Wholemeal Spiced Cherry & Wheatgerm Muffins

In a muffin mood today.. So I thought I would concoct some using some frozen cherries I had remaining and they turned out well! I wanted to pack in some extra fibre, so added wheatgerm too. Once again, I did not do ‘real’ measuring, just used my large Cath Kidson mug and hoped for the best!

I had a little assistance today from my two year old boy too & he did a great job mixing and tipping and sprinkling!

Ingredients

Dry
1 & 1/2 mugs wholemeal self raising flour
1/2 mug wheatgerm
1/2 mug light brown muscovado sugar
1 tsp mixed spice
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt

Wet
1 mug milk (I used semi-skimmed)
1/4 mug rapeseed oil (or equivalent)
1 large egg
1/2 tsp almond essence

Other
3/4 defrosted frozen dark cherries

Topping
Mix a small handful of porridge oats, golden demerara sugar and cinnamon together.

Method

Preheat oven to 180° fan. Prepare muffin tin with paper cases.

Sieve dry ingredients together in large mixing bowl. Mix.

Whisk wet ingredients in another bowl.

Gently add wet ingredients to dry in the large mixing bowl and combine until all mixed. If it’s a little stodgy, add a drop more milk.

Add cherries and stir in.

Spoon mixture into cases 3/4 way up case.

Sprinkle some of the topping on each muffin (or get a small helper to do this!)

Whack in oven for around 20 minutes until deliciously risen and golden.  Try gently sticking a wooden cocktail stick in the centre of a muffin and if comes out clean, it’s done!

Leave to cool on wire rack for a few minutes before trying one with a large cuppa tea!

They were obviously a hit with my children as I came back to the kitchen and someone had eaten ALL the muffins! Hmm.

Foos, Food, & Family

Five things for today.

1)In the kitchen – made a Herby butternut squash & chickpea soup, and Butternut Squash, orange & sultana muffins with leftover squash. Recipe on previous post.

The two small boys helped me too!

2) Foo Fighters

Put Sylvie in her brother’s old Foo Fighters vest! Loved seeing it being worn again!

3) Merangos
Had a sweet treat after dinner of meringue, Rodda’s Cornish clotted cream & berries. Yum! Albie calls them Rangos so we renamed them “Merangos”!

4) Texts – had a text from a friend who is very close to having her second baby & hoping for a home birth! Really excited for her & hope she gets a dream labour and delivery. I’d have loved a home birth but it wasn’t meant to be, but I think they are wonderful! Looking forward to an announcement!

5) Brothers – they drive each other spare a lot of the time & I’m always refereeing squabbles… But they really do love each other. This pair below in particular have a good bond, but clash too! I love watching my children interact (on a good day!) – it makes having a large family all the more worth it.

Butternut squash, Orange & Sultana muffins

Made a soup today and had a pile of extra butternut squash left over, so thought I’d try make some muffins with it! I didn’t do very accurate measuring & veer between ounces & grams I’m afraid as I tend to wing it…however they worked a treat! So here goes…

Ingredients

Approx. 12oz butternut squash peeled & chopped
400g (ish!) self raising white & wholemeal flour
300g (ish!) light brown muscovado sugar
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp baking powder
3 eggs
150ml approx. ricebran oil
Zest & juice of a small orange
Pinch salt
Handful of sultanas
Sprinkle of golden caster sugar.

Preheat oven to 180°c.

Place chopped butternut squash in pan of cold water (enough to cover), bring to boil for around 20 minutes until tender. Drain.

I used a food processor for the remainder of recipe, but you could do it manually.

Add squash to food processor and blend until smooth.
Add sugar, eggs, oil & blend until just mixed.
Add orange zest & juice.
Add flour, baking powder, salt & cinnamon. Blend until mixed.

My mixture was a little runny so I sprinkled a bit more flour into mix.

Stir in handful of sultanas.

Spoon mixture into cases. Sprinkle golden caster sugar on each muffin.

Bake for around 20/25 minutes.

Leave to cool on rack. Eat!

This mixture was enough to do 12-16 large muffins I reckon. I made 12 large & 16 mini muffin bites.

Wholemeal dark cherry and almond muffins

Tried adapting my smashing strawberry muffin recipe and I am pleased with the results! Hope you enjoy the recipe!

