cool in the baking tin, then move them to the wire rack.

Ingredients for lemon icing:

• 4 heaped tbsp icing sugar
• 3 tbsp lemon juice
• 1 tbsp hot water
• some sprinkles to sprinkle

Place the icing sugar and lemon juice into a bowl and combine them with a spoon. If the mixture is too thick add  hot water. Pour this mixture over muffins' tops and sprinkle.  

Condensed milk cupcakes

This recipe comes from Nestle condensed milk bottle. I was curious if it would work, so I decided to give it a try. I have to say these cupcakes were very easy to make. I simply put all ingredients into electric mixer bowl and whisk the for a few minutes. The frosting was easy to make as well, although the amount of ingredients should be doubled, as there was not enough frosting to cover all 12 cupcakes. The cupcakes were nice, very sweet and spongy, simply vanilla cupcakes. These are not the first vanilla cupcakes I made, and to be honest, I prefer the other ones I baked earlier (vanilla cup cakes) 

Ingredients for 12 cupcakes:

• 125g plain flour
• 250g condensed milk
• 1 egg
• 1/2 tsp vanilla bean paste
• 85g margarine
• 1 1/2 tsp baking powder

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

Place the flour, milk, egg, vanilla, margarine and baking powder into electric mixer bowl and whisk for 2-3 minutes until pale and fluffy. Divide the batter evenly between the paper cases. Bake for 15-20 min until spongy. Cool slightly then transfer to wire rack to cool completly.
While the cupcakes are cooling down prepare the frosting.

Ingredients for frosting*:

• 200g icing sugar
• 55g butter
• few drops vanilla extract
• 1-2 tbsp condensed milk
• sugar sprinkles or cake decorations to decorate

 * as I mentioned earlier you might not get enough to decorate all cupcakes, I would suggest to double the amount of ingredients
   
Place all ingredients into electric mixer bowl and beat until soft and fluffy. When the cupcakes are cooled down and frosting is ready, spread the frosting over each cupcake top, then sprinkle with sprinkles. You also might pipe the frosting onto the cakes then decorate with some waffle daisies. Enjoy !

Carrot muffins with pine nuts

This recipe comes from ' New Italian cuisine. Muffins' cookbook. Those muffins were easy to make, although there is a need to use electric mixer. They are tasty, soft and moisture and they are orange. They rise a lot during baking but after cooling down became a little bit flat. 

Ingredients for 12- 18 muffins:

• 250g  grated carrot
• 250g flour
• 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
• pinch of salt
• 100g pine nuts
• 100g icing sugar + some for dusting
• 180g butter
• 4 large eggs

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

Wash, peel of and grate carrots. Set asisde.

Sift the flour, baking powder and salt and whisk them together. Fold in pine nuts.

Put the butter and icing sugar into electric mixer and whisk on high speed until soft and fluffy. Increase the speed and add one egg yolk at the time. Then decrease the speed and add alternately the flour mixture and grated carrot. In a meantime whipped egg whites until stiff. Fold in the egg whites to the batter gently. 

Spoon the batter into paper cases 3/4 hight. Bake for 20 min until risen and spongy. Cool down on wire rack. Dust with icing sugar before serving. Enjoy !

   

Apple pie cupcakes

I have received bag of cooking apples yesterday. When I saw them, I immediately decided to bake apple pie cupcakes. For a pastry I used my family recipe. My mum used to bake apple pie according this recipe and it never turn bad. It is very easy to make one and there is no need for fancy equipment to make it. But first apples need to be done :)

Ingredients for 6 apple pie cupcakes - apples:

• 1/2 kg cooking apples
• 1/2 mug brown sugar
• 1 tbsp butter
• handful of raisins
• 1 tbsp cinnamon

Peel of the apples, remove cores and dice the apples. Melt the butter on frying pan, then add diced apples, sugar, raisins and cinnamon. Cook this mixture on medium heat stirring occasionally. Remove form the heat when the apples turn soft, sugar melted and all mixture get a little bit juicy. Set aside.

Ingredients for pastry:

• 300g flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 200g soft butter or margarine
• 100g icing sugar
• 1 egg
• some icing sugar and cinnamon for dusting

Preheat the oven to 200C.  Get the large muffin tin ready with nest capacity 150ml. I used the silicone one which is very handy as it does not need to be greased.

Put all ingredients in a bowl and knead them until they turn into soft, sticky dough. Some people would put this dough into a fridge to chill it and then roll it, but I tear small pieces of if and simply stick them to the bottom and sides of baking tin, until they evenly covered. Fill 6 muffin tin nest with the dough, then put inside 2 tbsp of cooked apples inside and cover tops with remining dough. Bake for 20-25 min in the oven. Remove from the oven when cakes are slightly risen and golden on the top. Let them cool in baking tin as they mu crumble when removed to early. Dust with icing sugar and cinnamon mixture before serving.