Apple Cinnamon Muffins

Source: Home Cooking with Sonya(with slight variations to suit us)

Ingredients:

• 3/4 cup milk
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 1 large egg
• 2 medium apples, peeled, cored and finely diced
• 2 cups flour
• 2/3 cup sugar
• 3 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp salt or to taste
• 1 tsp cinnamon powder

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 200 deg celsius.
2. Grease a muffin tray or use cupcake liners as I have did.
3. In a small bowl beat milk, oil and egg. Stir in diced apples.
4. In a larger bowl mix flour, sugar, baking powder, salt and cinnamon. Mix well and stir it until well combined.
5. Make a well in the centre of the flour mixture and carefully pour the wet ingredients into the well.
6. Stir slowly just until flour is moistened and mixed well. Batter will be lumpy, but that's okay(Thank goodness Sonya mentioned it, otherwise I would have worried about it).
7. Pour the batter into the cups until 2/3rd full. Bake 18-20 minutes until golden brown.
8. Allow to sit for a minute and then remove from pan and let it cool on a wire rack.

Sonya's Buttermilk Banana Nut Muffins

Who is Sonya? She is a new friend I have made through the world of blogging. Sonya, an American expat living in the Netherlands blogs on Home Cooking with Sonya. It's hard not to fall in love with her blog(Go, take a look and you will know what I am saying). Her writing, pictures, recipes, I look forward to them everyday. She has been a guiding force for me, encouraging me with her comments on my blogs. Our countries are neighbors and I hope maybe someday we will meet.

        Last month in one of her posts, I had commented that I would try out one of her recipes and would blog about it. Well today is the day. The kids were hungry for muffins, and Sonya's blog had plenty to choose from. With the over ripe bananas lying in the fruit basket, I chose to go ahead with the Buttermilk Banana Nut muffins. Sonya's measures were in cups. I have mentioned before that my cups are more so mugs. So, what I did was transferred all her ingredients from cups into a measuring bowl to make it simpler for my readers. Here goes the recipe:

     Ingredients :

• 500 gm flour
• 100 gm sugar
• 150 gm brown sugar
• 4 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
•  250 ml buttermilk
• 250 ml vegetable oil
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1 large egg
• 4 ripe bananas mashed
• 1/2 cup chopped walnuts

     Method :

1. Line a muffin tin with liners. Preheat oven to 180 deg celsius.
2. Sieve flour and baking powder together and keep aside.
3. In a bowl combine buttermilk, oil, vanilla and egg. Beat well till thoroughly combined. Add sugar and continue to beat. Add mashed bananas and mix well.
4. Slowly add the sieved flour to the mixture and mix well.
5. Drop in spoonful of batter into the muffin holder. Sprinkle nuts(I crushed them with my hand) on top.
6. Bake in oven for 20 - 25 minutes or until done(An inserted toothpick should come out clean). Makes 24 muffins.
7. Serve warm with tea or coffee.

Sonya didn't warn me in her blog about the heady aroma of baked bananas my house would be filled with. True to her words, they were the softest and moistest muffins we have tasted. It has been pretty hard keeping Anna away from them. Seeing her eat, I am reminded of the Indian advertisement with the slogan "NO ONE CAN EAT JUST ONE". Thanks Sonya for the recipe. I am gonna try many more...

Choco-Chip muffins!!

Thursday is generally a busy day for the kids and me. What with the three of us having our respective music classes followed by Deutsch lessons late in the evening. Our tutor Frau Maria is a wonderful teacher and am glad that she is able to motivate and teach the children their german lessons well. Right from the start, Maria and I developed an instant rapport and i enjoy the small chats we have in between the classes.

       Maria is a teacher in Würzburg, she teaches by day and tutors expat children till late in the evening. To get to us she needs to spend two hours on the road. I know how tiring it must be for her considering the fact that back home, i was in the teaching profession too, but not tutoring. She comes pretty tired, but her spirit is always high. She is cheerful and has the maximum level of patience with the kids. 

Most of the time I try to bake cakes on thursday knowing that she comes hungry after a tiring day, if not, we manage with some treats from the bakers. I made a simple choco-chip muffin today which she relished so much. I had to convince her that she would not put on any extra kilos if she ate a few!!

Ingredients :-

• 250 gm flour
• 100 gms cocoa powder
• 250 gms brown sugar
• 4 eggs
• 200 gms butter
• 1 and a half tsp baking powder
• chocolate sauce
• half cup chopped almonds 
• few choco chips

Method :-

1. Sieve flour, cocoa and baking powder together and keep.
2. Beat the eggs till fluffy. Add sugar and beat well.
3. Add the butter to the mixture and keep on beating.
4. Add the sieved flour little by little and keep mixing well.
5. Grease a muffin tray and preheat oven to 150 deg celsius.
6. Drop spoons of batter into the muffin tray, sprinkle choco chips and bake for 20-25 minutes or until done

       

(This was the second batch, forgot the choco chips)

Let the muffins cool for a while. When ready to serve, drizzle some chocolate sauce and sprinkle chopped almonds. The above recipe makes 18 muffins. Enjoy!!

Banana Choco-Almond Muffins.

The past week, we have been experiencing glorious sunshine. The temperature was still cold, nevertheless the bright rays were enough to uplift my spirits and warm my heart. To complement with this feeling, the urge to try something different arose. My children always have asked me to bake muffins for them, a treat I always bring from the bakers, never tried at home.  The first thing I did was purchase a muffin tray.

The ingredients that went into my muffins were as follows :-

• 350 gms flour
• 250 gms sugar
• 250 gms butter
• 4 eggs
• 3 bananas
• 1/2 cup chopped almonds
• 1/2 cup choco chips
• 1 tsp baking powder

Sieve the four, baking powder together and keep aside. Beat egg whites till fluffy, then add yolks and beat well. Add butter and sugar to the egg and continue beating. To the above mixture, keep adding sieved flour and beat. When done, add chopped bananas, choco chips and almonds. Mix well together.Preheat oven to 160 deg. Pour batter into the muffin tray and bake for 45 minutes or until done. Serve with tea or coffee!!

For a first timer, they didn't turn out all that bad!!!!!!!!