Showing posts with label Breakfast. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Breakfast. Show all posts
I love muffins. No surprise there. I bake enough of them. I am always up for trying a new recipe if it catches my eye and so it was with the Banana Chocolate Chip Muffin recipe that I spied on Simply Recipes the other day.
I just happened to have some ripe bananas that I wanted to use up and had thought to make a cake or a loaf, but then I saw these muffins and all was lost. If there is anything I love quite as much as a muffin, it is a muffin containing chocolate chips!
They sounded and looked like real muffins, and by that I mean muffins. Not cupcakes disguised as muffins.
I want a small bake that is dense and moist, not soft and spongy. Something that you can really sink your teeth into and enjoy along side of a hot drink. Something meant to be enjoyed with a hot drink.
No bells. No whistles. Studded with perhaps a few nuts, or some dried fruit, maybe even fresh fruit, and yes, chocolate chips.
Streusel or no streusel. Meant to be eaten out of hand. A portable breakfast if need be. Something not too sweet to be enjoyed mid-morning when you start to feel a bit peckish and want just a little something to carry you over to lunch time.
These muffins are exactly that. Dense and moist. Not too sweet. Nice and banana flavored and studded with plenty of chocolate chips. I used both milk and semi-sweet chocolate chips and I used full sized, even though the recipe called for mini chocolate chips.
I had no minis and I am not one to quibble about the size of something like a chocolate chip. Banana and chocolate are perfect flavor partners, no matter the size of the chocolate chip and I am all in!
WHAT YOU NEED TO MAKE BANANA CHOCOLATE CHIP MUFFINS
Nothing really out of the ordinary. Do note that the riper the banana the better!
- 1 3/4 cups (245g) plain all purpose flour
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 1/4 tsp fine sea salt
- 3/4 cup (150g) granulated sugar
- 6 TBS (84g) butter, melted
- 3 TBS canola oil (I use light olive oil)
- 1 large free range egg, at room temperature
- 1 1/4 tsp vanilla extract
- 3/4 cup (2 medium) overripe bananas, well mashed, with no lumps (I put mine through a sieve)
- 3/4 cup (180ml) buttermilk, at room temperature
- 1 cup (180g) chocolate chips (I use a mix of milk and semi sweet)
HINTS AND TIPS FOR MAKING REALLY GOOD MUFFINS
- Read through the recipe several times before beginning and gather your ingredients. I like to have all of my ingredients at room temperature.
- Always make sure your oven is preheated. This ensures that your muffins bake through and properly in the allotted time. I like to give my oven a good ten minutes to preheat before I start baking.
- Weigh everything and measure accurately. Baking is an exact science. So many people just fudge things together and then wonder why what they bake hasn't turned out, blaming the recipe. Accuracy is everything in baking. I prefer to measure by weight as it is the most precise of all. A gram is always a gram is always a gram.
- Sift your dry ingredients together or at least give them a good whisking. This helps to prevent pockets of baking soda or baking powder. Everything should be mixed together evenly.
- Don't be tempted to add extra baking powder or soda thinking it will give you a higher lift. More often than not it will actually cause them to fall, and it will give them a definite wonky unpalatable taste.
- Even a pinch of salt is better than none. A small amount of salt helps to enhance the flavors of the other ingredients.
- Don't overmix your ingredients. It is okay for muffin batter to be a bit lumpy, in fact it is preferable. What you don't want is large dry streaks. Overmixing causes flat tops, tunnels and your muffins will be tougher.
HOW TO MAKE BANANA CHOCOLATE CHIP MUFFINS
I found the recipe on the original page to be a bit faffy, so I have streamlined it a bit. I thought much of the faffing about to be totally unnecessary and superfluous. In other words a tad pretentious. Sorry! They do recommend letting the batter sit for an hour prior to baking. I thought this to be quite unusual so I did it. I don't think it is totally necessary to do so, however. You will still get a very good muffin.
Whisk the flour, baking powder, soda and salt together in bowl. Set aside. Whisk the sugar, melted butter, canola oil and vanilla together in another bowl until well combined. Whisk in the egg, whisking it vigorously until the egg is well amalgamated, when whisk in the mashed banana and buttermilk.
Make a well in the middle of the dry ingredients and add the wet. Stir together until just combined and no dry bits remain. Fold in the chocolate chips. Cover with a clean tea towel and let sit on the counter for 1 hour.
Preheat the oven to 400*F/200*C/ gas mark 6. Fill 12 regular sized muffin cups with paper cups. Divide the batter between the muffin cups evenly.
