Banana Chocolate Espresso Swirl Muffins

These muffins are moist, soft, tender, chocolaty with an espresso kick and full of banana flavour. Not too sweet, well, I did reduce the sugar slightly (from 150gm to 120gm). Recipe makes 8 jumbo sized muffins, but I have used the regular sized muffins and got 12.

Soft, tender crumb. Great with either coffee, tea or milk! Delicious muffins!


Recipe is from the book "The Bread Collection" by Brian Hart Hoffman, pg 42, and also be found at Bake From Scratch website.

The changes I've made was to reduce the sugar to 120gm and bake in a regular sized muffin pan, which makes 12 regular muffins.

I'm linking this post with Cookbook Countdown #35 

Fruity Muffins

Say Moo! At I Heart Cooking Clubs, "Time to get out the milk and/or cheese and SAY MOO!". That's our theme for this week, Say Moo !

It has been a pretty busy week for me, so I've made a simple tea time snack, Muffins. Originally, this recipe is Lemon Curd Marble Muffins, from HFW's book River Cottage Everyday. I've made one of his variations which he calls as Fruity Muffins, using frozen blueberries, as I've recently bought a big pack of frozen wild blueberries. 

Just like any other muffins, these are easy and quick to make. 

Moist with tender crumbs, bursting with blueberries, and these are not too sweet, which is really a plus for me, as I tend to reduce the sugar for most bakes, but there's no need for these. Delightful with a cup of tea.

Fruity Muffins
(River Cottage Everyday, Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall)
makes about 12
225gm plain flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
a good pinch of sea salt
100gm caster sugar
1 medium egg
125gm plain yoghurt
125ml whole milk
75gm unsalted butter, melted and slightly cooled
75gm blueberries

Put 12 large paper cases into a muffin tray. Put the flour, baking powder, salt and caster sugar in a large bowl and whisk lightly to aerate and combine.

Mix the egg, yoghurt, milk and melted butter together in a jug. Pour them into the dry ingredients and mix lightly, stopping as soon as everything is combined - it's essential not to over-mix or you'll get dense, cakey muffins.

Stir the fruit into the mixture lightly and quickly.

Spoon the mixture into the paper cases, to three-quarters fill them.

Bake in an oven preheated to 180C/Gas Mark 4 for about 20 minutes until golden brown. Transfer to a wire rack to cool. Eat on the day you bake them, ideally while still slightly warm.

I'm linking this post to I Heart Cooking Clubs (IHCC), theme for this week

Say Moo!

and

I'm linking this post with Cookbook Countdown #20 hosted by 

Kitchen Flavours and Emily's Cooking (Makan2) Foray

Millet Muffins

This week at I Heart Cooking Clubs (IHCC), it is "Expand Your Pantry!" theme. I've made Heidi Swanson's, Millet Muffins. Millet is a new ingredient in my kitchen, I have never cooked with it before, so I thought that using it in a muffin recipe would be a good start. 

I've made half a recipe and yield only 5 muffins. I've used all-purpose flour instead of pastry flour. There's no sugar used in these muffins, sweetened by honey instead. There's lemon zest, lemon juice, yoghurt and barely melted butter. 

These Millet Muffins bakes up really nice with wonderful rise and golden top.

Lovely muffins. The crumbs are tender and soft. Not too sweet, with just the right sweetness from the honey, and crunch from the millet with a hint of the citrusy lemon. These are great with a cup of warm unsweetened tea. 

Millet Muffins
(Super Natural Everyday, Heidi Swanson or here)
2-11/4 cups (40gm) whole-wheat pastry flour
1/3 cup (60 gm) raw millet
1 teaspoon aluminium free baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon fine-grain sea salt
1 cup (225gm) plain yoghurt
2 large eggs, lighty beaten
1/2 cup (120ml) barely melted unsalted butter
1/2 cup (120ml) honey
grated zest and 2 tablespoons juice from one lemon

Preheat the oven to 400F/2015C with a rack in the top third of the oven. Butter a standard 12-cup muffin pan or line with paper liners.

