3-2-1 Blast Off!

Ok, I admit I'm getting a little lazy. Look at the rocket. No quite rocket-like. My consolation was that the boys did not bring the rockets home.

In the bento, there's chicken karaage, the boys' all time favorite, broccoli, and rice. I could have done a better job assembling the rocket. To make up for the sloppiness in my work, I baked a batch of banana muffins for the boys, to be eaten after school.

These banana muffins don't look very exciting, do they?

Look like any other muffins ... or so I thought.

The moment I sank my teeth into the first one, my hands reached for a second while the first was gone in a flash! The boys came home and had two each, plus a couple of mini ones. These muffins are addictive! They are moist and soft. My boys love the chunks of banana hidden inside the muffins. And did I mention they were very easy to make?

The recipe is adapted from RasaMalaysia. I halved the recipe and made some changes to the quantity of ingredients ... for my convenience =)

1 cup All Purpose Flour

3/4 tsp Baking Soda (Erh, I used Baking Powder by mistake and it turned out ok)

1/4 tsp Salt

1/2 cup Unsalted Butter, melted

1/2 cup Sugar

3 Over-riped Bananas

1 Large Egg

1/2 tsp Vanilla Essence

• Preheat oven to 375F and line muffin pans with baking cups.
• Melt butter and let cool slightly.
• Mash two bananas.
• Break the third into half, and put it into the mixing bowl, together with the flour, baking soda, sugar, egg, vanilla essence and melted butter.
• Beat the ingredients with a mixer for 3 minutes, or till the ingredients are blended.
• Fold in the mashed banana with a rubber spatula.
• Spoon the batter into the baking cups.
• Bake for 20 minutes, or till the muffins turn golden brown.
• Let cool on rack.
• Makes 12 small muffins, and 12 mini sized muffins.

In my hurry to bake, I used baking powder, instead of baking soda as stated. However, the muffins turned out ok, phew! By evening, only a quarter of the muffins were left. I will definitely be baking these muffins again, using baking soda, just to check out the difference =)

Banana Muffins

This recipe is meant for banana and chocolate chips, from Epicurious.com. My original plan was to sprinkle the mini semisweet chocolate morsels onto the top of the batter, instead of mixing it with the batter. I didn't want too much sugar in the muffin, since it already contained half a cup of butter. However, in my haste to send the muffins into the oven, I completely forgot about the mini chocolate morsels! So I ended up with Banana Muffins instead. It was not so bad. In fact, I liked it this way, without the sweetness from the chocolate morsels. The top was crispy, and the inside, soft.

Instead of 12 muffins, I had 8 muffins, and 22 mini muffins. There was a tray of mini muffins sitting on the table top, awaiting its turn into the oven when i remembered the chocolate morsels. So I dropped a few morsels onto the top of these mini muffins, just to make the boys happy. In fact, they like the mini muffins, with and without the chocolate morsels! All 22 mini muffins were gone on the day they were baked =)

1 1/2 cups All Purpose Flour

2/3 cup Sugar (I use slightly less)

1 1/2 tsp Baking Powder

1/4 tsp Salt

1 cup Mashed banana (I had a little more than 1 cup with 3 bananas)

1 Large Egg

1/2 cup Unsalted Butter, melted

1/4 cup Milk

• Preheat oven to 350F.
• Line muffin trays with 12 muffin cup liners.
• Mix flour, sugar, baking powder and salt in a large bowl.
• Melt butter, let cool.
• In a medium bowl, mashed bananas.
• Add milk to the bowl of mashed bananas. Mix well.
• Add melted butter and the lightly beaten egg. Mix well.
• Stir the banana mixture into the bowl of dry ingredients just until blended. Do not overmix or you get tough muffins.
• Divide batter among prepared muffin cups, filing each about 3/4 full.
• Bake 30 minutes or till the top are golden brown, and a pick inserted comes out clean.
• Transfer muffins to a cooling rack.

The next time I make this batch of banana muffins , I would happily omit the mini chocolate morsels again. I would replace some of the flour with whole wheat flour, and replace some butter with grounded flaxseed. My next kitchen experiment!