Bake in the preheated oven for 9 minutes. Reduce the oven temperature to 350*F/180*C/ gas mark 4 without opening the door and bake for a further 4 minutes.
Rotate the pan and bake for a further 4 to 6 minutes longer. When done the tops will spring back when lightly touched and a toothpick inserted in the center should come out clean.
Lift out onto a wire rack to cool completely. Store any leftover in an airtight container at room temperature for up to three days.
You can freeze them, tightly covered, for up to three months. Reheat in the microwave for about 20 seconds.
This was a really good banana muffin. It had plenty of banana flavor without them being too banana-y. I liked that. By using a mix of milk and semi-sweet chocolate chips, I added interest to the muffin. Milk chocolate chips by nature tend to be a lot sweeter, and so the semi-sweet chocolate chips helped to cut the sweetness a tiny bit.
I would bake these again. I did not cut the recipe in half because I wanted to give some to my sister to put in her husband's lunch, and having said that, they do freeze very well.
Some other muffin recipes in The English Kitchen that you might enjoy are:
TRIPLE BERRY MUFFINS-These moist and delicious muffins are filled with not one, not two, but three different berries. Blueberries, raspberries and diced strawberries. It is also a small batch recipe and makes just 9 delicious muffins.
MORNING GLORY MUFFINS -This is a small batch of one of my favorite muffin recipes. These re moist and filled with the goodness of carrot, apple, coconut, pineapple, toasted nuts and whole and regular wheat flours. The recipe makes 6 largish muffins.
Yield: 12
Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins
Prep time: 10 MinCook time: 17 MinInactive time: 1 HourTotal time: 1 H & 27 M
These are moist and delicious and filled with lots of chocolate chips. The batter for these needs to sit on the counter for an hour prior to baking. You don't have to do this, but they will have more evenly rounded tops if you do.
Ingredients
- 1 3/4 cups (245g) plain all purpose flour
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 1/4 tsp fine sea salt
- 3/4 cup (150g) granulated sugar
- 6 TBS (84g) butter, melted
- 3 TBS canola oil (I use light olive oil)
- 1 large free range egg, at room temperature
- 1 1/4 tsp vanilla extract
- 3/4 cup (2 medium) overripe bananas, well mashed, with no lumps (I put mine through a sieve)
- 3/4 cup (180ml) buttermilk, at room temperature
- 1 cup (180g) chocolate chips (I use a mix of milk and semi sweet)
Instructions
- First make the batter. Whisk the flour, baking powder, soda and salt together in bowl. Set aside.
- Whisk the sugar, melted butter, canola oil and vanilla together in another bowl until well combined. Whisk in the egg, whisking it vigorously until the egg is well amalgamated, when whisk in the mashed banana and buttermilk.
- Make a well in the middle of the dry ingredients and add the wet. Stir together until just combined and no dry bits remain. Fold in the chocolate chips. Cover with a clean tea towel and let sit on the counter for 1 hour.
- Preheat the oven to 400*F/200*C/ gas mark 6. Fill 12 regular sized muffin cups with paper cups.
- Divide the batter between the muffin cups evenly.
- Bake in the preheated oven for 9 minutes. Reduce the oven temperature to 350*F/180*C/ gas mark 4 without opening the door and bake for a further 4 minutes.
- Rotate the pan and bake for a further 4 to 6 minutes longer. When done the tops will spring back when lightly touched and a toothpick inserted in the center should come out clean.
- Lift out onto a wire rack to cool completely. Store any leftover in an airtight container at room temperature for up to three days.
- You can freeze them, tightly covered for up to three months. Reheat in the microwave for about 20 seconds.
Thanks so much for visiting! Do come again!
Sticky Sweet Lemon Rolls. These are some of the tastiest and quickest sweet rolls that you could ever want to bake. With their sweet lemony sugar filling, and that beautifully tart lemon glaze, they don't let you down!
I hope you will not hold my bad photography against me today. Normally I get all of my cooking and photography done by noon and so I am taking my photos in natural light.
Yesterday things just snowballed and for some reason I never got my photos taken until late in the afternoon. I ended up having to take my pictures on the dining room table underneath the light in there.
I have been wanting to bake a lemon roll in a while, but I was waffling between using a yeast dough for them or more of a scone/biscuit dough. I wanted them to be similar to a Cinnamon roll, but with a lemon filling and glaze.