Whisk together the flour, millet, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a large bowl. In another bowl, whisk together the yoghurt, eggs, butter, honey, and lemon zest and juice until smooth. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and stir until the flour is just incorporated. Divide the batter among the muffin cups, spooning a heaping 1/4 cup batter into each one, filling it a bit below the rim. 

Bake for about 15 minutes, until the muffin tops are browned and just barely beginning to crack. Let cool for 5 minutes in the pan, then turn the muffins out of the pan to cool completely on the rack.

I'm linking this post with I Heart Cooking Clubs (IHCC), theme for this week

Expand Your Pantry!

Sticky Caramel Buns : Rose's Bread Bible Bakers

I've added a few cookbooks to my collection recently, one of it is Rose Levy Beranbaum's book, The Bread Bible. This is  one book that I've wanted to buy for ages, and so glad that I've finally bought it. I have four of Rose's fantastic books, but this is the one that I love the most! Could not wait to try many, many recipes, (if not all!) from this book. Upon googling for some info on some of the recipes, I've discovered a group of bakers who are currently baking through this book, and they are into their fourth recipe with this bake. Of course I could not help myself from joining in! This lovely group is "Rose's Bread Bible Bakers", who are baking one recipe each month. And I like it that the list of the bakes are notified months in advance, something that works really well for me. Gives us ample time to source for ingredients and any advance preparation if needed. 

To make the Sticky Caramel Buns, you would need to prepare the basic brioche dough first. I made the dough the day before I plan to bake these buns.

The brioche dough starts with a sponge. Mix the sponge in a mixing bowl, and a mixture of flour, yeast and salt is then sprinkled over the sponge. Cover tightly with plastic wrap and left to stand for 1-1/2 to 2 hours at room temperature. The sponge will bubble through the flour mixture. I am rather intrigued with this method, as I have never done this before. In less than an hour the sponge has already puffed and pushing through the flour mixture. 

Proceed with the rest of the recipe  (4 pages of ingredients plus instructions) from the book. 

Raisins are soaked in rum, drained before use. The rum is reserved to make the glaze which is to be brushed over the buns before baking. 

Prepare the sticky topping in advance by mixing the butter, brown sugar, and Lyle's golden syrup, and simmer for a few minutes until it bubbles and form a dark brown caramel. Pour it into the prepared lightly greased baking pan. Let it cool completely.  

The dough is rolled out to a rectangle, scatter over it the mixture of toasted chopped pecans, cinnamon, brown sugar and granulated sugar, with the drained raisins. Roll it up and sliced into 1 inch slices. At this point, before I sliced the dough, I freeze the rolled up dough as advised, for about 5-10 minutes, for easier slicing. Place 3 pieces of pecan halves onto each cut sliced dough and place it onto the prepared baking pan with the pecan side down. Cover with cling wrap and let rise until double in size. Make the rum glaze and brush it over the buns just before baking.

Freshly baked!

Unmould the buns onto a serving plate or  on foil-lined counter. With the sticky caramel on the top.

Look at the gooey sticky caramel! And the pecans! And the raisins peeking in between the swirls!

Eat while still warm.

Soft bread texture with gooey sweet caramel, moist plump raisins and nutty pecans, with the aroma of the cinnamon. Delicious!

I've also made the Blueberry Muffins, which was the first bake back in  May, for the group. Lovely muffins these are! Soft, tender crumbs, not too sweet, makes the perfect tea-time treat or a snack anytime of the day! 

Next on the list for August is Cinnamon Raisin Loaf. I'll be making the Flaky Scones which was the second bake, back in June, to catch up with everyone at Rose's Bread Bible Bakers!

Mini Chocolate Chip-Almond Muffins : Cookbook Countdown #6

Cookbook Countdown is a monthly cooking/baking event, which I'm co-hosting with Emily's Cooking (Makan2) Foray.  Everyone is welcome to join us. How does it work? To summarize, you may select a cookbook from your own cookbook collection, to cook or bake from each month. That selected book shall be your cookbook of the month. You may cook any recipes and as many recipes as you want from your selected book of the month. This is a fabulous way of using your cookbooks at least once! For more information on how to join Cookbook Countdown, please click here. 

