Fresh Cranberry Muffins

I think it's very easy to get fresh cranberries at supermarkets at this time of the year because lots of people tried to get fresh cranberries to make cranberry sauce for their Christmas turkey dinner. 

Jars of cranberry sauce are popular, but more and more home cooks try to make home made sauce as it's actually easy to make and tastes great.  

Well ...., I didn't make cranberry sauce this year, as I was invited to a big family Christmas and the lovely cranberry sauce was made by one of the family members..... and tasted so good. 

After Christmas I found lots of packs of fresh cranberries at the supermarket with an amazingly reduced price. So, I thought to myself why not make cranberry muffins?  Here they are juicy and tangy. 

They have a very refreshing flavour and are just the right sort of thing to eat after a lot of rich Christmas food. 

Ingredients 

• 200g plain flour (if you use self raising flour, no need to add baking powder) 
• 150g sugar
• 2 tsp baking powder
• ¼  tsp Salt
• 100ml milk 
• 60ml vegetable oil
• 1 egg
• Vanilla extract
• 100g fresh cranberries 

Method 

1. Preheat oven to 200 C / Gas 6 and add paper cases to a muffin tray.

2. Measure out flour, sugar, baking powder and salt in a large mixing bowl and mix the dried ingredients well.

3. Measure milk and oil in a large measuring jug. Add egg and vanilla, then whisk well.

4.  Add the wet mixture (3) into the dry mixture (2).  Stir until just combined (mixture will be lumpy).        Do NOT over mix!

5. Gently fold in cranberries.

6. Bake for 20 minutes or until golden brown on top.

I added some crushed chocolate chips, 60g ish, to the cranberry muffin mixture.

I didn't know cranberry and chocolate is such a fab combo. 

I'm loving them. :) 

Seriously dark chocolate and banana muffins

These are not ordinary chocolate muffins or banana muffins.  They are seriously dark. 

I used quite a lot of cocoa powder for this recipe as I didn't have a bar of chocolate ..... surprise? 

Anyway, bananas made the muffins sweet and moist.  They are lovely with creme fraiche.   

Ingredients

• 3 bananas (ripe or over ripe) 
• 100 ml vegetable oil or 100g lowfat margarine
• 50 ml milk
• 2 medium eggs
• 100 g soft light brown sugar
• 200 g plain flour
• 50g cocoa powder (sifted)
• 1 teaspoon baking powder 

Method

1.  Preheat the oven to 200°C/gas mark 6 and line a muffin tin with papers.
2. Mash the bananas by hand or with a free-standing mixer. Add the oil (or margarine) followed by the eggs and sugar. Mix well.
3. Mix the flour, cocoa powder and baking powder together and add this mixture, beating gently, to the banana mixture, then spoon it into the prepared papers.
4. Bake in the preheated oven for 15–20 minutes, by which time the muffins should be dark. Allow to cool slightly in their tin before removing to a wire rack.

My first Bagels

Here are my very first bagels. I love bagels and I've been wanting to make them. But the method sounded ever so complicated especially as they need to be boiled.  So, I've never be bothered making them.  

However, somehow, I really wanted to try them on this very cold frosty morning. In fact, the process wasn't as complicated as I imagined.  I researched various recipes from the internet and created my recipe as follows.  When I was making the bagel rings, I couldn't resist making rather larger ones than they really should be.  I guess I was quite hungry and couldn't wait to eat them.  Anyway, I baked my first 9 bagels.

..... well they should have been 10 bagels really.

..... very chewy ... quite different from the ones I normally buy in the shop, but these are so lovely. :)     

Ingredients 

• 450g Strong white flour (or 350g Strong white flour + 100g Wholemeal Strong flour)
• 7g (2 tsp)  =  1 sachet fast-action dried yeast
• 1 tsp Salt
• 300ml (up to 315ml) lukewarm water
• 1 Tbsp clear honey

Method 

1.       Make the dough by tipping the flour, yeast, salt and honey into a large bowl and making a well in the middle. Pour in most of the water and use your fingers or a wooden spoon to mix the flour and water together until combined to a slightly wet, pillowy, workable dough - add a splash more water if necessary. Tip the dough onto a lightly floured surface and knead for at least 10 minutes until smooth and elastic. This can also be done in a tabletop mixer with a dough hook. Place the dough in a clean oiled bowl, cover with cling film and leave to rise until doubled in size. 

