Showing posts with label coffee break. Show all posts
Showing posts with label coffee break. Show all posts
Children have early morning sports and club activities to dash off to, early morning buses to catch . . . mom and dad are trying to get everything sorted, showered and fed before they have to dash off to work . . . and the list goes on and on. It soon becomes far much easier to pick up a donut at the coffee shop on the way in, or feed the hungry babes with a pop tart or other equally as chemical and additive filled portable "breakfast" goodie. Not good . . . they might taste good . . . but they are just not good for you.
Wholesome and hearty muffins, baked with natural ingredients are a delicious and healthier alternative to a fast food breakfast sandwich or other "quick" choice. Taste tempting muffins such as these fabulous ones shown here today . . .
Muffins made with whole grains . . . fruit, not a lot of fat, not a lot of sweetening . . . filling and tasty nonetheless . . . and reasonably sized, not gargantuan. A muffin is supposed to be a muffin . . . not a cake baked in a muffin tin.
Breakfast on the go. Portable goodness. Very easy to bake ahead and freeze, and then just take out as and when you are wanting something quick, and wholesome . . . and filling. This will put some lead in your pencil and help to get you and your family through the morning without finding yourself hungry again half an hour down the road, and so starving by elevensies that you grab something very bad for you like a candy bar or a bag of crisps . . .
The low fat buttermilk makes them moist . . . sweetened naturally with some maple syrup and muscovado sugar . . . whole bran cereal and unbleached plain flour . . . naturally sweet sultanas, high in fibre and low in fat. These are my breakfast winners! (Sans the butter, of course!! What can I say . . . I felt like indulging myself this morning . . . I can sometimes be quite naughty.)
*Everyday Maple, Bran and Sultana Muffins*
Makes 12 medium muffins
Printable Recipe
I like my Bran Muffins chock full of raisins, but feel free to subsitute other dried fruits such as blueberries, cranberries or chopped apricots or dates.
Moist and delicious muffins! Not too sweet. I bake these and then store them in the freezer. Then I take them out, one or two at a time and just reheat them for a few seconds in the microwave.
375ml of low fat buttermilk (1 1/2 cups)
2 large free range eggs
4 TBS unsalted butter, melted
60ml of sunflower oil (1/4 cup)
60ml of pure maple syrup (1/4 cup)
50g of all bran cereal (about 1 1/2 cups)
225g of raisins (1 1/2 cups)
100g of plain flour (1 cup)
30g of wheat or oat bran (1/2 cup)
50g of soft light brown muscovado sugar (1/4 cup packed)
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1/4 tsp fine sea salt
50g of toasted chopped walnuts, or pecans (1/2 cup) (optional)
Preheat the oven to 200*C/400*F/ gas mark 6. Butter a standard sized 12 cup metal muffin tin(2 1/2 inch diameter cups) really well, including the top of the pan. Set aside.
Combine the buttermilk, butter, eggs, oil, maple syrup, bran cereal and raisins in a large bowl. Set aside for 5 to 10 minutes to soften the bran and plump the raisins.
Bon Appetit!
I just spent most of the day trying to do a video that I could post on line of this lovely breakfast cake. All the steps along the way, etc. It took me hours and hours, but I can't get it to load up and I am exhausted from trying. I don't know how these youngsters do it, I really don't! Never mind we can at least enjoy the fruits of my labours in this delicious breakfast cake. Apple Pie Coffee Cake!
When I was a child one of the favourite things that my mother would make for us as a treat on cooler autumn and winter nights was her version of Cinnamon Rolls. Not the yeasty bready kind of cinnamon rolls, but the quick bread/biscuit/scone type of Cinnamon Rolls. Oh boy but they smelled so good when they were cooking, and they tasted even better. Heavenly Bliss.
I am not sure what it is about poppyseeds, but I love anything with poppyseeds in them. When I lived out West we used to be able to buy the best poppyseed sweet buns at the grocery store bakery in Medicine Hat. They were to die for! I have been craving them ever since! I will have to find myself a recipe one day and make my own. These muffins are not quite buns, but they are quite delicious in a different sort of way!
Do you love shortbread biscuits as much as I love shortbread biscuits? Who doesn't! I think that shortbread biscuits have to be just about everyone's favourite cookie! I make whipped ones every Christmas which are as simple as beating them together and dropping them on a baking sheet. I make rolled and cut outs in a variety of flavours.
All are gorgeous. When I saw this recipe for Peanut Butter ones, I knew I just had to bake them. Peanut Butter and shortbreads . . . two of my favourite things together in one!
