From weekly to every so often!

Have decided, rather than baking every weekend... which is sometimes quite difficult, when you are busy with two little ones, that I will update blog each time I bake a new recipe!  

Banana and Yoghurt Muffins - 5/5

Yum... these are delish, tasty and moist!  Highly recommended!

Ingredients.

2 lge  over ripe bananas

1c yoghurt, flavoured or natural

1 egg

125gm butter - very soft or melted

1 3/4 c self raising flour

1/2 c brown sugar

Method

Preheat oven to 180 C

Grease muffin trays

Mash bananas well, add yoghurt, egg and butter.  Mix well.

Sift in flour.

Add brown sugar.

Combine and pour into muffin trays.  

Bake for 20 - 25 mins or until cooked through when tested with a sharp knife.

Be aware that these muffins are so moist they are soft and seem from the outside they may not be cooked through, so definitely test with a knife.

Enjoy a delicious, moist treat!

Apple muffins..

Sorry... its been a particularly busy week organising our big girls 3rd Birthday, which is this coming weekend... so will make a post now for the weekend just gone, but probably wont get into the kitchen until Sunday or Monday, which is a public holiday!

This week we baked Apple muffins... bit of a change though... Dad was mowing the lawns, and H was following him around with her plastic mower... too busy to help she was... so Baby O assisted me, by way of sitting in her bouncy chair chatting to me!  

Here goes...

Ingredients...

-300g (2 cups) plain flour

-1 tbs baking powder

-2 tsp ground cinnamon

-3/4 cup brown sugar

-3 small to medium Pink Lady apples grated

-125g butter, melted and cooled

-2 eggs, lightly whisked

-3/4 cup milk ( you may need a little more to get consistency right)

Method...

1. Preheat oven to 180°C.  Grease muffin trays or line with muffin cups.
2. Sift the plain flour, baking powder and cinnamon together into a large bowl.  Stir in the brown sugar and apples until well combined.
3. Whisk  eggs lightly, add butter and milk until well combined.
4. Add the wet mixture to the dry mixture and stir with a large metal spoon until only just combined.
5. Spoon the mixture evenly into the muffin pans.
6. Bake for 20 minutes or until golden and cooked through when tested with a knife.
   Remove from oven and stand for 2-3 minutes before turning onto a wire rack.
   
   Verdict.  Yum!  A solid 4 out of 5, especially when eaten warm with butter!
   The big girl ate them... and more importantly, the man ate them too... he's not as much of a sweet tooth as I am!
   
    

What a disaster!

Today we decided to do a little baking... Our world has cooled off somewhat and it is far more comfortable, albeit a little bit humid, for baking!

I have been looking for recipes so I could use up the zucchinis in our garden.  A friend recommended a combination of zucchini and chocolate... I thought, yes... that is a fantastic idea... my girl loves a chocolate muffin and it is all the more healthy when filled with zucchini!

Well... they didn't rise very well... were all gluggy in the middle, even though a knife came out clean and they tasted revolting.  Am going to try them again, with a different recipe... hopefully we have better luck!

Not even going to rate the ones we made today!  Blurghhhhh!

Too hot to bake!

Sorry.  We had to endure a really hot one today... 38 C it was...I didn't want to add any extra heat to an already hot house!   I don't function very well on really hot days... Thank goodness that tomorrow is the last of 3 consecutive days of heat... bring on a cool change and a thunderstorm I say!

Will bake on Monday morning... speak to you then!

Carrot and Zucchini Muffins... Week 4... 4/5

So we have zucchinis coming out our ears... I am always looking for something to do with them, may as well utilise what you have rather than buy more ingredients.  

These are delicious!  They are sweet, moist and somewhat healthier than the banana, choc chip muffins we cooked mid week.  The only reason I haven't given them a 5/5 is that I quite like biting into a muffin with a bit of texture, whether it be blueberries, chocolate, walnuts etc.

These were super easy to make, requiring no mixer, only a good forearm to only just combine the ingredients.

Here goes...

Ingredients.

2c self raising flour

2/3c raw sugar

1tsp cinnamon

1 1/2 grated carrot

3/4c grated zucchini

100g butter - melted

2 eggs - lightly beaten before being added

1/2 to 3/4 c milk - depending on consistency

1. Preheat oven to 180 c.  Grease muffin tins.

2. Sift flour into a large bowl, add raw sugar and cinnamon.

3. Add grated zucchini and carrot and combine with hands.

4. In separate bowl combine lightly beaten eggs to melted (and slightly cooled) butter, add milk.

5. Add wet ingredients to dry, adding a little extra milk if needed.

6. Spoon into muffin tin and bake 20 - 25 minutes depending on your oven.

7. Remove from tins and cool.  Serve warm with butter!

A day off!

Apologies to those looking for a new muffin to make each week... This weekend it is my Birthday and Dad and the big girl are going to bake a cake.  It seems silly to make muffins too, especially when I am a bit of a sweet tooth!  