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The next bake that I've tried from my selected cookbook for this month for Cookbook Countdown #6, Williams-Sonoma : Home Baked Comfort by Kim Laidlaw, is Mini Chocolate Chip-Almond Muffins, and they are addictive!

These little muffins are so easy peasy to make. I made them on the spur of the moment when I felt like baking something. Recipe uses cold butter straight from the refrigerator, cut into chunks and beat with almond meal and sugar till creamy and the rest of the ingredients are added in accordingly. I have used ready bought almond meal for the batter instead of using sliced almonds which is to be processed in the food processor with the sugar until finely ground. If you can get hold of almond meal, makes it much easier. I've added the zest from one orange as per suggested in the recipe for variation, but did not sprinkle on the flaked almonds.

Recipes says that it will yield about 3 dozen, but I got about 84 mini muffins! It was a good thing I had 4 sets of 24-hole mini muffin pans!

These were baked for 11 minutes and they rise with little humps on top and looks very cute in little red cups.

It was suggested in the recipe to serve these muffins warm. While they were very good when freshly baked and warm, we find that they tasted even better the next day. Very addictive, we find it is hard to stop at just 2 or 3. These were moist, soft and so yummy! Perfect with a glass of cold milk, hot coffee, cocoa or tea, take your pick! This is a keeper!

Mini Chocolate Chip-Almond Muffins
(adapted from "Williams-Sonoma : Home Baked Comfort", by Kim Laidlaw)
makes about 3 dozen mini muffins
1-1/2 cups (7-1/2oz/235gm) all-purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp kosher salt
2/3 cup (3oz/90gm) sliced almonds
1/2 cup (4oz/125gm) sugar (I use 100gm)
1/2 cup (4oz/125gm) cold unsalted butter, cut into chunks
2 large eggs
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
1 cup (8fl oz/250ml) buttermilk
1 cup (5oz/150gm) mini chocolate chips

Position a rack in the middle of the oven and preheat to 400F (200C). Line two 24-cup mini-muffin pans with paper liners, or grease with butter.

In a bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. In a food processor, grind 1/2 cup (2oz/60gm) of the almonds and the sugar to make a fine meal. Pour into the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment and scatter the butter over the top. Beat on medium-high speed until fluffy, about 1 minute. Beat in the eggs, one at a time, then the vanilla, until well combined, scraping down the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula. Add the buttermilk and beat on low speed. Add the dry ingredients and chocolate chips, and, using the rubber spatula, stir just until evenly moistened.

Spoon the batter into the prepared muffin cups. Roughly chop the remaining almonds and sprinkle over the top. Bake until the muffins are golden brown and a toothpick inserted into the center of a muffin comes out clean, about 11 minutes, rotating the pans about halfway through. Let the muffins cool in the pans on a wire rack for about 5 minutes, then unmold onto the rack. Serve warm.

I'm linking this post with Cookbook Countdown hosted by 

Kitchen Flavours and Emily's Cooking (Makan2) Foray

Dark-Cherry Chocolate Muffins : Bake-Along #94

This week at Bake-Along, I've selected to bake Dark-Cherry Chocolate Muffins, together with Lena and Zoe. 

According to the book, "the muffins have an excellent crusty exterior, so you will want to butter the muffin cups rather than use paper liners. which may come away with the crust." So I baked the muffins without using any paper liners. I did not use any nuts in the batter, but have placed one walnut on top of 6 muffins before baking.

These muffins do have a crusty exterior when freshly baked, and they rise really well. The crumbs are soft, though they are not what I expected them to be. I wished that they are a little more moist and more chocolaty in taste.  But that being said, they are quite nice to eat with a glass of cold milk.

I love eating the plump moist dried cherries! 

