Category: muffins

Every recipe has a story. Readers will know that I volunteer weekly at Smartworks (pre-Corona virus hiatus any way). I bring baked goods every Wednesday for the staff, the clients and my fellow volunteers. We have a Wednesday team that does ‘wardrobe’. We have the pleasure of sorting, sizing, hanging and steaming the many wonderful donations from private donors and corporate partners.

Occasionally, I ask the Smartworks team for baking ‘requests’. And one of the Wednesday team, the lovely Daryl, asked for chocolate cheesecake muffins. Never made them before so perused blogs and internet recipe sites. They are an American thing (Daryl, like me, is an American in the UK) but I was looking for a recipe that used weight and metric measurements. Follow Daryl on Instagram here. I can convert from volume to weight but American recipes can call for ingredients that I don’t like to use and tend to be too sweet. I found a recipe here on Allrecipes.co.uk that served as a good base although I tweaked the sugar and the prep instructions a bit.

And thus a classic recipe was added to my repertoire. These muffins are vote winners and relationship builders any place you take them. A couple of bonuses – can be whipped together in a hour or so. And I get to use the 24 cup muffin tin I brought home from America. The recipe makes 18 to 24 nice sized muffins; you could halve it or you could make 12 big ones and then some mini ones. Adjust the baking temperature and time down if you decide to make small ones.

A few tips: first use Philadelphia cream cheese if you can find it. I don’t know what they put in that stuff but it gives the best texture. It also works with Waitrose basic cream cheese and really expensive organic stuff but Philly is easiest to work with. Second, if you’re a regular reader you know my views on chocolate. Use the best quality cocoa powder and chocolate chips you can afford. it makes a difference. Finally, I use a piping bag to fill the muffin tins. Once you get the hang of it – it’s a time saver and it keeps your tin tidy.

Everyone say ‘thank you Daryl’ now and move on to the recipe.

Recipe

Ingredients

Cream cheese filling

• 225g cream cheese
• 1 egg
• 50 grams caster (granulated) sugar
• 1/8 teaspoon salt

Chocolate batter

• 200 grams plain flour
• 175 grams caster sugar
• 60 grams unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda (baking soda)
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 250ml water
• 75ml vegetable oil
• 1 tablespoon plain vinegar (distilled malt or white vinegar)
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

170 grams dark chocolate chips.

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 180C (160C fan). Prep your muffin tins (makes 18 to 24) I use paper liners in my muffin tins and give them a quick spray of coconut oil. You can go without the spray oil but I would not do these in an unlined tin even if you grease and flour.
2. Beat together the ingredients for the cream cheese filling. Put to one side.
3. Sift together the dry ingredients for the chocolate batter: flour, sugar, cocoa powder, bicarbonate of soda, salt.
4. Combine the water, vegetable oil, vinegar and vanilla extract. Mix into the dry ingredients. The batter will appear very thin.
5. Fill a piping bag with the chocolate batter and carefully pipe each muffin tin about one third full. There’s usually too much batter for one bag so use a second one or clip the first one closed with a binder clip (you know those annoying black clips that we used for paper documents). See this video of me filling the tins. I’m working on doing better videos – with narration for one. Bear with me.
6. Fill another piping bag with the cream cheese filling. Pipe a couple of tablespoons on the top of each chocolate batter base. I do one squeeze of the bag all the way around and then circle back to those that look less full.
7. We haven’t forgotten the chocolate bits. Drop 6 or so in the cream cheese filling of each muffin tin. I know this seems fiddly and it’s fine if one or two end up in the chocolate part but it’s the best way to evenly distribute them
8. Put your tin or tins in the oven for 30 minutes, then test for doneness.
9. Remove from the oven and let the muffins cool in the tins for 5 minutes, then remove. If you let them cool completely in the muffin tins the edges can harden.

Enjoy! Thanking you for subscribing, for reading the blog and for baking the recipes. It’s a labour of love – I have no hope of monetisation but it’s fun for me. Please send requests, comments, etc.

Happy Baking.

This is an updated version of a previous post. Working through my store cupboard of less well used ingredients.

Everyone (well every American cook) is likely to have a can of pumpkin rattling around in the cupboard and god only knows how old it might be. If you don’t have canned or tinned then you can make this recipe with just about any squash except courgette (zucchini to los Americanos).

Oven bake the squash – split, remove seeds, brush surfaces with vegetable oil and roast until soft. Then scrape the inside out and weigh. One butternut squash should make about the right amount. Or peel, seed, cut into chunks and boil until soft. Drain and mash. You don’t need exactly the ‘right’ amount. If you’re within 20% plus or minus you should still be okay.

