My partner’s favourite muffins

There’s nothing special about these muffins. In fact, they’re as bog standard as muffins can get. They happen to be, however, my partner’s absolute favourite muffins for breakfast (or tea, or after supper, or whenever really). So I suppose they deserve their place in my kitchen journal!

Bog standard chocolate muffins (from Susan Reimer’s ‘Muffins: Fast & fantastic’

Ingredients:

• 255 gr. plain flour (if using self-raising flour, omit the baking powder, but don’t adjust the bicarb of soda)
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon bicarb of soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 110-170 gr. caster sugar (I don’t use much sugar, because my partner really likes his desserts not-too-sweet)
• 3-5 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder (e.g. Green & Black’s which is fantastic)
• 1 egg
• 240-260 ml (8-9 fluid oz) milk
• 1 teaspoon vanilla essence
• 90 ml (3 fl oz) vegetable oil or 85 gr. (3 oz) butter, melted (I use vegetable oil, & they turn out fine)
• Plain chocolate chips, coconut or chopped nuts for topping (optional)

Method:

• Prepare muffin tins. Preheat oven to 190-200 degrees (gas mark 5-6)
• In a large bowl, sift together baking powder, flour, bicarb of soda, salt, sugar & cocoa powder
• In another bowl, beat egg with a fork. Stir in milk & vanilla, followed by oil / melted butter
• Pour all the wet mixture into the dry mixture. Stir until just combined & no dry flour is visible. Batter will be lumpy (that’s normal)
• Fill muffin cups 3/4 full. Sprinkle tops with chocolate chips or whatever else you’re using. Bake for 20-25 mins, until the tops spring back when pressed gently.

Variations (the book provides lots of variations, but these are the ones that appeal to me):

• You can try adding 85-110 gr. chopped glace cherries or black cherries to the batter, to create chocolate cherry muffins.
• You can also try adding 60 gr. ground or chopped hazelnuts to the dry ingredients to create chocolate hazelnut muffins (or indeed you can add other nuts: macadamias, brazil nuts, walnuts, pecans)
• Chocolate mocha muffins are also nice, especially for breakfast. Prepare 240-260 ml (8-9 fl oz) strong black coffee (I would do this using espresso powder). Cool completely & use in place of the milk
• I once tried making chocolate orange muffins, adding 1 teaspoon or so of finely grated orange rind to the wet ingredients.
• And finally, you can make the classic double chocolate muffins by adding 85 gr. plain chocolate chips to the dry ingredients.

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Muffins as gifts

I was thinking the other day about what desserts- or other foods- would make a good gift. I can’t think of anything better to be given as a gift than a homemade something or other. So here’s what I made a few days ago to give as a gift to a good friend- also as part of my goal 190, which has to do with trying out different muffin recipes.

The recipe is from Nigella Lawson’s ‘How to be a domestic goddess’, and she describes these as ‘baby bundts’, not muffins- and actually makes them in mini-bundt pans. Since I don’t own mini-bundt pans, I made them in a regular muffin tin. These taste absolutely stunning, full of lemony freshness & yoghurty tanginess. I’ve made them many times in the past- always with great success-, and so I thought it was a good opportunity to post about them here.

Baby bundts (aka lemon & yoghurt muffins, from Nigella Lawson’s ‘How to be a domestic goddess’)

Ingredients:

* 1⁄2 cup (125 ml) plain yoghurt, preferably bio
* 75 gr. butter, melted
* 2 large eggs
* Zest of 1 lemon
* 150 gr. plain flour
* 1⁄2 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
* Pinch of salt
* 7 tablespoons (125 gr.) caster sugar

For icing:

* 1 1/3 cups (200 gr.) icing sugar
* Juice of 1 lemon

Method:

* Preheat the oven to 170 degrees (gas mark 3) and butter or oil a mini-Bundt tin (or muffin tin, like I did) with at least six moulds
* In a measuring cup, mix the yogurt, melted butter, eggs and lemon zest
* Put the flour, bicarb of soda, salt and sugar in a large bowl
* Mix the wet ingredients into the bowl, folding everything in well, then fill the mini-Bundt molds with the mixture; bake for 25 to 30 minutes
* Cool a bit before turning them out, otherwise they’ll break, but don’t let them cool completely in the pan either, as they will stick. Cool completely on a rack, flat sides down
* To make the icing, sift the icing sugar into a bowl and add enough lemon juice to make an icing thick enough to top the cakes and drizzle down the sides
* Makes 6 cakes.

