Apple Oatmeal Muffins

Apologies for being slack in January.  Don't know what happened there... life, I guess.  Didn't try any new recipes, was too hot to use the oven or anything.  Anyway, onto today's blog entry!

Question: What is one of the best food combinations ever?  

Apple and cinnamon of course!

I wanted some healthy muffins, and I love apple sooooooooo here's the natural progression from that haha :) Googled a recipe as usual!

INGREDIENTS
1 & 1/4 cups (whole wheat) flour
1 & 1/4 cups oats
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon cardamom (I didn't have any of this so I left it out, no biggie!)
1/8 teaspoon ginger (I didn't have any dried, so I used 1/2 tsp crushed ginger)
1 cup (unsweetened) apple sauce
1/2 cup light coconut milk with 1/2 the juice of a lemon
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
2 tablespoons oil
1 large egg, lightly beaten
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 small apples, chopped into small pieces
raw sugar & nutmeg to sprinkle on top

METHOD

• Preheat oven to 190 deg C
• If not using silicone muffin mould, then grease the tin or line it with non stick paper
• In a large bowl, combine flour, oats, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, cardamom and ginger (if it's dried)
• In a medium bowl, combine apple sauce, coconut milk, sugar, oil, egg and vanilla extract (and ginger, if using crushed)
• Make a well in the dry ingredients and pour in apple sauce mixture
• Stir until just moist
• Fold in chopped apples
• Fill muffin cups 2/3 to 3/4 full
• Sprinkle raw sugar and a light dusting of nutmeg on top of the muffins
• Bake for 16-18 minutes
• Makes about 12 muffins

 
These muffins came out nicely, they were moist and lovely, but didn't taste as strongly as they smelled.  They smelled like apple crumble dessert when they were baking! 

  

Also, I wasn't fond of the plethora of ingredients!  I didn't even have some of them (who knows, maybe that affected it...), but there were just so many things to put in it!  As you know, I'm all for simplicity!

Recipe Inspiration: http://cookieandkate.com/2011/apple-oatmeal-muffins

Apricot Chicken

Found via pinterest many moons ago, when I couldn't eat much, but was dreaming and researching and stalking photos of food, this is a recipe that has been sitting in my "to try" pile for a while (rhyme not intended).

The original recipe called for fresh apricots and vinegar and sugar, but I didn't have any fresh apricots - out of season, so it gave an alternative using apricot jam and dried apricots.  So that's how I'll write this recipe, with how I did it! :)

INGREDIENTS
12 dried, pitted apricots (I used a bakers dozen just in case), diced finely
1/2 cup apricot jam

1kg skinless chicken breasts, cut into chunks
Salt
Cooking oil
1 diced onion
2 cups chicken stock or broth
1 tbsp chopped fresh rosemary
1 teaspoon cinnamon
2 teaspoons sweet chilli sauce (or Tobasco sauce, or other hot sauce like the recipe suggests)
Black pepper

METHOD

• Heat oil in a large pan over medium-high heat
• Cook the chicken until browned, sprinkling salt over while it cooks
• Remove from pan and set aside
• Add more oil to pan if necessary
• Saute onions until brown
• Add chicken stock, chopped apricots and jam
• Lower the heat to medium
• Add cinnamon, rosemary, and chilli sauce
• Taste and season accordingly with salt
• Bring to a simmer then lower the heat
• Gently simmer for 10-20 minutes
• Return chicken to sauce
• Simmer gently for 5 minutes
• Serve while hot, with rice

I wasn't sure about this recipe.  It sounded nice, but once I started making it, the cinnamon just looked and smelled weird.  Cinnamon doesn't usually go in savoury things as far as I knew.

But you know what, it was AMAZING.  Well, so said my parents, my friend and my Dad's friend who were there.  It actually tasted way better than it smelled.  It was quite spicy, and not sweet like I expected.  I also really liked the fact that most of the stuff in the recipe are things you ordinarily have in a pantry.

One thing I would change would be the amount of vegetables.  Or lack thereof.  I'm just not sure which veges would go with it.  Maybe some capsicum (bell pepper).  I'll try that next time!


Recipe Inspiration: http://www.simplyrecipes.com/recipes/apricot_chicken/?amp%3Butm_campaign=Feed%253A+elise%252Fsimplyrecipes+%2528Simply+Recipes%2529&amp%3Butm_medium=feed

Banana Cranberry Oatmeal Muffins

Time for another new recipe I tried!  This time, it came about not through browsing Pinterest, like most of my other recipes, but instead, me wanting a twist on plain old banana muffins/loaf/cake.  I didn't want to make a cake, and every time I use cake batter in muffin tins, it comes out too dry.  So I decided to google a recipe for banana muffins, but not plain old boring ones either.  I wanted something different.