Don’t have the ‘right’ ingredients in your cupboard? Here are some flex suggestions and there’s a vegan version also.

Flour: any old plain wheat flour will do. Not self rising but white or whole wheat and any mixture of those. I also mixed in 10% by weight of potato flour.

Sugar: any brown sugar will do, even those dried up lumps you’ve found in the cupboard. You can reduce the sugar by 25% and still get a great result.

Spices: use what you have, spices add to the complexity of the flavour but not the basic taste or structure.

Nuts, raisins, chocolate: any or all can be omitted. Any dried fruit can be used, cut into raisin sized chunks. I didn’t use any chocolate in the version pictured here.

Vegan version:
– use 1/2 mashed ripe banana per egg,
– use vegetable shortening (trex or crisco) in same quantity
– reduce sugar by 20%

This is a straightforward ‘quick’ bread designed to use one can of pumpkin adapted from a King Arthur recipe. Depending on what pans you have:

• 3 x one pound loaves (small loaf pan, 400gms).
• 1 x two pound loaf (large loaf pan) and 1 x one pound loaf
• 2 x one pound loaves and 6 to 9 muffins.

Recipe

Ingredients

• 340 grams whole wheat flour (I used 60 grams of potato flour and 280 gram of mixed quality whole wheat flour)
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
• 3/4 tsp baking powder
• 3/4 tsp salt
• 3/4 tsp ground cinnamon
• 3/4 tsp ground cloves
• 1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
• 170 grams unsalted butter, melted and cooled slightly
• 320 grams brown sugar (light or dark)
• 70 grams caster sugar
• 4 large eggs
• 1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 can of pumpkin puree (Not pumpkin pie filling) or (400 grams of cooked pureed squash of your choice)
• 115 grams of chopped nuts (walnut or pecan)
• 170 grams of ‘mix in’ I used raisins but any dried fruit chopped to the right size will do. Substitute a portion for chocolate chips for a decadent effect.

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 170C (350f) if making smaller loaves or muffins. 180C if making larger loaves. Prep your loaf pans or muffin tins – I use paper liners for my loaf pans as well as muffin tins.
2. Chop the nuts and fruit. Combine with the chocolate chips if using. Put to one side.
3. Combine the butter and the sugars. This can be done by hand but easier in the mixer. Beat in the eggs one at a time, scraping the bowl to ensure everything is combined. Then beat in the vanilla and the pumpkin or squash.
4. Whisk the dry ingredients together: flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg.
5. Stir your fruit, nuts and chocolate chips into the dry ingredients. Coating them with flour seems to distribute them more evenly throughout the batter.
6. Add the dry ingredients in three batches to the butter/sugar mix. Don’t over beat, but make sure all the dry ingredients are moistened.
7. Put the batter in your prepared pans. I like to use a trigger ice cream scoop, this batter does not pour well.
8. A large loaf will need an hour in the oven. Small loaves about 45 minutes and a muffin tin 35 minutes. Check the temperature – should be above 90C. The bread or muffins should look ‘dry’ across the top.
9. Take the bread out of the oven and place the pan or pans on the rack to cool for 15 minutes. Then remove from the pans and allow to cool completely.

And then enjoy. We like to eat this for breakfast with cream cheese. Please let me know if you’re baking the recipes. Thanks for reading, following, sharing. Happy baking.

Recipe #2 from from Chapter 2 ‘Quick Breads’ , King Arthur Flour Whole Grain Baking.

I made this recipe three times. Came out much the same each time. I have concluded I don’t like corn muffins. I shouldn’t be surprised by this because I don’t really like polenta, grits or corn bread. I’ll eat corn tortillas, corn chips and corn on the cob but apparently baked goods with corn meal are not my thing. However, I’ve mastered the recipe and share it for the sake of completeness. And for those readers who might like corn meal baked goods.

Important – corn meal is the yellow stuff. Corn starch or corn flour (UK) are white and primarily used as thickening agents. This recipe calls for corn meal. You might struggle to find it in your local supermarket but as always – the internet is your friend. Buy one bag, you may find yourself not a big fan of corn meal.

The Davinator (never met a baked good he didn’t eat) liked these and I ate them also although he did compare their texture to scones. My second and third attempts produced a fluffier outcome – less dense, more muffin like – but the taste has remained constant. I’ve modified the original recipe and it’s below with my adjustments. In both metric and imperial measurements.

No mocking but I did use a piping bag to fill the muffin cups because I wanted to make some mini-muffins, much better for taking to my charity job at Smart Works. A muffin small enough to eat in one bit is guilt free after all.

