Banana Muffins

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I always thought this receipe would be one of the first ones I put up on this blog and I’m surprised it’s taken me this long.

That’s because these banana muffins are so quick to make and you can’t really go wrong with this easy receipe and even vary it slightly if you like by adding some chopped nuts or chocolate chips or  – if you can find them in the shops – peanut butter chips!

Making these muffins is also the best way of using up old bananas that may have gotten left at the bottom of the fruit bowl, you know those forgotten bananas that that no one wants to eat as they’ve gone all bruised and brown or even black.

Well, they are perfect for this receipe.
And don’t attempt to use bananas that haven’t gone dark yet – for this receipe, the browner the bananas the better! If you remember this you can’t really go wrong with these crowd pleasers…

For 12 cupcake sized muffins you’ll need:

  • 3 big, over ripe bananas
  • 3/4 cup sugar
  • 1/3 cup of sunflower oil
  • 1 egg, lightly whisked
  • 1 ½ cup plain flour
  • 1 tsp baking powder
  • 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
  • optional: 1/2  cup chocolate or peanut butter chips or walnut pieces

Preheat the oven to gas mark 5 and line a muffin tin with paper cases.

Mash the bananas with a fork.

In a large bowl mix the flour with the bicarbonate of soda and baking powder.

Now add all other ingredients and mix them together.

It really is as easy as that!
As long as you mix up the flour with the raising ingredients first the order of the rest doesn’t matter and you can even mix everything together with a wooden spoon or fork (as with all muffins this is preferable to using an electric whisk to get the right muffin texture).

Fill the muffin cases evenly and bake for about 20 – 25 minutes until a toothpick inserted in the middle of the muffins comes out clean. Leave to cool down in the tin for a few minutes then lt the muffins cool on a wire rack.

They will keep in a cake tin for a few days!

Berry Bircher Müsli

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We have summer!

It’s been such a long wait this year that it is worth me mentioning this. We’ve had 3 days of sun in a row with about 25-30 degrees and it’s been great.

In this weather I like to use my balcony for breakfast – it gets the sun in the mornings, which is lovely. And, instead of slaving over a hot stove to cook up something exciting, I have been enjoying a summery and healthy “Bircher Müsli”  which is so quickly put together that I often have it during the week before work as well as on lazy weekends. It’s rather healthy and full of slow release energy thanks to the oat flakes.

Of course, the original “Bircher Müsli” is a Swiss müsli, which may be another reason why I like eating it in the  summer… it reminds me of family summer holidays in Switzerland, when I grew up. However, this is not quite a traditional receipe but my version of it, made without nuts but with seeds and grain flakes, all of which you can find in health food shops.

As for the measurements, it’s actually not that easy to write up a proper receipe, since I very much make up the quantities as I go along. So use this as rough guidelines only – in other words, feel free to vary them as you like. The same goes for the ingredients.

Whatever your ingredients for the dry müsli mix, I suggest making up a big jar of it, so you can scoop out a few tablespoons for each portion you make up – just remember to do this the night before as it needs soaking in the fridge!

You will need:

  • 1 cup Oat flakes
  • ½ cup Barley Flakes
  • ¼ cup Spelt Flakes
  • ¼ cup Toasted Rye Flakes
  • ¼ cup Pumpkin Seeds
  • ¼ cup Sunflower Seeds
  • Apple Juice
  • Fat Free Vanilla Yoghurt
  • Fresh Berries such as Strawberries, Blueberries and Raspberries

 

Combine the flakes and seeds and store in a jar.

The night before you want to eat the Bircher Müsli, add a few tablespoons of the flake and seed mix to a bowl and add some apple juice, just enough to cover the müsli. Leave to stand in the fridge overnight so that the apple juice sweetens and softens the müsli.

In the morning add as much yoghurt and as many berries as you like. I tend to stir everything in and then top it with another dollop of yoghurt and a few more berries.

Mmmmmmm….

Duffins

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What is a Duffin, I hear you ask?
The answer is: a donut-like muffin!

