thursday baking - rhubarb and custard

We seem to be going through a muffin renaissance at our place at the moment. I know the muffin is not cool. They had their day in the nineties, where too-big, too-tough and too-stale mega muffins dominated cafe counters and muffin cookbooks (Mmmmmmuffins...) dominated the bestseller list. But I think a well executed muffin has a lot going for it. Provided they are not the size of a small child's head (ie. less is more), are freshly made (ie. that day) and are generously flavoured (ie.don't be stingy with the blueberries), muffins are quick to make and bake and lovely to eat for morning or afternoon tea.

Today's muffins are jam donut muffins we saw over at Pod and Three Peas. Ours have a filling of rhubarb compote and vanilla bean custard, which I had leftover from the market last weekend and needed to use up. Any good jam would be delicious though. This little pocket of filling tucked in the middle, combined with the crunchy topping made by brushing the cooked tops with a little butter, before dunking them into cinnamon sugar makes for a seriously good muffin. Definitely best warm from the oven, and perfect wet weather baking.

Check out the recipe here.

thursday baking - sultana, apple + bran muffins

When Dame Alison Holst prefixes a recipe with the statement 'don't worry about the appearance of these muffins' you know they aren't going to be pretty. True, they don't rise much and look a bit boring, but as she encourages don't let that put you off, as poshed up with the sultanas, apple and walnuts they are really delicious as well as a healthier baking option. (Which despite the cliche is I think appreciated at this time of year?!)


Having said that the glob of butter is by no means necessary as they are very moist anyway, but is rather nice melting into the warm muffin...I love a good bran muffin for morning or afternoon tea. Nice and filling and a healthy hit of fibre. I put the sugar down from 3/4 to 1/2c as find with the apple and sultanas they are sweet enough. They freeze well, so a freezer stash is super handy for weekday work/school lunches.



Sultana, apple and bran muffins - Alison Holst



1 c sultanas
1 egg
1/2 c yoghurt
1/2 c canola oil
2 tsp cinnamon
2 tsp mixed spice
1/2 tsp salt
1 large apple, grated



1/2 c brown sugar
1 c bran
1 c flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 c walnuts, toasted and roughly chopped


Heat oven to 200c. Measure sultanas into a small bowl cover with boiling water and leave to stand. Put the egg and the next 5 ingredients into a large bowl, beat with a fork to mix, then add the apple.


Drain sultanas, then add to the apple mix. Add the dry ingredients, making sure there are no lumps in the baking soda. Combine gently until the dry ingredients are just dampened. Spoon into sprayed muffin tins (I use cupcake cases too) and bake 12-15 minutes or until tops spring back when pressed lightly.

thursday baking - date and orange muffins

This week's post comes courtesy of Jessica...

I quite like the trick of using whole oranges in baking. Some recipes call for the oranges to be boiled first, but here, two oranges are thrown straight into the food processor and blended up with the other ingredients.

These muffins have quite a different texture from what I usually associate with muffins. They were very moist and cakey, almost like friands. I think the inclusion of the orange skin made the muffins slightly bitter, but in a good way, so they really needed the dates as little bursts of sweetness. My husband, on the other hand, thought they could have done with more sugar, but then he has a very sweet tooth! This recipe also makes A LOT of muffins (or maybe I just made mine quite small). The recipe says it makes 24, but I got 28, and as I only have one muffin tin, this meant the whole baking process took a while as I waited for the muffins to cool before removing them and putting the next batch in the oven. It's lucky that they do freeze well!

Date & Orange Muffins - Annabelle White

2 oranges
2 large eggs
200g butter, melted and cooled slightly
1 Cup pitted dates, roughly chopped
400g natural yoghurt
a little lemon juice
3/4 Cup sugar
3 Cups standard flour
2 tsp baking soda
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt

Preheat the oven to 200 degrees. Grease two 12-hole muffin pans.

Blend the whole oranges in the food processor--skin, seeds, everything! Add the eggs and melted butter. Whirl the mixture around, but do not over-process. Place it in a large bowl with the dates.

Mix the yoghurt, lemon juice and sugar together in a bowl. Sift the dry ingredients into another bowl. Add the yoghurt mixture and the dry ingredients to the orange mixture, alternating small amounts of each. Just blend with the lightest movement--do not over-mix. Place 2 tablespoons of batter in each hole of the prepared muffin pans.

Bake for 15-20 minutes, until a skewer inserted in the muffins comes out clean. Cool in the pans for 5 minutes and then cool on a wire rack. The muffins keep for 2-3 days in an airtight container. These muffins also freeze well.

thursday baking - cheese muffins

This was the second time I made these little muffins. The first time I made them in a hurry to take as a plate to Playcentre, where, it would be fair to say, they didn't exactly bring the house down. I thought it might be nice to have something savoury for a change, but they were well and truly trumped by the chocolate weet-bix slice that someone else brought along. I ate quite a few to make a dent in them, so as not to have to take home an embarrassingly large tinful!

Anyway, despite their humble appearance they are tasty little muffins. Light and soft in the middle, with a crunchy, cheesy crust, and not as rich as my usual cheese muffin recipe. I left half plain, with just cheese, and to the other half of the batter added a tablespoon of basil pesto and tomato chilli jam. These would be delicious made as larger muffins to serve with soup.

