rhubarb jam and vanilla muffins

I had quite a lot of rhubarb left over after making my almond and rhubarb cake so I thought I'd make some jam. I've only made jam once before and it didn't go well as it over set.

Yet again my inability to make jam struck again as my rhubarb jam over set, but somewhat confusingly my thermometer was nowhere near jam setting temperature. Eventually I took the jam off the heat as I knew it would have burned had I left it longer. The resulting jam is dense and sticky when the recipe said it should have a fairly loose consistency as it uses granulated sugar rather than preserving/jam sugar. I don't understand how I got this so wrong. Perhaps my jam thermometer is faulty?! Any insight gratefully received.

Anyway, the jam still tasted nice despite being solid, so it wasn't a complete write off. I read online that over set jam could be salvaged by heating it up with a small amount of water. I'm so glad I tried this! I've discovered that the reheated jam tastes amazing with plain yoghurt and berries.

Anyway, I digress. Basically I heated up enough jam to dollop teaspoonfuls of it in the middle of my muffin mixture before baking. The muffin recipe is the same as last time, but with a jammy centre instead of blueberries. I also sprinkled some porridge oats on top for a bit of texture and visual interest.

The muffins tasted lovely and more importantly I didn't drop the cake tin this time. If I don't end up eating all my reheated jam with plain yoghurt I think I'll bake these muffins again.

The tale of the blueberry muffins

Let me tell you all a story...

On the 1st of April I got up early to bake blueberry muffins to deliver to my parents' house as a surprise morning treat during lockdown. I used my Great Aunty Lizzie's recipe, which I hadn't used in years, and they turned out beautifully.

I let them cool for a few minutes then popped them in a tin, nestled in a tea towel, and rushed out my front door.

Then the clumsy arse that I am dropped the tin as I walked down the hill towards my car. I hadn't fully closed the lid as the muffins were still warm, so the muffins landed face first at the edge of the pavement. Although I was obviously gutted it was also hilariously funny. An eerily quiet, empty street with me on my knees swearing rather loudly at a heap of crumbs. Quality entertainment for any neighbours looking out their windows.

I rescued what I could but a lot was claimed by the pavement. This is what I was left with:

At least the birds got a good feed that day.

cranberry and orange muffins/cupcakes

Festive baking is now in full swing around here. I think I've baked something every evening since last Friday! The Christmas tree was also put up this week and I decorated it today whilst half watching a fantastically awful Hulk Hogan Christmas film on tv. Can't get much better than that really!

First up with the festive baking are these cranberry and orange muffins which I decided to bake as cupcakes as I really wanted to use my festive cupcake cases from last year. They have really cute patterned bases.

I came across fresh cranberries in the supermarket last week and absolutely had to buy them. I've never seen fresh cranberries to buy before so was pretty excited and immediately started searching for festive cranberry based recipes online. There were a few serious contenders but after a quick family poll these cranberry orange muffins from Sally's Baking Addiction won.

Sally's opening description is spot on - "Buttery and moist, these cranberry orange muffins are heavy on the flavor and bursting with cranberries in each bite." I absolutely loved the tart bursts of cranberry. Despite me loving full on sweetness in bakes I actually really liked that these muffins weren't overly sweet other than the orange icing glaze. They're a good antidote to all the Christmas chocolates, fudge and shortbread and would also make a lovely present for folk who don't like cakes loaded with sugar or icing.

These cupcakes/muffins also smell absolutely amazing. When I opened my cake tin the following morning the most amazing waft of Christmas came out. A heady mix of orange and spice. Lovely!

banana and coconut muffins

I was tempted to call this post "experimental banana baking and cupboard clearing night" but that seemed rather long winded.

Earlier this week I discovered an interesting array of almost out of date ingredients in the baking cupboard and some black bananas on the worktop so an evening of baking was in order. I ended up producing an almond and dried cranberry banana loaf (more or less the same as this recipe) and these banana and coconut muffins.

It got me thinking that I rarely use coconut in my bakes. It's not that I don't like coconut, it's just not a flavour I tend to go (coco)nuts over.

HAHA, see what I did there? *everybody groans*

Although my cobbled together recipe isn't perfect (neither are my half-assed foggy evening photographs) I really enjoyed the banana and coconut flavour combination. It's subtly sweet and feels a little bit tropical. Like most muffins these were best fresh from the oven although I also enjoyed one reheated the following day for breakfast with the remaining coconut yoghurt. However I found they lacked something when cold so I added a simple glaze (icing sugar mixed with a splash of fruit juice) which perked them up a bit.