So I found a recipe for cranberry banana muffins.  And it sounded yum.  Only issue was, I had no idea what "flaked bran cereal" was, yet I had seen recipes for oatmeal banana muffins.  I figured oatmeal and banana went together ok having read that, so I substituted oatmeal (aka dry porridge/rolled oats) for that.  

INGREDIENTS

1 & 1/4 cups flour (you can also use wholemeal)
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt

1/4 cup canola or vegetable oil
1/2 cup sugar (or 1/3 cup if you prefer it not so sweet)
1 egg
1 cup milk
2 ripe bananas, mashed
1 & 1/4 cups oatmeal (aka rolled oats/dry uncooked porridge)

1/2 cup dried cranberries

METHOD

• Preheat oven to 180ºC
• If not using a silicone muffin tray, then lightly grease a muffin tin, or line with cupcake liners
• In a large bowl, sift together flour, baking powder and salt
• In another bowl, whisk together egg, sugar, oil, milk and bananas
• Stir in oatmeal
• Add wet ingredients to dry and stir until just blended
• Stir in cranberries
• Divide evenly among prepared muffin cups
• Sprinkle with a little raw sugar on top - gives a nice crunch, but this is optional
• Bake for 20 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the centre of a muffin comes out clean
• Leave muffins in tin to cool, then remove to a rack to cool completely (or serve warm)

This recipe with these measurements made (for me) 12 ordinary size muffins and 12 mini muffins.  However, since I was hesitant to overfill the muffins, they were quite small and dense, and didn't rise much.  Next time I will fill up the muffin cups a bit higher.  :)  

As for the flavour, it was amazeballs!  The cranberries soaked up the liquid, they became sweet and juicy, the banana was good, and the raw sugar I had sprinkled on top gave a delicious crunch to it.  The oatmeal and banana made the muffin nice and dense, which will be great for lunches/morning tea.  Definitely a keeper!!!

Recipe Inspiration:  http://www.sevenspoons.net/blog/2006/1/13/plain-january-jane.html?lastPage=true#comment18152293

Lemon Blueberry Yoghurt Loaf

I have always been obsessed with lemon cake, lemon syrup cake, lemon yoghurt cake, and all of the above.  I found this recipe totally by accident on pinterest.com and decided to make it because we had lots of blueberries in the freezer, and just that morning I had picked some lemons off our recovering tree (Mum had hacked away so much foliage that it didn't have any fruit for ages, but now it's bouncing back beautifully!).  Plus my cousin was staying so I wanted to make something special and yummy for us to all enjoy.

The hardest part about making this loaf was the waiting.  Waiting for it to cook.  Waiting for it to cool.  Waiting for the syrup to soak in.  Waiting for the glaze to harden.  Meanwhile it smells and looks AMAZING.  And surprisingly, all the baking, syruping and glazing wasn't as difficult as I thought it might be, since I like simple recipes with few steps.  But gosh, this was worth all the steps.  Honestly.

INGREDIENTS
 

For the Loaf:
1 1/2 cups + 1 tablespoon all-purpose flour, divided
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup  yoghurt (plain, or lemon flavoured)

1 cup sugar
3 large eggs
2 teaspoons grated lemon zest (approximately 2 lemons)
1 teaspoon vanilla essence
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 & 1/2 cups blueberries, fresh or frozen, thawed and rinsed

For the Lemon Syrup:
1/3 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice
1/3 cup sugar

For the Lemon Glaze:
1 cups icing sugar, sifted
2 to 3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
 

METHOD

• Preheat the oven to 180 deg C.
• Line one 9 x 5-inch loaf pans with baking paper.
• In a medium bowl, sift together flour, baking powder and salt; set aside.
• In a large bowl, whisk together the yogurt, sugar, eggs, lemon zest, vanilla and oil. 
• Slowly whisk the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients. 
• In a separate bowl, mix the blueberries with the remaining tablespoon of flour.
• Fold them very gently into the batter.
• Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake 50 to 55 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center of the loaf comes out clean.
• Let cool in the pan for 10 minutes before removing loaf to a wire rack, keeping it on the baking paper.

• While the loaf is cooling, make the lemon syrup in a small saucepan over medium heat.
• Stir together the lemon juice and sugar until the sugar is completely dissolved. 
• Once dissolved, continue to cook for 3 more minutes. 
• Remove from the heat; set aside.
• Use a toothpick to poke holes in the tops and sides of the warm loaf. 
• Brush the top and sides of the loaf with the lemon syrup. 
• Let the syrup soak into the cake and brush again. 
• Let the cake cool completely.

