This Week's Recipe: Muffins


Why Muffins?

For me baking is comfort cooking. When I am feeling a little down or stressed I turn to baking for comfort and peace of mind. Nothing beats the baking smells that fill the air and the somewhat child like innocence you feel as you eat your final product with utter delight.

Muffins have the reputation of being disappointingly dry or overly greasy, as industrially produced versions seem to have popped up endlessly in supermarkets, convenience stores and some cafes. Don’t be fooled – homemade muffins don’t taste dry, dull or greasy and certainly don’t taste artificial.

Muffins are one of my favourite baking comforts. They are the easiest thing to bake and can be any flavour from chocolate and berries to cheese and chives.

The recipes I share below are quite low in sugar and fat making them perfect for the whole family, anytime of day. Personally I have to admit I enjoy them warm from the oven smeared with butter or cream cheese. Did I mention they were comfort cooking?

Ingredients

Strawberry Muffins
Vegetable spray or unsalted butter for greasing
310 g self raising flour
120g caster sugar
50g unsalted butter, melted
2 eggs
1 green apple grated
1 heaped tablespoon plain yoghurt
150g strawberries, chopped or frozen strawberries, thawed and drained
4 strawberries fresh or frozen, cut in half

Method
Preheat oven to 180 degrees Celsius. Spray a muffin tray with vegetable spray or grease with butter.
In a large bowl mix together all ingredients until just combined. You don’t want to over work the batter otherwise you will have tough and heavy muffins.

Divide the batter amongst the muffin tray. As a rule I fill them until the batter is in line with the top of the tin. This allows the perfect balance between the cookie like muffin top and the cake like muffin base.

Press a strawberry half onto each muffin and place in the oven. Bake for 15-20 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean.

Allow to cool in the tin for 5 minutes before turning out.

Makes 8 in a regular sized muffin tin or 24 in a mini muffin tin.

Serve plain or as I like to with butter and a little jam.

You can make these any flavour you like. Simply follow the recipe and substitute the strawberries.

Some suggestions;
•Banana and choc chip (mash the banana before mixing)
•Blueberry
•Pineapple and coconut (cut fresh pineapple into cubes and use 2 tablespoons shredded coconut)
Orange and poppy seed (use the zest of 1 orange and 1/2 the juice)
Apple and stewed rhubarb (peel a second apple and cut into cubes)

Zucchini and dill muffins
310 g self raising flour
120g caster sugar
50g unsalted butter, melted
2 eggs
1 heaped tablespoon plain yoghurt
100g cheese, grated or chopped (I use cheddar, mozzarella, fetta or a mild blue depending on which vegetable I use)
1 zucchini, grated or chopped finely
1/2 bunch dill, chopped
8 slices of zucchini, optional

Method
Preheat oven to 180 degrees Celsius. Spray a muffin tray with vegetable spray or grease with butter. Make sure they are greased well because the cheese likes to stick.

In a large bowl mix together all ingredients until just combined. You don’t want to over work the batter otherwise you will have tough and heavy muffins.

Divide the batter amongst the muffin tray. As a rule I fill them until the batter is in line with the top of the tin. This allows the perfect balance between the cookie like muffin top and the cake like muffin base.

If you like press a zucchini slice onto each muffin and place in the oven. Bake for 20 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean. (The savoury ones generally take longer than the sweet.)

Allow to cool in the tin for 5- 10 minutes before turning out. You may need to be gentle when taking these out, as the cheese might still be runny. I usually find the best way is to twist them slightly in their tin before releasing.

Makes 8 in a regular sized muffin tin or 24 in a mini muffin tin.

Serve plain or as I like to with butter or cream cheese and condiments.

You can make these any flavour you like. Simply follow the recipe and substitute the zucchini and dill for other vegetables.

Some suggestions;
Tomato and basil (use cherry tomatoes as they are sweeter and I add a 2 teaspoons of tomato paste for colour)
Bake pumpkin and blue cheese (bake some pumpkin wedges and cut roughly)
Sweet corn and chives (use raw corn kernels)


Bon Appetite

1 comments:

Anonymous said...

120 g of sugar is still quite a lot of sugar isn't it?

 

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