COOKBOOKS GALORE

 I’m a great muffin fan and have adapted my basic recipe, given to me by an American friend, many times. This is my latest idea. I made the muffins and was asked by a friend if I could make some for a party with the icing you usually get on a carrot cake.  280g plain flour, 1 tbsps baking powder, 1 tspn mixed spice, pinch salt, 115g soft dark brown sugar, 200g grated carrot, 50g chopped pecans or walnuts, 50g sultanas, 2 eggs, 175ml milk, 6 tbsps sunflower oil Optional: icing - 75g soft cream cheese, 49g butter and 35g icing sugar, sprigs of orange zest Preheat oven 200C/gas6. Grease a muffin tin or use muffin cases. Sift together the flour, baking powder and spice. Add carrots, sugar walnuts and sultanas and stir together. In a jug add the milk, oil and beaten eggs. Mix well. Make a well in flour mix and add milk mixture. Stir gently till just mixed. Don’t over mix or muffins will be heavy. Soon into the muffin tin - I use an ice cream scoop. Bake for 20 mins till risen. Cool...

Am still doing my weekly bake for my kind neighbours, so decided to make something different this week, muffins. There’s been a lot of hype on Facebook about Muffnuts or Donkins! They’re a doughnut muffin. I just had to try them. Decided also to make one of my favourite muffins, using some rosemary from the garden and walnuts . So 2 for the price of 1 today!                                                         Muffnuts It makes 6.            Preheat oven 180C/gas 4 200g sr flour, 100g caster sugar, 125ml milk, 85ml sunflower oil, 1egg and 1 tspn vanilla extract Jam, Nutella or other filling of choice Topping : 75g melted butter and 100g granulated sugar Mix milk, oil, egg and vanilla together in a bowl. In another bowl mix flour and sugar.  Add the milk mixture to the flour, gently. No problem if ther...

I think I've mentioned before that I much prefer muffins to cupcakes - I find the icing on cupcakes just too much. We have a lovely shop in town which sells a great range of herbs and spices, particularly difficult to find ones. In France I did a day's cookery course in a local restaurant, and one of the ingredients we used was Tonka beans. If you want to find out more about them: http://www.greatbritishchefs.com/how-to-cook/how-to-cook-with-tonka-beans I'd never heard of them, so was interested to taste their flavour. It's hard to describe - a bit similar to vanilla, but with fruity and spicy elements! You only use a little, as they can be harmful in large quantities, so it's claimed. I bought 3 beans from my local shop. I'm explaining all this, because my lovely friend who owns the tea shop, gave me her recipe for chocolate muffins with Tonka bean. The recipe! 200g sr flour, 1 tspn baking powder, 150g white chocolate, 12 small squares of dark choco...

As I have already decided to make the chocolate cake in my last post for Easter,  I thought I'd make some small cakes for my grandchildren. They love muffins and they came to visit yesterday so we made them together. The first one we made was topped with buttercream and my favourite  Cadbury's mini eggs, but the second batch was a great favourite of my 2 older grandsons - Crunchy Peanut Butter muffins. I always use oil when making muffins - don't think it is really any healthier, but it sounds better than using butter. For the Easter Muffins: Preheat oven 200C/gas6           Grease a 12 hole muffin tin or use 12 paper cases. Sift together 225g plain flour, 55g cocoa powder, 1 tbspn baking powder and a pinch of salt. Stir in 115g soft brown sugar. Lightly beat 2 eggs in a jug then beat in 250g buttermilk and 6 tbspn sunflower oil. Make a well in the middle of the dry ingredients and carefully stir in the wet ones. Mix till just combined - be c...

A quick post as I'm off to my daughter in London till Sunday. I made these muffins to use up the last sticks of rhubarb in the garden. I usually use oil instead of butter, but thought I'd give these a try. The recipe is from a tatty book I picked up in a charity shop, called '100 Muffins' , but it doesn't have the writer's name in it.  150g caster sugar 280g plain flour 21/2 tspns baking powder 1 tspn cinnamon 1/2 tspn bicarb. 1/2 tpsn salt 250ml creme fraiche  110g melted butter 2 eggs 1 tspn vanilla 150g diced rhubarb Topping: 3 tbspn caster sugar 1/2 tspn cinnamon Preheat oven 200C/gas6             Grease a 12 hole muffin tin. Combine flour, baking powder, sugar, cinnamon, salt and bicarb together in a bowl. In another bowl whisk together the creme fraiche, eggs, butter and vanilla to a smooth batter. Stir the wet mixture into the dry one, but don't over mix. Stir in the rhubarb.  Spoon the batter into the muffin tin...

At long last our rhubarb plants in the garden have got their act together and produced a decent amount of fruit. I made a crumble and a cake, both of which I put in the freezer, and wanted to use up the last pieces. This is my dil's favourite muffin recipe - not with rhubarb and chocolate, but she loves blueberries and raspberries. I found the addition of Greek yoghurt rather unusual, as I usually use milk. I was going to just make rhubarb muffins, then found I had some white chocolate to use up; it's a good combination. 80g butter 150g sugar 1 tspn vanilla extract 2 large eggs, beaten 100ml Greek yoghurt 225g flour + 1 tspn baking powder 400g rhubarb chopped into small pieces 150g white chocolate, chopped Preheat oven 200C/gas6 Filla 12 hole muffin tin with paper cases Beat butter and sugar together. Add the beaten eggs, vanilla extract and yoghurt and gently combine. Fold in the flour and then add the rhubarb and chocolate. Blend together thoroughly, but do...

