Many Muffins

I’m enjoying this recent spate of muffin baking I’m on. As much as I adore my Kitchen Aid there’s something to be said for the ease with which a batch of muffins can be brought together. I also seem to be braver when it come to adapting recipes, something about the end result being distributed amongst 24 paper cases rather than the trepidation of all those ingredients going into the one bundt tin. The reduced baking time can be a bonus (although doesn’t quite leave enough time to clean the bathroom -thank god for portable kitchen timers) as is the reduced cooling time and the fact that they’re perfect for easy distribution. All of which mean that there’s time to whip up a batch before work in the morning rather than having to wait until the weekend in order to allow enough time for prepping, baking and cooling.

For a basic, and adaptable, muffin recipe I found this from Joy of Baking. I was going to play around, but then remembered the packs of blueberries in the freezer and used them straight off. The feedback was great and I really can’t stress how quick and easy it is. The important thing about making muffins is not to over mix the dry ingredients into the wet. A full explanation of why can be found on the link above, but 10-15 ‘stirs’ should be enough to incorporate the flour, you may still have the odd dry clump and streaks of flour, don’t worry!

I recently adapted Dorie’s Carrot Spice Muffins recipe to good effect, I think, starting with substituting courgettes for the carrots (I do love my courgettes). I worried, as I was counting out those ten to fifteen stirs, that there perhaps weren’t quite enough raisins or walnuts in the batter mix. But, the muffins were delightful with some bites delivering a nutty crunch, another the sweet taste of dried fruit with the hint of spice and moistness from the courgettes throughout.

Courgette Spice Muffins

Adapted from Dorie Greenspan’s Carrot Spice Muffin Recipe

Makes 24 muffins

300g plain flour

300g wholemeal flour

2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda

3 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp ginger

1/2 tsp mixed spice

1/2 tsp salt

120g light muscavado sugar (or light brown)

150g caster sugar

1 1/3 cup oil

4 large eggs

1 1/2 cups buttermilk

2 tsp vanilla

2 cups grated courgettes

50g raisins

50 sultanas

75g chopped walnuts

zest of a large orange

Preheat oven 190C

Grease or line muffin tins

Mix flours, spices, bicarb and baking powder in a large bowl

Add sugars, mixing so there are no lumps

In a large mixing bowl or jug whisk together eggs, oil, buttermilk, vanilla and orange zest

Add in the grated courgette and combine well

Pour wet ingredients into dry and stir until just combined, do not over mix, the mixture will be lumpy and there may still be traces of flour visible

Fold in the dried fruit and nuts and fill each muffin case nearly full

Bake for 20 minutes, transfer the tins to a cooling rack for 15 mins before removing the cases from the tins and allowing to cool completely

We’ve been really lucky recently with the weather, a recent glorious weekend coincided with the local monthly farmers market. I stocked up on rhubarb so I could make more compote for my breakfast. Another recent obsession, I don’t have a recipe as such, just chop, add to large pan with juice and zest of orange, vanilla pod, couple of chunks of ginger and some sugar. How much sugar? I like my rhubarb sharp, especially as I usually combine it with yoghurt and the sweet early British strawberries that are to be found right now. Clotilde from Chocolate and Zucchini recommend using 10% of the net weight of rhubarb used which sounds like a good tip. Cook the whole lot for 15 mins. Remove ginger and refrigerate when cool – delicious.

But back to the baking. As with any seasonal ingredient the blogs are filled with recipes meaning inspiration isn’t hard to find. As usual I was overwhelmed by choice but in the end I adapted the Rhubarb Strawberry Pecan Loaf from Smitten and it was divine. The only problem was the muffins that I set aside to take into work on Monday morning were so moist they bordered on mushy. They still tasted divine but these are definitely ones best eaten on the day they’re baked. There are a couple of comments on the original recipe about the moistness of the loaf and I can’t imagine how you would slice it, but the muffins meant this wasn’t a problem.

Rhubarb Strawberry Pecan Muffins

Adapted from Smitten Kitchen

Makes 24 Muffins

230g Light muscavado sugar (or light brown sugar)

117g oil

2 eggs

1 tsp vanilla

187g plain flour

187g wholemeal flour

1/2 tsp salt

2 tsp bicarbonate of soda

1/2 cup buttermilk

450g chopped rhubarb

345g sliced strawberries

75g chopped pecans

Preheat the oven to 180C

Grease or line muffin tins

Beat together sugar, oil, eggs and vanilla and buttermilk

Combine flours, bicarb and salt

Add dry to wet and stir until just combined

Fold in fruit and nuts and distribute between the muffin cases

Bake for 15 – 18 mins

Transfer tins to cooling rack and leave to cool in the tins for 15 mins before transferring the cases to the rack to cool completely

An Abundance of Bundts

How I love my Bundt tins.