Dried-Cherry Chocolate Muffins
(adapted from "Williams-Sonoma : Essentials of Baking")
2 oz (60gm) unsweetened chocolate, chopped
1-3/4 cups (9oz/280gm) all-purpose (plain) flour
1 teaspoon baking soda (bicarbonate of soda)
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup (4oz/125gm) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 cup (7oz/220gm) firmly packed golden brown sugar (I've used 170gm)
1 large egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract (essence)
1 cup (8 fl oz/250ml) buttermilk
3/4 cup (2oz/60gm) dried cherries
1/2 cup (2oz/60gm) toasted, skinned, and chopped hazelnuts

Position a rack in the middle of the oven, and preheat to 375F (190C). Butter 12 standard muffin-pan cups.

Place the chocolate in the top of a double boiler placed over (not touching) barely simmering water. Heat, stirring often, until the chocolate melts. Remove it from over the water and set aside to cool slightly. In a bowl, stir together the flour, baking soda, and salt. Set aside.

In a large bowl, beat the butter on low speed until creamy. Gradually beat in the brown sugar until dissolved. Beat in the egg, vanilla, and chocolate. Add the dry ingredients in 3 batches alternately with the buttermilk and mix on low speed just until smooth.

Fold in the cherries and nuts. Spoon the batter into the prepared muffin cups, filling each cup about three-fourths full. Bake until a toothpick inserted into the center of a muffin comes out clean, 20-25 minutes. Let cool in the pan on a wire rack for 2 minutes, then turn out onto the rack. Serve warm. Store in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 2 days.

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This news comes with a heavy heart....Bake-Along is coming to an end.  Lena, Zoe and myself have come to a decision that it is time for Bake-Along to say goodbye. Bake-Along's last post shall be the coming theme Bundt Cake, For Bake-Along's Fifth Anniversary and now, Farewell post. 

We are not using the linky thumbnails, if you have baked the muffins above, leave a comment and we shall mention you with a link to your blog post. Thank you!

Better Blueberry Muffins

"You Have It Made", the theme for this week at I Heart Cooking Clubs (IHCC).  You Have It Made is Ellie Krieger's latest cookbook recently released in January 2016. This latest book is all about making meals ahead of time, which can be refrigerated or freeze to be reheated and serve when needed. This week's theme is to make any make ahead meals from Ellie Krieger's recipes. Now, since I do not have Ellie's latest cookbook (it's on my wishlist!!), I turned to her other books which I already have and found this delightful muffins.

According to the recipe, these muffins can be refrigerated for 3 days, or wrap individually and freeze for up to 3 months. Why are these called Better Blueberry Muffins? Because it uses applesauce and a small amount of canola oil instead of butter. The sugar is very much less than other muffin recipes. And it has yoghurt and milk, both low fat. But both my yoghurt and milk that I used are full-cream! oops....!! On top of that, there's whole meal flour with an equal amount of plain flour.

Like most muffin recipes, these are pretty easy and quick to make. Mix the dry ingredients in a bowl. Mix the wet ingredients in another bowl. Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients, stir to combine, do not overmix. Add the blueberries and stir to combine. Then scoop onto the prepared muffin pans and bake until golden.

These muffins are soft, moist and not too sweet. Perfect for breakfast, tea-time or just something to snack on when you are feeling a little hungry. I freeze a few by individually wrapping them in foil, and I thaw them completely before reheating them in a 375F oven for 12-15 minutes still wrapped for breakfast a few days later. They are just as soft and moist, very nice.

Better Blueberry Muffins
(adapted from "Comfort Food Fix" by Ellie Krieger)
Makes 12 muffins
Nonstick cooking spray
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup whole-grain pastry flour or whole-wheat flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup canola oil
2 large eggs
1 cup natural unsweetened applesauce
1/2 cup plain low-fat yoghurt
1/4 cup nonfat milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1-1/2 teaspoons finely grated lemon zest
1-1/2 cups fresh or frozen (unsweetened and unthawed) blueberries

Preheat the oven to 400F. Coat a 12-cup muffin pan with cooking spray. 

In a medium bowl, whisk together the flours, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.