I imagine they'd also be lovely eaten with a fruity curd. If I were to make these again I'd feel tempted to add something else into the batter; perhaps some chopped pecans or small pineapple chunks for extra texture or juicy-ness.

My muffins didn't rise as much as I had hoped either. Muffin making confuses me as I'm sure I read somewhere that the less you mix everything the better as you're not going for the airiness of a sponge cake. That said, surely it needs a bit more rise? If you don't mix enough you'll just be left with a stodgy lump.

Perhaps they needed a higher temperature in the oven too. I'm still trying to get used to my new oven temperatures. I've always used gas ovens so changing to electric has been a bit confusing. The cave woman in me is saying "but there's no flame.... where is the heat coming from?!"

I know you're laughing. I'm an idiot.

Banana and coconut muffins

125g self raising flour

90g golden caster sugar

40g (roughly) dessicated coconut

a good pinch of cinnamon

a few drops of vanilla extract

50g butter, melted

1 large egg

1 banana, mashed

60ml coconut yoghurt

for a simple icing glaze:

a couple of tablespoonfuls of icing sugar

a splash of fresh fruit juice. I used a tropical flavoured one.

Preheat the oven to 180C/170 fan/Gas 4 and line a muffin tin with about 8 muffin cases. Combine the dry ingredients in a large bowl. Mix together all the wet ingredients in a jug then pour into the dry ingredients. Mix everything together until combined. Divide the mixture between the muffin cases, filling each one about 2/3 full, then place on the middle shelf of the oven for about 30 minutes or until risen, golden and firm to touch. Leave to cool in the tray for a few minutes before turning out to finish cooling on a wire rack. 

Enjoy warm from the oven or cool with yoghurt, a fruity curd or a simple fruit flavoured icing glaze. 

Banana, cinnamon and pecan muffins

What kind of baker are you? Are you a follow-the-recipe person or more of an adventurous I'll-do-my-own-thing sort of baker? I'm a follow-the-recipe girl. Sure, I may occasionally substitute an ingredient or two to suit what I have in the cupboard, but I wouldn't describe myself as experimental in the kitchen.

However..... I created these muffins! I had an idea for banana muffins with a streusel type topping but couldn't find anything to suit what I had in mind. After looking at a few recipes I set out into the unknown and created something myself.

This may not be exciting or adventurous to many, but I was super proud of myself (I may have done a small happy dance). The batter tasted good, the muffins rose (always hopeful!) and smelled amazing in the oven, looked pretty and most importantly, tasted good. Hurray!

I could tweak a few things, but overall I was happy with what I made. You can't go too far wrong combining bananas, cinnamon and pecan :)

This is what I did:

250g self-raising flour

1 tsp ground cinnamon

1/4 tsp baking powder (I was too scared to add more in case it destroyed the muffins!)

pinch of salt

175g golden caster sugar

100g unsalted butter, melted

2 large eggs

2 sad, brown bananas (mine were quite small)

100ml plain yoghurt

50g pecans, chopped

streusel topping - 25g each of plain flour, light brown soft sugar and chopped pecans. Mix together and rub in 12g of butter. (I didn't use all of it although in hindsight I probably could have used it all)

Preheat the oven to 220C/Gas 7. In a large bowl mix together the flour, cinnamon, baking powder, salt and sugar. Melt the butter in a jug (I did this in the microwave in short bursts) and then once cool add the eggs and yoghurt. Mix together then pour into the flour mixture and combine. Stir in the mashed bananas and chopped pecans. 

Divide the mixture between muffin cases in a muffin tray (my mixture filled 10) and add the streusel topping. Pop the tray into the oven and immediately turn down the heat to 180C/Gas 4 (this ensures they rise really high) and bake for roughly 35-40 minutes until firm and golden. Remove from the oven and leave the muffins to cool in the tin for a few minutes before placing them on a wire rack to cool completely.

The muffins taste best when still warm. If you don't have the stamina to eat all 10 muffins in one sitting (I know, but some people can't manage it!) then just pop one in the microwave for 20 seconds to warm up.

Bakewell muffins

I may have slightly burnt the top of these muffins, but let's not discuss that, because they taste absolutely amazing! If you're into bakewell flavours, these are the muffins for you. I recommend eating them warm for full "oh-my-god-wow" impact.