To begin with I coveted these tins of beauty and mystery from afar via my laptop and all the food blogs – most of which are American – that I somewhat obsessively check daily. There was something so tantalising about them, cake in a brand new form, akin to seeing recipes familiar yet strange in their use of zucchini and arugula (an I still don’t understand the different forms of cocoa powder you can get in the US, nor which is the version we have here, but I have mastered converting from cup measures, once managed to make my own ‘cake flour’ and have grasped that a ‘stick’ of butter weighs 112g). Then I saw one for sale in Lakeland and discovered how amazing the cakes contained within these tins can be; both to bake and to eat. Versatile, simple, yet their presentation punches well above their weight. Plus (and this is a massive bonus for one not gifted with a delicate touch) their design negates the need for icing – even if a recipe calls for a glaze or ganache, perhaps a dusting of icing sugar, it can be drizzled over in a haphazard manner and most of the time it’s not needed at all. The beauty of these cakes lies in the flavour that can be packed into those beautifully designed tins.

Have I convinced you yet to go out and invest in one? If not, then just remember that most Bundt recipes can be divided into two 9×5 loaf tins.

Since that initial Lakeland tin my collection has grown, so much so that I’ve just arranged for extra shelving to be put up in my increasingly cluttered kitchen, lest the current cabinets detach from the wall under their collective weight (although the uncontrollable baking recipe book fetish may pose more of a risk).

Family and friends are grateful, not only for there now to be an entry under the heading ‘hobby’ with which to aid their gift buying, but also as recipients of the finished products. Everyone’s a winner, from the dairies that provide the many cartons of buttermilk I get through in a month, via the supermarkets that provide the rest of the ingredients, to the neighbours, friends and colleagues who receive their share of the finished goods, to Weight Watchers et al who probably owe a week or two subscriptions to the products of my insomniac Sundays. Bundts even allow me my guiltiest pleasure – their cracked and domed tops, fresh from the oven can be tested and tasted whilst warm as this will soon become the hidden base. I tell you, there’s little that these tins can’t do – including helping you to make your Sunday Roast.

My recent obsession has been baking with bananas. I’ve discovered a couple of local shops that sell perfectly ripened bananas reduced in price as they’re too perfectly ripe for most consumers, but for a baker they’re just perfect. Supermarket bought bananas can take weeks to reach this stage so I’ve taken to walking round these various shops on a Saturday collecting fruit bursting with flavour (and occasionally out of their skins – I always take a plastic bag with me now) in order to bake on a Sunday morning. I’ve tried several recipes over the weeks and I think my adaptation from Dorie Greenspan’s Classic Banana Bundt recipe is not at all bad. I’m not sure when you can claim a recipe as your own, there are plenty of additions and a couple of substitutions in this recipe, but she certainly gave me the start I needed. I’ve added spices, reduced the sugar, swapped some of the flour for wholemeal and, of course, used buttermilk. This last Sunday morning was spent with this bread’s latest incarnation prompted by the gift of some amazing miniature tins – how great are these?

I can’t tell you the fun I had, the only problem was trying to choose which of my neighbours would get which shape and size cake. I hope you enjoy this recipe, and I really hope you get to try baking Bundt soon.

Banana Bread

(adapted from Dorie Greenspan’s recipe in ‘Baking From My Home to Yours)

 

225g butter

100g light muscavado sugar

150g caster sugar

450g (approx 4-5) mashed, very ripe bananas

Squeeze of lemon juice

225g wholemeal flour

225g plain flour

2 tsp bicarbonate of soda

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp ginger

1/4 tsp freshly grated nutmeg

1/4 tsp salt

2 tsp vanilla extract

2 large eggs

1 cup buttermilk ( I use one 284ml carton)

Preheat oven to 180C, grease tin(s) and dust with flour, tapping out the excess.

Whisk together dry ingredients in a bowl

Mash bananas and squeeze over a little lemon juice

Beat together sugars and butter till light and fluffy – about 5 minutes with a stand mixer on medium high speed.