I thought about my mother's cinnamon rolls. These are the cinnamon rolls I grew up with and what I always baked for my children. Quick, easy and delicious they relied upon a scone/biscuit dough. I had no idea there was a yeast version until I was an adult.
True confession here. I have always preferred my mothers. There is something about the biscuit dough that just tastes better to me than the yeast dough. Call me crazy, but I will choose one of hers over the traditional ones every time.
And so it wasn't much of a stretch for me to decided to use the same type of dough for these Sticky Sweet Lemon Rolls.
Having now decided why kind of dough I wanted to use I now had to decide on a filling. I could go with a filling of lemon curd, which I had seen on a few different pages, or I could go with a traditionally sugar/lemon filling.
I found a delicious sounding sugar filling on a blog called Life in the Loft House. I decided to go with that one. It used sugar, lemon zest, butter and lemon juice. Decision made and I went for it.
Was I ever pleased with how they turned out! WOWZA! You are in for a real treat!
Simple every day baking cupboard ingredients. I use all butter in my rolls. I have grown away from using shortening for anything, so this is a traditional biscuit dough, but made with all butter. (The printable recipe is at the bottom of my post.)
For the dough:
- 2 cups (280ml) plain all purpose flour
- 3 tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 heaped TBS sugar
- 1/4 cup (60g) butter, cut into bits
- 1 cup whole milk
For the filling:
- 1 cup (200g) granulated sugar
- the finely grated zest of two lemons
- the juice of one lemon
- 4 TBS butter, at room temperature
For the glaze:
- 1 cup (130g) icing sugar, sifted
- the juice of 1/2 lemon (or enough to give you the right consistency)
- finely grated lemon zest to sprinkle over top
In the UK I always used unwaxed lemons but I have not seen them here where I live. I am sure they are available in larger areas but not in the boondocks where I live. If you can get unwaxed lemons go for them!
I had bought a bag of lemons at the shops the other day for a decent price. This is citrus season. They were packed with juice. True fact, the thinner skinned lemons pack in a lot more juice than the thicker skinned ones.
Also true if you leave your lemons at room temperature they will release more juice. I keep mine in a bowl on the counter top. Also, if you roll them on the counter before you juice them, more juice will be released.
I have a special lemon juice squeezer that I love. It works a bit like a garlic press. Squeezes all the juice out like an expert without any of the pith.
Before I just them however, I make sure I remove the zest. I use a fine mesh micro-plane grater for this. You get all of the zest and none of the pith. The pith is very bitter so try to keep it out of the mix if you can!
I just use regular lightly salted butter. I only keep that in the house and never use unsalted unless I am really worried that doing so will ruin the integrity of the recipe I am making. Usually if I just cut back on the salt in a recipe a bit there is no problem!
Also I am not overly fond of cream cheese frosting. By all means use your favorite version if you do like it. I have found that a simple lemon icing sugar glaze does the job perfectly and is just as delicious without things being overly rich.
HOW TO MAKE STICKY SWEET LEMON ROLLS
First make the filling. Add the sugar to a bowl and rub in the lemon zest until the mixture becomes quite fragrant. Drop in the butter and the lemon juice.
Beat with an electric hand whisk until you have a smooth mixture. It might look curdled at first, but persevere. It will come together all of a sudden like magic. Set aside.
To make the dough. Sift the flour into a bowl along with the baking powder. Add the salt and sugar. Drop in the butter.
Rub the butter into the flour until you have a mixture resembling coarse crumbs.
Stir in the milk with a fork to give you a soft dough. Tip out onto a lightly floured surface and knead gently a couple of times to bring together.
Pat or roll out to a rectangle measuring 9 inches by 12 inches.
Preheat the oven to 425*F/ 220*C/ gas mark 7. Butter a 10 inch pie dish really well. Set aside.
Spread the lemon filling in an even layer over the rectangle of dough. Roll up tightly from one long end to the other, pinching the edge shut. Using a sharp knife cut into 9 even pieces. Place them cut sides down in the prepared pie dish.
Bake in the preheated oven for 20 to 25 minutes, until well risen and golden brown, and cooked on the bottom. Remove from the oven and let sit while you make the glaze.
Whisk together the icing sugar and enough lemon juice to give you a thick drizzle glaze. Flick this over the tops of the lemon buns. Scatter with the lemon zest.
Serve warm. Store any leftovers in an airtight container.