Variations: Virtually any citrus can be substituted for the lemon. Lime comes to mind, and you can combine lemon and orange, half of each for the cakes and the icing respectively.

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Is it just me or is it hard to let go of the summer?

I posted a recipe about a loaf of bread a few days ago, mentioning that it’s the perfect bread to have with those early autumn stews. Well, it turns out I’m not yet ready for those early autumn stews. I still, inexplicably, long for strawberries, cold watermelon, summery salads & even more summery barbecues. I also wish I could turn back the time & have that missed summer holiday at a small, distant greek island… and mostly, I long for the sea. The closer I got to my longings this summer was a dip in a swimming pool here in London, when I was 9 months pregnant (it was wonderful, but when it’s the aegean you’re longing for, a swimming pool in North London simply won’t cut it).

So here I am again posting another summer recipe, taken from Tessa Kiros’ mouthwatering book ‘Falling cloudberries’. Kiros describes this as a finish cake… but I think it’s suitable for a summer celebration (or, ok, an early-autumn-wishing-it-were-summer celebration) anywhere in the world. It’s a delicious, delicate & light cake. It’s also easy to make. Highly recommended!

Sipi’s strawberry cake (from Tessa Kiros’ Falling cloudberries: A world of family recipes’)

Ingredients:

• 220 gr (1 3/4 cups) cake flour or plain flour, plus extra for dusting
• 180 gr (3/4 cup) sugar
• 3 teaspoons baking powder
• 180 gr butter, melted
• 185 ml (3/4 cup) warm milk
• 4 eggs, separated
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 800 gr strawberries
• 1 teaspoon lemon juice
• 4 tablespoons icing sugar
• 750 ml (3 cups) thick double cream

Method:

• Preheat the oven to 180 degrees (gas mark 4)
• grease & flour a 22 cm springform cake tin, or a bundt pan
• put the flour & sugar in a bowl with 1 teaspoon of the baking powder
• Mix in the butter & then stir in the milk
• Add the egg yolks & vanilla & beat in well
• Whisk the egg whites to soft peaks, incorporating the rest of the baking powder when the eggs have started fluffing up
• Fold the whites into the cake mixture
• Pour the batter into the cake tin & bake for about 1 hour or until a skewer inserted into the cake comes out clean & the top is deep golden & crisp
• Remove from the oven & leave to cool a bit before turning out onto a rack
• When cool, slice the cake in half horizontally & put the bottom half on a large serving plate
• Clean the strawberries& hull them (leave a few unhulled, if you prefer to see them that way on the top of the cake)
• Dice about half the strawberries & sprinkle with a little lemon juice & 1 tablespoon of the icing sugar
• Whip the cream into stiff peaks with the remaining icing sugar
• Mix the diced strawberries with about a third of the whipped cream & spoon over the bottom of the cake
• Put the other half of the cake on top & thickly spoon the remaining cream over the top & side, then decorate with the rest of the strawberries.
• This is best eaten immediately. Any remains will keep for a day in the fridge.

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A delicious loaf to have with those early autumn stews

Back to bread baking… I think early autumn is a perfect time to experiment on different recipes for loaves. Simple to make, can be tackled between nappy changing and feeding the baby… and yet so wonderful when in need of something straightforward which can make the kitchen- and the whole home- smell heavenly. So I thought I’d take my first tiny steps in cooking again & achieving my goals by starting with goal 191, which involves bread baking. Not at all originally for me, this loaf comes from one of Nigella Lawson’s cookbooks (‘How to be a domestic goddess’). Nigella calls it ‘the essential white loaf’ and it is indeed a perfect, simple white loaf. The only one you’ll need to have on your repertoire, come to think of it.