I've posted muffin recipes several times, adapting my favourite recipe. I made a rhubarb tart yesterday, and had enough rhubarb left to make some muffins. I wanted to make something different, but having looked online and not been inspired, I decided to adapt my old faithful recipe  We love rhubarb crumble, so muffins with rhubarb and crumble sound ideal. I usually make the crumble with half oats and half flour, and I use oil instead of butter in the muffins. A healthier option! I used soft light brown sugar instead of my usual caster. For the crumble topping: 50g butter, 50g plain flour 25g porridge oats 50g demerara sugar 1 tsp ground cinnamon For the muffins: 225g self-raising flour 100g soft light brown sugar 1 medium egg, beaten 250ml milk 120ml sunflower or rapeseed oil 200g rhubarb, sliced lengthways and chopped 2 tbspn cold water 50g caster sugar icing sugar [opt] Preheat oven to 200C/gas mark 6. Line a 12-hole muffin tin wi...

  I still had a couple of pears left in the fruit bowl after making the pear cake, so decided to make some muffins. I played around with my basic muffins recipe and came up with this one - pears and walnuts are 2 of my favourite things. I usually make muffins in paper cases, but I've noticed that a lot of crumb gets stuck to these, so this time I decided to make them directly in the muffin tin. Although the tin is non-stick, I greased the holes and dredged over a little flour just to make doubly sure the muffins would pop out easily, which they did. 180ml milk 2 tbsp vegetable oil 1 large egg 225g wholewheat flour or white plain flour if you prefer 2 tsp baking powder ½ tsp salt ½ tsp ground cinnamon 150g demerara sugar 1 large firm but ripe pear 50g coarsely chopped walnuts 1-2 tbsp demerara sugar for sprinkling Preheat the oven to 200ºC/400ºF/gas mark 6, and lightly grease and flour a 12 hole muffin tin. Put the milk, oil and egg in a small mixin...

I'm sure that everyone has their own tried and tested muffin recipe. I like recipes which use oil instead of butter. I found this one in a French food magazine and it looked interesting, having yoghurt and coffee as two of the ingredients, plus one of my favourite spices- cinnamon. Muffins are quick and easy to make, and these are no exception. For 12 muffins: 250g plain flour 2 tspns cinnamon 21/2 tspns baking powder 1/2 tspn bicarbonate of soda 130g caster sugar 1 egg 80ml oil - I used rapeseed 250g yoghurt 75ml cold strong coffee 12 squares of dark chocolate Chocolate coated coffee beans to decorate Preheat oven 180C/gas 4 Grease a 12 hole muffin tin, or use muffin cases. In a bowl, mix together the flour, cinnamon, baking powder, bicarb.and sugar. In another bowl beat the egg and add the oil, yoghurt and coffee. Mix these together. Fold in the flour mixture carefully - don't overmix, a few lumps are fine. Put the muffin cases, if using, into the muffin...

I'm sure it's everyone's 'using up leftovers' time this week, and I'd bought some cranberries and not used them. We love muffins and just to make them a bit different, I added some crumble mix on the top. I saw a chef doing this on one of the food programmes. They called it 'streusel topping' and I don't know if it's different from the run-of-the-mill crumble topping? I used my usual muffin recipe and added the cranberries and some mixed spice. This is my tried and tested muffin recipe, gathered from a friend in the US. I'm not sure why, but I seem to make a different number of muffins each time I use the recipe! Today I made 11. 225g plain flour 100g caster sugar] 2 tspns baking powder 1 heaped tspn mixed spice 1/2 tspn salt 1 egg 250ml milk 120ml sunflower oil [ I usually use rapeseed, but only had sunflower left ] Preheat oven 200C/400F/gas6 Either grease a muffin tin or put paper cases into the holes. Mix the dry ingre...

Is it just me, or do bananas ripen more quickly nowadays? I always seen to have a few overripe ones in the fruit bowl. Then, what do do with them? Have made banana muffins before, but not with oats and walnuts. They're not as 'cakey' tasting as my normal muffin recipe,but are substantial and great with a cuppa! They'd be good for breakfast too. The recipes makes 12 muffins . 100g oats 200g plain flour 11/2 tspn baking powder cinnamon to taste [opt] 1 tson bicarb. of soda little salt 100g light brown sugar 4 ripe bananas 1 large beaten egg 60g melted butter or oil [I used rapeseed] 75g chopped walnuts Preheat oven 180C/gas4 Grease a 12 hole muffin tin, or line with paper cases. Put the flour, oats, baking powder, bicarb., salt and sugar in a bowl and mix together. I then mixed in a tbspn of cinnamon as I love it! Mash up the bananas in another bowl and add the egg, butter or oil and the walnuts. Mix this together and add to the dry ingredients. Mix together gently - do...

Yesterday I made some creme anglaise to have with our rhubarb crumble. There was a little left over, so this recipe was just perfect. It makes 12 muffins 90g melted butter 300g sr flour 150g plain flour 1 tspn cinnamon [ I love it so used 2 tspns] 165g caster sugar 1 egg, beaten 250ml milk 60ml creme anglaise 150g cooked apples [I used cox and chopped them up before cooking] 2 tbspn demerara sugar preheat oven 200C/gas 6/400F Grease a 12-holed muffin tin or use 12 muffin cases. Mix together the butter, flours, 1/2 the cinnamon, caster sugar, egg and milk till just mixed. Fill the cases or holes half full of the batter, then make a deepish dent in the middle and add 1 tspn creme anglaise and 2 tspns apple. Add more batter on top. Mix the brown sugar with the rest of the cinnamon and sprinkle on top of the muffins. Cook for about 25 mins till golden. Leave the muffins to rest in the tin, and then put onto a wire rack. I like the texture of the muffins with th...