Chocolate Peanut Butter Muffins (Martha Stewart's Recipe)

Chocolate and Peanut Butter Chip Muffins
Seems like I am experiencing a major "baker's block". It's not that I don't like baking anymore but rather, I couldn't seem to find the time and motivation to bake. But I still bake, occassionally. And for simpler recipes like this Chocolate and Peanut Butter Chip Muffins, adapted from Martha Stewart's The Baking Handbook. Rather good, I would say. And anything with tons of Reese's Peanut Butter Chips are bound to be yummy too!

Chocolate and Peanut Butter Chip Muffins

Recipe adapted from Martha Stewart's The Baking Handbook - "Cranberry Zucchini Muffins"
1+3/4c plain flour (recipe does not require flour to be sifted but I sifted it nonetheless)
1/2t baking powder
1/2t baking soda
1/4t salt
2 Large eggs
1c sugar
1/2c vegetable oil
1/2t pure vanilla extract
1c of chocolate chips and peanut butter chips combined
Method:
1. Line muffin pan with muffin/cupcake liners.
2. Preheat oven to 375f .
3. Whisk together together the first 4 (dry) ingredients in a bowl.
4. In another bowl, whisk together the next 4 (wet) ingredients.
5. Add the flour mixture to (4) . Stir to combine but DO NOT OVERMIX*. (*which will result in dry and lumpy muffins)
6. Gently fold in the chocolate and peanut butter chips.
7. Divide the batter evenly into the muffin cups. It should come up to 80-90% full of each cup.
8. Bake for about 25-30 mins or until the top is golden brown and the skewer comes out dry when inserted into the center of the muffins. For even baking, rotate the pan halfway through.
9. Transfer to the wire rack to cool for about 5-10 mins before turning them out from the pan to cool completely on the rack.

Oreos Yogurt Cupcakes

Oreos Yogurt Cupcakes
This recipe is actually for a healthier version (aka lesser fat) classic butter cake. However, it is pretty versatile and you can play with it to make it into variations according to ones liking. For this cake, I used the recipe here since it comes with much rave from the baker/blogger. And rightly so for this cupcake turns out to be so soft and fluffy with bits and pieces of oreos throughout. If you want to have more bite, just chop the oreos into chunks but if you want a finer texture, then just crush it into fine crumbs. I combined both. You might want to up the sugar level particularly if you are serving to kids.


The lady dons a hat
Looks like the cupcake is wearing a hat. So fashionable!

3 of My Best! (Flourless Peanut Butter, Choc Chunk Cookies & Donna Hay's Cupcakes)

Recently discovered 2 really good cookie recipes. In fact, these recipes are 2 of the best batches of cookies I have baked so far.

Top of the list is the Flourless Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip cookies. Recipe is from Baking Sheet (see side bar for link to this blog). No flour was used here, this is a ‘pure-bred’ Peanut Butter cookie (hehe) . The cookie was simply held together by the egg(s) used. Crumbly but yet, melts in your mouth.


Next, we have the Chewy Chocolate Chunk cookies (FAVOURITE RECIPE) made famous by ‘the baker’. This is easily my favourite chocolate chip/chunk cookie recipe. Those who were lucky enough to taste them (namely my nephews and niece, Amos the eldest in particular) exclaimed,
“These cookies are even better than Famous Amos!”
I preened with pride….. ;-p


Not forgetting this cupcake recipe by Donna Hay. It has somewhat relegated to a ‘cult’ status among food bloggers. After baking this for the first time previously, I could see what the hype was all about. Here, I baked the original version – Peanut Butter Self-frosting Cupcakes. (FAVOURITE RECIPE)

Clearing Leftovers! (Pandan Walnut Chiffon Cake, Light AnzacBiscuits, Apple Cheddar Muffins, Raisin Cinnamon Swirl Bread)

First of all, I have to confess the recipes of choice today were picked based on some leftover ingredients that I have used before and needed to finish up before they spoil.