Beat in vanilla and eggs one at a time, beating for a minute after each addition and scraping down the sides of the bowl as necessary

Reduce mixer speed to low and add the banana (batter may curdle, don’t worry), then half the dry ingredients followed by the buttermilk then the remaining dry ingredients.

Once incorporated scrape into tin(s) and smooth the top(s) and place in the oven.

For one large Bundt bake for 64 – 70 minutes, but be sure to check after 20 minutes or so to see if the top is browning too quickly, if it is, cover the top loosely with foil. For the mini Bundt pans I baked for 25-30 and the teeny and tiny loaf tins, 20 -25 mins.

 

Gin in the AM (and another bundt)

Not hair of the dog but an ingredient in the mincemeat I made this morning in preparation for mince pies.

Another Sunday, another 4am start and another few hours spent in the kitchen. The idea for gin and the base recipe I used came from a friend who kindly gave me a taste of her batch earlier in the week. I am a little scared of mince pies as pastry is my baking nemesis. Last year, full of good intentions, with family coming to visit, my Christmas Eve baking session ended up in the bin. Luckily I had some shop bought ones in the cupboard and when people arrived the house at least smelled of fresh, home-baked mince pies (and no, I didn’t try and pass them off as my own!).

There was something very therapeutic about chopping the apples whilst listening to yet more torrential rain. The high point of the morning was adding a little of the cooling (pre-gin) mixture to my porridge. The finished product is sat, in jars, maturing and waiting for me to be brave enough to attempt the pastry.

This weekend I also put my Christmas decorations up, fed the Christmas cakes again and had a little slice of the test cake – delicious. I love this time of year.

As the mincemeat didn’t call for me to use the kitchenAid I of course had to bake something else too. I went with Dorie Greenspan’s ‘All-in-One Holiday Bundt’ crammed full of cranberries, pumpkin, apple, nuts and spices, it’s just delicious.

Mincemeat

Makes about 1 1/2 large kilner jars

200g muscavado sugar

175g butter

Juice and Zest of 3 oranges (approx 200ml)

Zest of 1 lemon

Heaped tsp mixed spice

1 tsp ginger

1/2 tsp cloves

1/4 tsp freshly ground nutmeg

750g Bramley Apples finely diced (approx 4)

340g currants

340g raisins

200g dried cranberries

Put butter, sugar, orange juice and spices in a pan, heat slowly until smooth, add apple, zests, dried fruits and bring to the boil, reduce to a simmer for 10 – 15 mins or until the apples are soft. Allow to cool then add the gin …. and a bit more … and go on just a bit more. I added a lot of gin … I will let you know how it turns out in a few days!

All-in-One Holiday Bundt Cake

from Dorie Greespan’s ‘Baking, From my Home to Yours’

300g plain flour

2 tsp baking powder

1/2tsp bicarb

2 tsp cinnamon

1/4 tps freshly grated nutmeg

1 1/2 tsp ground ginger

135g unsalted butter at room temperature

1 cup sugar (I reduced to 3/4’s)

1/2 cup (packed) light brown sugar (I used reduced this too, to about 1/3 cup, not packed)

2 large eggs at room temp

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 1/4 cups pumpkin puree

1 large apple, peeled, cored and finely chopped

1 cup cranberries, halved

1 cup pecans roughly chopped (I used walnuts).

Butter and flour your bundt tin and preheat the oven to 175C

Mix flour, spices and raisin agents in bowl

Mix butter and sugars until light and fluffy (approx 5 mins) at medium speed

Add eggs one at a time, beating for 1 min after each addition

Add vanilla

Reduce speed and add pumpkin and apple – Dorie points out at this point not to worry if your mixture looks curdled – mine did!

On low speed add the dry ingredients but do not over mix

using a spatula stir in cranberries and nuts – spoon into pan and smooth the top with a rubber spatula.

Bake for 60 – 70 mins, leave to cool in tin for 5 mins before turning out onto a wire rack.

Almost Fudge Gateau

Lady Poker Night is a semi-regular gathering that calls for a chocolate based dessert (to follow S’s infamous Chilli) and I had my lovely new copy of Dorie Greenspan’s Baking From My Home to Yours to turn to. I was tempted by the Cinnamon Squares and the Fresh Ginger and Chocolate Gingerbread, but reasoned these goodies suitable for easy work-place distribution and I wanted a cake. I wanted a round cake to be sliced into wedges not squares, I wanted to use some of the patisserie chocolate I had in my cupboard and so, the Almost-Fudge Gateau it was.

