Chocolate Peppermint Chips Muffins

Happy 2016!

2015 was gone in a flash. These were the highlights for me in 2015:

• completed my first 10km marathon run in Hong Kong, 
• my first holiday in Taipei with my colleague, 
• worked part-time for a month to coach my children during June school holidays,
• supervised two PSLE children & one GCE 'O' Level child,
• rewarded my children with a California holiday

For 2016, I hope I can go for more holidays, and also spend more quality time with my children. As they moved on to secondary schools, their time spent at home will be lesser as school activities picked up. I hope this new year will be smooth-sailing and fruitful too!

For the last day of 2015, my colleagues organised a mini department breakfast party. As part of my contribution, I baked muffins.

Recipe for Chocolate Peppermint Chips Muffins, adapted from Tested & Tasted.
(Makes 80 mini muffins)

Ingredients:
Wet
2 Eggs
125g Unsalted butter, melted
½ tbsp Rum
¼ tsp Salt
120g Buttermilk (120g milk + ½ tbsp lemon juice)

Dry
110g  Caster sugar
50g Brown Sugar
150g Plain Flour
40g Cocoa powder, dutch processed
1 tbsp Baking powder
¼ tsp Baking soda

50g Peppermint chips

Method:

1. Combine and mix all the wet ingredients in a bowl.
2. Sift the flour and powder, and combine all dry ingredients and mix.
3. Pour the wet ingredients into dry ingredients and stir till just combined. Batter will be lumpy.
4. Add in peppermint chips and mix to corporate. 
5. Scoop into paper cups.
6. Bake at preheat oven of 170C for 13mins or until a skewer inserted into the muffin comes out clean.

The Final Lap

This is the final lap that my eldest son will be going through. I'll be coaching and giving him all the support that he needs. Afterall, that was the reason why I had to work part-time just so that he gets the moral and physical support that he needs.

Therefore, I will not be putting up any blog post from now until after his PSLE "war". Once a while, I'll still take a peep at those wonderful bakes from those talented bloggers. I'll leave you with the bakes that I had done last month...

Till then,
happy baking,
happy school holidays
and happy mid-autumn festival!
And wishing all those taking PSLE, all the very very BEST!

Blueberry Lemon Muffins

When blueberries go on sale, what do bakers do? Buy them in abundance, then decide what to bake with them! Hahaha... This was what I did last weekend.


Besides baking blueberry chiffon cake, I also baked Blueberry Lemon Muffins. 

Recipe for Blueberry Lemon Muffins, modified from "500 Cupcakes & Muffins" by Fergal Connolly.
Makes 12 regular muffins


Ingredients:
115g Unsalted butter, softened
95g Caster sugar
265g Plain flour
1 tbsp Baking powder
2 Eggs, lightly beaten
225g Whole milk
1 tsp Lemon Extract
125g Fresh blueberries


Method:

1. In a mixing bowl fitted with K-beater, beat butter with sugar.
2. Add eggs one at time, mix till incorporated.
3. Add lemon extract. Mix well.
4. Add sifted flour and baking powder, alternate with milk, ending with flour.
5. Fold in fresh blueberries.
6. Spoon them into prepared cupcake papers.
7. Bake at 180C for 22mins, or until golden brown.
8. Remove muffins from the tray and served hot.
9. Store in an airtight container for up to 2 days, or freeze for up to 3 months.

Note:

• I used my homemade lemon extract and found that the lemon smell wasn't too prominent. I will add 2 tsps in future.
• I also found that one punnet of blueberries was not enough. Two punnets should be nice. Unless you don't mind the buttery muffin taste, then you can safely use one punnet. :)

Rosemary Corn Muffins

Few months back, I went shopping at Mustafa and bought a packet of whole wheat flour and a yellow corn flour. I've been wanting to bake some corn muffins and found a recipe from Martha Stewart website. Then I realised the recipe called for cornmeal, not cornflour. Oh dear! I thought cornmeal = cornflour. On second thought, I think I've seen cornmeals before. They are coarser and I believe it would be nicer when added to muffins. I was also surprised to find that the whole wheat flour is actually unprocessed. It has a very strong wheat smell and it's cream in colour instead of our usual bleached white colour.


Anyway, I decided to go ahead with the recipe. I used dried rosemary instead of fresh ones as that was the only herbs I have at the moment. I changed the recipe slightly. Surprisingly, it turned out quite good. The taste of the dried rosemary was very subtle. In fact, when it's placed in a container, the fragrance that arised was actually rosemary! I would think, fresh rosemary will stand out more if used. I shall try with cornmeal and fresh rosemary...if I can remember next time! :)


Recipe for Rosemary-Corn Muffins from Martha Stewart Website.

Ingredients
Makes 20 regular muffins

125g Plain flour
160g Yellow cornflour
70g Sugar
1 1/2 tsp Baking powder
1/4 tsp Baking soda
1/4 tsp Salt
1/4 tsp Dried rosemary
125g Corn kernels, plus more for topping
245g Buttermilk
1 Large egg, lightly beaten
55g Vegetable oil

Method:
1. Preheat oven to 200C (180C fan oven).
2. Line the muffin trays with paper cups.
3. Whisk flour, corn flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt, rosemary and corn.
4. Combine buttermilk, egg and oil in a small bowl.
5. Add to flour mixture, and stir until just combined.
6. Spoon batter into muffin cups, and fill to the brim.
7. Topped with more corns if desired.
8. Bake until the tops are brown, about 15-16mins.
9. Let it cool in for 5 mins before turning out the muffins on a rack.

