Chocolate Chip Muffins (Revisited)

Ever since I started with my new job, I have been eating almost the exact same breakfast from the exact same bakery every morning. Call it plain laziness, but I just can't wake up an extra 5 minutes to go out of my way and buy breakfast from other bakeries. =P

Well today I got fed up with myself and vowed to eat something different for my breakfast tomorrow. But instead of waking up earlier, I thought I would just bake it ahead of time... ;-) I know I've made chocolate chip muffins before in the past, but I wanted to shake things up a little and try something a bit off the norm. So I found a recipe for chocolate chip muffins with a little bite... Sally's Baking Addiction Bakery Style Chocolate Chip Muffins! This recipe is a bit unusual as it uses cinnamon and nutmeg... which turned out to have a nice combination with chocolate chips. The end result reminded me of old fashioned donuts for some reason...

Anyway I was a bit wary about using oil in the recipe, but it turned out ok... you can't taste the oil at all! I halved the recipe and cut down on the sugar and chocolate chips so it was less sweet. I'm glad that I tried this recipe... my baking craving was satisfied and I have a new breakfast for tomorrow!

Ingredients (makes around 6-8 small sized muffins):

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/8 tsp ground nutmeg

1 egg, at room temperature

1/2 cup sugar (or less)
1/2 cup buttermilk
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1/4 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 425F/220C. Spray your muffin tin of choice with non-stick spray or line with muffin liners. Set aside.
2. In a large bowl, sift flour, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg. Set aside.
3. In a medium bowl, whisk together eggs and sugar until combined. Mix in milk, oil, and vanilla. Mixture will be pale and yellow.
4. Fold wet ingredients into dry ingredients and mix everything together by hand with a wooden spoon. Avoid over-mixing. Gently mix until all the flour is off the bottom of the bowl and no big pockets of flour remain. The batter will be thick and somewhat lumpy. 
5. Fold in the chocolate chips.
6. Pour batter into prepared muffin tins, filling all the way to the top.
7. Bake at 425F/220C degrees for 5 minutes. Reduce oven temperature to 375F/190C and continue to bake for 25 minutes until tops are lightly golden and centers appear set.
8. Allow to cool for 10 minutes in pan before enjoying. Muffins taste best fresh the same day. Store muffins at room temperature in an airtight container for up to 5 days. Muffins freeze well, up to 3 months.

Oatmeal Chocolate Cookie Bar

Phew... Long time no bake... I miss the carefree days when I could bake at any time. It's a bit hard now that I'm working again... But anyway I'm glad that this morning I was able to bake.

So... You must be wondering what spurred me to bake. Well... Actually it's a very important reason but might not be one that you wanted to hear. I have 7 eggs that are about to expire in a few days... Yup! Well I hate wasting ingredients so I decided to bake something for church.

I ruled out making cookies because most of the time you don't need eggs to make them. I figured that cakes would probably be my best bet for using the most amount of eggs. I didn't have a lot of time on my hands so I didn't want to make something too complicated like chiffon cake. I started to think about baking brownies... then changed my mind and thought that maybe blondies would be more interesting. But as I was looking at recipes for blondies, I came across this oatmeal chocolate cookie bar recipe which looked sooo yummy! Bingo... I had found my recipe for today...

I wish I halved the recipe because I ended up with a lot of leftover ingredients... I was only able to find a 9-inch round baking pan instead of the recommended 13x9 inch rectangular baking pan. I used 2 mini (3-inch) round baking pans and another 6 1/2-inch round baking pan to hold all the extra ingredients. I also cut down on the sugar and the oatmeal used because I ran out of both ingredients. The 9-inch version of the cake took longer than 25 minutes to bake... double the time maybe coz I put too much batter and chocolate... Think it would have worked better with a shallower pan. The 3-inch and 6 1/2-inch versions were fully cooked by 25 minutes.

