Crunchy almond top mixed berry muffins

Ellebelle's crunchy top mixed berry muffins

• 1 cup plain flour
• 1/2 cup wholemeal flour
• 3 teaspoons baking powder
• 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 1 cup rolled oats
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 cup plain yoghurt
• 1/2 cup grapeseed or olive oil
• 1/2 cup heaped with mixed berries (frozen or fresh works fine)

Topping

• 1/4 cup brown sugar
• 1/3 cup flaked almonds, finely chopped

Preheat oven to 180° and line a 6 hole muffin tin
Place plain and wholemeal flours, baking powder, cinnamon, oats,1/2 cup of brown sugar into a large bowl and stir together. Make a well in the centre and add the eggs, yoghurt, oil. Whisk the eggs, yoghurt and oil for a couple of seconds in the well that you have created before adding the dry ingredients and stir until just combined. Fold through mixed berries, don’t overmix or else your muffins will end up tough. Spoon into muffin tin.

To make crumble topping: mix flaked almonds with brown sugar and sprinkle over muffins
Bake for 20-25 minutes until golden.

The best ever blueberry muffins

I had a craving for blueberries but the cost of fresh blueberries is close to $10 for only 250g at the moment, so I opted for the frozen variety. With 1kg of frozen blueberries, I thought I would make blueberry muffins.

The first batch I made, I accidently put the oven on classic convection and only realised this after they had been in the oven for 12mins. Opps! I corrected this but had to put the muffins on for another 15mins as they weren't quite cooked in the middle. But they had the best crunchy tops ever.

Second batch I used 100g white sugar and 100g brown sugar and followed the recipe. Muffins were great but I think I prefer using brown sugar in the muffins, as it had a more caramelised taste.

I've made these muffins for many morning teas, afternoon teas and they have been light, moist and tasty every time. The first time my sister tasted them, she couldn't stop raving on about these muffins being the best she's ever tasted and requested another dozen to be baked for her.

Makes 12 muffins
150g frozen blueberries
240g plain flour
110g butter, softened
200g brown sugar
1 egg, beaten
1tsp baking powder
1tsp bicarbonate of soda
½tsp salt (optional)
240ml buttermilk (or 220mL sour cream with a dash of milk or 220mL milk with 20mL of vinegar )

Preheat the oven to 190C and line a muffin tin with twelve papers. Toss the frozen blueberries with a little flour mixture and put back in the freezer.

Beat the butter in a food mixer until it is very soft – about the consistency of mayonnaise. Beat in the sugar, then the beaten egg, and mix until well combined.

In a separate bowl, place together the flour, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda, and ½tsp salt if using, and mix well. Fold half these ingredients into the mix, then half the buttermilk, then the remaining flour and buttermilk.

Fold in the frozen blueberries and mix until just combined, but do not overwork (or else your muffins will turn out quite dense). Spoon into the prepared tin and bake for about 25-30 minutes until risen and golden.  Allow to cool slightly before serving, but these don't keep well, so don't wait too long!

Cherries cherries cherries

Young, NSW is the cherry capital and we usually make our yearly pilgrimage in November to go picking with friends. But with Aussie cherries currently out of season, I made do with cherries from USA.

Cherry tart by Bill Granger

Pastry

125g unsalted butter

90g caster sugar
175g plain flour
A pinch of salt
2 tablespoons almond meal

Filling

170mL cream

2 eggs lightly beaten

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

3 tablespoons caster sugar

2 tablespoons plain flour

550g cherries, halved and pitted (fresh is best)

Preheat the oven to 180C and grease a 24cm round tart tin. To make the pastry stir together the butter and sugar in a large mixing bowl. Add the flour and salt to stir to make a soft dough. Transfer the dough to the tin and press evenly into the base and side of the tin with your fingertips. Put the tin on a baking tray and bake for 12-15 minutes or until pastry is slightly puffy. Remove from oven and sprinkle the almond meal over the base

To make the filling, whisk together the cream eggs, vanilla and sugar. Add the flour and whist until well mixed. Arrange the cherries, slightly overlapping over the pastry base and pour the cream filling evenly over the cherries.

Return the tart to the oven for a further 40-50mins until the filling is firm. Leave to cool and serve with cream or ice cream.

 

This didn't last very long in my household, yummy!

I love cake - Hazelnut and fig cake

I will make up any excuse for cake.

I love cake, I love sweet desserts, I love cream.

The month of December and January has been the peak of trialling and making different cakes.

I love that figs are in season. I’ve been in fig heaven lately having had my favourite salad - fresh figs with prosciutto, shavings of parmesan drizzled with balsamic and olive oil. I’m drooling even thinking about it.

It was time to celebrate figs so I made Bill Granger’s Hazelnut and Fig cake.

I’ve made cakes with almond meal, pistachio meal but recipe called for hazelnut meal so I was curious to taste the difference.

