Cranberry and Walnut Chocolate Muffin

No proper recipe yet - this is what happens when you wake up one morning and decide to throw some ingredients together. The result smells wonderfully chocolate-y, and weighs a ton due to amount of cranberries and walnuts stuffed inside. It came out rather dry though, which is why I'm going to redo it and add more moisture to it before I write down a recipe. A dollop of clotted cream on top certainly helps with the dryness though. 

Sugardaddy Cakes

Something tasty will be happening at the Tea Rooms this weekend. The Bake Club boys and I are teaming up to start a new cake stall, serving plenty of homemade goodies. If you're around Brick Lane this weekend, why not come over to say hello, and have some tea and biscuits? 

Quince and Apple Treacle Muffins

Muffins with quinces and apples, not muffins made with apple treacle. I don't even think there is such a thing as apple-flavoured treacle, but that does sound devastatingly delicious now that I'm think (and fixating) on it. The muffins can be made with just apples too, but since quinces can were still in season, I thought it would be great to add some to the batter too. 

Quince and Apple Treacle Muffins

makes 10 - 12

Ingredients

1 quince, 2 apples (or use 3 apples if quinces aren't in season)

2 eggs ( whites and yolks separated)

200 gm self-raising flour

100 gm sugar

100 gm butter

2 tbsp treacle

1 tbsp ground cinnamon

1 tbsp ground nutmeg

Directions

- Chop apples and quinces into bite-sized pieces and cook until soft*, adding in the ground cinnamon and nutmeg at the same time. (This can be done up to a day before and kept refrigerated until you want to use it.)**

- Preheat oven to 175c. 

- Beat egg whites until they get to the stiff peak stage, then set aside for later.

- In a large bowl, cream butter and sugar until fluffy, then add treacle and egg yolks and beat till combined. 

- Add flour and about 2 tablespoons of the cooked apple/quince to the bowl and mix it again. Fold in the egg whites and stir lightly until the egg whites are combined with the rest of the batter.

- Using a tablespoon, drop 1 tablespoon of batter into the base of each muffin cup, then add about a teaspoon of cooked apple/quince to it. Cover up with another tablespoon of batter.

- Bake for about 13-15 minutes, then let them cool, or eat straightaway. They're also great with cream or vanilla ice-cream!

*You don't have to cook the fruits down to a puree, it's nice to have a bit of bite left to them.

** You may find yourself with some leftovers after you've baked the muffins. Try adding some to yoghurt for breakfast, or reheating it and adding it to some plain ice cream.

Muesli Treacle Muffins

 The Manbeast isn't very good at starting his day with breakfast, so I thought I'd make things easy for him but baking up some easy-to-grab muffins. The inspiration came from a box of fantastic oat and treacle biscuits we picked up from Sainsburys - rich, sweet but with enough oaty goodness in it to let it pass as 'healthy'.

 These little muffins are stuffed with muesli and moist with olive oil - I wanted to produce a handsized, edible battery for busy mornings. 

Muesli Treacle Muffins

makes about 10

Ingredients

200 gm self-raising flour

100 gm muesli

2 tbsp treacle 

100 ml olive oil

100 ml milk 

2 eggs

For topping

1 tbsp demerara sugar

25 gm muesli

Directions

- Preheat oven to 175c. Mix flour and muesli in a large bowl, then add treacle to mixture.

- In another bowl, milk olive oil, eggs and milk. 

- Add the wet ingredients to the flour/muesli mixture, and stir it all up with a spoon until it's all combined. 

-Spoon the batter into muffin cases, sprinkle muesli and sugar on top and pop it into the oven for about 12 - 15 minutes.

-Enjoy! Keep them in airtight containers and they should last for up to 3 days without drying out. These would be sooooo good with some clotted cream too.