Will try and post a pic.

Will see you all again next week!

Vanessa

Banana and Blueberry muffins - week 3 - rating 5 out of 5

Firstly I have to deduct a point from last weeks Pear and Cinnamon muffins.  They were good, but these are melt in your mouth gorgeous... And if I want to give these 5/5 and they are better than last weeks, then last weeks have to become a 4/5!

This weeks muffins are Banana and Blueberry

 They were so easy and quick, didn't require a mixer of any sort... super simple!

Mash 2 bananas, add 3/4c of brown sugar and 1 egg to bananas.  Give a bit of a stir.

Add 3/4c melted butter, a cup of fresh blueberries and a 1/3c milk(or a tad more if mixture is too thick).

Sieve 1 1/2c self raising flour, 1/tsp of baking powder, a dash of salt into banana mixture, until just combined.

Spoon into greased muffin tins, and bake 20 -25 minutes or until cooked through when tested with a knife.

Bake at 200C degrees.

Serve warm with a little butter!

Let me know what you think, I appreciate feedback!

Verdict...

Yum!  4/5!

These are good.  They were much lighter and fluffier than last weeks attempt.  

I stewed the pears, I like to say I learned my lesson from last week! 

These were super easy.  Preparation was not fiddly, or time consuming... recipe required no mixer, just a small amount of folding ingredients into one another with a spoon.  

The little one was right into it, as there was more she could do.

And she ate more of this one than she did last weeks muffin!

Highly recommended!

Pear and Cinnamon muffins - Week 2 - rating...4 out of 5

As we speak, they are cooking in the oven... it is nearing afternoon tea on a stinking hot day, so will be nice to sit down inside and have coffee and a muffin.

I thought this week, I would try something I knew the girl would eat.  This recipe seemed a bit safer than last weeks.  

The recipe is as follows...

Pear and Cinnamon Muffins

Preheat oven to 180C degrees.

Grease muffin tins.

Ingredients

2C plain flour

1Tbsp baking powder

2tsp cinnamon

1/2C brown sugar

2 lightly beaten eggs

1C low fat milk

2/3 C light olive oil

3 pears - 2 stewed or grated

Method

Combine egg, milk and oil.

In a separate bowl, combine all dry ingredients, sifting flour, baking powder and cinnamon first.

Fold wet ingredients into the dry until only just combined.  Add stewed or grated pear.

Spoon into muffin trays, topping each individual muffin with a slice of pear.  Then sprinkle with a cinnamon and sugar mix so pear caramelises.  

Bake 20 - 25 minutes or until knife comes out clean.

Kitchen Aid...

Have entered a competition to win a Kitchen Aid Mixer!  Cross your fingers for me!

Well...

They taste pretty good!

I think next time I would add a half cup of milk/apple juice, and also either stew apples first, or grate them so they were far smaller!  I found the apple not to be as cooked as I would like... I think my preference would be to stew them!

They were full of texture and flavour, but a little on the crumbly side.  I like my muffins much more moist. 

2 out of 5

Here goes... Week 1 - Maple, apple and walnut

Maple, apple and walnut muffins...

Ingredients

2 large free range eggs - beaten

100g butter - softened

175ml maple syrup

350g apples - diced

100g fresh walnuts - chopped

400g plain flour - sifted

1Tbs baking powder - sifted

1tsp salt

1tsp cinnamon

1tsp nutmeg 

Instructions

Preheat oven to 180C.  Cream eggs and butter in a bowl until light and fluffy.  Add maple syrup, chopped apple and walnuts.  Mix well.  Sift in all dry ingredients.  Stir until moist.  Divide mixture into greased muffin tins.  Sprinkle with sugar and cinnamon.  

Bake 20 - 25 minutes.

Makes around 12 muffins.

The Verdict!

I found preparation a little fussy, especially for a 2 year old.  But I sent her off with her Dad whilst I chopped apples and nuts.  In retrospect, I probably would have diced the apples a little smaller!  She then joined me and we got to work.  

Creaming the butter and eggs was harder than it sounds.  Maybe the butter wasn't soft enough?  Who knows... but I found they didn't cream together very well... will have to wait and see how it all turns out in the end.  

Every thing else was straight forward enough.  I felt the mixture was a bit dry, but am assuming that with all the apples the cooked muffins will come out lovely and moist. 

Muffins are out and cooling... taste test coming up!

The first batch is... Maple, apple and walnut

 Saturday morning baking with my girl... here we come!

The plan!

So... I plan on baking a batch of muffins every Saturday with my girl.  One to foster a love of baking and hopefully later cooking in general, but also to trial different recipes, in which I can hide mainly vegetables that I find difficult getting into my girls mouth!  

I intend on using a rating system... 1, being a don't bother with this recipe, 5, being you won't be sorry you baked them.

Hopefully you enjoy some of the recipes I trial.  I am happy to have people recommend their recipes to me!