• To make the lemon glaze, in a small bowl, whisk together the icing sugar and 2-3 tablespoons of the lemon juice. The mixture should be thick but pourable. 
• Add up to another tablespoon of lemon juice if the mixture is too stiff. 
• Pour the lemon glaze over the top of each loaf and let it drip down the sides. 
• Let the lemon glaze harden, about 15 minutes, before serving.

OK, so I know in the past I have gone on about my detestation of lemon zest (see all my lemon poppyseed muffin attempts...) but honestly, I don't think it's as bad as I thought.  I barely noticed it at all in this loafy cake thing.  And WOAH was it amazing.  Seriously.  SO lemony.  I LOVE it.  I'll definitely be making this again.

My family enjoying it!

 

For this one, we didn't have plain yoghurt, but we had lemon flavoured yoghurt, so I used that, and I think it made it just that little bit more lemony.  AMAZING.  And the blueberries were little bombs of juicy flavour, and hand-staining colour.   I recommend eating with a fork.  It's quite a moist loaf too, so eating with hands is almost silly.  And the glaze, once it's dry and hard, makes a sugary lemony crunchy outer layer that is just incredible.  I cannot gush enough about this cake.  OMG.  It hasn't lasted long... 

Recipe Inspiration: http://sweetpeaskitchen.com/2011/05/15/lemon-blueberry-yogurt-loaf/

Cranberry White Chocolate Chunk Oatmeal Cookies (aka Biscuits)

I didn't have the highest expectations for these biscuits if I'm going to be honest.  I thought "ooh white chocolate, that's mum's favourite chocolate, I might try this recipe"... but OMG it's going to be a new favourite recipe!

These biscuits came out SO amazingly delicious.  I couldn't believe it, so fluffy, and light and puffy.  I didn't think the cranberries would be so delicious either, as I'd never really eaten dried cranberries, but they're little nuggets of tangy chewy goodness!

This recipe was also made more amazing by the fact that one of my friends was here at my house for the first time, and we baked them together which was totally fun!

Normally when I make biscuits they go all flat and chewy, but these ones puffed up gloriously and didn't deflate after we pulled them out of the oven!

WARNING: be careful when baking them, because they go from golden to starting-to-burn-and-smoking-out-the-oven REALLY quickly.  So you want to keep a close eye on them to make sure they don't get TOO brown and your oven doesn't start to smoke.  

INGREDIENTS

2/3 cup softened butter (about 150g)
1/3 cup brown sugar packed
1/3 cup white sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
1 ½ cups oats
1 ½ cups flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon cinnamon
6 ounces dried cranberries (about 170g)
1 cup white chocolate chunks/chips

METHOD

• Preheat oven to 190 deg C.
• Combine oats, flour, cinnamon, baking powder and salt in a small bowl.
• Cream butter white sugar and brown sugar until light and fluffy.
• Add vanilla and the eggs one at a time, mix after each addition.
• Add dry ingredients ½ at a time.
• Mix until just combined.
• Add dried cranberries and white chocolate.
• Flour your hands, and roll spoonfuls of cookie mixture and lay on a flat baking tray
• Bake for 10 - 12 minutes, until the cookies are just set and starting to turn golden
• Cool on a rack before eating!

I bet you can't resist eating more than one when you first have a cookie warm out of the oven!  SO gooooooood!

Recipe Inspiration: http://www.acooksquest.blogspot.co.nz/2010/06/recipe-49-cranberry-white-chocolate.html

Banana Cupcakes

Mum bought some bananas (the teeny tiny ones!) in the groceries the other day, and they had a green tinge, which was fine cos that means they'll last a while.  But I swear, by the next day, they had ripened and were starting to go brown!!!  WHAT?!  That's a bit fast.  Of course, straight away Dad goes "BANANA CAKE!" and looks at me hopefully.

Today I finally got around to using up the bananas.  The browner, the better, so it didn't matter that it's been like 4 days since the original suggestion haha!  This recipe is one I've used my whole life, and it's in my "favourite recipe" book for keeps.  It's actually for cake, but I decided to make muffins, because our house is divided as to what the best icing is.  Mum and I love lemon, Dad loves chocolate.  So by making muffins, I could ice them half and half, and then everyone would be happy! :)

INGREDIENTS

125g butter

1 egg

3 tablespoons milk

1 & 1/2 cups flour

1 cup sugar

1 tsp baking soda

2 mashed bananas (or 3, if they are small)

1 & 1/2 tsp baking powder

METHOD

• Cream butter and sugar
• Add egg and beat well
• Dissolve soda in warm milk and mix in
• Add mashed bananas
• Lastly, fold in flour and baking powder
• Spoon into muffin trays (or if you'd rather make a cake, you can do cake tin)
• Bake until golden in a moderate oven (180 deg C)

TIP: To know if your muffins (or cakes) are ready, poke a tooth pick (or a long skewer) into the middle of one - if it comes back out clean, they're ready.  If the mix is still goopy and stuck to the toothpick, they need a little longer.
 