Birthday Cake #3

Pondering. Wondering. Thinking. Asking. Questioning. What will be the 3rd birthday cake to make? Well, it's either the best, or the worst. Unfortunately, it was the latter. I was a bit ambitious, wanting to make a fondant cake for the children. With last minute preparation for the goodies, that left me with little, or no time to do the figurines for fondant. With time not on my side, I can only settle for the easiest cake and design-Chocolate and chocolate ganache.

Thanks to Youfei again. We had been on Gmail Chat once a while. Just happened that when I needed some help, I found her there! Heehee... I've been seeking her advice and suggestions. Fortunately, she provided very useful inputs for me, so that I can complete my 2-tier chocolate cake in time. A cake big enough to feed approximately 30 people at LTS childcare centre.


I had spend most of my time preparing their goodies. Instead of the usual plastic bags with party poppers and sweets, I made my own goodies and bought party cups instead.


What's in my party cuppies? It's fudge sweet, mini chocolate chips muffin and gingerbread cookie with either of my kid's names. I also included an ingredient list in case some kids might be allegic to some kind of food, perhaps? I topped the cuppies with Julie's Wheat Biscuits, hopefully to encourage the children to eat more healthy food.

All Kinds of Bakes

This week, I baked quite a lot of stuffs. However, I didn't get the chance to post them up mainly because I was really busy, a bit of lazy too! As my dad has a function on Sunday, he requested me to make the durian puffs again for his function. I made that last year and it was really very well received! As I have quite a lot of time on hand, I've decided to prepare more food for the function.


Besides durian puffs, I also made Chocolate Rice Krispies and Mini Apple Cinnamon Muffins. The Chocolate Rice Krispies wasn't very nice though as the rice krispies were a bit chewy. Fortunately the chocolate that was with it tasted good. So, there were no complaints.



I've tried this muffin recipe previously and I used it again for Apple Cinnamon. I remembered how I had my first apple cinnamon muffin from Muffin Break when I was in Melbourne more than a decade ago. To me, it was the most wonderful muffin I've ever had and from then on, it had become my favourite!




*******************

Lately, I've also been into muesli bars. Ever since my colleague gave me a muesli bar some weeks back, I've been waiting for these to be on sales at major supermarkets. Lately, I bought some Alpen and Carmen bars when they were on sales. I also recalled that granolas given by my sister some weeks back were very similar to museli bars. Therefore, I decided to make my own muesli bars! They can really be quite expensive, so I thought if I made them myself, then it should cost slightly less. Well, at least I can control what I want for the muesli. Boy, I was really glad I tried making it, it was really nice!





Recipe for Multi-grains & Fruits Muesli Bars.
Makes approximately 21 slices.

Ingredients:
150g Multi-grains
114g Raisins and Dried tomatoes, mixed*
100g Rolled oats
80g Rye flakes*
50g Dessciated coconut*
50g Sliced almonds, toasted*
20g Rice krispies, toasted*
88g Walnuts, chopped, toasted*
50g Duo Chocolate Chips
3 tbsp Honey
15tbsp Light Corn Syrup, approximately

Method:
1. Mix all the dry ingredients well.
2. Add in honey and light corn syrup, and mix well, like lumps.
3. Pack them and arrange them on a tray, approx 14” x 8”, lined with baking paper.
4. Bake at 180C for about 15mins or until it turns brown.
5. Cooled, and sliced them according to preference.

*Note: Ingredients are up to you to add. Just make sure there are a good mix of nuts and dried fruits to have a balance in taste!

Time Flies!

Time just flies with a blink of the eyes. I realised that I've not been updating my blog for about 10days! It was quite unlike me to keep the interval so long. I think it's either age is catching up with me (can't multi-task anymore) or I've been too busy lately. I guess another factor was also that I've not been baking much lately because of other commitments.

Anyway, I've just managed to finish another batch of durian-related food - durian muffins. The recipe was again, from Anna, which I had tried before previously. After a successful attempt, I'm tempted to try again of course! Who isn't motivated by successes? ;) I have all those leftover durians in the freezer, and I thought I'd better use them quickly before I forget again! And again, the texture turned out really nice. It was very fragrant too.



However, there was a sad thing. I spoilt my oven! I don't think I will be able to bake until I've gotten it repaired/replaced!! I've been very rough in handling my oven, and I think it was her way of showing displeasure, so she has decided to quit on me! *boohoohoo* Until it's been repaired, till then baking!

Just to share on my bakes for the past week.
Made some fondant cookies as a gift for a friend's daughter birthday.


It was scrambled eggs and garlic toast for breakfast last Saturday.


Try out a new Brownie recipe using Valrhona chocolates. Wasn't quite successful but I managed to salvage it! :p Will have to try this recipe again.



Did a durian cream cake for my sister-in-law last weekend.


Finally, had baked spagetti for dinner yesterday. I love the mozzarella cheese on pasta/spagetti.


I have also been very busy lately with my course. Had to practice my sugar paste flowers. I've still not decided on the design and the colour of my dummy wedding cake. Had been sourcing for the syrofoams and some other materials lately. It had been so stressful for me.

Simple and Good

Ever since I've started on some "pro" baking, I've not baked those simple and good treats - muffins! Muffins are actually very simple, doesn't need a mixer, just use whisk or spatula. I wasn't bothered with muffins all these while because I wanted very much to use my Kenwood mixer! Since I've already gotten myself some good and expensive mixer, might as well make use of it right? Hahaa... That was when, muffins are long forgotten.

Thanks to Anna for sharing her muffin recipe with me, I thought I might as well go easy with baking on a weekday. I tried baking an almond and chocolate chip muffins. It was really easy, and it turned out to be very fragrant and yummy! I used to love muffins a lot, but have forsake it for cupcakes. Suddenly, I realised I've fallen in love with muffins again! It's just a simple and good treat to bake and eat!!