I flagged the melted brie bit, but guess it would be nice if eating them with drinks, although I am not a huge fan of melted brie, finding it a bit greasy. Daisy very happily munched her way through one for morning tea, taking an impossibly long time to eat one mini muffin but enjoying it all the same! Next time I make them I will add some grated veges and freeze them for her snacks.

cheese muffins with melted brie - Kathy Paterson - Week 26

2 c flour
4 tsp baking powder
1 c grated tasty cheese
1/2 tsp salt
1 egg, beaten
1/4 c oil (I used rice bran)
1 1/2 c milk
200g Camembert or brie, cut into even sized pieces

Preheat oven to 220c. Combine flour, baking powder, salt and cheese. In a separate bowl combine wet ingredients, and add to dry, mixing just enough to combine. Spoon into greased mini muffin tins. bake for 10-12 minutes. If using the brie, make a small split and place a piece of brie in it. Bake till cheese has melted and serve hot.

muffins by Sarah

I'm not the biggest fan of muffins. It may have to do with the ubiquitous cafe muffin. Often over-sized, dry and born of a pre-mix. If after a sweet treat to have with coffee I would usually pick a biscuit or slice over a muffin. I couldn't, however, resist these carrot, apple and pecan muffins when looking through the Ottolenghi book. They sounded a bit like a morning glory muffin, but with the addition of a crunchy crumble topping. The only change I made to the recipe was to use walnuts instead of pecans, as those in the supermarkets are usually rancid. It made quite a big batch, I got 18 decent sized muffins. Unlike cafe muffins they tasted every bit as good as they looked! The recipe says the flavour improves after a couple of hours, and I found this to be true. I put some in the freezer and have been taking one out to pop in my lunch each day. Some even made their way up to Wellington for Libby to sample...You can find the recipe for the muffins here.

Thursday baking - crunchy lemon muffins

As we bake our way through A Treasury of New Zealand Baking...

Alison Holst says she's often told these are the most frequently made muffins in her several muffin books. Becs and Libby both remember having these muffins in the 90's, however I think my family missed that craze as I don't recall ever eating or making them before. As we have a bowl full of lemons, I thought I'd give these a go and see what I've been missing out on.

The muffins are easy to make. They were delicious when still warm out of the oven, but I found that even an hour or so later they were a bit tougher (perhaps I over-mixed the mixture - mine didn't look nearly as delicate as the ones in the picture in ATONZB). The recipe recommends serving the muffins warm or reheated with tea and coffee, and I agree this is the best way to have them. The lemon and sugar mixture definitely lifts these muffins, and I think they'd also be delicious with a dollop of cream cheese in the centre - I might try that next time!

crunchy lemon muffins (Alison Holst) - week 19

2 cups self-raising flour

3/4 cup sugar

75g butter

1 cup milk

1 egg

grated zest of 1 large or 2 medium-sized lemons

1/4 cup lemon juice

1/4 cup sugar

Preheat the oven to 200C. Coat a 12-hole muffin pan with baking spray.

Stir the flour and place it into a fairly large bowl. Add the first measure of sugar, and using a fork, toss to mix. Melt the butter in the microwave. Add the milk, egg and lemon zest, then whisk together with a fork until combined. Tip this mixture into the dry ingredients.

Mix gently, using a flat-bladed stirrer, until the dry ingredients are dampened, but the mixture still looks rough. Spoon the mixture into the prepared pans, try to put only one rounded spoonful into each hole (I forgot to do this when I was spooning in my mixture!)

Bake for about 10 minutes, until the tops of the muffins are lightly browned and the surface of a muffin springs back when lightly pressed. While the muffins bake put the juice and the second measure of sugar into a small bowl. Without stirring to dissolve the sugar, use a pastry brush to apply the sugar and lemon mixture to the hot, freshly cooked muffins in their pan. Repeat until all the lemon mixture is used. While the muffins are still fairly hot, lift them carefully from the pan onto a wire rack to cool. Serve them warm or reheated with tea or coffee, add to packed lunches or enjoy on any other occasion.

Thursday baking - banana bran muffins

As we bake our way through A Treasury of New Zealand Baking...


I wanted to bake something reasonably healthy to have for morning tea during the week so decided on bran muffins. A Treasury of New Zealand Baking has three bran muffin recipes to choose from and I settled on this one as I had all the ingredients handy including just enough walnuts for the topping.

The recipe has very little added sugar and fat and lots of fibre from the the bran. You could make these muffins without the topping if you wanted to cut down on sugar but I think the topping makes the muffins.

I halved the recipe as I didn't want to be eating them for two weeks and they worked just fine, though I added a couple of tablespoons of milk as the mixture was too dry but as I type this up I realise it's because I added too much flour!



Banana bran muffins - week nine (Fiona Smith)

1 1/2 cups bran
3/4 cup boiling water
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup nuts, chopped (I used walnuts)
1/4 cup long thread coconut
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
3/4 cup natural yoghurt
1 egg, beaten
1/4 cup oil
2 bananas, mashed
1 1/4 cups flour
1 1/2 tsp baking soda

Preheat the oven to 190 degrees C. Grease a 12-hole muffin pan.

Mix the bran and boiling water together in a bowl and leave to cool.

In a seperate bowl, mix half the sugar with the nuts, cinnamon and coconut. Set aside.

Add the yoghurt, egg, oil and banana to the bran and water. Mix well. Sift the flour, remaining sugar and baking soda together and fold into the bran mixture. Spoon into the prepared muffin pan, then sprinkle with the sugar and nut mix.

Bake for 20 minutes. Loosen in the tin and cool, then rest on a wire rack for awhile.