Ok, for some reason it won't let me upload the close up picture of a chocolate iced muffin properly - it keeps turning it sideways!  Grrrr.  But you get the idea.

Icing

For the chocolate icing, I just used a small knob of melted butter, 1 tbsp of cocoa powder, and then added icing sugar until the icing had the thick consistency that wouldn't run off the cupcake.

For the lemon icing, I used another small knob of melted butter, some lemon juice (real lemon juice, none of that lemon essence crap!), and then added icing sugar until the icing was thick enough not to slide off again.

EASY PEASY! :)

Ambrosia

I love ambrosia.  Everyone has their own versions and recipes for ambrosia.  This is just a "recipe" I made up myself, because it's super easy, and I love berries and fruits and of course, DESSERT!  Who doesn't love dessert?  Really!  And so with these ingredients, you can eat dessert, satisfy your sweet tooth and not grow 3 dress sizes!!!  It's win-win!

It's perfect if you're asked to take a dessert to someones house, and it's not heavy, nor does it require tonnes of work.  Of course, it's open to interpretation and variations, but here's my version.  Sadly it doesn't photograph prettily, and I'm not really into food presentation (give me time, I might develop a knack for it ;) ) but yeah, I wanted to write about this because I love it so much, it's so simple, and it's one of my fave things to make! :)

Serves about 6 or 8, depending on how much fruit you put in.

INGREDIENTS

1kg pot of natural yoghurt (you can also use flavoured, but I prefer au naturel)

blueberries (rinsed, and manky ones discarded!)

strawberries (rinsed, diced)

marshmallows (pink and white - mini ones, or just chop up the big ones)

chocolate chips

METHOD

Chuck it all in a bowl together, and mix gently (to avoid bruising fruit).  

I had mine with a meringue and a cherry on the side... Om nom nom

I've left the quantities of each blank, simply because it is up to you what "yoghurt : fruit : other" ratio you want, and how much you have in your cupboard.


Voila.  SO easy.  Of course, you can add ANY fruit at all that you want!  We just had blueberries and strawberries in excess on hand, so we used up a whole bunch of them (about 250gm of blueberries... not sure how many strawberries...).  Some other fruit could be boysenberries (even out of a can), banana, nectarines, peaches, apricots... there are no limits!

We even had ambrosia left over (I know... left over dessert - how is that even possible?!) which I *almost* ate for breakfast! 

Summer Fruit

This isn't a cooking post.  But I feel compelled to write a post about summer fruit.

The reason for this?  I went to a fair today, and they had the most AMAZING cherries.  I'm not kidding.  I've never seen cherries like this.  

Me and My Box

I ate SO many my fingers got stained!

 

Normally we buy cherries over Christmas as a special treat, and this year the crop was pathetic.  They were small, not very sweet or juicy.  I was incredibly disappointed, and we didn't buy them because they were also expensive.

But today at the fair, I saw cherries like I've never seen before.  I tried one, went to heaven and back, and ended up buying a big box.  I initially just thought "Oh, I'll get a bag, that'll be enough."  Turns out the box was only $3 more than the bag, and you got 1.2kg (approx) of cherries for $17.  I was like "Dammit.  Give me a box then!".  I'm greedier than I thought, it turns out!  But look at the photos below... how could I say no?!

So, I'm very happy with my NZ$17 of cherries from Central Otago (South Island of New Zealand) and I shared them with my family and friends that I was at the fair with!

We also found a stall selling blueberries and strawberries, 1 of each punnet for NZ$20 total.  Delicious.  Blueberries are something I have been craving while ill, so I've been eating them every chance I can get.  They are so good for you, easy to snack on, put in smoothies, or bake into muffins.  They are also full of amazing anti-oxidants, which I figure will help me recover, and are healthy!  WIN!

So Dad bought some.  Yay!  He also got strawberries, which are delicious too, but I struggle to eat them raw and alone because the acidity can hurt my tongue, so I tend to eat them with icing sugar.  However, that's not the healthiest choice, but I've found that eating them with low-fat yoghurt instead also stops the acid hurting my tongue.  :)

So YAY for summer fruits!  I am so happy with our purchases today!  I hope you take advantage of seasonal fruit wherever you live too!!