Anise muffins with pine nuts

Those moist, chewy, very sweet and licroice flavoured muffins are really good. The addition of anise makes them taste a little bit like licroice and smell very sweet. Anise itself is a herb, it helps children with digestive system problems and is anispetic. 

The recipe comes from 'New Italian cousine. Muffins.' cookbook.

Ingredients for 12-15 muffins:

• 170g flour
• 80g wholegrain flour*
• 2 and 1/2 tsp baking powder
• pinch of salt
• 100g pine nuts or chopped  walnuts
• 2 tsp anise seeds
• 2 eggs
• 100g sugar
• 90 ml canola oil
• 250 ml milk

* wholegrain flour can be replaced with plain flour

If you use walnuts chop them and set aside.

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

Sift the flours, baking powder, salt into a big bowl and whisk them together. Then add the anise and chosen nuts.

In electric mixer bowl beat the eggs, sugar, oil and milk. Then beating continuosly add, spoon by spoon, the dry ingredients. The batter is going to be runny. With a spoon or better ladel fill muffin cases about 3/4 full. 

Bake for 20 minutes, until toothpic sticked in the middle comes out clean.

Transfer to the wire rack to cool down.

In a meantime prepare the icinng.

Ingredients for icing:

• 130g icing sugar
• 3 tbsp lemon juice 
• 1 tsp anise seeds 

Put the icing sugar, anise and lemon juice into a  bowl and with a spoon stir them together until smooth. Spread ready icing  over each muffin top. It will spread better when muffin are still worm.

You can try to ground the anise seeds into a powder but it is not nessesery. The icing will have cute green spots anyway.

Enjoy !

Coconut and strawberry muffis

Those coconut strawberry muffins taste more like buns. Very tasty buns actually. They are firm, spongy, moist a little  bit chewy and their fragrance is heavenly. They contain not only desiccated coconut but coconut oil as well. And as far as I know coconut oil is way much healthier than other oils. It is also called coconut butter as in temperatures below 25C it changes into white fat. More about coconut oils health benefits you can read here. 

The coconut strawberry muffins recipe comes form this web site.

Ingredients for 22-24 muffins:

• 80g desiccated coconut + some to sprinkle on the top
• 500g bread flour
• 370g sugar + some to sprinkle on the top
• 2 tbsp baking powder
• 1 tbsp salt
• 500 ml milk
• 2 eggs
• 125 ml melted coconut oil
• 1 cup diced fresh strawberries

Wash and dice strawberries and set aside. 

In microwave melt the coconut oil and set aside.

Put the desiccated coconut on hot frying pan and toast the for a while.

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

Into a big bowl sift the flour, sugar, baking powder, salt and toasted coconut. Whisk everything together.

In a separate jug whisk the eggs add milk and combine them together.

Pour the wet ingredients into dry ones add the melted and cooled coconut oil and stir all ingredients together until just combined. Do not over stir them. At last gently fold in the diced strawberries.

Spoon the batter into paper cases 3/4 full. Sprinkle each top with small amount of dessicated coconut and sugar. Bake for 20-25 minutes, until toothpick sticked in the middle comes out clean. Those muffins do not turn golden and keeping them longer in the over turns them rather dry not gold on the top. Enjoy !

Fairy cupcakes

What fairy cakes are everybody knows. Please have a look on those I baked. The recipe comes from this website.

Ingredients for 18-24 cupcakes:

• 140g soft butter
• 140g caster sugar
• 3 eggs
• 100g self-rising flour
• 25g cornflour

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

Put all ingredients into electric mixer bowl and beat about 2 minutes until smooth. Divide the batter between paper cases no more than 1/2 full. Bake them for 12-15 minutes until risen. Insert the toothpick in the middle of cake to check if it comes out clean. When baked transfer to the wire rack to cool down.

Ingredients for icing:

• 400g icing sugar
• 4-7 tbsp water (or half water half lemon juice)
• food colourings
• sugar sprinkles

Sift the icing sugar to the bowl and add 4 tbsp water. With a spoon mix them together. If the mixture is too thick add more water but be careful as the mixture may became to runny. If you want to achieve different colour than white add small amount of chosen food colouring. Decorate the cupcakes with the icing and sprinkle with sugar sprinkles. 

Chocolate cupcakes with chocolate frosting

Those are perfect for children's party. And if they are perfect for children everybody will like them. Not to mention that decorating them is such a fun. The recipe comes from '75 bets - ever muffins'.