1st leftover ingredient: 3/4 packet coconut milk
Finished product: Pandan Walnut Chiffon Cake

It has been awhile since I last baked this. This is a thoroughly tried and tested recipe and my favourite chiffon cake recipe among a few others that I have tried. Recipe is by Amy Beh (try searching on cyberkuali.com). Always "gone in no time", it remains as a huge hit among my nephews and nieces. Basically, this cake is always baked for them. In an attempt to add a new twist to the recipe, I added some walnuts to make it more interesting.

2nd leftover ingredient: About 1/4 packet of rolled oats
Finished product: Light Anzac Biscuits

Have been wanting to bake myself some Anzac Biscuits since I received some from a BBM event some time ago. The recipe that I used here is a "lighter" version from Cooking Light. Not bad!

3rd leftover ingredient: 1 apple and some leftover cheddar cheese block
Finished product: Apple Cheese Muffins

Ah, need to use up the remaining cheddar cheese block before it starts to ferment and go to waste. Coincidentally, I have one (not-exactly-fresh) apple in the fridge that no one wants. Just perfect for this recipe. Slightly sweet and salty at the same time, it provides an interesting change to the usual sweet muffins that I baked.

Filled with apple chunks!

And also a "No-Knead" Raisin Cinnamon Bread after coming home from the Sunday Bubbly Brunch (check out the post above)

2 Bread and a Muffin (Raisin Plait, Oatmeal Carrot Bread and Sweet Corn Muffin)

Bad news for me! My bread machine died on me after faithfully serving me for 1 year and 4 months. Rather short-lived, wouldn't you say? Then again, it was used almost every day to make bread for my family. The brand is Empress and I got it for quite a bargain from Cosway. About RM199, I think.
Due to this, I have to manually knead the bread dough. I think till I have a working bread machine again, no more bread-making for me.

Raisin Plait topped with Cheddar Cheese (recipe from Alex Goh)


Oatmeal Carrot Bread (recipe based on Alex Goh's)



Sweet Corn Muffin (recipe here)

French Toasts & Cupcakes

Woke up to a lazy Saturday morning. Been out late the night before and had a killer "Espresso Kahlua" cocktail. Usually, consuming caffeine late at night have no effect on me but I will usually be wide awake pretty early the next morning.
Which was why I woke up at 7am (can't sleep no more despite the fact that I don't have to work today) and decided to make breakfast for the family.

Classic Cinnamon French Toasts served with sprinkles of sugar - yum!

After breakfast, I had some time to kill before going to my usual Saturday gym class. Inspired by recent cupcakes-baking frenzy that I have seen on some of my favourite blogs, I decided to try a cupcake recipe that I have been wanting to try for quite some time. This recipe is said to be from Magnolia, the famous NY bakery most known for its cupcakes. People are known to queue for it the same way how we would queue for say, our favourite rojak sold from a van. Was it any good? Judging on how the kids savoured them, I have to say they must be pretty good! I did get more than a few licks of the buttercream frosting when I was preparing them and I have to say they are pretty addictive! But stay away if you can't tolerate sweetness though.

"Magnolia's Cupcakes with Creamy & Addictive Frosting"

The next day, I was left with some un-used buttercream so I made another batch of cup-cakes. This time I made them in mini sizes and used Nigella Lawson's fairy cakes recipe. Very easy and very nice!

Mini orange cupcakes frosted with strawberry-flavoured buttercream.
Recipe for 9 or 10 mini muffins (based on recipe by Nigella Lawson)
Ingredient:
60g soft unsalted butter
60g sugar
1 egg
60g self-raising flour
1/4t orange oil
1-2T milk
Sift flour in a bowl. Add the rest of the ingredients except the milk. Mix with mixer until smooth. Drizzle in milk a little-by-little until batter is of pouring consistency. Pour into lined muffin tins till about 80% full. Bake in pre-heated oven (175c) for 10 mins or until top is golden brown and skewer comes out clean when tested on cakes. Cool completely on rack and frost.

Blessing In Disguise (Banana Coffee Cake)

Recently, I bought a very large packet of over-ripe bananas for RM1. I've learnt that I can freeze these bananas for later use. For those who would like to attempt this, please be advised that they will turn all brown in the freezer (looking like rotten fruits) and the flesh is really mushy when taken out from the freezer and removed from skin. But otherwise, this is really a convenient way to have bananas on-hand and are really ideal for use in banana bread/cakes.