I dunno if it's because I haven't been baking for a long time or I'm just plain klutzy (or both!) But this time while I was baking I burned myself twice and I sliced my finger on the edge of a can. -_-" Ouch!

Ingredients:
Cake:

226g unsalted butter, at room temperature

1 1/2 cups packed brown sugar

2 eggs, at room temperature

2 tsp vanilla extract

1/3 cup milk

2 1/2 cups plain flour

2 1/2 cups oatmeal

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp salt

Chocolate Filling:

300g sweetened condensed milk

76g unsalted butter

1 tsp vanilla extract

285g semi-sweet or dark chocolate chips

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 350F/176C. Grease a 13x9 inch baking pan.
2. For the cake, cream the butter with brown sugar.  Mix in the eggs. Then add vanilla extract and milk.
3. Slowly incorporate the dry ingredients and set aside the batter.
4. In a saucepan over medium heat, melt together condensed milk, butter, vanilla extract and chocolate chips.
5. Spread 3/4 of the cake mixture on the bottom of the baking pan, pour chocolate mixture, then spread the rest of cookie mixture on top in spoonfuls (won't cover completely).
6. Bake for 25 minutes. If the top is browning too much, cover it with aluminum foil. Let it cool completely before cutting into it.

Apple Allspice Muffins

I visited the Stanley dragonboat pre-races 2 weeks back and caught up with my old team Island ECC Ark. I paddled with them for the last 3 years, but decided to give it a break this year. I found that I do miss the excitement of the races and the great team spirit. Once an Arker, always an Arker! I'll definitely go support them on the actual race day! Gooooo Ark! =)

Anyway, the purpose of the visit was to see my old teammates, but then I got something in return for visiting them.  They had waaaay too much fruits left over at the end of the day and were about to throw them away... So I offered to take them for my baking experiments! Score! Free ingredients to play around with... =) I got some bananas, kiwis, and apples... The bananas immediately went into a banana cake, the kiwis ended up going directly into my stomach, but I puzzled over what to do with the apples.

I don't actually like eating apples and I was bored of making apple tarts so I ended up scouring the internet for something interesting to bake. Apples are a very "autumn-y" fruit and usually are paired up with allspice which I had also previously been given. So naturally I typed in my search criteria... apple allspice recipes... Out popped a recipe from Food Lust People Love for Apple Allspice Muffins. Perfect!

The original recipe makes 12 muffins, but I cut the recipe in half to try it out (and reduced some of the sugars). I also didn't use any lemon juice for the apple and my apple was not a Granny Smith. The streusel topping turned out great... very crunchy... and the muffin wasn't too sweet which was good! But honestly it was a bit odd eating this type of muffin during the summer. Not that you can't... But it's weird... kinda like if I were to eat watermelon during winter or something... It doesn't quite match the weather!

Ingredients (makes around 6-8 muffins):
Streusel:

1/4 cup all-purpose flour

1/4 cup packed light brown sugar

1/4 tsp ground allspice

35g unsalted butter, cold and cut into small pieces



Muffins:

1 small apple
1 cup all-purpose flour

1/4 cup caster sugar
 (slightly less than 1/4 cup)
1/8 cup packed dark brown sugar

1/2 tbsp baking powder

1/4 tsp ground allspice
1/2 tsp cinnamon

1/4 tsp salt
57g unsalted butter, melted and cooled

1 egg

1/4 cup + 2 tbsp whole milk

1/2 tsp vanilla extract


Method:

1. Prepare the streusel topping first.  Put the flour, brown sugar and allspice in a small bowl and stir with a fork, mashing out the lumps in the brown sugar.
2. Add in the cold butter, cut into chunks and combine with a pastry blender or your fingers. Refrigerate until ready to use.
3. Preheat oven to 375°F/190°C and grease muffin tin or line with paper liners.
4. For the muffins, peel, core and chop the apple into small pieces.  Set aside.
5. In a large bowl, mix together the flour, sugars, baking powder, allspice, cinnamon and salt. Mash the brown sugar lumps out with a fork.
6. In another bowl, whisk together the egg, milk, melted butter and vanilla extract.  
7. Pour your wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and fold them together until just mixed.
8. Fold in the chopped apple. 
9. Divide the batter evenly among the muffin cups. 
10. Generously heap some streusel topping on each muffin and lightly press the topping down into the batter to make sure it stays put when baking.
11. Bake for about 15-20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean.
12. Cool on a rack for a few minutes and then remove the muffins to cool completely.