Ingredients for 12-15 cupcakes:

• 165g soft butter
• 150g caster sugar
•  1 tsp vanilla extract
• 150g self- rising flour
• 20g cocoa powder
• 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 3 eggs

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

With an electric mixer beat together the butter, sugar and vanilla until light and fluffy.

When ready gently fold in the flour, cocoa and baking powder. Add the eggs and beat well.

Spoon the batter into baking cases, 2/3 full. Bake for 20-25 minutes, until toothpick stick in the middle comes out clean. When ready transfer to a wire rack and let them cool down completely.

 Ingredients for frosting:

• 200g creme fraiche
• 200g chocolate (your favourite)
• 50g icing sugar
• sweets fro decoration

Put the creme fraiche into a sauce pan and heat up until hot but not boiling. Remove from heat. Break the chocolate into smaller pieces and add to hot creme fraiche. Swirl this mixture until chocolate is melted. Sift in the icing sugar and mix until smooth. Set aside to thicken slightly.

With a spoon spread this frosting over each cupcake top and decorate with your favourite sweets.

Banana and strawberry muffins

Today another tasty banana muffin recipe on my blog. I made them with fresh strawberries but they can be baked with frozen ones too (just thaw them before adding). Those muffins are very moist, sweet perfect for lazy tea time or breakfast.

The recipe comes form this blog.

Ingredients for 12-15 muffins:

• 90g melted butter
• 175g brown sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 tsp vanilla bean paste
• 2 big mashed bananas
• 165g diced strawberries
• 345g flour
• 1 and 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp soda
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp salt

Melt the butter and set aside to cool down.

With a fork mash the bananas, set aside. Dice the strawberries and set aside.

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

Into a big bowl sift the flour, baking powder, soda, cinnamon and salt. Whisk all ingredients together and set aside.

Add the sugar into melted butter and whisk. Then add the vanilla and eggs and whisk for a while. When all ingredients are well incorporated add mashed bananas. Pour the wet ingredients mixture into bowl with dry ingredients mixture and stir until all ingredients are just combined. At last gently fold in the strawberries.

Spoon the batter into paper cases, 3/4 full. Bake for 20 - 25 minutes until golden and well risen.

Coffee cocoa muffins with halva

When I saw this coffee and halva muffins recipe I decided to bake them. I changed original recipe as I added layer of cocoa dough, some chocolate and sprinkle muffin tops with halva crumbs. Muffins were very tasty. The layer of coffee doughs was fluffy, halva partly melted inside and the chocolate dough was crunchy on the top. 

Ingredient for 12 big muffins

coffee batter:

• 100g melted butter
• 1 egg
• 125 ml milk
• 2 tbsp instant coffee brewed in 2 tbsp hot water
• 150g sugar
• vanilla sugar
• 220g flour
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1 and 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 12 pieces of halva
• 12 pieces of chocolate

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

Melt the butter and set aside to cool down. Brew the coffee add milk and set aside.

In a big bowl whisk together the flour, baking powder and salt. set aside.

In separate bowl combine the butter, sugars, egg and coffee with milk. Whisk everything together. Pour this mixture into dry ingredients. Mix all ingredients together until just combined. 

Spoon the batter into paper cases, place piece of halva and piece of chocolate on top of each batter. Set aside.

cocoa batter:

• 100g flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 tbsp cocoa
• 50g sugar
• 1 egg
• 50 ml milk
• some halva crumbs

Into a bowl sift the flour, baking powder and cocoa. Whisk them together. In separate bowl whisk together the egg, sugar and milk. Pour the wet ingredients mixture into dry ones. Spoon the batter over each prepared earlier muffin base, try to cover the halva and chocolate so they stay inside. Sprinkle each muffin top with halva crumbs.

Bake for 20 -25 minutes. Until toothpick stick in the middle comes out clean. Enjoy !

Strawberry shortcake muffins

When I read this recipe I had to try it immediately. I was very curious to taste muffins without flour and eggs. I know there is an egg in original recipe but I wanted to bake traditional shortcake. Those muffins were really nice.  Soft and moisture with crunchy crust, really nice. 

Ingredients for 6-8 muffins:

• 145g porridge oats
• 135g thick yogurt
• 100g sugar
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp soda
• 85g fresh diced strawberries + some for decoration
• 1/2 tbsp lemon juice

Preheat the oven  to 180C. Grease silicone muffin cases. 

Dice the strawberries into smaller chunks.

Put the oats, yogurt, sugar baking powder, soda and lemon juice in a blender. Blend until oats are smooth. When ready fold in strawberries.

Spoon the batter into muffin cases 3/4 full. Place small pieces of strawberries on top. Bake for 20 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean.

Let them  cool down and enjoy :)