2.      On a lightly floured surface, divide the dough into 10 pieces. Shape each piece into a flattish ball, then take a wooden spoon and use the handle to make a hole in the middle of each ball. Slip the spoon into the hole, then twirl the bagel around the spoon to make a hole about 3cm wide. Cover the bagels and set aside for 35 minutes, to prove a second time.

3.      Heat oven to 220C/fan 200C/gas 7. Bring a large pan of water to the boil. Slip the bagels into the boiling water - no more than four at a time. Poach for 1 to 1¼ minutes per side, turning over in the water until the bagels have puffed slightly and a skin has formed. Remove with a slotted spoon and drain away any excess water. Sprinkle over your choice of topping and place on a baking tray lined with parchment. Bake in the oven for 20 to 25 minutes until browned and crisp - the bases should sound hollow when tapped. Leave to cool on a wire rack, then serve with your favourite filling.

Apple and Walnut Muffins

Ideally, muffins should be eaten or frozen on the same day that they are baked. Otherwise they become a bit dry.  However, I found out that if I put grated apple in the batter, the muffins stay moist. When I added apple to ginger cupcakes the other day, they stayed moist for a couple of days. :)  So, I added 1 grated apple to these muffins. These muffins are extra moist but very fluffy. 

Ingredients 

• 200g plain flour
• 100g sugar (50g soft brown + 50g white caster) 
• 2 tsp baking powder
• ¼ tsp salt
• 100ml milk
• 50ml vegetable oil  
• 1 egg
• 1 apple grated
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• 50g walnut chopped 

Method

1. Preheat oven to 200 C / Gas 6 and add paper cases to a muffin tray.
2. Measure out dry ingredients in a large mixing bowl.
3. Measure milk and oil in a large measuring jug. Add egg and whisk well.
4. Add the wet mixture (3) into the dry mixture (2).  Stir until just combined. The mixture will be lumpy. Do NOT over mix.     Then, gently fold in grated apple and walnuts.
5. Bake for 20 minutes or until golden brown on top. 

8 strand plaited loaf

Yes, I did it. :)  8 strand plaited loaf, here it is.  
It was quite tricky, but I managed to carry on plaiting the dough. I'm proud of myself about the result. 
The bread recipe is the usual one. Please take a look at my basic loaf recipe. (click here) 

For the following braiding sequence, number the strands of dough from 1-8 from left to right. 
Every time you move any strand it will take the new number of its position in the row. 

Step 1: place 8 under 7 and over 1 

Step 2: place 2 under 3 and over 8 

Step 3: place 1 over 4 

Step 4: place 7 under 6 and over 1 

Step 5: place 8 over 5

Repeat steps 2-5, until all the dough is braided.

beautiful sequence on the bottom, too.

I found more good instructions in addition to the famous Paul Hollywood's video from the GBBO.

 

Spiced Fruit Muffins. Christmassy!

Feeling a bit Christmassy? These muffins have a hint of winter festive taste. Ginger, cinnamon and dried fruit are the main ingredients for Christmas cake. But these muffins are much quicker to make. When the dried fruit are soaked overnight and are plump and juicy, it's ready to bake. If you soak the dried fruit in brandy or sherry, the muffins would be even more Christmasy. I decorated the muffins with cinnamon icing sugar to spice them up.

Ingredients 

• 200g plain flour
• 100g sugar
• 2 tsp baking powder
• ¼ tsp salt
• 100ml milk
• 50ml vegetable oil  
• 1 egg
• 1 dash of lemon juice
• 1 tsp ground ginger
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• 100g dried Fruit (20g mix peal + 80g mix dried fruit) soaked in 50ml of warm water (preferably overnight)
• zest of 1 orange   
• cinnamon icing (cinnamon, icing sugar and water mixture to decorate the muffins) 

Method

1. Preheat oven to 200 C / Gas 6 and add paper cases to a muffin tray.
2. Measure out dry ingredients in a large mixing bowl.
3. Measure milk and oil in a large measuring jug. Add egg and whisk well.
4. Add the wet mixture (3) into the dry mixture (2).  Stir until just combined. The mixture will be lumpy. Do NOT over mix!
5. Gently fold in soaked mixed fruit.
6. Bake for 20 minutes or until golden brown on top.