Jam-filled Muffins

I was in a hurry to bake some snacks for afternoon tea. Muffins, so that I don't have to use my mixer. I googled for "jam-filled muffins", and came to Crepes of Wrath. The photograph of the muffins sitting next to some strawberries looked so appealing that I knew I had to make some right away!

These muffins are really simple to make. Just mix the wet and dry ingredients together. The preparation and the baking took me just a little over 30 minutes. The best part of the recipe? Only 1/4 cup of butter is used! That is about 60g! Jam and Yogurt are items that can be found most of the time in my fridge. However, I replace lemon zest with orange zest, since I have a big bag of oranges sitting in my kitchen.

1/2 cup Sugar

Zest of 1 small lemon (I use 1 small orange)

1 1/2 cups All Purpose Flour

21/2 tsp Baking Powder

1 tsp Ground Cinnamon

1/4 tsp Salt

2/3 cup Fat-free Vanilla Yogurt

1/4 cup Unsalted Butter, melted and slightly cooled

3 tbsp Milk

1 Egg (lightly beaten)

1/4 cup Jam (Any flavor .. I use Raspberry Jelly Jam)

Topping: 2 tbsp Sugar + 1 tsp Ground Cinnamon (I omit this)

• Preheat oven to 375F.
• Line muffin tray with muffin liners.
• If not using liners, spray lightly with PAM.
• In a mixing bowl, using a spoon or a spatula, stir the zest into the sugar till the sugar turn a pale yellow.
• Combine the zesty lemon sugar with flour, baking powder, ground cinnamon and salt.
• Mix well the dry ingredients.
• In another bowl, mix together the wet ingredients ... Yogurt, melted butter, milk and egg, stirring well with a whisk.
• Gradually add flour mixture to the yogurt mixture till just combined.
• Do not overmix. You do not want tough and dry muffins.
• Spoon 1 tablespoon of the batter into each muffin liner.
• Top with 1 teaspoon of jam.
• Top the jam with another 1 tablespoon of batter.
• Sprinkle cinnamon sugar topping over the batter.
• Bake for 15-20 minutes, until a wooden pick inserted comes out clean, and the top is golden and set.
• Cool in the muffin tray on a cooling rack for about 15 minutes.
• Remove muffins from tray and continue to cool them on a rack.

You can eat it slightly warm, or when it is completely cool.

Either way, they are yummy!

I omitted the sugar and cinnamon topping. The muffins have a distinct taste of orange and cinnamon flavor in them. The jam pairs well with the soft texture of the muffin. and the crunchy muffin top adds delight to the first bite.

When it's time for our afternoon snack ....

Darling son YW asked for a second helping.

Darling son KW said "I love these".

Hubby dear gave the thumbs up.

So I guessed these muffins passed the test =)

They are going to be regulars for the boys' after-school snack!

Chocolate Chip Muffins

My boys love chocolate, and they will eat anything with chocolate in it!

As I was flipping through my baking books, trying to decide on what to bake for snacks for the kids to bring to school, my attention was drawn to a nice photograph of some Chocolate Chip Muffins. I stared at the photograph for quite some time, and suddenly realised that I had not made these muffins for my boys since we entered the woods! Chocolate Chip Cookies, Chocolate Cake, Chocolate-Frosting, but not Chocolate Chip Muffins.

Adapted from "Williams-Sonoma : Muffins"

1/2 cup Unsalted Butter, Melted

3/4 cup Buttermilk

2 Large Eggs

1 tbsp Vanilla Extract

2 cups All Purpose Flour

3/4 cup Sugar

2 tsp Baking Powder

1/2 tsp Baking Soda

1/2 tsp Salt

2 cups Semisweet (plain) Chocolate Chips (I use mini morsels)

• Preheat oven to 350F/180C.
• Grease 12 standard muffin cups with butter/cooking spray, or line with paper liners.
• Whisk together melted butter, buttermilk, eggs and vanilla till smooth.
• In another bowl, stir together the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.
• Make a well in the centre and add the buttermilk mixture.
• Beat until smooth and well mixed, 1-2 minutes.
• Fold in the chocolate chips just until evenly distributed.
• Do not overmix.
• Spoon batter into each muffin cup, filling it level with the rim of the cup.
• Bake till golden, dry and springy to the touch, 20-25 minutes.
• A toothpick inserted into the centre of a muffin should come out clean.
• Let cool for 5 minutes on a colling rack.
• Unmold the muffins and let cool completely.
• Serve them at room temperature.