I have tried several banana cake recipes that I like but I was looking to try a brand new recipe. I was quickly drawn to a recipe for "Banana Coffee Muffins" on Jo's site. After all, I can never say no to "coffee" anything.

Instead of making muffins, I halved the recipe and turned them into a loaf cake. First disaster happened when I was making the coffee mixture. I managed to scooped the last 2 tablespoons out from my Nescafe Gold coffee jar. Minutes later, I accidentally spilled the coffee mixture. After a quick search in the pantry, the best I could do was a Nescafe 3-in-1 Coffee pre-mix in RICH. To make it strong, I diluted it in half of the recommended water portion and also reduced the sugar in the cake recipe.

2nd "disaster" happened when I got worried at seeing wet dough after testing the cake for doneness more than an hour since inserting the cake into the oven. Another 10 minutes later, I thought what the heck, and removed the cake. After cooling and slicing the cake, I found the inside to be rather wet/moist. But OMG, it was really delicious. So rich with sweet delicious banana bits, this cake was easily one of my favourite banana cake. However, the coffee taste was merely a hint, but I've kinda expected that.

Later, I discovered why the cake was so moist. The full recipe calls for 3 bananas. The "smart alec" in me wanted for a richer banana taste so I used 4 bananas but conveniently forgot that I was making 1/2 the full recipe. *lol* But since I liked the end result so much, wouldn't you say that it was a blessing in disguise?

Need a Healthy Fix? (Angel Muffins, Chewy Walnut Squares, Homemade Protein Bars, Pumpkin & Sweet Potato Chowder

Sometimes, I would the occasional guilt from having over-indulged on desserts. This was what happened to me recently so rather than putting a total stop to desserts, I set about looking for healthier dessert recipes and here’s what I found (and made):

Angel Muffins (Fat-free, primary ingredient: Egg whites)


Chewy Walnut Squares (Fat-free and yummy! Recipe found from Comfort Food blog page. I used a mixture of molasses sugar and light brown sugar)

Updated: I have posted the recipe here.

Homemade Protein Bars (Main ingredients: Yoghurt, Wholemeal flour, toasted almonds, sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, sesame seeds, dried cranberries and golden raisins – yum)

Updated: I have posted the recipe here.

Pumpkin & Sweet Potato Chowder (so good….! Particularly with some plain bread or Pumpkin Seed Sandwich Bread)
Note to Malaysian readers: Recipe found in complimentary recipe booklet by HL Milk together with latest issue of Appetite Magazine

All About Bananas! (Banana Loaf & Muffins)

Feel like I haven't bake banana-anything for a while now. So I asked my dad to buy me some seriously-over-ripe bananas from the market. Seriously, I think that bananas that are really, really ripe yield the sweetest and most aromatic banana cake. So I was kinda disappointed when I saw that the ones that my good ol' dad bought were still kinda firm, and slightly green even.

But nothing could deter my from my determination to bake banana cakes. I used this recipe which I had used before to quite a success. However, this time I omitted walnuts and baked in 2 mini loaf tins. As I still have extra bananas, I used another versatile basic muffin recipe and baked banana muffins. The latter is obviously much lower in fat than the cake (2T of oil for 6 muffins).

Results weren't bad at all but I still wished that I had riper bananas...

Links to recipe included.

Cupcakes & Muffins Galore (Carrot Cupcakes & Chocolate Almond Muffins)

It started with the MPH Bookstore anniversary sale. I wanted to get a Betty Saw cookbook with a voucher that I have and also take advantage of the discount offered during the sale period at the same time. But I was disappointed to discover that the store that I visited was out of the book that I wanted. However, on the shelf I saw Judy Koh's VCD that Gina mentioned recently on her forum. Since I had a voucher and it was on sale, I got that instead; which was where I saw her recipe for American Carrot Cake. It was a simple recipe and it looked yummy so I gave it a try with some minor alterations.
I added some raisins and substituted about 1/3 of the sugar portion with molasses sugar. Used plain flour instead of cake flour (couldn't find the cake flour until when I was almost done with the baking!!!) Also, since I didn't have cream cheese on hand, I made some simple buttercream and infused it with orange oil. I must say I like the end result very much.... Also, for the first time, I found myself not able to stop licking the orange infused butter cream (usually, I don't like buttercream). Very delicious indeed.