Ingredients list

125g unsalted butter, softened

150g caster sugar
75g plain flour
2 teaspoon baking powder
3 eggs lightly beaten
100g ground hazelnuts
50g hazelnuts chopped into small pieces
8 fresh figs (not too ripe) halved
2 tablespoons honey

Preheat oven to 180C. Cream butter and sugar in a large mixing bowl until pale and fluffy.

This is when a kitchen aid comes in handy. In another bowl place the flour and baking powder and stir through. Pour in the flour and egg alternatively into the creamed mixture. Fold in the ground hazelnuts and then the chopped hazelnuts.

Grease a 20cm cake tin and line with baking paper, leaving paper hanging over the side to help lift out the cake. Spoon the mixture into the tin and smooth down. Arrange the figs, cut side up in a neat layer on top of the cake. No need to embed into mixture. Bake for 55mins to 1 hour or until skewer poked into the middle of the cake comes out clean.

Leave to rest in the tin for 10mins before turning out. Drizzle honey over the top of cake before serving. Bill Granger states that this is lovely both as a cake and as a dessert with lightly whipped cream.

 

I've made this cake 4 times already as the hazelnut meal just makes this cake amazing!!

almond shortbread

With Christmas around the corner, it was time to start the countdown by baking shortbread. The real reason is I love shortbread. I love it with a cup of coffee especially as it melts in your mouth.

I decided to make George Calombaris almond shortbread from his Greek cookery from the Helenic Heart.

Jaemie gave me his thumbs up as he devoured them within seconds.

Makes 24 biscuits

340g unsalted butter at room temperature
110g icing sugar
340g plain flour
1 cup toasted slivered almonds
1 vanilla pod, halved and scraped
extra plain flour for dusting
extra icing sugar for dusting
1 teaspoon salt





1. beat butter and icing sugar until light and fluffy
2. add plain flour, salt, almonds and vanilla scrapings and stir with spoon until just combined
3. knead mixture on floured bench until a soft dough forms. without being sticky
4. divide dough into 50g portions, roll into crescent shapes. Or in my case, I used my cookie cutters- heart, stars, moon and christmas trees.

5. space out on a lightly greased baking tray and bake in a preheated oven at 165C for 10minutes. Turn the tray and bake for a further 10 minutes until lightly golden

6. remove from the oven and place on a wire rack
7. dust a sheet of baking paper with icing sugar while the biscuits are still warm (not hot) and place on paper and dust with icing until completely covered. Allow to cool.



Store in an airtight container for up to 1 month.

Cookbook challenge 13- Steamed pudding with caramelised orange

 

As always the 'Delicious' Magazine never seems to fail and I was up for a quick simple dessert and this fitted the bill perfectly.

This is an amazing light pudding and orange just lifts to the next level. I halved the ingredients as I didn’t have a 1.25L pudding basin and had to make do with a 0.5L pudding basin.

It still turned out pretty good. I put it in the oven for 1hr but it could of possibly be in there for less but it tasted pretty good especially with the caramelised orange and a good dollop of double cream.

Ingredients serves 4

125g unsalted butter, softened

125g caster sugar

1 tsp vanilla extract

4 eggs

1 2/3 cups (250g) self raising flour sifted

Finely grated zest of ½ lemon

1/3 cup (80mL) milk

Caramelised orange

2 oranges unpeeled sliced into thin rounds

2 cups (440g) caster sugar

Thickened cream to serve

Preheat the oven to 180C and grease a 1.25L pudding basin.

Beat the butter, sugar and vanilla in an electric mixer until thick and pale.

Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition.

Fold in the flour and zest, followed by the milk until the mixture is a soft dropping consistency.

Pour the batter into the pudding basin. Layer a sheet of foil on top of a sheet of baking paper, then folk a pleat through the centre. Use to cover the pudding and tie with string. (I used a rubber band).

Place in a roasting pan then fill the pan with enough boiling water to come halfway up the sides of the basin.

Bake in the oven for 1 1/2hours or until a skewer inserted in the centre comes clean. Stand for 5 mins.

Meanwhile, place the orange slices in a saucepan and cover with cold water. Bring to a simmer over medium heat then drain. Repeat this blanching process twice. Place orange slices and sugar in a saucepan and add 2 cups of (500mL) water. Bring to a gentle simmer stirring to dissolve the sugar and then cook for 10-12 minutes or until the orange slices are tender and translucent. Set aside to cool in the syrup.

Turn the pudding out onto a platter and top with caramelised orange slices then drizzle with syrup and cream to serve.

 

What's a long weekend without baking?

 Pepe surprised me one afternoon with Adam Liaw- Two Asian Kitchens.

So I couldn't wait to try out a few recipes.

The two that caught my interest was the Ants' Nest Cake and the Sataa andagi.  

Ants’ Nest Cake

Serves 8-10

The texture of this cake is as its name suggests an ants nest. The butter that floats to the top of the batter forms this bumpy surface and then the bottom layer of the cake has this honeycomb look which looks very much the tunnel matrix that ants would have in their nest.