The essential white loaf (from Nigella Lawson’s ‘How to be a domestic goddess’)

Ingredients:

* 500 gr strong white bread flour, plus more for kneading
* 7 g (1 sachet) easy-blend yeast or 15g fresh yeast
* 1 Tablespoon salt
* approximately 300 ml warm tap or potato water [head notes suggest that you can also mix 1 scant Tablespoon instant mashed potatoes with ordinary warm water, but I haven't tried this]
* 1 Tablespoon unsalted butter, softened
* to make this, use 1 baking sheet or 500gr loaf tin

Method:

* Put the flour, yeast and salt in a bowl and pour in 200ml of the water, mixing as you do so with a wooden spoon or your hands. Be prepared to add more water, but bear in mind that you want to end up with a shaggy mess
* Add the butter, and mix that in
* Now, either start kneading, or if you’ve got a free-standing mixer, put in the dough hook and let it do the work
* Form the dough into a ball and put into a large oiled bowl, turning once so the top of hte dough is greased
* Cover with clingfilm and put into a cold place or the fridge overnight, or in a warm place for an hour or two
* If you’re giving the bread a short warm rise, then just keep an eye on it; it’s ready when it’s more or less doubled in size. If you’ve given it a long cold rise, remove the dough from its cold storage–the next morning, later on in the day, whenever–and, if it’s doubled in size, punch it down. If it doesn’t look risen much, leave the bowl out at room temperature for a while and then proceed as above
* Preheat the oven to 220 C/ gas mark 7 and then after kneading the dough for a scant minute, form it into a round loaf shape and sit it on the baking sheet (or in the loaf pan) covered loosely with clingfilm or a tea towel and leave for 30 min or until puffy and again almost doubled in size
* Just before you put it in the oven, remove the towel or plastic and dust with flour
* Bake for 35 min or until cooked through; the way to check is to lift up the loaf or remove it from its pan and knock with your knuckles on the underside: if it makes a hollow noise, it is cooked; if not, put back in the oven for a few minutes. Put on rack to cool, then enjoy.

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This really is the world’s best chocolate ice-cream…from Marcella, to Nigella, to me!

October is here, and it’s getting colder and colder by the day here in London. I’m already nostalgic for the summer- not that it was a particularly bright & sunny one! But it was the summer during which my little boy was born, & now that special time has passed & the newborn baby is a smiley two month old. In honour of those days just before my baby came to our world, I decided to re-start my blogging with one of the very last things I cooked & ate during those warm (well…in a manner of speaking) summer days of waiting. A few days after I made this ice-cream, true to the Hollywood-movie tradition, my waters broke in the middle of the night.

Nigella Lawson’s- or Marcella Hazan’s- world’s best chocolate ice cream (From Nigella’s ‘How to eat’, and originally from ‘Marcella’s Kitchen’)

Ingredients:

• 4 egg yolks
• 130 gr plus 2 tablespoons granulated sugar
• 500 ml full-fat milk
• 100 gr dark chocolate (min.70% cocoa solids)
• 40 gr cocoa (best quality available)

Method:

• Whisk the yolks & 130 gr of the sugar in a bowl until thick & creamy, foaming pale ribbons when you lift the whisk
• Bring the milk to the boil & add it to the beaten yolks, pouring slowly & beating all the while
• Melt the chocolate in a bowl above (but not touching) some simmering water in a pan
• Then whisk this, followed by the cocoa, into the egg & milk mixture
• Pour the chocolate-custard mixture into a pan & cook on a low to moderate heat, stirring with a wooden spoon, until everything’s smooth & amalgamated & beginning to thicken (don’t cook until it’s really custard-like, but slightly less)
• Put 2 tablespoons of sugar with 2 teaspoons of water into a thick bottomed saucepan & turn the heat to high
• Make a caramel: heat this until it’s dark brown & molten (you are after the taste of burnt sugar)
• As it browns, whisk it into the chocolate custard; don’t worry if it crystallizes on contact as the whisking will dissolve it
• Turn into a bowl to cool
• Then chill in the fridge for about 20 mins (or longer if that’s more convenient) before churning in your ice-cream maker according to instructions

This is an exceptionally delicious chocolate ice-cream, with a dark smoky taste (the smokiness due to the added caramel). Make it as soon as possible, before the autumn cold really hits you, and wave a last goodbye to the summer…

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