In a large bowl, beat together the sugar, oil, and eggs, until the mixture is light yellow and slightly frothy. Whisk in the applesauce, yoghurt, milk, vanilla and lemon zest. Stir the dry ingredients into the wet, mixing just enough to combine them. Do not overmix. Gently stir in the blueberries.

Pour the batter into the prepared muffin pan. Tap the pan on the counter a few times to remove any air bubbles. Bake until a wooden toothpick inserted into the center of one of the muffins comes out clean, about 20 minutes.

Allow to cool on a wire rack for 15 minutes. Run a knife around them to loosen and unmold. Enjoy warm or let cool completely before storing in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 3 days or wrap individually and freeze for up to 3 months.

I'm linking this post with I Heart Cooking Clubs (IHCC), theme for this week,

You Have It Made

Milk Chocolate Yoghurt Muffins

It has been awhile since I last baked any muffins. I was flipping through a muffin cookbook, "750 Best Muffin Recipes", and could not decide which muffin to bake! Too many recipes, and I keep changing my mind! I finally settled on Milk Chocolate Sour Cream Muffins. I did not have any sour cream at hand, but I do have a tub of yoghurt. The rest of the ingredients are just the basic baking stuffs that I already have in my "baking pantry", including the milk chocolate bar.

I use a whole bar (200gm) of milk chocolate, cut them into chunks. As usual when making muffins, the dry ingredients are mixed in a large bowl, the wet ingredients mixed in another bowl, and combine the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients, stir to combine, taking care not to overmix the batter. The chocolate chunks are then stirred in gently. Spoon into the prepared muffin pan and bake as directed. This recipe yields only 10 muffins instead of 12 as indicated.

Let it cool for a few minutes, and eat it while it is still warm.

These muffins are simply delicious! Look at the melting chocolate! Yummy! The crumbs are really moist, soft and tender! And it stays as soft on the next too. They are not too sweet and each bite is just perfect with the melting chocolate chunks! Give this a try, I'm sure your family would love it too!

Milk Chocolate Sour Cream Muffins
(adapted from "750 Best Muffin Recipes", Camilla V. Saulsbury)
Makes 12 muffins
Preheat oven to 400F (200C)
12-cup muffin pan, greased

1-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1-1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt (omitted)
1/2 cup packed light brown sugar (lightly packed)
1 egg
1/2 cup unsalted butter, melted (I use salted butter)
1 cup sour cream (I replaced with yoghurt)
1-1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1-1/4 cups milk chocolate chunks
2 tbsp turbinado sugar (did not use this)

1. In a large bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt.
2. In a medium bowl, whisk together brown sugar, egg, butter, sour cream and vanilla until blended.
3. Add the egg mixture to the flour mixture and stir until just blended. Gently fold in chocolate chunks.
4. Divide batter equally among prepared muffin cups. Sprinkle with turbinado sugar.
5. Bake in preheated oven for 19 to 21 minutes or until tops are golden and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Let cool in pan on a wire rack for 3 minutes, then transfer to the rack to cool.

**Using a standard-sized muffin pan, this recipe yields only 10 muffins, instead of 12. 

I'm linking this post with Cookbook Wednesday @ Months of Edible Celebrations

and 

Cook-Your-Books #21 @ Kitchen Flavours

Jam-Doughnut Muffins : Bake-Along #71

For our Bake-Along #71, Lena has selected these cute little Jam-Doughnut Muffins to bake together with Zoe, myself and anyone who wishes to bake along with us. These muffins makes a delightful treat for tea-time, especially if your are making snacks for kids!

Freshly baked muffins, ready to be dipped and rolled.

Really easy to make, just mix the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients, fill small mini muffin pans with a little of the batter, drop a dollop of your favourite jam, top with more batter, and bake until the muffins are puffy and golden brown.  I've used blueberry jam, and this is a great way to use up all that leftover jam lying around in the fridge. My muffin pan has 24-mini-holes cups, and I got about 30 mini muffins.

Have ready a bowl of melted butter, and a shallow dish with some caster sugar. Dip the doughnut muffins in the melted butter and roll them in the sugar. Serve warm.