I adapted the recipe from one of my favourite baking books, One Bowl Baking by Yvonne Ruperti. If you don't have it, you should. It's a fabulous baking book. Everything I have ever baked from it has been a winner!
These are lovely shortbreads. The smell of peanut butter which fills the air when they are baking is enough to get your tastebuds tingling in overtime!
With the cross-hatching they look very similar to other peanut butter cookies, but that is where every similarity ends.
These are short and crumbly . . . and not too sweet. Everything a perfect shortbread biscuit should be.
Filled with lots of lovely chopped peanuts, I would go so far as to call them moreish. They are not chewy, or crisp . . . just short and deliciously buttery peanut buttery crumbly.
They positively beg to be enjoyed with a nice hot drink. These are grownup peanut butter biscuits, that bring out the child in you.
*Chunky Peanut Peanut Butter Shortbreads*
Makes 2 dozen
340g creamy peanut butter (1 1/3 cups)
1 large free range egg
Divide
the dough into 24 equal pieces, and roll into balls. Place evenly
spaced on the baking sheets. Using a fork, cross hatch into each
cookie, pressing them down to about 1 inch thick.
Bake for 12 to 14 minutes, rotating the pans halfway through the cooking time, until golden brown and set.
If you are fond of shortbreads and like peanut butter, you will quite simply adore these lovely biscuits. In fact . . . I might go so far as to say you will feel like you have died and gone to heaven. Bon Appetite!
This isn't a coffee flavoured cake, but a dense cake which is meant to be eaten with a hot drink, and sometimes split and buttered. They are not really sweet like regular cakes or soft like normal cakes, but are sturdier and meant to be eaten warm . . . at the weekend . . . for brunch possibly.
They fall somewhere in between being a cake and being a bun/scone, if that makes sense! Generally speaking they will have a crumb filling or a crumb topping, or sometimes even both.
Whatever . . . I've never met one I didn't love!!!
This one is especially nice! It has a lovely sweet and nutty/buttery date and walnut filling, which lies in the middle of two buttery layers of cake/bun/scone.
I just adore dates and they lend an almost caramel flavour to this filling . . . and of course the brown sugar/butter forms little pockets of candy like caramel as well . . .
And then there is the crunch of walnuts . . . I like to toast my walnuts, personally. I think it lends an extra crunch to them and layer of nuttiness.
In any case . . . they are in the middle and sprinkled over the top.
This is a cake that was meant to be shared! You are going to absolutely love LOVE it! Adapted from a recipe in the old Purity Flour Book from way back when, so you just know its going to be good.
When I bake things like these . . . I sure wish I wasn't a diabetic because my cake loving soul just wants to plunge right in and enjoy.
Sigh . . . well, perhaps just one tiny smidgen of a taste. That can't hurt too much. They do say a little bit of something nice does a body good.
*Date and Walnut Coffee Cake*
Serves 6 - 8You will need an additional 30g(1/4 cup) chopped walnuts
Bake in the preheated oven for 25 to 30 minutes, until risen and golden brown. Serve warm. Cut into wedges or squares.
Now that's a weekend bake you can really sink your teeth into! Bon Appetit!
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It's a good thing this recipe only makes two scones because if it made any more than that I would be in deep, deep trouble! These are fabulous!
I found the recipe over on a page called Dessert for Two and it looked like it would be something we might enjoy and so I went for it!
On looking a bit closer at the recipe I could see that it was a riff on a delicious scone recipe from Wolfgang Puck, albeit of a much smaller quantity and with a Maple Glaze added.
On looking a bit closer at the recipe I could see that it was a riff on a delicious scone recipe from Wolfgang Puck, albeit of a much smaller quantity and with a Maple Glaze added.
There really IS nothing new under the sun, only new ways of doing things!
I didn't do anything different, I just made them and baked them and then we devoured them.
I have done the hard work of converting the measurements to UK measurements and that is how I made them, using UK measurements, so that I could be sure that they worked, and they did. So that was my addition to the recipe.
You really have to bake these. They are quite simply amazingly fabulous. You can thank me later. ;-)
*Small Batch Maple Glazed Black Pepper Scones*
Makes 2 very large scones
Whisk together the egg yolk and cream. Pour this
over the flour mixture and then mix together with a fork to make a
shaggy type of dough. Don't overmix, but all of the ingredients should
be well incorporated.
Using your hands, divide the dough in half and
shape into two mounds on the baking sheet, leaving plenty of space in
between to spread. (I would leave 4 inches)
Mmmm . . . gorgeous served warm, and pretty damn good served cold. These babies are huge so my husband and I shared one the first day and then had the second one the day after cold. Scrumdiddlyumptious!
Bon Appetit!