I hadn’t heard of them either until the other week when I was reviewing a café near Holborn , who had a tray of freshly baked ‘Duffins’ on their counter. I was instantly intrigued by the sweet smelling muffins rolled in cinnamon sugar and couldn’t resist buying and trying one. And, oh boy, was I glad I did, as the buttery muffin, full of vanilla, cinnamon and nutmeg flavours was very yummy indeed.

As soon as I was back in front of a computer I started looking for Duffins on the web and found that they originated in North America (no surprise there then) and they seem to be this year’s big new thing.
I’d even go as far as saying that they may become this year’s ‘whoopee pie’ if you know what I mean…

Anyhow, I found a good Duffin receipe which I tweaked a tiny bit to make them taste like the Duffin I had tried. So I added the nutmeg for example. The original receipe also asked for using extra light olive oil, for example, but I think baking with virgin olive oil is a bit of a waste, when sunflower or groundnut oil work just as well. My colleagues certainly didn’t seem to mind, when they were wolfing them down to appreciating sounds of “mmmm” and “ahhhmmm”.

Have a go at making the Duffins, which are best eaten with a fresh cup of hot coffee!

Receipe based on this one.

For the Duffins you will need:

  • ¾ cup sugar
  • 1 large egg
  • 1½ cups flour
  • 2 tsp baking powder
  • pinch of salt
  • ¼ cup sunflower oil (or other neutral tasting oil suitable for baking, such as groundnut oil)
  • 1 cup milk
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract
  • 1 tsp almond extract
  • ½ tsp ground nutmeg

And for the topping:

  • 1 tbsp butter, melted
  • ½ tsp cinnamon
  • ½ cup caster sugar

Preheat the oven to gas mark 4.

Grease a 12-muffin tin, ideally with an oil spray, if you have it (other sites suggest pouring a tiny bit of oil in the forms).

In a large jug or bowl, beat together the sugar and egg until light and fluffy. Now, pour in the oil, milk, and vanilla and almond extracts and mix to combine.

In another large bowl mix the flour with the baking powder, nutmeg and salt. Now pour the fluid mix into the flour mix and stir well.

Divide the batter evenly into the muffin cups, filling them about half full and bake for 15-20 minutes (toothpick test!).

While muffins are baking, melt the butter for he topping in a small bowl. I found blitzing it for 20 seconds in the microwave did the trick nicely.

For the topping, pour the caster sugar and all the cinnamon on to a soup plate and mix until all is combined.

Once the Duffins are done and only slightly cooled down for 5-10 minutes, lightly brush the top with the melted butter.  Remove each duffin from the pan and dip the top in the cinnamon sugar straight away and follow this rolling it around the whole plate, covering the whole Duffin.

Enjoy!

 

Baked Cheesecake with Passion Fruit

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For the last two weeks I have had the pleasure of having a houseguest: the lovely Annelise came over – all the way from New Zealand!

We’ve known each other for over 10 years, when we met as she and her husband lived in the Big Smoke at the time. A lot has changed since then and we had fun delving into old memories. One of the things Analies mentioned was that she still remembers a German cheesecake I made all these years ago, she remembered it was baked (as German cheese cake generally is) and not too sweet (another typical German cake fact).

In honour of this memory I had to make us another German cheesecake – this time with the not so German addition of passion fruits, which gives the cake an exotic flavour.

Cheesecake is always rather rich and I tried to make this cake with Stevia instead of icing sugar but would not recommend this substitution. You can however use a half fat cream cheese to get the calories down a little.

A word of warning, as the cake has to cool down after baking and then set in the fridge overnight you will have to plan in some extra time for the making of it but it will be ready in the morning –  just on time for breakfast!