Ingredients
3/4 large mug of dark cherries (I used frozen & defrosted)
10oz wholemeal self-raising flour
2oz ground almonds
1tsp baking powder
6oz caster sugar
2tsp almond essence
7tbsp oil – I used ricebran oil
2 medium eggs
Splash of milk
Pinch of salt

Preheat oven to 180°c.

Squash & mash the cherries in a large bowl.

Add oil, sugar & eggs to cherries – mix well. Add almond essence. Mix.

Add sifted flour, ground almonds, baking power, salt – mix well. Add splash of milk if mixture appears a little dry. I used approximately a tablespoon.

Line muffin trays with cases & spoon mixture in 3/4 full. Sprinkle with a little extra caster sugar if desired.

Bake for 20/25 minutes or until risen & golden brown.

Leave to cool on a rack. Or eat warm & enjoy with a nice cuppa!

Smashing Strawberry muffins

I love baking muffins as you can probably tell by now if you read this blog! So, today I baked two batches, some Italian Courgette cakes with added blueberries & these Smashing Strawberry muffins. I’m hoping these will be good for packed lunches & might try freezing one to see how they fare so I can batch bake them.

I didn’t have fresh strawberries but did have frozen which I thawed.

I used a large Cath Kidson sized mug for my measuring by the way! Sorry my quantities are a little haphazard!

Ingredients

1 & half mugs of self-raising flour
1 mug of strawberries (I used thawed frozen ones)
Just under 3/4 mug of caster sugar
1/3 mug vegetable oil
2 medium eggs
1/2tsp baking powder
1/2tsp ground cinnamon
Pinch of salt

Preheat oven to 180°C (mine is a fan oven)

Smash the strawberries up with a fork or masher in a large mixing bowl. Feeling grumpy or down? Smash them REALLY hard! It helps!

Add oil, eggs, & sugar to smashed up strawberries. Mix well.

Add flour, baking powder, salt & cinnamon (sieve it in) – mix until combined.

Line a muffin tray with cases, I slightly sprinkle a tiny bit of flour in my paper cases as it seems to help stop sticking.

Spoon in the mixture approx 3/4 full. Should make around 10/12 muffins this way. Bake for around 20 minutes until risen & golden brown.

I don’t know what they’d be like with fresh strawberries but the frozen worked a treat! They turned out much better than I expected! Really pleased! Let me know if you try them!

Edited 3/5/13 – we made some Smashing Strawberry & Blackberry muffins today! We added a handful of fresh blackberries and smashed these up too along with the strawberries. These were delicious too!

Raspberry & Blueberry muffins

Got a poorly household today, and cake baking urge was strong! Needed berry muffins after seeing a link here yesterday.

I am never very sure of cup measurements so I just kind of winged it! These had a lovely sharp tang from the raspberries. Even my blueberry hating eldest enjoyed them! I loved that they weren’t too sweet…

… and they were perfect with a cup of tea!

Carrot & Apple muffins

After yesterday’s post I was disappointed to receive another text from school telling me school was open after all. I’ve not been feeling well over the weekend so selfishly had been looking forward to a lazy day with my children.

So, after the school run this morning, I came home and decided to make some muffins to cheer the boys up when I pick them up later!

I adapted a recipe from Abel & Cole’s Veg Box book for Kiwi muffins…

Ingredients

Dry
2 mugs plain or wholemeal flour
1 mug light brown sugar
1.5 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp mixed spice

Wet
1 large egg
3/4 mug milk
2 tbsp olive or groundnut oil

Rest
1 large carrot finely grated
1 apple finely grated
Handful of sultanas
Golden caster sugar & cinnamon for sprinkling

Muffin cases (I used silicon)

Method

Preheat oven to 220°C(200° fan)/gas mark 7.

Combine all the dry ingredients in one large mixing bowl. Combine wet ingredients in another bowl. Add the wet mixture to the dry ingredients & mix gently. (I added a splash more milk as I was going as it was quite a heavy mixture, see how you go!)

Add the grated apple, carrot & sultanas and gently fold through the mixture.

Spoon mixture in cases, I filled mine up about 3/4.

Sprinkle over sugar & perhaps extra cinnamon & bake in oven for about 25 minutes.

<;a
Leave to cool on rack, or if you are like me, get kettle on, sit down for five & get taste testing! 😉