Do note, that hot sugar is very hot and so you will want to be extra careful when serving these. Let them stand for about 8 to 10 minutes. You don't want them to cool in the dish, however, because they may stick due to the sugar content of the filling. Get them out as soon as you can safely do so.
They really are delicious. The lemon filling candies a bit on the bottom and they are filled with a beautiful lemon flavor throughout. If you are a fan of lemon, then you best prepare to fall in love with these quick and simple rolls!
If you love lemon as much as I do, you will fall in love with these other lemon recipes here in my English Kitchen:
BUTTERMILK LEMON PUDDINGS - One of my favorite lemon desserts has always been Buttermilk Lemon Puddings. These are delicious lemon puddings which upon baking, just like magic, separate into two distinct layers . . . one a lush lemon custard and the other a fabulously tart lemon cake. This is a dessert I used to make fairly often when entertaining at the Manor down south. I think lemon is a common love of ladies.
LUSH LEMON POUND CAKE - This is a fabulously delicious old fashioned lemon pound cake. If you are a fan of lemon and of cake, prepare yourself to fall in love! This easy pound cake recipe uses simple ingredients that most of us always have in our kitchens and packs a triple lemon wallop! With plenty of lemon zest, lemon juice and lemon extract, it scores a hat-trick of lush lemon flavors every single time you bake it!
Yield: 9
Sweet Lemon Rolls
Prep time: 20 MinCook time: 24 MinTotal time: 44 Min
Almost instant gratification with these sweet lemon rolls which combine a scone/biscuit type of dough with a sweet lemon filling. A tart lemon glaze finishes them off.
Ingredients
For the dough:
- 2 cups (280ml) plain all purpose flour
- 3 tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 heaped TBS sugar
- 1/4 cup (60g) butter, cut into bits
- 1 cup whole milk
For the filling:
- 1 cup (200g) granulated sugar
- the finely grated zest of two lemons
- the juice of one lemon
- 4 TBS butter, at room temperature
For the glaze:
- 1 cup (130g) icing sugar, sifted
- the juice of 1/2 lemon (or enough to give you the right consistency)
- finely grated lemon zest to sprinkle over top
Instructions
- First make the filling. Add the sugar to a bowl and rub in the lemon zest until the mixture becomes quite fragrant. Drop in the butter and the lemon juice.
- Beat with an electric hand whisk until you have a smooth mixture. It might look curdled at first, but persevere. It will come together all of a sudden like magic. Set aside.
- To make the dough. Sift the flour into a bowl along with the baking powder. Add the salt and sugar. Drop in the butter.
- Rub the butter into the flour until you have a mixture resembling coarse crumbs.
- Stir in the milk with a fork to give you a soft dough. Tip out onto a lightly floured surface and knead gently a couple of times to bring together.
- Pat or roll out to a rectangle measuring 9 inches by 12 inches.
- Preheat the oven to 425*F/ 220*C/ gas mark 7. Butter a 10 inch pie dish really well. Set aside.
- Spread the lemon filling in an even layer over the rectangle of dough. Roll up tightly from one long end to the other, pinching the edge shut.
- Using a sharp knife cut into 9 even pieces. Place them cut sides down in the prepared pie dish.
- Bake in the preheated oven for 20 to 25 minutes, until well risen and golden brown, and cooked on the bottom.
- Remove from the oven and let sit while you make the glaze.
- Whisk together the icing sugar and enough lemon juice to give you a thick drizzle glaze. Flick this over the tops of the lemon buns. Scatter with the lemon zest.
- Serve warm.
- Store any leftovers in an airtight container.
This content (written and photography) is the sole property of The English Kitchen. Any reposting or misuse is not permitted. If you are reading this elsewhere, please know that it is stolen content and you may report it to me at mariealicejoan at aol dot com.
Thanks so much for visiting! Do come again!
Occasionally I like to bake myself some muffins to enjoy in the mornings or with a hot cup of herbal tea mid-morning or afternoon. I have my favorites but I found myself with some applesauce that needed using up today and so decided to look for an applesauce muffin recipe to try.
I discovered one on a blog called Beat Bake Eat. They looked fairly simple and I had everything I needed in the house to make them. As you know I am not one for complicated things.
They looked really delicious as well. I didn't need 12 muffins however, so I cut the recipe in half to make only six large, or 8 medium muffins. (Disclosure, I made 8 medium muffins.)
I added some cloves to the spice mixture as cloves go so well with the flavor of apples, and I also added a hefty handful of dried currants as I have a huge bag of them to use. You could also use raisins, or even toasted walnuts!
