Banana Muffins

The more one knows about cooking, the more free one feels to experiment and create concoctions in the style of "the contents of my fridge". Thus today I mixed a batch of banana muffins and they turned out so delicious, that I decided to write down the recipe for further reference.

What I had were a  bunch of bananas, that according to husband were not very tasty, some open cup of yogurt and chocolate chips, and of course, flour, eggs, sunflower oil and other household staples.

 Ingredients:

• 1 average banana
• 1 egg
• 60 g sunflower oil
• 50 g sugar + a pinch of salt
• 100 g yogurt
• 200 g flour
• 8 g baking powder
• vanilla extract
• chocolate chips 

 Preparation:

Mash the banana, add the egg, the oil, the yogurt, the sugar and a pinch of salt and mix. Fold in the flour with the baking powder. Add the vanilla extract and stir in the chocolate chips. Distribute the batter into 12 muffin forms and bake in a preheated oven at 190C until golden.

The resulting muffins are very fluffy and the semi-sweetness (only 50 g sugar) allows the taste buds fully to appreciate the distinct banana taste and the bitter-sweet flavour of the chocolate chips, a classic and timeless combination.

Best enjoyed with a cup of freshly brewed hot coffee or tea. 

Sugarless Apple Muffins

Last year, on a whim, I decided to stop eating sugar. I love sweets and although I am certainly not overweight and have no health problems, related to sugar consumption, I thought it would be a beneficial experiment health-wise and I was also curious if I could do it. Initially it was only for a day, then a week and now it has been more than six months. 

I'm not religious about not eating sugar and my restrictions apply only to processed sugar, by which I mean that I eat a lot of fruits and dried fruits; it's not a carbohydrate restricting diet, just an abstinence from packed sugar as much as possible.

Even before summer last year, I rarely ate store-bought sweets, my morning coffee was accompanied mostly by home-made desserts. Lately I've been experimenting with my own recipes, replacing sugar with dried fruits. I should mention, that I am not a proponent of artificial sweeteners and I believe in reducing the craving and need for sweet taste by reducing the consumption of sweet taste. I can confirm, that my receptors for sweet have actually changed during these months and I can taste sweetness much more acutely.

I came up with these apple muffins last week and this is my second batch, husband polished most of the first one himself, and he hasn't been on my sugar-free regime, so it should be a testament, that they are delicious enough :)

Ingredients:

• 1 egg
• 40 g sunflower oil
• 100 g yogurt / sour cream
• 150 g / average apple chopped
• 100 g dried fruits (25 g of each raisins, cranberries, dates, plums)
• 120 g flour
• 5 g baking powder
• pinch of salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, clove

Preparation:

Beat slightly the egg, add the yogurt and vegetable oil, mix. Add the dried fruits (cut the dates and plums into small pieces) and the apple, chopped into small pieces. Finally mix in the flour with baking powder, pinch of salt and spices.

Distribute the batter into 12 muffin forms and bake in a preheated oven at 180 C for approx. 25 min. Serve with hot coffee or tea.

Strawberry Cake with Crumbs

This recipe and these photos have been waiting publication for over a month and I'm finally finding a couple of minutes to upload and write down the recipe.

I've already made this cake repeatedly, only a couple of days ago I tried a new version with chocolate chips in it - the best according to my taste, and it is recently one of the preferred cakes in our family.

What makes it so unique is the perfect combination of fresh fruit, sponge cake and buttery crumbs on top, but I should add, that it also works with frozen fruit - not as juicy, but still quite good.

Ingredients:

For the sponge cake:

• 2 eggs
• 100 g sugar
• 80 g vegetable (sunflower) oil
• 120 g milk
• 200 g flour
• 10 g baking powder

For the crumbs: 

• 30 g butter
• 2 table spoons flour
• 2 table spoons sugar

Preparation:

Beat the eggs with the sugar. Add the oil and milk, mix. Sift and add the four with the baking powder and a pinch of salt. I also add vanilla.

Pour the batter into your baking dish. Half the strawberries and arrange on top. 

To prepare the crumbs, grate the cold butter and mix it with the flour and the sugar, until you get buttery crumbs. Spread them on top of the cake.

Bake in a preheated oven at 180C for approx. 20 min. Serve with tea or coffee, best in the morning with your Duolingo lessons :)

These can also be made into muffins, if you don't mind the additional work :)

Muffins with Chocolate Spread

 
A simple and very delicious recipe for muffins with chocolate spread I found on facebook:

https://www.facebook.com/fattoincasadabenedetta/videos/1382929211751118/

I followed the recipe almost to the dot and the result is quite satisfactory. However my chocolate filling was not that runny, probably because I did not use Nutella.

Products:

• 2 eggs
• 150 g sugar
• 50 g sunflower oil
• 80 g milk
• 230 g flour
• 8 g baking powder
• chocolate spread

The interesting part is that the chocolate spread is first frozen and then placed in the muffin and covered with a spoonful of batter. The muffins are baked at 180C in a preheated oven.

Next time I'll try the recipe with jam.

And a picture of the handmade Christmas cards Gaby made for a charity. I love them all!

Pumpkin Muffins

It's pumpkin season again and it smells divinely of cinnamon, vanilla and nutmeg in our kitchen. Today I made pumpkin muffins, pumpkin with milk rice, roasted pumpkin and pumpkin spice latte - all from the small butternut squash. The golden nugget will be carved for our Halloween lantern on Monday.

This is the second time I made the muffins and there'll be more of these soon, so the recipe is a keeper:

Ingredients for 12 muffins:

• 1 large egg
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/3 cup oil (I use olive oil or sunflower oil)
• 1 cup flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 cup cranberries / raisins
• 1 tbsp rum / whiskey
• 1 cup grated raw pumpkin
• spices - vanilla, cinnamon, nutmeg

Preparation: Soak the cranberries in the rum. Beat the egg with the sugar, add the oil, sift the flour with the baking powder and add it to the batter. Add the cranberries and the grated pumpkin, spice the batter and distribute it into the muffin cups. Bake the muffins at 180C in a preheated oven until ready.

The taste is rich of pumpkin - a bit like pumpkin pie, sweet and spicy. I forgot to add the cinnamon to the batter and sprinkled it on top, but it's better to put it in together with the other ingredients.

Strawberry Muffins

Last night I came up with this idea for a new variety of muffins - to replace the sugar with a jar of strawberry jam and to add a pack of strawberry pudding to the flour for stronger strawberry taste and flavor. Experimenting with muffin recipes turned out to be such fun, now I want to make a new portion with sour creme, lots of cocoa and croquant, just to see what will come out of the oven :)))
But first we have to finish these off :)

The ingredients:

• 120 g flour + a pack of  strawberry pudding (40 g)
• 220 g strawberry jam
• 120 g milk
• 50 g vegetable oil
• 1 pouch of baking powder (10 g)
• 2 eggs
• 80 g raisins

Preparation instructions:

• Stir the eggs, add the oil and the milk.
• Mix the flour with the strawberry  pudding and the baking powder.
• Add the flour mixture to the egg mixture and stir. 
• Add the strawberry jam and the raisins and stir some more.
• Preheat the oven at 180C, while distributing the mixture into the muffin molds.
• Bake for 20-25 min at 180 C.

Serve with milk or coffee and enjoy!