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!