Maple Pecan Muffins

I think I may just have found the muffin recipe I have been looking for. I love sweet bread (e.g. banana bread, wheaten bread etc) for breakfast and recently I have taken to making muffins to satisfy this craving. For a number of reasons (a) they are easy to make and bake fresh in the morning and (b) I generally have the wherewithal to make them in my cupboards.



Now while I have had some very pleasing results with the muffins I have baked of late, a lot of them have been too sweet for breakfast. But not this one. It is from Nigella Lawson's book 'Feast' adapted slightly, of course. She describes the maple pecan combination perfectly as having a 'smoky austerity'. I will re-iterate though - they are breakfast muffins. The maple syrup give them their sweetness and the wheatgerm and pecans gives them a sort of 'wholesome' taste. If you want something sweet as a dessert, it's not these.

And when I say bake fresh in the morning I mean I measure all the dry ingredients into a bowl and cover with cling film and similarly measure all the wet ingredient into a jug and leave, covered with cling film, in the fridge. I even put muffin cases into a tin. Then in the morning I mix the contents of the jug and the bowl, pour into the cases and stick in the oven. By the time I have my little one up and changed they're ready for us (yes, he's a fan too). I spread a little butter on mine but you don't have to or you could, of course, drizzle over a little maple syrup.



MAPLE PECAN MUFFINS

Ingredients:

125g shelled pecans
275g plain flour
4 tsp baking powder
50g wheatgerm
pinch salt
125ml yoghurt
125ml maple syrup
125ml sunflower/vegetable oil
1 egg
1 tblsp dark brown sugar

Serves 12*

Method:

1. Pre-heat the oven to gas mark 6/200oC. Line a 12-bun muffin tin.

2. Chop the pecans roughly, reserving about a quarter of them to use later to strew on top. Combine the rest of them with the flour, baking powder, wheatgerm and salt in a large bowl.

3. In a measuring jug (or another bowl), whisk together the yoghurt, maple syrup, oil and egg.

4. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry and mix to combine but do not overmix. The mixture will still be lumpy. Spoon the batter into the prepared muffin tin.

5. Chop the reserved nuts a bit finer and mix with the brown sugar and then sprinkle a little on to the top of each muffin. Don't skip this step as it just completes each muffin beautifully. Bake for 20 mins. They will have risen but will not be very brown apart from the sugary topping.

6. Remove from the tin to a cooling rack and eat while they are still warm (with butter or maple syrup)!

*I halved this recipe without any difficulty or ill-effects. I just added what I thought to be half of the beaten egg (and used the other half to dip my little ones bread in for lunch)!

Raspberry Ripple Cheesecake Muffins

I love the way recipes bounce from one blog to another each time with the blogger's adaptions made to it. As Nigella Lawson puts it, "All my recipes are refracted through the prism of my own tastes and prejudices." I picked up this recipe on Granny's blog and she had got it from Rosie's.

The first time I tried it I was a bit disappointed. I was contemplating making the muffins one Saturday when my mother-in-law sent up a box of reduced-price raspberries so it seemed just perfect to make them with raspberries instead of Strawberries. However, I wasn't that enamoured by the pocket of cheese or the baked fruit. That's when I started to toy with the idea of mixing the cream cheese and raspberry throughout the mix and replacing the raspberries with raspberry jam to facilitate this (I had recently made some soft-set raspberry jam which would be perfect).

I also have one important rule when making muffins - use yoghurt!

Success! For me, these adaptations made all the difference. Enjoy.

Raspberry Ripple Cheesecake Muffins

Ingredients:
350g (12oz) plain flour
1 1/2 tbsp baking powder
115g (4oz) castor sugar
1/2 tsp salt
2 eggs
250ml (9fl oz) natural yoghurt
75g (3oz) butter, melted

Filling:
175g (6oz) soft cheese
3tbsp caster sugar
6 tblsp soft-set raspberry jam

Method:

Preheat the oven to 200°C/fan oven 180°C/400°F/gas Mark 6.

Sift the flour and baking powder into a large bowl, add the sugar and salt and mix through with a wooden spoon or whisk then leave aside.

In another bowl beat the eggs and yoghurt together, and then stir in the melted butter. Make a well in the dry ingredients and pour in the liquid ingredients, now gently mix until everything is incorporated - the mixture will still be lumpy and seem a bit dry. Do not over mix or the muffins will not be light and airy.

Beat (just quickly with a fork) the cream cheese and sugar for the filling together in a small bowl. Pour the cream cheese mixture and the raspberry jam into the bowl of muffin batter. Stir to blend - you want the cheese and raspberr ripple throughout the batter. Fill the muffin cases with the muffin mixture.

Bake in the preheated oven for 20-25 minutes until well risen and golden on top. Leave to cool for 5 minutes before turning out on a wire rack to finish cooling.

P.S. This recipe scales to 6 muffins perfectly.

Chicken, Arrowroot and Gingerbread Muffins

Q: What do you get when you combine, chicken, arrowroot and gingerbread muffins?
A: A very eventful Saturday!

I wasn’t meant to blog again today – My Daring Bakers took care of that (and besides I have way too much housework to do). But some of today's events were too good to forget!

First of all this lady arrived....

with this little guy....

and this one.....

In fact, we are now the proud owners of a mother hen and eight little chicks! (Names anyone?)

Then, while I was playing the domestic goddess and baking gingerbread muffins this little guy did this!!!!!!!!!!

Boy did he enjoy himself.

What's the matter mummy?

I just concentrated on my baking for 3 SECS and that's what happened!

Well, at least I had gingerbread muffins to console me.

Gingerbread Muffins

250g plain flour

½ teaspoon bicarb of soda

1 teaspoon baking powder1

½ teaspoons ground ginger

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

¼ teaspoon ground cloves

1 egg

50g dark muscovado sugar

50g light muscovado sugar

150ml full-fat milk

¼ teaspoon balsamic vinegar

6 tablespoons vegetable or corn oil

4 tablespoons golden syrup

4 tablespoons black treacle.

Preheat oven to 200c.

Line a 12 hole muffin tin with muffin papers.Combine the flour, bicarb, baking powder & spices in a large bowl. Whisk the egg in a large measuring jug then add the sugars, breaking up any large lumps. Add the milk and vinegar then measure in the oil with a tablespoon. Use the same oily spoon to add the syrup & treacle so they don’t stick to it. Whisk the mixture to combine and add to the flour mix. Stir until mixed but still fairly lumpy. Spoon into muffin papers & bake for about 20 minutes until the tops are dry.

(I made half the mixture to produce 6 muffins)