And, of course, you can leave them just plain!
They came out lovely and moist and filled with delicious flavor. I gave some to my sister for them to enjoy and saved the rest for myself to use over the next couple of days.
Of course I couldn't resist eating one right away. Oh boy, it was some good! Tasty tasty!
WHAT YOU NEED TO MAKE SOUR CREAM APPLESAUCE MUFFINS
Simple every day ingredients. I had those little individual serving sized cups of unsweetened applesauce and that is what I used. It took one and then most of another.
- 1/4 cup (50g) granulated sugar
- 1/4 cup (50g) packed soft light brown sugar
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
- 1/8 tsp ground cloves
- 1/4 cup (30g) full fat sour cream
- 1 large free range egg
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 3/4 cup (180g) unsweetened applesauce
- 1/4 cup (60ml) canola oil
- 1 cup (140g) plain all purpose flour
- 1/2 cup (45g) dried currants or raisins (optional)
Those individual cups of unsweetened plain applesauce are ideal for recipes such as this one. I like to snack on them, but they also are just the right size to pop open for a recipe like this without having to open a huge jar and then have it go to waste.
If you don't have any sour cream but you do have full fat plain yogurt you can use that in its place. You can leave out the currants, but I love currants and raisins in my buns so I added them.
HOW TO MAKE SOUR CREAM APPLESAUCE MUFFINS
These muffins go together a bit differently than the usual muffin, but if you remember to mix the flour in at the end, just until combined, there is no reason you cannot have success!
Preheat the oven to 350*F/180*C/ gas mark 4. Butter six large muffin cups and line with paper.
Whisk together both sugars, the soda, baking powder, salt and the spices.
Stir in the sour cream, egg and vanilla, mixing everything together well. Whisk in the applesauce and the oil.
Stir in the flour and the currants/raisins just to combine.
Divide the batter between the muffin cups filling them 3/4 full.
Bake for 25 minutes until well risen and the tops spring back when lightly touched. A toothpick inserted in the center should also come out clean.
Cool in pan for five minutes, then carefully tip out onto a wire rack to finish cooling.
These muffins were really nice as is. I really enjoyed them. Delicious warm and even cold several hours later on!
Baking them in a medium muffin tin made them just the right size for me. You can do as you wish however, if you like larger muffins, do use a larger tin!
ORANGE, DATE AND OAT MUFFINS - Moist and delicious with lovely bits of a real chopped orange, and chopped dates. Wholesome and nutty from the use of old fashioned large flake oats. Scrumptious!
CRANBERRY, ORANGE AND PISTACHIO MUFFINS - Moist and flavor filled muffins with just the right balance of tang and sweetness. The cranberry and pistachio topping is really pretty and adds loads of interest.
CINNAMON ROLL MUFFINS - If you are a fan of cinnamon rolls, you will fall in love with these delicious muffins. Riddled with plenty of cinnamon sugar ripples and sweetly glazed, these tasty muffins always go down a real treat!
Yield: 6
Sour Cream Applesauce Muffins
Prep time: 5 MinCook time: 25 MinInactive time: 5 MinTotal time: 35 Min
Soft, moist and beautifully spiced. A lovely mid morning or portable snack.
Ingredients
- 1/4 cup (50g) granulated sugar
- 1/4 cup (50g) packed soft light brown sugar
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
- 1/8 tsp ground cloves
- 1/4 cup (30g) full fat sour cream
- 1 large free range egg
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 3/4 cup (180g) unsweetened applesauce
- 1/4 cup (60ml) canola oil
- 1 cup (140g) plain all purpose flour
- 1/2 cup (45g) dried currants or raisins (optional)
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350*F/180*C/ gas mark 4. Butter six large muffin cups and line with paper.
- Whisk together both sugars, the soda, baking powder, salt and the spices.
- Stir in the sour cream, egg and vanilla, mixing everything together well. Whisk in the applesauce and the oil.
- Stir in the flour and the currants/raisins just to combine.
- Divide the batter between the muffin cups filling them 3/4 full.
- Bake for 25 minutes until well risen and the tops spring back when lightly touched. A toothpick inserted in the center should also come out clean.
- Cool in pan for five minutes, then carefully tip out onto a wire rack to finish cooling.
This content (written and photography) is the sole property of The English Kitchen. Any reposting or misuse is not permitted. If you are reading this elsewhere, please know that it is stolen content and you may report it to me at: mariealicejoan at aol dot com
Thanks so much for visiting. Do come again!
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