These muffins were very soft to the bite!

The boys gave the thumbs up and asked for more as their "after dinner dessert". I had been on an emotional roller-coaster ride for the past few days, with my spirits hitting the bottom of the emotional well and getting stuck there ... the aroma of the muffins baking in the oven, the sweet crispy bite into the muffin helped lift my otherwise low spirits =)

Apple Cinnamon Muffins

I had two gala apples sitting on my dinning table. My boys had say "NO" when offered an apple after school. Their reason? The apples were a little over-ripe, and not crunchy. Not wanting to waste the apples, I decided to use them to make a batch of apple cinnamon muffins. Searched the web and found the recipe from Baking Bites.

I bought a packet of Whole Ground Flaxseed Meal a while ago. Not wanting to put too much oil/butter in my bakes, I decided to try using the flaxseed meal to replace the oil required. Flaxseed meal definitely has more nutritional values than oil/butter. The ratio required is 3 portions of flaxseed meal to 1 portion of oil/butter/shortening.

2 cups Flour

2 tsp Baking Powder

1/2 tsp Salt

1.5 tsp Ground Cinnamon

1/4 tsp Ground Ginger (I omit this)

3/4 cup Brown Sugar

1 Large Egg

2 tbsp Butter, melted and cooled

2 tbsp Vegetable Oil (I replaced with 6 tbsp Flaxseed Meal)

1 tsp Vanilla Extract

1 cup Buttermilk (I used fresh milk)

1.5 cups Diced Apples

Toppings : 3 tbsp Coarse Sugar + 1/2 tsp Ground Cinnamon

• Preheat oven to 375F.
• In a medium bowl, mix together the dry ingredients.
• In a large bowl, add brown sugar, egg and vanilla extract. Mix well.
• Whisk in melted butter.
• Alternately stir in flour mixture and buttermilk.
• Stir in diced apples.
• Divide batter into the prepared muffin cups. Fill to the top.
• Sprinkle the topping over the batter.
• Bake for 15-18 minutes, or till done.

Yummy!

I Love Cinnamon!

I went to bed dreaming, about cinnamon bread .... the big fat yummy loaf of cinnamon bread that took my breath away the minute I set my eyes on it at the Farmers' Market. It will be another week before I can sink my teeth into that yummy cinnamon loaf again.

But I can't wait anymore!

Since my fingers are itching to bake something ... ok, Cinnamon Muffins!

I was very happy to find the recipe from BakingBites.

As I did not have all ingredients, I changed the recipe a little.

The aroma of cinnamon filled the entire apartment.

The muffins were moist, and the topping gave it a sweetness mixed with a tinge of cinnamon.

Lovely!

I'm in love ... with cinnamon.

Cinnamon Chocolate Chips Muffins

(makes 12 muffins)

Ingredients

2 cups Self-Raising Flour

1 tsp Ground Cinnamon

1/2 cup Sugar (Reduce if banana is very sweet)

1/2 cup Brown Sugar

1/2 cup Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chips

3/4 cup Milk (or Buttermilk)

3 tbsp Olive Oil (or Vegetable Oil)

1 tsp Vanilla Extract

1 Large Egg

1 Medium Ripe Banana (Mashed)

Topping

1/4 cup Brown Sugar

1/2 tsp Ground Cinnamon

Method

1. Preheat oven to 400F.
   
2. In a medium bowl - whisk together the flour, chocolate chips and cinnamon.
3. In a large bowl - whisk together the sugars and egg till smooth. Add the mashed banana.
4. Beat in the olive oil and vanilla extract.
5. Working in 2 or 3 additions, alternate adding flour and milk to the sugar mixture, stirring till just combined. Do not overmix.
6. In a small bowl - stir together ingredients for the topping.
7. Fill each muffin cup to 3/4 full. Sprinkle with the topping ingredients.
8. Bake for 15 - 18 mins.