I feel slightly bad however that my night-time, lazy photography doesn't do the muffins justice. You'll just have to trust me that they're tasty.

The recipe can be found here on the BBC Good Food website. The only thing I would note is that two teaspoons of almond extract is enough. Only add a third teaspoon if you want to be smacked in the face with marzipan flavour. As an almond lover, even I think that would be a tad extreme!

Awards, facts and muffins.

A big thank you to Gem from Cupcake Crazy Gem who nominated me for two awards last week. Two awards? Lucky me!

Rules for both the awards are:

1. Thank the person who nominated you for this award and link back to them.

2. Share 5 random facts about yourself

3. Spread the joy by nominating other bloggers

4. Convey the blogger about the nomination.

My facts are:

1. Last week somebody asked if our cat, Jimi, was pregnant. No, he is just incredibly fat!

2. I've discovered that I own 33 dresses. Some wintery, some summery, a couple for special occasions (weddings) and nearly all of them are floral.

3. My current TV obsession is Once Upon A Time (channel 5 on Sundays). It's like a cross between Heroes and Disney fairytales. Anyone else watching it?

4. I'm pretty sure I could win an Olympic event for sleeping. With no alarms or wake up calls, I can easily sleep for 12 hours straight. My personal best is 14-15 hours.

5. I think Jimmy Carr has the best laugh ever, closely followed by David Mitchell.

The people I'm passing the awards onto are:

1. Miss Cakeaholic 

2. Laura Loves Cake

3. The Baking Bee

4. The More Than Occasional Baker

5. The Pursuit of Domestic Goddess-ness

I hope you check them out, they're all great, exciting bakers.

Now onto the muffins! (Phew! This post is getting long!) I actually made these last month but didn't get round to posting them. Better late than never as they say.  I divided my batter so I could make two flavours. The first lot are apple and cinnamon muffins. I wouldn't hail these as a brilliant success, but they certainly weren't bad. I think they would have benefitted from more apples or maybe an extra flavour/texture. Walnuts or pecans perhaps.

My other batch were white chocolate and raspberry. These were the clear winners as there was only one left when I got round to taking photographs. They were much juicier and I loved coming across the half melted chunks of white chocolate, but then again I am a white chocolate fiend.

The recipe came from my first ever cookbook, Children's Quick & Easy Cook Book by Angela Wilkes. Despite no longer being a child I still occasionally use this cookbook!

115g (4oz) butter

285g (10oz) plain flour

1 level teaspoon baking powder

pinch of salt

2 eggs

85g (3oz) caster sugar

220ml (8 fl oz) milk

225g (8oz) raspberries

85g (3oz) white chocolate, chopped.

Set the oven to 200C/400F/Gas mark 6. Put the muffin cases in a muffin tin. Melt the butter in a pan. Sift the flour, salt, and baking powder into a bowl. Beat the eggs in a bowl, then add the sugar, milk, and melted butter. Add the flour mixture and fold it in. Fold the raspberries and chocolate into the muffin mixure, then spoon it into the cases (I halved the raspberry and chocolate quantities so that I could add cinnamon and a large apple to one half of the mixture). Bake for 25-30 minutes until they have risen and are firm and brown. Put them on a wire rack to cool.

Blueberry muffins

What do you do when it's after midnight and you've just had a nice shower? Bake in your pyjamas of course! There were blueberries in the fridge which needed using up soon so I thought I'd make muffins using my Great Aunty Lizzie's recipe. I like having old family recipes, my Granny and her sisters were amazing bakers.

I got very excited taking them out the oven, they were oozing berry goodness. What a great colour!

Aunty Lizzie's muffins

8oz plain flour

4oz sunflower oil

4oz caster sugar

1 large beaten egg

1.5 level teaspoons of baking powder

1 teaspoon of vanilla essence if liked

a little milk

Sieve flour, sugar and baking powder (although I rarely bother sieving) together into a bowl. Add vanilla essence, beaten egg and oil with a pinch of salt. Beat thoroughly and add milk to make a fairly soft mixture. Add blueberries, a dollop of jam, mincemeat, raisins, chopped chocolate, coconut - whatever you like! Fill cases about 3/4 full. Bake at gas mark 4 for 20-25 minutes. Mixture makes around 9 muffins.