I have rolled some of the muffins with plain caster sugar, and the other half with a mixture of cinnamon and caster sugar. 

These cute little doughnut muffins are fun to eat!

Which one do you prefer? With plain sugar? Or with Cinnamon-Sugar?

As can be seen from the photo above, I did not dip the whole muffins in the butter, but only the top, then roll that top part in the sugar, as I do not want overly sweet muffins, and these are already sweet with the rolled-on sugar on the top.

We love the cinnamon-sugar, though the plain ones are really nice too! These doughnut muffins have soft and tender crumbs, lovely for tea-time treat. Especially nice when eaten while still warm.

Jam-Doughnut Muffins

(adapted from "How To Be A Domestic Goddess", Nigella Lawson)

1/2 cup milk

scant 7 tablespoons corn or other vegetable oil, plus more for greasing

1 large egg

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

1-1/3 cups self-rising cake flour

1/3 cup superfine sugar

12 teaspoons strawberry jam

scant 1/2 cup unsalted butter

1/2 cup granulated sugar

1 incredibly well-greased or nonstick 12-cup mini-muffin pan

Preheat the oven to 375F.

With a fork, beat together the milk, oil, egg and vanilla extract. Stir this into the flour and 1/3 cup sugar to combine (just); the lumps don't matter and if you overbeat, the muffins will be tough. Spoon the mixture into each muffin cup so that its just under a third full. Then with a teaspoon add a dollop of strawberry jam - about the size of a fat lima bean- then top with more muffin mix so that the cases are just about full.

Put them in a preheated oven and cook for about 20 minutes or until the tops feel springy and resistant and the muffins have puffed up into little toadstools.

Meanwhile, melt the butter slowly in a thick-bottomed pan, and lay the remaining sugar out in a wide, shallow bowl. As soon as the muffins are ready, remove them from their cups, dip them in the butter, and roll them in the sugar. Eat warm.

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Do stop by Lena of Frozen Wings and Zoe of Bake For Happy Kids, and all our friends who has baked along with us in the linky below :

For our next Bake-Along, we will be baking based on a theme, Christmas Theme : Biscotti. Yup, Chrismas is just round the corner! Biscotti is great to munch during this festive season, and they make lovely gifts for this season of sharing! Bake any biscotti recipe and please do join us by linking your post to our linky which will start on 11th till 222nd December. Everyone is welcome to join us! Only current post please.

A friendly reminder when linking to our blog hop :

1. Please mention Bake-Along event in your own post linking direct to any of the hosts' post (Joyce, Lena or Zoe)

2. Please link only new and current post, PLEASE FOLLOW THE BAKE OR THEME provided by us. Unrelated post will be deleted.

3. Feel free to display our Bake-Along badge in your post.

I'm sharing this post with :

Cook-Your-Books #18 @ kitchen flavours

To join our blog hop, click on the link to get the codes :
get the InLinkz code

An InLinkz Link-up

THB : Cocoa-Dusted Cherry Granola Cake

Time for our bake #39 at The Home Bakers (THB).  Cocoa-Dusted Cherry Granola Cake, selected by the lovely Jasline of Foodie Baker. 

This cake is baked in an 9x13-inch baking pan, or as the author suggests, may be baked in muffin pans for individual morning or breakfast treats. I made half a recipe and yield 6 standard sized muffins.

Crumbled muesli.

Recipe calls for granola but I have used some crumbled muesli instead. I have made some muesli bars a week before, recipe from another source, and as you can see above, they did not make it to the bar stage, but are rather crumbly, though, no fault of the recipe at all. It was me, I reduced the sugar and did not think to add on extra honey to bind them together. Oh well, next time, I know what to do! Waste not, I ate them with some homemade yughurt, and some goes into the muffins above. Seriously, even though, there is a difference between granola and muesli, but to me, they are really very similar in taste. Give me a plate of crumbled muesli like the one above, and I would not know whether these are called muesli or granola!

