Not just an ordinary muffin (cake)

 

Hello everyone! I thought I'd take a break from baking, but...Our holiday might be cancelled because of the vulcanic activity, which would just be typical. It's just wait and see how that goes this time. While sitting and working (not so) hard on my final exams, I thought, I might easily find some inner peace and bake! The only problem is that I haven't kept ordinary flour for baking purposes at home for a while. I thought it would help me resist my baking temptations. So wrong I was! Amazing how our creativity works when you give it a little push. I remembered that I had some wholegrain spelt flour left from the times when I was living a happy flour- and sugarless life :) I also remebered my mum's favorite cake recipe. I do realize this probably is not a "wow" kind of thing but if you are interested in a healthier way of baking, you must definitely try this recipe! The cake (or muffins) is soft, spongy, absolutely wonderful and the good news is that there's no bad news :)

Wholegrain spelt muffins with lemon yogurt icing

You need:
4 small eggs (or 3 big ones)
6 TBsp granulated sugar (or 3 TBsp granulated+3TBsp light brown muscovado sugar)
1 dl olive oil
2 TBsp cocoa powder
6 TBsp wholegrain spelt flour
1 tsp cinnamon
2 tsp baking powder

for the "icing":
greek yogurt + lemon curd + cinnamon = absolutely lovely!!!


1. Beat eggs and sugar. 2. Stir in olive oil, cocoa powder and cinnamon. 3. Stir in flour and baking powder. 4. Bake at 200 degrees for the first 5 minutes then turn down to 180 and bake for 10-15 minutes.
You can make muffins as I did or a cake, it's up to your preference. If you are using a baking mold, grease and flour the mold first. 
As for the icing, I've been using a greek yourt instead of everything lately and can't get enough of it :) You can make your own favorite icing, but I recommend this light, lemony one with the cinnamon spice. I promise you'll love it!

Muffins with toffee topping for sweet addicts

 

I know exactly how these muffins with toffee topping happened to me. Some time ago I discovered a wondeful thing at our local food store. Toffee muffins. They were so extraordinary delicious that I've been thinking ever since how to make them at home. Especially after they vanished from the market completely.
The result is not an exact copy of those from the food store, but they are very dreamy :))
And now I can officially call myself a sweet addict-again. I'll be enjoying this status for a few more days before cutting down on sugar.

The recipe is a combination of two. I decided to make the muffins of a sour cream pound cake dough which turned out really great. As for the toffee sauce, I found the most wonderful Nigella-recipe.

Sour cream pound cake muffins with Nigellas sticky toffee topping

Inspiration: http://www.nigella.com/recipes/view/sticky-toffee-muffins-1916
http://vondelicious.blogspot.com/2010/09/perhaps-my-favourite-cake.html

 Ingredients:

Muffins:

90 g butter

(almost) 1 cup sugar

3 eggs

2 dl sour cream

1 1/2 cups plain flour

1/4 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

a pinch of vanilla bean extract or 1 tbsp vanilla sugar

Toffee sauce:

60 g butter

75 g light muscovado sugar

1 tbsp golden syrup

125 ml double cream

Method:

1. Let the sour cream, eggs, and butter at a room temperature for about 30 minutes.

2. Set oven to 180 degrees.

3. Beat the butter for about 30 seconds. Gradually add sugar and beat until light and fluffy for about 10 minutes.

4. Mix together flour, baking soda, baking powder and vanilla/vanilla sugar.

5. Beat in eggs into the butter-sugar mixture, one at a time.

6. Alternately add the flour mixture and sour cream until well combined.

7. Fill the muffin cups with the mixture to 2/3 and bake for about 20 minutes. Let cool completely. 

8. Meanwhile, put the butter, muscovado sugar, golden syrup and cream in a pan over a low heat. 

9. Stir to combine, then increase the heat and simmer for 10 mins until thickened.

10. Remove from the heat and cool to room temperature. 

For serving, drizzle the muffins with the toffee sauce or groop a hole in each muffin to fill it with the toffee sauce..

Bake easy - bake muffins :)

I'm visiting a friend this evening and even though I was told not to bring anything, I made these muffins. They make a great appetizer or a snack. I can even imagine having these instead of bread to a soup or sallad. I didn't follow any recipe this time, just used igredients that I think work well together. The muffins turned out just as I expected them which made me glad and even more keen on further experimenting in kitchen :) Yes, I know, to bake muffins is one of the easiest things to do but on the other hand, the most rewarding!

Feta&sundried tomatoes muffins with rosemary and lemon zest

Ingredients: (makes about 12 medium size muffins)
3,5 dl all purpose flour
1,5 dl spelt grain (can be replaced by same amount of oatmeal, or just use 5 dl flour)
1 tea spoon sea salt
1,5 table spoon baking powder
1 tea spoon dried rosemary
1,5 dl milk
1 dl oil (can use olive oil if you like)
2 eggs
feta cheese cubed
sundried tomatoes
lemon zest of 1 lemon

Method:
1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees.
2. Mix flour, spelt grain, salt, baking powder and rosemary in a bowl.
3. Beat the eggs lightly in another bowl, add milk and oil.
4. Pour the egg and milk mix into the flour mix and work carefully into a dough.
5. Add the feta, sundried tomatoes cut into pieces and lemon zest.
6. Spoon the dough into a muffin baking pan and bake for about 20-25 minutes. If you are not using paper muffin containers, butter and flour the baking sheet first.

Have a great weekend everyone!