Pumpkin, pineapple and raisin muffins

Another pumpkin muffin recipe... :) This time with grated pumpkin not pumpkin pure as usual. Additionally those muffins were packed with chunks of pineapple and raisins. They were really tasty, sweet, moist with  delicious crust. Unfortunately they were falling apart so we had to eat them with spoons/pastry forks. The recipe comes form "The Australian Women's Weekly. Muffins."

Ingredients for 12 - 16 muffins:

• 375g flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp soda
• 220g caster sugar
• 100g finely grated uncooked pumpkin
• 4 rings canned pineapple in natural juice, drained and chopped
• 85g finely chopped raisins
• 60 ml cream (12% fat or more)
• 125 ml oil (I used canola oil)
• 2 eggs

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

In a big bowl mix the flour, baking powder, soda, sugar, pumpkin, pineapple and raisins.

In separate bowl mix cream, oil and eggs. Pour this mixture into the dry ingredients and combine until just moist.

Spoon the batter into prepared earlier paper cases, 3/4 full. Bake 20 - 25 minutes.

When ready transfer to the wire rack to cool down. 

Enjoy !

Pumpkin pecan muffins

Pumpkin again ! Today's recipe comes from Jan Siegrist  'Muffin sampler'. Those muffins are spongy, spicy, crunchy thanks to nut content with very nice nutty, sweet topping. 

Ingredients for 18 muffins:

• 320g flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp allspice
• 30g chopped pecans
• 2 eggs
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 285g pumpkin pure
• 70g canola oil
• 70g milk
• 40g dark Muscovado sugar

Topping:

• 3 tbsp oats
• 2 tbsp flour
• 2 tbsp dark Muscovado sugar
• 3 tbsp chopped pecans
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 3 tbsp butter

 Place all dry topping ingredients in a bowl and  stir them well. Then cut in the butter and mix with you fingers until crumbly. Set aside.

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

In a  big bowl combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, allspice and nuts. 

In a separate bowl mix the eggs, vanilla, pumpkin, oil, milk, sugar.  Pour the mixture into dry ingredients. Stir until just moist. 

Fill the muffin cases about 2/3 full with the batter. Sprinkle the topping over the batter in each cup.

Bake in preheated oven for 20 - 25 minutes. Cool on wire rack. 

  Enjoy !

Pumpkin muffins

Those pumpkin muffins baked of wholewheat flour are very delicious. The cake itself was moist and dense with lovely cinnamon fragrance. The most tasty part was the crunchy crust made of cinnamon, sugar and almond flakes mixture. The idea for that recipe comes form this website. In comparison to the original recipe I have replaced plain flour with wholewheat one. Hoping this sweet treat will be a little bit healthier then regular pumpkin cake.

Ingredients for 6 muffins:

• 2 room temperature eggs
• 220g sugar
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp ground cloves
• 200g grated fresh pumpkin
• 150g wholewheat flour

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

Grate the pumpkin into small shreds. Set aside.

Break the eggs and put them into electric mixer bowl. Add the sugar and beat until pale and creamy. In separate bowl mix together the flour, baking powder, soda, cinnamon and cloves. Gently fold the dry ingredients into egg mixture. And last but not least fold in the pumpkin shreds. Spoon the batter into prepared earlier muffin cases, half full. Set them aside and prepare the crust.

Ingredients for crust:

• 2 tbsp sugar
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• 1 and 1/2 tbsp flaked almonds

Place all ingredients into a small bowl and stir them together.

Sprinkle each muffin top with dry crust.

Place the muffin tin into preheated oven  for 20 - 30 minutes. Check with a skewer if baked in the middle. When the skewer comes out clean then it is the time to remove muffins from the oven. Cool them down and enjoy !

 

Chocolate swirl buns

Soft, fluffy yeast dough filled with chocolate and cinnamon - this is the perfect autumn snack. I know that yeast dough needs patience from the person who prepares it. But it is worth it. And those particular buns can be prepared day earlier, stored in the fridge and baked in the morning. Imagine having them for Saturday breakfast .... The recipe comes from this website.

Ingredients for 12 buns:

dough:

• 120 ml milk
• 50g sugar
• 1 and 1/2 tsp dry yeast
• 1 room temperature egg
• 250g flour
• 45g soft butter
• 1/2 tsp salt

Pour the milk into a sauce pan add pinch of sugar and heat the milk up to the body temperature. The best way to check if the temperature is right is to put finger into a warm milk. If you don't feel the milk is too hot is perfect. Add the dry yeast and set aside. Let stand until foamy.

In a meantime put the sugar into a bowl add the egg and whisk with fork until creamy. Whisking continuously pour in slowly the milk mixture. 

Sift the flour and salt into an electric mixer bowl. With the dough hook  mix the flour and slowly pour in the milk mixture. Mix until all ingredients combine. Then add the butter and let it knead until butter is absorbed by the dough. Knead the dough for about 10 minutes. Transfer the dough to the greased bowl cover with a linen cloth and set aside to rise. 

Prepare the filling.

filing:

•  45g butter
• 50g sugar
• 200g chocolate
• 3/4 tsp cinnamon

Break the chocolate into smaller pieces and place them in a blender. Add the butter, sugar and cinnamon and blend until resemblance fine crumbs.

Set aside.

Prepare the muffin tin. Grease slightly each muffin nest.

When the dough is double in size transfer it on dusted with flour kitchen worktop. Punch and leave to rest for about 5 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 180C.