Chocolate Chip Banana Muffins

Sour cream... I never thought that it would actually work out well in a recipe. But the other week I was chatting with my mom over the phone and telling her of my baking experience with sour cream when she insisted that I try her recipe for banana muffins. I had some friends coming over on the Easter weekend so I decided it was a perfect time to bake... Means I don't have to eat all 12 muffins by myself! ;-)

Well my mom's recipes are always healthier than mine so I replaced the nuts and cranberries with chocolate chips instead. =P You'll have to play around with the amount of the 'optional ingredients' used as the original recipe called for 1/2 cup nuts, 1/2 cup cranberries. But instead I used 1/2 cup chocolate chips and that turned out fine.

Ingredients (makes around 12 muffins):
76g butter, at room temperature
113g sugar (use less if adding chocolate chips)
2 eggs, at room temperature
1/2 cup sour cream
1 cup mashed bananas (2 bananas made up a cup but I personally thought that more would taste better)
2 cups plain flour, sifted
1 tsp baking powder, sifted
1 tsp baking soda, sifted
1/2 tsp salt
1/3 cup chopped nuts, optional
1/3 cup dried cranberries, optional
1/3 cup chocolate chips, optional
1 tsp vanilla extract

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 350F/177C.
2. Using an electric mixer on medium speed, beat butter until fluffy. Add in sugar and beat for about 2 minutes.
3. Add in eggs and vanilla extract and blend until well mixed.
4. Using a wooden spoon or spatula, fold in the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt.
5. Add in bananas and sour cream until the mixture is just moist (i.e. don't over-mix!)
6. Add in your optional ingredients.
7. Fill the prepared muffin liners about 3/4 full.
8. Bake for 25 minutes.

Chocolate Chip Muffins

I went back to Toronto the past Christmas and got to eat chocolate chip muffins from my favourite muffin place MMMuffins. So when I came back to HK, I was reminiscing and decided to try making the muffins here. My first attempt created rock hard chocolate chip scones instead of muffins. My second attempt has turned out better though I wasn't able to make a proper "muffin top" like the one that MMMuffins makes. I'm still happy with the way it turned out! Yum!

BTW, I think you've discovered by now what is my favourite ingredient to add into a recipe... it's chocolate chips... and that's because I like eating them so much! ;-P You'll also notice that my recipes cater a lot to what I like and that's because if there are leftovers then I'm the one stuck eating them! So I better like what I make...

Anyway the recipe I used is from The Best Mom on the Block blog... Again I halved the recipe so that I wouldn't be stuck with a lot of the product and having to eat it all myself (or throw it away if it was really bad). I thought it was an unusual recipe since it used sour cream, but you don't actually taste the sourness. And I'm glad that the recipe called for butter instead of vegetable oil... I know butter's not all that healthy but I think it really makes muffins taste great. =P

Yes, halving the recipe meant I needed to use only half an egg. In order to get the proportions right, I measured in grams what the egg white and yolk weighed (50g) and poured out half of it to use for another recipe. Oh yah, remember not to mix the wet and dry ingredients too much... it's like banana bread in that mixing it too much will cause it to go rubbery and hard.