I have had a little look around the web to try and find some pictures of the finished product as I like to know what I’m aiming for and came across lots of comments about 70% chocolate being too bitter (there’s a lot of chocolate in the cake and the glaze). I only had 70% but needn’t have worried, I and the other poker players didn’t find it too bitter at all. It does need something to cut through the richness though. I had creme fraiche and others had some double cream, good vanilla ice cream would’ve been wonderful too. Doris lists the baking time as 35 – 45 minutes, mine was done at 35, after cooling I wrapped it and added the glaze the following day ready to take to the poker evening, and that was where the fun began.

I’ve only ever attempted a ganache once before and it was a disaster. I’m not a fan of frostings and glazes, finding them far too sweet and not enjoying the additional complications they bring to storing and traveling so tend to opt for recipes that don’t need them. Dorie lists this glaze as ‘optional’ but the cake looked like it needed it and I wanted to give it a go. My first two attempts failed, the ganache split and I couldn’t recover it. I then had to make a mad dash to the shops to buy more cream, had a little sit down with google and tried to work out what to do. My third attempt involved pouring the hot cream over broken, but unmelted chocolate but this too split, finally – and with many thanks to Joy of Baking who I should’ve turned to after the first failed attempt – I added a tablespoon of butter to the cream (and so did away with the syrup in the original recipe) poured the just boiling mixture over the broken chocolate and then left for 5 minutes before whisking gently – success! I’ve listed Dorie’s original recipe as well as the one I used below. Unfortunately the excitement of the moment and ensuing rush to get ready for the evening meat I completely forgot to take a picture of the finished cake, I’m gutted as it looked pretty damn fine but I’m sure I will be making it again soon.

Almost-Fudge Gateau

Dorie Greenspan ‘Baking; from my home to yours’

(conversions to metric are mine)

5 large eggs

9 oz (258g) bittersweet chocolate coarsely chopped

1 cup (220g) sugar (I used golden caster)

5 tbsp unsalted butter cut into chunks (2.5oz/72g)

2 table spoons of coffee or water (I used coffee, a hint of coffee always so good with chocolate)

1/3 cup (55g) all purpose flour

Pinch of salt

Preheat oven to 350F (180C), butter a 9-inch spring-form pan, line the bottom of the pan, butter the lining and dust the buttered pan with flour, tapping out the excess (I didn’t line the pan, just buttered and floured and it came out fine). Place the pan on a baking sheet lined with parchment or silicone mat.

Separate the eggs with whites into a large mixing bowl and yolks in small bowl,

Melt the chocolate, sugar, butter and coffee in a heatproof bowl over a pan of simmering water until melted – sugar may still be grainy. Remove form heat and let sit for 3 minutes.

Using a wooden spatula, stir in the yolks one by one, then fold in the flour.

Beat eggs with pinch of salt until they hold firm but glossy peaks. Using the spatula, stir in a quarter of the whites into batter, then gently fold in the rest.

Scrape batter into pan and jiggle pan to spread evenly.

Bake for 25 – 45 minutes until evenly risen (may rise around edges first) and the top has firmed (may be cracked)

Allow to rest in pan for 5 – 10 minutes, then run a blunt knife gently around the edges and remove the sides of the pan. Invert cake onto rack and remove base and paper. Invert onto another rack and allow to cool to room temperature right side up. As it cools it may sink

For the Glaze

Turn the cooled cake over on the rack so your glazing the bottom and place the rack over a baking sheet lined with paper to catch any drips

Dorie’s version:

4oz bittersweet chocolate, coarsely chopped

1/2 cup heavy (double) cream

2 teaspoons light corn syrup (golden syrup is an acceptable substitute)

Melt chocolate in heatproof bowl over pan of simmering water or in microwave – chocolate should be just melted and only warm, not hot. Meanwhile, bring the cream to a boil in a small saucepan and stir very gently with a rubber spatula until the mixture is smooth and shiny. Stir in the corn syrup

My version – Dorie’s quantities, Joy of Bakings method:

4oz chocolate

1/2 cup cream

1 tbsp butter

Ganache: Place the chopped chocolate in a medium sized stainless steel bowl. Set aside. Heat the cream and butter in a medium sized saucepan over medium heat. Bring just to a boil. Immediately pour the boiling cream over the chocolate and allow to stand for 5 minutes. Stir with a whisk until smooth.

Pour the glaze (which ever version you use) over the cake and smooth with metal icing spatula, don’t worry if it drips unevenly down the sides of the cake. allow to set at room temperature or refrigerate if impatient.