With a rolling pin roll the dough into a rectangle. Sprinkle with chocolate filling and roll along the longer side. With a sharp knife cut into 12 slices. Place each slice into prepared earlier muffin tin. Cover with linen cloth and set aside to prove for about half an hour.
If you planing to eat the buns for breakfast keep the muffin tin in a fridge overnight.

After half an hour brush the buns with mixture of whisked egg and milk. One egg and 2 tablespoons of milk. 

Insert into preheated oven. Bake for 15 - 20 minutes until well risen and golden.

Enjoy them warm or cooled down :)

White chocoate - cupcakes and frosting

They were really delicious. The white chocolate frosting wasn't as smooth as I would prefer but was really tasty. About the cake - light, fluffy with lovely crust. I used to bake them before, here is the recipe  and we really enjoyed them. I think they worth to give them a try. 

Ingredients for 12 -18 cupcakes:

• 100g butter
• 175g caster sugar
• 2 eggs (room temperature)
• 275g flour
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 100g white chocolate melted
• 125ml warmed milk

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

Put the butter and sugar into an electric mixer bowl and beat until pale and smooth.

Then add one egg at the time mixing continuously.

In a meantime warm up the milk to the body temperature, set aside. And melt down the white chocolate, set aside.

Sift the flour into a bowl with baking powder. 

Set the mixer on low speed and add half portion of the flour and half of the milk. When mixed, pour in the melted chocolate and add remaining flour and milk. Mix until batter will have smooth and creamy texture.

Spoon the batter into prepared muffin tin. Fill them half full as they rise a lot while baked. Bake 20-25 minutes until skewer picked in the middle comes out clean. When ready transform to the wire rack to cool down.

In a  meantime prepare the frosting.

Ingredients for frosting:

• 100g white chocolate
• 50g soft butter
• 250g mascarpone cheese
• 200g icing sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla extract

To get smooth texture frosting all the ingredients need to be in room temperature.

Melt the chocolate and set aside to cool down.

Place the butter and mascaropne into electric mixer bowl and beat them until smooth. Then add the icing sugar and beat well. Next add the vanilla extract. At last pour gently in the white chocolate beating continuously. Ready frosting is a little bit runny. Place it in the fridge to chill it. 

After about an hour when cupcakes are cooled and frosting chilled you can decorate the cupcakes. 

Enjoy !

Muffins with plums and bacon

Today I would like to present a savoury plums and bacon muffins. This recipe comes from Carol Pastor '75 best - ever muffins' cookbook and originally is called devils on horseback. Why ? Because their main ingredient is the popular starter, fresh dates wrapped in bacon and fried. As I couldn't get fresh dates anywhere I replaced them with fresh plums. 

The muffins were very moist and dense with sweet and salty flavour. They were packed with sweet juicy bits of plum, crisp chunks of bacon and plenty herbs. 

Ingredients for 8 muffins:

• 225g flour
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 2 tsp caster sugar
• 12 slices of bacon
• 24 wedges of plums
• 2 tbsp olive oil for frying
• 1 tbsp butter for frying
• 2 tsp oregano + some for decoration
• 115g soft herb and garlic cream cheese
• 175ml milk
• 75g butter melted
• 2 eggs
• ground black pepper

Cut the slices of bacon in half the get 24 slices. Wrap each plum wedge into a bacon. You can use a toothpick to hold them together.

In a frying pan heat the oil and butter over a medium heat. Add the bacon rolls and saute them turning them in the juices until they are crisp, about 4 minutes. Remove from the heat and set aside to cool down.

Sift the flour, baking powder, oregano and sugar into a bowl.

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

Melt the butter and set aside to cool down.

When the content of the frying pan is cool enough to handle, slice each of the bacon-wrapped plums into small discs. Return them to the frying pan. 

In a separate bowl beta in the cream cheese into a milk, with the butter and eggs. Pour into a dry ingredients and stir until part blended. Scrape the bacon and plum slices with any of the cooking juices into the batter and stir until evenly combined. Do not over mix.

Divide the batter between the paper cases and sprinkle with oregano. Bake for 25 minutes until well risen.

Enjoy !

Choc crunchies cupcakes

Very chocolaty, crunchy ... just delicious. And they are very easy to make. The recipe comes form 'Let's cook. 52 cakes, bakes and chocolate' BBC GoodFood. 

Ingredients for 8 cupcakes:

• 200g digestive biscuits
• 100g butter + extra for greasing
• 3 tbsp honey
• 2 tbsp cocoa powder
• 50g raisins (I used dates)
• 200g dark chocolate

Prepare the muffin tin. Grease 8 nest with thin layer of butter. Set aside. 

Place the digestive biscuits into a plastic bag. Seal the bag and bash into uneven crumbs with a rolling pin. 

Melt the butter and honey in a pan. Stir in the cocoa and raisins/chopped dates. Add the biscuit crumbs and stir them in. Spoon this mixture into prepared earlier muffin tin pressing the crumbs with a back of the spoon. 

Melt the chocolate. You can place the chocolate chunks in a bowl and melt the chocolate simply placing the bowl into a microwave. Or you can place chocolate chunks in a heatproof bowl over a pan of simmering water. When melted spread the chocolate over each biscuit base. You may decorate them with small chocolate pieces, I used white chocolate hearts.

Insert the muffin tin into a fridge and chill the cupcakes for at least half an hour.

When chilled remove form the fridge. Leave on the kitchen counter for half and hour. Then turn the muffin tin upside down and bang on the kitchen board. This should release each cupcake without any harm. Place the cupcakes on a plate and enjoy !