 

For a round cake of 20 cm in diameter, you’ll need:

  • A 20 cm diameter spring form, lined with baking paper

For the base:

  • 110g Tennis biscuits, which are South African coconut biscuits, or any other (preferably coconut flavoured) biscuits
  • 50 g skinned almonds
  • 50g unsalted butter

For the cheese cake topping:

  • 1 heaped tsp corn flour
  • 300g cream cheese
  • 500g ricotta
  • 4 eggs
  • 150g icing sugar
  • 1 lemon

For the glaze:

  • 5 passion fruits
  • 100ml passion fruit juice
  • 2 leaves gelatine

Turn the biscuits in to fine crumbs, for example by putting them all in a food bag and bashing them to pieces with a rolling pin. Chop the almonds into rough pieces. Melt the butter in the microwave (this only takes seconds, so make sure you check every 3secs), let it cool slightly then mix with the biscuit crumbs and almonds and press the mix in the paper lined cake tin. Leave to cool in the fridge for 30 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 150 degrees.

Mix the corn flour with 2 tablespoons of water and mix to a smooth paste. Mix the rest of the ingredients for the topping with an electric whisk, then mix the corn flour paste under it. Pour the mix on to the biscuit base and bake in the oven, on the lowest shelf, for 75- 90 minutes. Let the cake cool down in the tin – first outside for about an hour, then overnight, in the fridge.

The next morning, scrape the flesh of the passion fruits out (you need about 100g) in to a pot, add the juice and heat but don’t let it boil. In the meantime soak the gelatine as per packet instructions, then squeeze the excess water out of the gelatine and dissolve the leaves – one after the other – in the passion fruit juice. Spread on the cake and leave to set in the fridge for 60 minutes.

Or you could make little Mini Cheesecakes in Muffin forms – just cut down the baking time accordingly!

 

Guilt Free Strawberry Muffins

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It’s time for another healthy breakfast, some low-cal, low- fat, low-(or even no) sugar strawberry muffins. The strawberry season in England is well and truly upon us, with Wimbledon just around the corner, and the strawberries are at their best right now.

This simple that receipe I found on the Dashing Dish blog doesn’t include any butter/margarine or oil and it is wheat-free. Plus it can be made with Stevia instead of sugar to lower the calories even further. I opted for Stevia and can therefore truly call these muffins guilt free. Apparently they only have about 90 calories per muffin!

It has to be said though that the muffins are so healthy tasting that I didn’t quite have the guts to offer them around the office. I’m not saying they tasted bad but they are not really sweet and I feared my colleagues would think I’d have lost my touch, as they are usually treated to extra sweet and creamy goodies from my oven to get us through a hectic day I the office. I should probably have added a bit more Stevia or used vanilla flavoured yoghurt rather than plain, which may have made the muffins sweeter. As it was, they did taste a bit like oatmeal porridge in muffin form but as a healthy breakfast option, this works for me.

It is very important to cut the strawberries in small pieces so that they can mix into the dough and muffins evenly as it is these juicy red pieces that give the muffins their flavour. And one more note, as pointed out by the original author, please use silicon cases for the muffins – they would stick to paper ones!

Receipe from: http://dashingdish.com/recipe/strawberry-shortcake-muffins/

For 12 muffins (that are of the smaller size rather than the gigantic American ones) you’ll need:

  • 2 ½ cups of oats
  • 400g (about 2 cups when cut into small pieces) strawberries
  • 1 cup plain low fat Greek yoghurt (or you could try a vanilla or honey flavoured one)
  • 2 eggs
  • ¼ cup Stevia (though you may want to increase this up by about 3 extra tbsp)
  • 1 ½ tsp baking powder
  • ½ tsp baking soda

Start by prepping the strawberries: cut them in small pieces and put them on some kitchen paper to dry, so they are not too juicy. Set about ½ a cup aside!

Preheat the oven on to gas mark 6.

In a bowl mix the yoghurt, the eggs, the Stevia, baking powder and baking soda with a whisk.

Tip the oats in a blender and top with the yoghurt mix to blend. The best way is to start this is using the pulse setting – the oats needs to get grind down to a rough powder whilst being mixed in with the yoghurt.

Pour the mix back in to a bowl and fold the strawberry pieces under, except the ½ cup you set aside earlier! Spread the dough evenly between 12 silicone muffin cups and use these strawberry pieces you set aside earlier to top about a teaspoon worth of them in the middle of each muffin.

Bake for 25-30 minutes or do the toothpick test (ready whem the toothpick comes out clean!).