Ingredients

220g caster sugar

85g unsalted butter, softened

½ tsp vanilla extract

4 eggs at room temperature

125mL condensed milk

150g plain flour

½ tsp bicarbonate of soda

Method

Put the sugar into a medium saucepan and heat gently swirling the pan occasionally until melted to a dark caramel. Reduce the heat to low and add 250mL water ( it did spit so stand back). The caramel will solidify but continue to stir over low heat until no lumps remain and you have a thin liquid caramel. Set aside to cool to room temperature, stirring occasionally.

Preheat the oven to 170C. Grease an 18cm round cake tin and line the base with baking paper. Cream the butter and vanilla extract in a large bowl until the butter becomes slightly pale.

In a separate bowl, whisk the eggs until well combined. Add the eggs, condensed milk and caramel to the creamed butter and whisk to combine. Sift together the butter and bicarbonate of soda and use the whisk to gently stir into the butter mixture.

Don’t worry that the butter doesn’t mix in evenly- this is how it should be.

Pour the cake batter into the tin and leave for a minute or two. Bake for 50 minutes or until the cake is springy to a gentle touch in the centre. Leave to cool in the tin then run a knife around the edge before turning out.

A great breakfast includes donuts and coffee.

Adam Liaw has a recipe called Sataa Andagi which is fried donut and I was dying to try it. So first chance I got I made up a batch of these yummy balls.

I used half the quantities called for in his recipe and I also reduced the sugar and replaced the cream for condensed milk and still got an amazing result.

Sataa andagi

Ingredients

2 eggs

125mL pouring cream ( I substituted with condensed milk)

¼ tsp vanilla paste

300g plain flour

2 tsp baking powder

220g caster sugar

¼ tsp salt

Vegetable oil to deep fry

Method

Whisk the eggs, cream and vanilla together in a large bowl. Sift together the flour, baking powder, sugar and salt. Fold into the egg mixture until well combined.

Half fill a large saucepan with oil and heat to 180C. Drop teaspoonsfuls of dough into the hot oil, cooking about 6 at a time. Fry for 2 minutes until golden brown and risen to the surface. Lift out with a slotted spoons and drain on paper towels. They will become crisp on cooling.

You ask what Jaeminkins was upto whilst all this cooking was going on. He kept himself happily amused with the cookie cutters. I think he's going to be the next pastry chef hahahahah.



Hot cross buns

In celebrating Easter, I thought I'd make a batch of hot cross buns. Not too bad I might add. These were too good not to share and were gobbled up in a day. Think my French neighbours were only too happy to take a few off my hands as they could smell these baking from the hallway.

Hot cross buns
Makes
12 med size or 18 small ones which was the case for me.

Ingredients
Bun mix
4 cups plain flour
2 x 7g sachets dried yeast
1/4 cup caster sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons mixed spice (I used a mix of cloves, cinnamon & nutmeg)
pinch of salt
1 1/2 cups currants
40g butter
300ml milk
2 eggs, lightly beaten

Flour paste 1/2 cup plain flour
4 to 5 tablespoons water

Glaze
1/3 cup water
2 tablespoons caster sugar

Method
Combine flour, yeast, sugar, mixed spice, salt and currants in a large bowl.

Melt butter in a small saucepan over medium heat. Add milk. Heat for 1 minute, or until lukewarm.

Add warm milk mixture and eggs to currant mixture.

Use a flat-bladed knife to mix until dough almost comes together.

Use clean hands to finish mixing to form a soft dough.

Turn dough out onto a floured surface. Knead for 10 minutes, or until dough is smooth.

Place into a lightly oiled bowl. Cover with plastic wrap.

Set aside in a warm, draught-free place for 1 to 1 1/2 hours, or until dough doubles in size.

Line a large baking tray with non-stick baking paper. Punch dough down to its original size.

Knead on a lightly floured surface until smooth. Divide into 12 even portions.

Shape each portion into a ball. Place balls onto lined tray, about 1cm apart. Cover with plastic wrap.

Set aside in a warm, draught-free place for 30 minutes, or until buns double in size. Preheat oven to 190°C.

Make flour paste: Mix flour and water together in a small bowl until smooth, adding a little more water if paste is too thick. Spoon into a small snap-lock bag. Snip off 1 corner of bag. Pipe flour paste over tops of buns to form crosses. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes, or until buns are cooked through.

Make glaze: Place water and sugar into a small saucepan over low heat. Stir until sugar dissolves. Bring to the boil. Boil for 5 minutes. Brush warm glaze over warm hot cross buns. Serve warm or at room temperature.

These came out a treat as you can see. Wishing you all a Happy Easter!

Notes
These buns are best eaten on the day they are made. Otherwise, freeze for up to 7 days. To defrost in microwave, place 1 hot cross bun onto a sheet of paper towel. Heat, uncovered, for 45 to 50 seconds on MEDIUM-LOW (DEFROST) (30%) power. Stand for 1 minute.