Muffins...muffins again

Chocolate Chip Cranberries Nut Muffins and
Chocolate Chip Walnut Muffins


Using the same recipe here, I made more muffins with dark chocolate chips, dried cranberries and chopped almond (almond nibs).


Chocolate Chip Cranberries Nut Muffins

Same recipe
Substitute strawberries with
1/4 cup dried cranberries (chopped)
1/4 cup dark chocolate chips and another 1/4 cup for sprinkling on top
1/3 cup toasted almond nibs or chopped almond


I stirred in dark chocolate chips, dried cranberries and nuts into the dry ingredients before pouring in the wet ingredients.


Sprinkle with more chocolate chips on top before popping into the oven to bake.

These muffins are really good, soft and fluffy and have subtle crunchy nuts.


Another, variation : Chocolate Chip Walnut Muffins
Substitute Almond Nibs with toasted chopped walnuts

It's time to get some nuts into your child's diet... and not just for children but good for adults too. :-)

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Strawberry Muffins

Breakfast and school snack box gets more interesting this week with these fluffy muffins. I tried these muffins after having read the good reviews and adapted slightly. Daily snack of bread with jam spread, peanut butter, nutella, ham-eggs is getting boring and "uncool" as I was duly informed by the little one…sigh!...oh, the fussy one :-)

As strawberries are his favourite and his Dad's, I decided to make some Strawberry Muffins.

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Orange Chocolate Chip Muffins

Here are some good looking polka-dot muffins which will delight little kids, and adults too!

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Sunrise Peach Muffin

Why Sunrise Peach Muffin?

I got up at 6.00am, prepared the ingredients, made them and got them out of oven just at sunrise for breakfast on Saturday morning. :-)

hibiscus from my garden

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Apple Muffin

This was one of the few first recipes I tried when I began baking. It was the success of this muffin that gave me the courage to continue baking…I’m glad I don’t always produce disasters in the kitchen! J

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Little Beethovens ♫

I made some small Nutella Cupcakes for some little Beethovens ♫ (Max attends Music class) a few weeks ago for their class concert. 

 

I've made them a few times as we simply like Nutella. Here's the recipe from my previous posting.

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Mocha Cupcakes

I have this ‘thing’ to try coffee-something… hahaha, no, I’m not pregnant! Just a yearning to make some stuff with coffee or coffee-flavoured something-something. It’s not a stress thing, it’s the year-end, Christmas is coming, New Year is coming and my “Bosses” are also in holiday mood, as I am… J

While browsing the net, this gorgeous looking cupcake from MyBakingAddiction.com caught my eyes and I just knew I gotta try. If you check up Jamie’s site, you’ll know what I mean…all the cupcakes are just so yummilicious-looking. Thanks Jamie - your pics got me craving for more...hahaha!

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Nutella Cupcakes

This is the first time I’m baking Nutella Frosted Cupcake.

I first saw these delectable cupcakes in Baking Bites and another posted by Mandy of Fresh from the Oven and they also appeared in a few other sites too. I just knew I got to take a bite of these… well, I had 4 small ones, they were not that big! Really! Well, they were slightly bigger than minis, and definitely not in the BIG category.

Yikes, there goes my promise to myself to ‘restrain’ my indulgence in view of the recent luxurious cheesecake tea-time treat @ Secret Recipe and with year-end parties, Christmas, and New Year just around the corner… maybe, around 2 corners and Chinese New Year in Feb 2010. That doesn’t give me enough time to work out at the gym. I really gotta draft out my ‘strategic plan’… (sigh!)…I really-really  need to get rid of at least 3kilos so I can stuff myself during the festive seasons!

Anyway, I made these so simple, so yummy, so addictive, so delicious, so irresistible, so scrumptious, so fragrant and so popular cupcakes last night. I simply couldn’t wait much longer while they were cooling on the rack and took a bite of these delectable treats fresh from the oven, still slightly warm and crusty …mmmmmmmmmm, trust me, if you are a big fan of nutella, you gotta try this if you haven’t already.