These are really easy to make. Instead of dried cherries, I have used dried cranberries, adding it only a small amount, as the muesli already contained some dried cranberries and raisins. The recipe uses equal amount of all-purpose flour and whole-wheat flour. For the cocoa streusel topping, I have omitted the nuts, and use just the combination of cocoa powder, brown sugar and ground cinnamon. 

The muffins bakes up really nice. And is really good, I really like eating these muffins. The texture is moist, with soft texture, and is very yummy with the muesli ; full of seeds, nuts, oats and dried fruits. And they keep really well, in an airtight container, at room temperature. I enjoyed one muffin for breakfast each day, and on the third day, when I had the last muffin,  I was disappointed that there are none left. Well, I could always make this again. Healthy and delicious muffins.

For the full recipe and instructions, please visit the host of this bake, Jasline from Foodie Baker. To view other members' bake, please visit The Home Bakers (THB).

We are a group of home bakers who are currently baking from "Coffee Cakes" by Lou Seibert Pappas. This is our bake no. 39 and we have 21 recipes more to go. If you are interested to be a member and join in our bakes, you may drop me an email at kitchenflavours@yahoo.com.

Ham and Cheddar Muffins

These savoury muffins are just so delicious. There's no butter or oil used at all for these muffins. The grated cheddar cheese which is mixed into the batter makes the muffins really moist and tender. I made this for tea-time on the weekend, and my only regret is to make half a recipe.

I did make some substitutions for some of the ingredients. Recipe calls for chopped ham, and did not have any, but I do have leftover luncheon meat, and that was what I used. And I have replaced the buttermilk with regular milk. I have added some chopped chives, about 2 tbsps, since I have some chives in my garden pot. 

Really easy, mix the wet ingredients in one bowl, the dry ingredients in another, and combine them together just until blended, taking care not to overmix. Reserve some cheddar cheese to scatter over the batter before baking. 

Using standard muffin pans, I got only 7 muffins instead of 9 for half a recipe.

Bake for 20-25 minutes until golden brown. These muffins did not rise really high as some muffins do, but they are really moist, soft and tender.

Really delicious!

These would be perfect for a breakfast treat, even for lunch with some veggie salad to munch on. And if you are having it for tea-time, make sure you have your favourite cup of warm tea ready! 

note : my measurements in blue for half a recipe
Ham and Cheddar Muffins
(adapted from "750 Best Muffin Recipes", Camilla V. Saulsbury)
Makes 18 muffins (I got 7 muffins for half a recipe)
1-3/4 cups all-purpose flour (1/2 cup + 1/4 cup + 2 tbsp)
2 tsp baking powder (1 tsp)
1 tsp ground cumin (1/2 tsp)
1/2 tsp baking soda (1/4 tsp)
1/4 tsp salt (omitted)
2 cups shredded sharp (old) Cheddar cheese, divided (1 cup)
2 eggs (1)
1 tbsp Dijon mustard (1/2 tbsp)
1 cup buttermilk (replaced with 1/2 cup milk)
2 cups diced cooked ham (replaced with 1 cup diced luncheon meat)
2 tbsps chopped chives (my addition)

Preheat oven to 375F (190C)
Two 12-cup muffin pans, 18 cups greased

1. In a large bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, cumin, baking soda and salt. Stir in 1-1/2 cups (375ml) of the cheese and chives (if using).
2. In a medium bowl, whisk together eggs and mustard until well blended. Whisk in  buttermilk until blended.
3. Add the egg mixture to the flour mixture and stir until just blended. Gently fold in ham.
4. Divide batter equally among prepared muffin cups. Sprinkle with the remaining cheese.
5. Bake in preheated oven for 20 to 25 minutes or until tops are golden and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Let cool in pans on a wire rack for 5 minutes, then transfer to the rack. Serve warm or let cool completely.

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I am linking this post to Little Thumbs Up event, ingredient for this month is Milk, organised by Zoe of Bake For Happy Kids, Doreen of My Favourite D.I.Y., hosted by Tze of Awayofmind Bakery House.

and

Cook-Your-Books #12 @ Kitchen Flavours