Carrot Cupcake with Orange-infused Buttercream and topped with orange zest.

As the recipe is simple and I was done in no time, I decided to make another batch of muffins. My nephews and niece are due back on that day from a short holiday trip so I decided to bake some treats for them. Using a packet of chocolate pancake mix that I got from Japan, I baked Chocolate & Almond Muffins for the kids. I have to say these are not bad too. I added lots of chocolate sprinkles so during baking, the chocolatey center oozed out to the top.

Chocolate & Almond Muffins

Oreo Muffins

Ok, this is strictly for the kids. Then again, maybe not. I know of many grown adults who are fixated on Oreos. I used to love them too when I was younger.
Anyhow, this is another recipe that I have been wanting to try out. So when I noticed a packet of unopened Oreos (which I have been saving to make a cheesecake base but was not in the mood to make a cheesecake) nearing expiry date, I decided "this shall be the day to try the recipe out".


Cross-section: Studded with chunks of Oreo cookies.
Maybe all along I had very high expectations on how these muffins would turned out; or maybe my muffin-making skills need some brushing up, these muffins were not what I expected them to be. Average would be how I would desribe them to be. *sigh* I think the fault is most likely due to my muffin-making skills. My previous batch of muffins last week were also less than excellent.

What to do with extra Cheddar Cheese? (Cheddar Cheese Black Sesame Loaf & Cheddar Cheese Muffins)

I have some leftover block of cheddar cheese sitting in the fridge for quite a while now. I thought I better use it before it turns bad...

Found these 2 recipes;
1) Cheddar Cheese Muffin


2) Cheddar Cheese Black Sesame Bread

I have to say I like this a lot. Baked in a tube pan, it looked good too. Easily one of my favourite bread recipe.


Soft and fluffy texture inside!

Better Late Than Never (Cookies & Muffin)

Well, I may have missed out some of the latest food blogging events such as "Hay Hay It's Donna Day" and the 2005 SHF/IMBB Cookie Swap but like they say, "better late than never..."
I think I must have been star-struck by the numerous utterly-delicious entries for both these events, to the point that I felt like I must give them a try too.
Ok, enough mumblings. Here are my "delayed" efforts:

Peanut Butter & Chocolate Self-Frosting Muffin
(based on recipe by Donna Hay; see link above for details and recipe)

After reading so many raves, I have to see what the hype was all about. And I am glad that I did. These are so good, although I only got a quarter bite out of one muffin. Then again, this emphasizes how good the muffins were All gone before I can have another bite! *grin*
I have no doubt that Nutella would be absolutely fantastic with these muffins but all I had was a jar of PB & Chocolate jam. But no regrets in using this though. I think I must have been overly generous with the PB for the entire top was almost covered by the jam (maybe I should have folded more of the muffin dough over the topping). When baked, it formed a crusty and sweet top (that is somewhat similar to those infamous "Rotiboy" buns, but only crustier) .


The 2005 SHF/IMBB Cookie Swap reminded me that I have to start my Christmas cookies-baking soon. From the round-up of this event, there are tons of cookies recipe made available. Really useful for anyone looking for new recipes to try this Christmas.

For starters, I tried 2 recipes. One was Honey Ginger Snaps based on the recipe from Esurientes, and the other is Custard Crunch Cookies from Gina of Kitchen Capers.

Honey Ginger Snaps
For the former, mine was a far cry from the original. I expected them to be crispy but they had a chewy center. Could be due to under-baking since I have a phobia of over-baking cookies in my notorious oven (see previous posts if you wonder why). But I still think they are good! The sweetness of honey is nicely balanced with a slight tinge of peppery ginger. Would make this again, and this time will make them thinner so that they are crispier.


Custard Crunch Cookies
For the latter, no fats are listed in the recipe. These cookies came out being quite hard-to-crunch but somehow, I got addicted to them. They could be a taxing on the jaw but I kind of enjoyed the crunchy effect. And the taste was very nice as well. Next, I would have to learn how to lessen the "hard crunch" effect.