Cheddar cornbread muffins - Recommended Recipe!

Cheddar Cornbread Muffins – makes 12, 10 mins to prepare, 20 mins to cook

Ingredients

50g butter, melted

150g strong cheddar, coarsely grated plus extra slices to serve

300g fine cornmeal or fine polenta

150g self-raising flour, sifted

½ tsp bicarbonate of soda

½ tsp salt

2 eggs

280ml buttermilk

175ml milk

Tomato chutney and salad leaves, to serve

 

Method

1.     Preheat oven to Gas 5/190C/fan 170C. Use a tablespoon of the melted butter to grease a 12-hole non-stick muffin tin. Put a heaped tablespoon of cheese to one side, along with the extra cheese slices you will need to serve the muffins, then combine the rest of the dry ingredients in a large mixing bowl. In a separate bowl, mix the eggs, buttermilk, milk and remaining melted butter together.

2.     Pour the wet ingredients into the dry and lightly mix together until just combined. Don’t overwork the mixture. Spoon into the muffin holes and sprinkle with the reserved grated cheese. Bake for 20 mins, until raised and golden.

3.     Transfer to a wire rack to cool slightly. Serve warm, split horizontally and filled with a dollop of tomato chutney, some salad leaves and extra slices of cheese. Alternatively, the muffins can be wrapped individually and frozen for upto 3 months.

Per serving: 250 kcal, 2g sugar, 11g fat, 5.5g saturated fat, 0.8g salt.

Source: Tesco instore recipe card

Easy cheesy muffin scones - Recommended Recipe!

Easy cheesy muffin scones - makes 12, preparation 10 minutes, cooking 20-25 minutes

Ingredients
A little butter or oil, for greasing
7 sundried tomatoes (about 45g) or 7 cherry tomatoes
250g self raising flour
80g The Co-Operative lighter mature cheese, grated
Handful of fresh chopped herbs, optional
200ml The Co-Operative low fat natural yoghurt
1 large free range egg
3 tbsp olive oil

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 190C/fan 170C/Gas 5 and lightly grease a 12 hole muffin tin with butter or oil.  Cut the tomatoes into small pieces.
2. Put the flour into a bowl, add the tomatoes, cheese and herbs, if using.
3. Put the yoghurt into a jug, add the egg and oil, and stir.  Add this to the flour mix and blend everything together.
4. Spoon into the muffin tins and bake for 20-25 minutes or until light golden brown.

Per serving - 170 kcal, 7.9g fat, 1.7g saturated fat, 3.5g sugar, 0.5g salt.

Source - The Co-Operative instore magazine.

Fairtrade Chocolate Orange Muffins

Take A Step in 2012 for Fairtrade is raising the awareness of Fairtrade products and promoting their use in everyday recipes. 

As part of Fairtrade Awareness, this week I baked Fairtrade Chocolate Orange Muffins. 

The muffins are not over-sweet and have a great texture, mainly from the yoghut as an ingredient to reduce the amount of fat and sugar.  They are really quick and easy to make and are delicious warm from the oven! My neighbour, who needed a bit of a boost, enjoyed one with an afternoon cup of tea.

At the moment, there's a competition running on the Fairtrade website to win a KitchenAid or Fairtrade goody bag.... just bake one of the published recipes and tell them who you are baking for!  Simple... so have a browse at the recipes and good luck!

Muffins or Cupcakes.... what's the difference?

When is a cake not a cake?  When it's a muffin or course, or a cupcake, or a fairy cake, or a bun, or a ...?!


To me, a fairy cake is a small cupcake - plain sponge with just glace icing and maybe a few sprinkles on top.  A cupcake is a standard sized small cake (the ones you bake in 12's in a deep holed-baking tray) - usually plain sponge but sometimes flavoured, with an assortment of toppings to give them some va-va-voom!  And a muffin is a larger cake again with chunks of things inside... blueberries, raspberries, white chocolate, nuts, etc...

Here is the recipe that I use for my fairy cakes and cupcakes:

140g self raising flour
1/2 tsp of baking powder
115g caster sugar - Fairtrade if possible, I use either Co-Op or Tate & Lyle
2 medium free range eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
115g butter or margarine - at the moment I'm in love with Stork Liquid but I also use  "normal" Stork, I save using the butter for the butter cream(!)

1. Preheat the oven to Gas 4.  Line a 12 hole baking tin with cake cases.
2. Sieve the flour and baking powder into a large bowl.
3. Add all the other ingredients and mix like mad for 3-5 minutes!  If I'm using Stork Liquid then I just use a wooden spoon but if I'm using solid margarine I use an electric mixer.
4. Divide between the cake cases - for cupcakes I use an old scoop from a Cadbury's Hot Chocolate tub as a measure so they are all the same size... for fairy cakes I use a tablespoon measure.  This recipe will make 12 cupcakes or 18 fairy cakes, depending on the size of your scoop!
5. Bake in the oven on the middle shelf for about 15 minutes... I never really time my cakes to the second, I keep peeping through the glass oven door but if you have a solid oven door make sure you keep an eye on the time as if you open the oven door too soon your cakes will sink!
6. Cool on wire rack then decorate when completey cool.

And here's the recipe I use for muffins...

250g self raising flour
1/2 tsp salt
100g caster sugar - again, Fairtrade if possible
1 medium free range egg, lightly beaten
120ml semi-skimmed milk
125g plain yoghurt
1 tsp flavouring - vanilla, almond, whatever you think fits in with the "chunks" you have chosen for your muffins!
75g butter or margarine, melted and cooled (or 75g Stork Liquid)
A handful of something for the "chunks"... raspberries, chocolate chips, blueberries, fudge pieces, anything really!

1. Preheat the oven to Gas 6 (200°C, 400°F).  Line a 12 hole muffin tray with cases.
2. In one bowl, sift together the flour, salt and sugar.
3. In a second bowl or jug, mix together the egg, milk, yoghurt, flavouring and melted butter/margarine.
4. Pour the wet ingredients into the flour mixture and stir gently until combined - add any "chunks" and stir through gently.  The mixture will be quite lumpy but there should be no dry flour visible.
5. Spoon the mixture into the muffin cases and bake for approximately 20 minutes or until the tops spring back when touched lightly.  Cool on a wire rack.
6. Best served warm but they will keep in a airtight container (once cooled) for a couple of days.

From the recipes, you can see that the main difference is the ratio of fats to flour... the replacement of some of the fat and 1 egg with yoghurt and milk in the muffins makes them lower in fat than the cup cake recipe.  Also, the lack of topping on a muffin reduces the additional fat and sugar levels - however, depending on the "chunks" that you add, the fat/sugar content can change considerably!  Although, muffins can be a great way to get a bit of hidden goodness into your diet... muffins bursting with blueberries, cranberries or raspberries can really give you a boost at the "2pm slump" I seem to suffer from every day!

You can also add vegetables to the mix... grated carrot, parsnip and beetroot can all be added to spice up your muffins.  Also add a teaspoon of mixed spice, ginger or nutmeg to experiment with flavours...

So have a go... enjoy experimenting and let me know any fabulous new flavours you have come up with - I'll definitely give you a "shout-out" and credit for your experimental cooking!