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This is a basic muffin for the banana worshipers…hehe and it is another a recipe adapted from the book of muffins, Le Cordon Bleu. I love the recipes of this book because it is super easy, fast and the result is always good. The only problem is that the recipe has crystallized ginger, but didn’t have any so I chose to increase a little the ginger powder, but the flavor of the ginger was very subtle, so I think with crystallized ginger the muffins should be much more delicious. But even so the muffins turned out great.

Banana Ginger Muffins
12 muffins

Ingredients:

300g self-rising flour
1 tsp ginger powder
115g brown sugar
75g crystallized ginger, chopped
60g unsalted butter
2 tbsp honey
125ml milk
2 eggs
240g mashed banana s

Topping:

125g cream cheese, softened
2 tbsp confectioner sugar
2 tsp lemon zest

Directions:

Preheat oven to 390 degrees F (200 C). Grease a 12 cup muffin pan. Sift the dry ingredients.
Melt the butter and the honey. Beat the eggs with the milk. Mix the dry ingredients with the butter, the eggs, the crystallized ginger and the bananas with a spoon.
Fill greased muffin cups 3/4 full. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes until golden brown and wooden pick inserted in center of muffin comes out clean. Let stand in pan for 5 minutes before turning out onto wire rack to cool completely.

For the topping, mix the cream cheese, the sugar and the lemon zest.

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honey breadOriginally called “pão de mel” (honey bread) in Brazil, where it’s a local favorite, this dark chocolate covered little dense spice honey cake will amaze your taste buds. It’s great with a hot cup of coffee, tea, chai or just by itself. You can also use a dulce de leche filling, and make them even more delicious. Oh my, I can’t get enough…I love honey bread. Just a reminder, you’ll probably need to reduce the recipe or otherwise you’ll have lots and lots of breads, so you should do half or even a third. But one thing I’m sure, you’ll love it.

honey bread 2

Brazilian Honey Bread
(96 individual breads)

Ingredients:
(if you need, use a “oz” conversion calculator on the internet)

490 g brown sugar
400 ml water
5 eggs (separated)
700 g all purpose flour
5 g ground cloves
5 g ground cinnamon
25 g chocolate powder
20 g baking soda
10 g baking powder
250 ml milk
300 ml honey

Syrup:

200 ml water
10 g brown sugar
3 cinnamon sticks
10 g cloves

Icing:

1.5 kg milk chocolate
1 kg semi-sweetened chocolate

Dulce de leche for the filling

Directions:

For the syrup, put all the ingredients in a saucepan in low heat, for about 15min. Drain it and let it cool.

Beat egg whites until it forms stiff and firm peaks, reserve.

Preheat oven 350°C. Butter and flour a 12 X 16inch pan, or use individual pans.

Mix with a whisk, the cold syrup, with the sifted flour, ground cinnamon, ground cloves, chocolate powder. Add the baking soda dissolved into the milk and the sifted baking soda. Add the egg yolks one by one and whisk well. Gently fold the egg whites into the batter. Pour the batter in the pan and bake for approx. 40 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the cake come out clean. Let it cool. Pour the syrup over the cake. Cut the cake into squares.

For the icing, melt the chocolates in a microwave oven or in a double boiler and cover the breads. Use a fork to dip the bread. Place on aluminum foil to dry into the refrigerator.

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apple-muffin

Yummy, when I think about this recipe, I can smell the apple and cinnamon being baked, delicious. This recipe was adapted from the book Le Cordon Bleu of muffins, and for the time being it is one of the best recipes of muffins that I tested. Delicious!

Apple Muffins

Ingredients:
6 muffins

75g self-raising flour
50g all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
2/3 tsp ground cinnamon
1/3 tsp ground nutmeg
4 tbsp sugar
50g melted unsalted butter
1 tbsp honey
1 small egg
55ml milk
1 small apple, cored, peeled, chopped

1/4 tsp ground cinnamon to sprinkle
1/2 tsp sugar para to sprinkle

Directions:

Preheat oven to 180°C. Prepare your ingredients. You will need 6 medium muffin pans. Silicone muffin pans are wonderful to use as they don’t need greasing. Alternatively, line the pans with paper muffin cases.
Sift the flour, baking powder, cinnamon and nutmeg together into a large bowl. The baking powder acts as a raising agent and will help give the muffins a light texture. Stir in the sugar, apples until well combined.
Whisk together the butter, honey, eggs and milk until well combined. Blending the wet ingredients before adding them to the flour mixture makes it easier to evenly combine the two.
Add the milk mixture and the apples to the flour mixture and stir with a large metal spoon until just combined. It is important that the ingredients are only just combined. If the mixture is over-mixed, the cooked muffins will have a tough texture. Spoon the mixture evenly into the muffin pans and sprinkle the sugar and cinnamon misture. Bake the muffins in preheated oven for 20 to 25 minutes or until golden and cooked through. To test if they are cooked, insert a skewer into the centre of one – if it comes out clean, it is ready. Serve warm or at room temperature.

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