on the monkey trail

kitchen and garden diaries

Tag Archives: muffins


by 2 Comments

favourite muffins for when you need to feel better

My usually ravenous four year old has almost no appetite at the moment. I guess swarms of angry looking pox marching across your face will do that. I baked his favourite muffins today to try and coax him into eating something. Happily it worked. How could it not?

100g melted butter beaten together with 1/2 cup of raw organic sugar and a large soup of natural yogurt. Then in with 2 eggs and 2 cups of flour. Today I used one cup of plain flour and one cup of ground almonds (figured if it was going to be all he ate today we’d at least get some nuts in for protein… but then he somehow found some space for a little ice-cream this evening so turns out he was doing quite well on the protein front!). 1 tsp baking powder. A cup of frozen raspberries / blueberries and a few chocolate chunks.

The smell of baking certainly makes a pleasant change from the rather overpowering aroma of pine-tassel / calamine that’s been dominant around these parts of late.


by 1 Comment

dark chocolate, fresh ginger and plum and almond muffins (gluten free)

We had 2 plums leftover in the fruit bowl from yesterday’s plum upside-down cake and this afternoon I found myself seized by the compulsion to bake some chocolate plum and ginger something – I find it’s always good to roll with these compulsions so started melting about 60g of dark chocolate over boiling water (baby under one arm – don’t worry was careful not to get the baby near the hot water.. the point being these muffins are so easy they can pretty much be done with a baby under one arm!) . Put about 50g of butter into the chocolate and grated in a decent size chunk of fresh ginger (had to put the baby down at this stage). While the butter and chocolate melted whisked up 3 eggs, half a cup of soft brown sugar and 2 cups of ground almonds – also added a tsp of gluten free baking powder. Added in the chocolate mix and then right at the end the plums cut into small chunks – baked for around 15 mins and lucky me because when I get the compulsion to eat some chocolate, plum, ginger something (in a few minutes time ) then I’ll have just the thing.


by Leave a comment

peach, coconut, flaxseed and blueberry swirly lunchbox muffins

This afternoon’s baking was rather random in that I started making lunchbox muffins for tomorrow without any clear plan or recipe in mind. Started with 50g of melted butter and 1/2 cup of sugar then added a couple of scoops of greek yogurt (mainly because T was helping and he likes to scoop in the yogurt at every opportunity) then put the leftover peach puree from yesterday in (about 1/2 cup). 2 eggs. Had a moment of indecision over the flour – couldn’t use almonds as for school and wasn’t confident that just coconut flour would work (fear there could be such a thing as too coconut-y in the kids opinion) so settled on 1 cup self-raising flour, 1/2 cup of coconut flour and 1/2 cup of freshly ground flaxseeds to sneak a health-kick. Looked a bit plain so blended up some defrosted frozen blueberries and honey and mixed it in using a ‘swirly whirly’ style – more for the fun of it than by design.

Fast forward a couple of hours and the lunchbox muffin is jazzed up for my pud. A few (really, just a few) squares of chocolate poked into the top then warmed through so the chocolate melts, greek yogurt and strawberries.

 


by Leave a comment

chocolate, honey and chia lunchbox muffins

Nothing for the lunchboxes this morning so made these – super quick and a great way to hide chia seeds. Melt about 10 sqs dark chocolate with a couple of spoons of honey and 50g of butter over hot water – meanwhile cover half a cup of chia seeds in water until they expand and soften. Whisk 4 eggs with half a cup of soft brown sugar then add a cup and a half of sf flour and whisk that in also – then add the chia seeds to the chocolate mix make sure they are all mixed in and then combine the chocolate mix with the egg flour mix. Makes a batter mix but puffs up into gorgeous soft muffins.


by 1 Comment

wholemeal raspberry, plum, yogurt and chocolate chunk muffins

Baking with the kids – always something of an experiment and more about involving them in the process of creating something to eat than getting a perfect result.

60g melted butter, 1/2 cup soft brown sugar , 3 spoons of live natural yogurt – mixed (by the kids) , 3 eggs (would have been 2 but I had 3 helpers) 1 cup sf flour, 1/2 cup wholemeal flour, pulp of a plum, handful of chocolate chunks, 1 cup raspberries. Baked in over for about 15 mins.


by Leave a comment

little chocolate, almond and ginger cakes

while the boys were making their muffins I made some gluten free ones – kind of for G but also these have become rather a favourite of mine and have become a bit obsessed with fiddling around with the recipe and trying out different options. I like to eat them after the kids go to bed with some berries and thick greek yogurt followed by a blend of tea that I make in my little teapot of chamomile, calendula and fresh mint.. evidently I am now very old indeed that this is a high point of my day.

Melt about 100g of chocolate with 50g of butter over a pan of water , add 1/2 cup of soft brown sugar. In seperate bowl whisk up 4 eggs and add 2 cups of almonds. Grate in some fresh ginger (I did about 2 cms of it today which was about right). Mix it all up together and spoon into muffin cases. Think they took about 10 mins to cook.


by Leave a comment

muffin factory

There was some dispute over what flavour muffins to bake for afternoon tea so to keep the peace and to keep B and D entertained I made a base using about 70g butter (melted) 1/2 cup of soft brown sugar, 2 large spoons yogurt, 1 cup sf flour, 1/2 cup of wholemeal flour and 1/2 cup of ground almonds. Then split it into 2 bowls and gave them frozen blueberries, rasberries and chocolate chunks to add what they wanted to their own mix. More washing up than I would have liked but the results went down well – I guess kids get a kick out of eating something they feel they have some ownership over the making process of.


by Leave a comment

New Year’s Day adventures in muffins part one; Wholemeal blueberry and raspberry

I make a lot of muffins. Almost every day it sometimes feels. So there will probably be a lot of muffin posts. I don’t follow any specific recipes except the ones in my head which may have originated from somewhere and I’m always trying to get the right mix between tasty and healthy.. because it’s a fine line and if you go too far on the healthy side the kids just aren’t going to eat them – they are not stupid – they know that sugar is an essential part of any good baking. Then again I use muffins to fill the kids up at morning and afternoon tea so they need to be packed with something nutritious.

Today is New Year’s Day and yesterday’s rain has gone but it’s still grey and cold. Quite English. Decided this calls for blueberry muffins.

About 50- 70g butter briefly melted until softish. Half a cup of soft brown sugar. A couple of spoons of full fat live yogurt, 2 eggs, 1 cup SR flour , 1 cup wholemeal flour, 1 cup + of frozen blueberries and rasberries.

Beat the sugar and butter (kids do this so it’s a bit inexpert) add in a couple of spoons of yogurt (another kids job) crack in the eggs and then add the flour – don’t bother sifting (kids do all this). Take it off the kids and give it a good mix then get kids to stir in what’s left of the fruit (they will probably have eaten a good amount of it by now so it may need to be replenished). Spoon into muffin cases and bake for somewhere between 10 and 15 minutes.

Follow

Get every new post delivered to your Inbox.

Join 189 other followers