Ingredients

170 grams (6 ounces) – unsalted butter, melted

190 grams (6 3/4 ounces) – white flour

275 grams (9 3/4 ounces) – whole yellow cornmeal

50 grams (1 3/4 ounces) – caster sugar (granulated)

1 teaspoon salt

1 tablespoon baking powder

2 large eggs

340 mls (12 ounces) – milk

50 grams (3 tablespoons) – honey

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 200C (180 fan) (400F). Melt the butter and have ready.
2. Prepare your muffin tin – this makes a dozen normal sized muffins or 6 normal sized and a dozen mini muffins.
3. Whisk together the sugar, flour, cornmeal , baking powder and salt in your mixing bowl.
4. Using the beater attachment, turn the mixer on and add the butter as the mixer is going.
5. Do the same with the milk and the honey.
6. Beat the eggs in one at a time, don’t overbeat.
7. Fill the piping bag. Or use your ice cream trigger scoop and fill the muffin tins.
8. Normal sized muffins need 20 to 23 minutes in the oven. 12 minutes is sufficient for the mini muffins.

These are nice with butter and jam (what isn’t when you think about it) but also good with peanut butter and or Nutella. Bake away and enjoy.

It’s still January (just barely). I’m back to the King Arthur Whole Grain Baking quest after a busy and tumultuous holiday season. Also, I started my non-exec and ‘consulting’ job. But that’s in my parallel universe. Here, it’s all about that bread.

I was trying to be methodical and start at the beginning of the cookbook but I fell at the first fence. The first chapter is ‘breakfast’. It’s essentially pancakes, waffles, crepes and granola. The problem here is that the Davinator prefers savoury breakfast – unless it’s a croissant and then he’s all over it with the butter and jam. So, I parked the first chapter until I have keener ‘consumers’. Maybe pancake day…..

I’ve jumped to the quick bread chapter which has twelve muffin recipes. And decided I must go in strict order. So, it’s ‘Sour Cream Muffins’ to start. Here we go.

I have, however, a couple of minor criticisms of the KA Whole Grain Baking cookbook.

The first is that in their quest to make whole grain taste good, the recipes call for an array of specialised ingredients. A few of these are practically impossible to find in the UK – so if I can’t get it, I’m assuming readers will be unable to source. I’ve decided to ‘substitute’ those difficult ingredients. If substitution doesn’t work, I’ll punt on those recipes until I can get my hands on the real thing. One thing I couldn’t find -‘white whole wheat flour’. I tried a mix of white and whole wheat flour and that came out fine in this recipe.

The second is that the recipes are tailored to American taste buds. After I’ve made them the first time, I start reducing the sugar. In some recipes, I’ve cut the sugar by 1/3. I’m careful with this because sugar also affects the basic chemistry of baked goods, beyond making it sweet.

I made these muffins with frozen blueberries and I suspect they would be fine with any frozen or fresh fruit. My frozen blueberries (from Sainsburys I confess) were on the large size, so I would probably try smaller berries or smaller pieces of fruit the next time.

Recipe

Ingredients – makes 12 muffins

150 grams (5 ounces) whole wheat flour

140 grams (4 1/3 ounces) plain white flour (not self raising)

1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

55 grams (2 ounces, 4 tablespoons) unsalted butter, melted

180 grams (6 1/3 ounces) of sugar

2 large eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

225 mls (8 fluid ounces) of sour cream or full fat greek yoghurt

220 grams (8 ounces) frozen blueberries

Instructions

1. Combine the first five ingredients; flour to salt, in a bowl. Stir together.
2. Put the melted butter in the bowl for your mixer. Add the sugar. Beat to combine (don’t you love the melted butter trick).
3. Scrape down the bowl, beat in the eggs one a time and combine well.
4. Add the vanilla and the sour cream. Beat until incorporated.
5. Add the dry ingredients from step 1. Mix on low speed until just combined. (Do not overbeat quick bread, it will punish you).
6. Stir in the frozen fruit. Make sure that the bottom of the batter has mixed in properly.
7. Cover the bowl and refrigerate for an hour. You could leave it longer but I think the frozen fruit will deteriorate if you leave it for too long.
8. Preheat the oven to 200C (180C fan) (375F).
9. Prep a muffin pan with paper liners lightly coated with non-stick spray or grease the tin.
10. Fill the muffin pan – I use my ice cream scoop. Put a generous scoop full in each muffin cup.
11. Bake for 22 to 26 minutes. They will look lovely and brown on the top when complete.
12. Cool for 5 minutes in the tin, then tip out to cool on a rack or on the counter top. Don’t let them cool in the tin; that’s how they get hard crust on the sides and bottom.

Enjoy. One recipe down, eleven to go.