I read some comments and suggestions here and there, and have made some very slight adjustment. Here’s the recipe,

140g butter, softened

3/4 cup caster sugar (1 use 100g)

3 eggs

1/2 tsp vanilla essence

200g plain flour

1/4 tsp salt

2 tsp baking powder

3 tbsp low-fat milk (I added this)

Nutella, approx. 1/3 cup

1.  Pre-heat oven to 190C. Line cupcake pan with paper liners.

2.  Sift flour, salt and baking powder together.

3.  Cream butter and sugar till light, about 2 minutes.

4.  Add in eggs one at a time, until fully incorporated.

5.  Add in vanilla essence and fold in flour until batter is uniform and no flour remains.

6.  Scoop batter and fill each muffin liner till 3/4 full.

7.  Top each cake with 1 tsp Nutella (I use 1/2 - 1 tsp)

8.  Swirl Nutella in with a toothpick, making sure to fold a bit of batter up over the Nutella.

9.  Bake for 20 minutes.

10. Remove to a wire rack to cool completely.

Makes 24 cupcakes (small) (Mine made 28 pieces)

It may not be easy to swirl with the toothpick but you’ll get the hang of it, I was assured by one blogger.  Mine is a little over-done, I think, the next time I’m going to get them out at 18 minutes, so please check your oven.

I like to make small cute cupcakes, to lessen the ‘calories guilt’ or rather allowing ample time to ‘apply the handbrake’ before pigging out! I do sound like a pig…but who can resist good snacks? :-)

These cute fellas got the ‘thumbs up’ from Max and Hubby late last night.

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Strawberry Cheesecake …failed!

I have been planning to make Strawberry Cheesecake for a couple of weeks now but I must admit I FAILED! … (so sad), the taste is right, the texture is “No-No” and the looks, a big “No-No”.


As it’s my first attempt, I wasn’t confident of success so I used a small 12cm round pan and some cute small plastic cuppies.

Thinking back, these are my biggest mistakes,

1.   I accidentally poured whipped cream (before whipping) into the cream cheese mixture and whipped them together, the mixture started ‘separating’, almost like curdling. The texture is not smooth at all. Next time, I must remember to whip whipping cream separately and fold in gently.

2.   When I poured the jelly onto the cheesecake, the strawberry slices started ‘floating’ and some tiny bits of cheesecake also started floating to the top…arrrggh! I should have placed the pieces of strawberry slices on the cheese fillings right after pouring, for them to stick on
3.   Strawberry puree needed to be strained for a smooth cheese filling.

So, you can imagine my non-photogenic strawberry cheesecake cuppies...:-(

The recipe portion can make 1 piece of 12cm round cheesecake and 8 small cute cheese cuppies.

Well, Max likes the cute cheese cuppies very much, so did hubby. I kinda like the cute butterflies. The nice thing about using these plastic cuppies is that they can be covered and stacked neatly in the fridge. Great for serving chilled desserts at kids parties. Good idea, uh? 

Sigh! One of my kitchen disasters… but I'll try again when I can find some nice plum juicy strawberries.

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Blueberry Muffins

Nice, soft and fluffy blueberry muffins, perfect for breakfast as well as afternoon snack.

Just perhaps a little too sweet, I think. No, I didn’t make this from scratch. This comes in a packet I bought from a bakery supply shop, an instant premix. Just add water, eggs and vegetable oil, give it a stir and spoon into muffin pans lined with paper liners.

One packet of  500g can make 24 pcs small-size muffins.

I made it on Sunday night and it was all gone by Monday afternoon. J Sounds like 3 hungry pigs?

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Kiwi Muffin

A simple and quick Muffin recipe from pre-mix, Aunty Catherine’s Recipe which I bought from Best Baking Solution (USJ 8).

1 packet of pre-mix (500g)

½ tsp of sodium bicarbonate

100g water

3 Grade A eggs

120 butter, melted or vegetable oil

1. Mix well kiwi muffin mix with sodium bicarbonate, water and eggs on low speed for 1 min and then mix for 4 mins on medium speed.
2. Add melted butter or vegetable oil (I used sunflower seed oil) and mix at low speed for 1 min.
3. Gently spoon batter in paper-lined muffin pans.
4. Bake at 210°C in pre-heated oven for approximately 20 minutes till cooked.
5. Cool on wire tray.

 This recipe will yield 24-26 pieces medium-size muffins.

The muffins are colored slightly green, but you need to get used to the black dots, the seeds, it's crunchy if you like them. There’s a slight tart kiwi taste in the baked muffins which I kinda like. I normally use sunflower seed oil instead of butter.

Muffins can be stored in the fridge, well-wrapped to avoid absorbing odors or drying out or becoming soggy. Re-heat in warm oven but it won’t have the fresh crispy out-of-the-oven top crust. For better quality, it’s best to consume within a couple of days.

Usually the lot will last us till afternoon tea the next day only! There's has been no need to store in the fridge.

I like a fresh muffin, still slightly warm from the oven with the crispy top crust. Yummy!

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