In honor of the daffodils which are coming into bloom now and the poem by William Wordsworth, I wanted to bake this lovely Seed Cake which was supposed to have been the favourite cake of William's sister Dorothy!
I have been to their home up in the Lakes, Dove Cottage . . . and it was a lovely white washed cottage. One could almost imagine Dorothy and William sitting in the back garden munching on seed cake and drinking cups of tea. Well, I could at any rate!
Seed cake is actually a very traditional cake which goes way back in British history. It was very popular in Victorian times, and a good seed cake recipe would have been included in most cookery books of that era.
This traditional British cake is flavoured with caraway or other flavourful seeds. Caraway seeds have been long used in British cookery, and at one time caraway-seed biscuits were prepared to mark the end of the sowing of the spring wheat.
Seed cake is actually a very traditional cake which goes way back in British history. It was very popular in Victorian times, and a good seed cake recipe would have been included in most cookery books of that era.
This traditional British cake is flavoured with caraway or other flavourful seeds. Caraway seeds have been long used in British cookery, and at one time caraway-seed biscuits were prepared to mark the end of the sowing of the spring wheat.
So I would say it's pretty timely, as this would be the time of year they would be sowing it.
I love caraway seed . . . and I love cake, especially this type of cake . . . the kind of cake which is perfect for enjoying mid afternoon with a nice hot drink . . . during your break from spring cleaning, coz . . . you're all doing that aren't you? ;-)
I love caraway seed . . . and I love cake, especially this type of cake . . . the kind of cake which is perfect for enjoying mid afternoon with a nice hot drink . . . during your break from spring cleaning, coz . . . you're all doing that aren't you? ;-)
Well, if you aren't yet you will be, I know. DO let it mature overnight and then serve it thinly sliced with your favourite cuppa.
You are in for a real treat. Buttery. Lightly flavoured with caraway. It's really nice
Popular
during Victorian times, this cake is lovely thinly sliced and served
with a nice hot cup of tea, herbal or otherwise. Very traditional.
175g butter, softened (3/4 cup)
175g caster sugar (very scant cup (less about 2 TBS)
3 large free range eggs, beaten
3 tsp caraway seeds
225g of plain flour, sifted (1 1/2 cups plus 1 TBS)
1 tsp baking powder
pinch salt
1 TBS ground almonds
1 TBS milk
Preheat the oven to 180*C/350*F/ gas mark 4. Butter and line a 2 pound loaf tin with baking paper. Set aside.
Cream
together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in the
eggs, one at a time. Sift together the flour and baking powder. Stir
this in along with the salt, almonds, seeds and milk. Mix well to
combine evenly. Scrape into the prepared baking tin.
Bake for 45 to 55 minutes, or unti well risen, golden brown and a toothpick inserted in the centre comes out clean.
Allow to cool completely in the tin. Store in an airtight container. Cut into slices to serve.
Did you know that Caraway Seeds are thought to aid digestion? They are from a herb related to the parsley family.
*Seed Cake*
Makes one 2 pound loaf1 TBS milk
Did you know that Caraway Seeds are thought to aid digestion? They are from a herb related to the parsley family.
Whatever . . . they're really tasty. This recipe was adapted one which I found in a National Trust Cookery Book, entitled . . . Good Old Fashioned Cakes.
You can't beat a National Trust baking book. Yummy! These are the recipes they use in most of their tea rooms.
Bon Appetit! Happy Daffodil season.
Bon Appetit! Happy Daffodil season.
I was sent some delicious Marmalades to cook with earlier this month in honor of National Marmalade Week and asked would I like to try to create some new recipes using it. This speaks to two of my great loves . . . one I love Marmalade, and two, I love to create new things and be challenged. Everyone's a winner! (And especially us because we get to try all these new delicious marmalade scrummies!) First up Marmalade Cheesecake Crumble Cake!
One thing which I have always enjoyed cooking since coming over to the UK are the old tradition recipes. Recipes which have their roots deep in British tradition and which have been around for a very long time . . . recipes which are a part of the fabric of this beautiful country's history and culture.
I confess these cookies are not diabetic friendly, or diet friendly in any way, but I wanted to bake something for the young missionaries to take to our District meeting the other day, and so I baked them these cookies. I couldn't believe that I hadn't already shared the recipe on the blog!
I had never heard of Brioche before I moved over here to the UK, let alone Brioche Chinois. You would be right in thinking this is not English . . . it's French in origin, but it brings the Brioche a step beyond a normal Brioche . . . this is "Translated literally," a Chinese Brioche. Nothing Chinese about this however. I have been told by a French baker here in the UK, that the word Chinois simply means a conical shape. What I can tell you for sure is that they are delicious!
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