Ingredients (makes about 6 muffins):
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/3 cup sugar
1/4 + 1/8 tsp baking powder
1/4 + 1/8 tsp teaspoon baking soda
1/8 tsp salt
1/2 egg
1/2 cup sour cream
35g butter, melted
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 + 1/8 cup semisweet chocolate chips

Method:

1. In a large bowl, combine the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt.
2. In a separate bowl, combine the egg, sour cream, butter and vanilla.
3. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients just until moistened.
4. Fold in chocolate chips.
5. Fill greased or paper-lined muffin cups three-fourths full.
6. Bake at 350°C for 18-20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean.
7.  Cool for 5 minutes before removing from pan to a wire rack.

Buttermilk Scones

I don't know what came over me, but I suddenly wanted to bake… and a box of pre-mix just wouldn't do (I have a few of those at home). Then one word came out to me out of the blue… scones!  It didn't look too difficult to make and I actually had all the ingredients except for buttermilk (which I substituted with whole milk and white vinegar).  Unfortunately, I had a brain freeze and instead of reading 150g of buttermilk in the recipe, I read 1.5 cups of buttermilk.  So I made too much buttermilk and now I'll be making more scones later this week so that I don't waste it. =P

The recipe that I used came from my favourite baking blog and the blogger actually had a lot of useful tips to ensure that a nice, fluffy scone came out. Like usual, I made my own modifications to the receipe which included cutting down on the sugar and adding in some chocolate chips to half of the dough and dried cranberries to the rest. Also, I didn't have a scone cutter, so I just shaped it into round circles.

I'm quite happy with the results, though I wish it was a bit more buttery and fluffy (I must have mixed the dough too much or something). Anyway I'm excited to try some more adjustments to the next batch that I make. Stay tuned… 

Ingredients:
200g self-raising flour
1/4 tsp salt
2 tbsp sugar
50g cold butter cut into small pieces
150mL buttermilk
Some milk for glacing
Some chocolate chips and/or dried cranberries

Method:

1. Make the buttermilk (for 1 cup of buttermilk, take 1 tbsp of white vinegar and mix with a little less than 1 cup of whole milk).
2. Sieve flour 3 times into a big mixing bowl, stir in the salt. Rub in the butter till crumb-like (do not over do this part). Stir in the sugar.
3. Make a well in the middle of the flour mixture, pour in the buttermilk, holding back a little just in case it is too much. Stir to mix with a pair of chopsticks. Dough should be sticky.
4. Turn dough out onto a lightly floured working surface. Pat dough into 2cm thick. When working on this, if dough is too dry, add in the buttermilk which is on hold from (3).
5. Add the chocolate chips and/or dried cranberries as appropriate.
6. Cut dough with 5.5cm floured cutter. Pressed cutter firmly onto dough and do not twist or turn the cutter. If you don't have a cutter than just shape the dough into a round circle.
7. Glaze the surface of each scone with some milk.
8. Bake on a lined tray in a preheated oven at 220 - 225C for 13 - 15 minutes.

Trader Joe's Brownie

When I went back home to Toronto for my brother's wedding last year, I got to catch up with a number of relatives who I hadn't seen in years. One of them was my cousin Jen who knew I liked baking and bought some Trader Joe's Brownie Truffle Baking Mix from the US. I guess it's a popular brand in the US, but I've never heard of Trader Joe's before this.

OMG... this is the most amazing brownie that I have ever had. It's a very rich brownie, but not in the least bit heavy... and there are these small chunks of chocolate that just *melt* in your mouth. Yum! It'll be hard pressed to find something like that around here... hmmm... anyone going to the US any time soon? Heehee...

Strawberry Jam-Filled Muffins

So in an earlier post, I wanted to make these jam-filled muffins but the freeze dried jam I used ended up melting away.  So this time I tried using real jam in the muffins and they turned out… even worse… =P  Actually this time around, the problem wasn't with the jam… especially since I used the precious homemade strawberry jam that my mom made for me.  The problem was with the recipe I used… the muffins themselves ended up tasteless and hard…

I didn't feel right serving these hockey pucks to people… so I took some to work for my breakfast and then tossed the rest away.  But even then, I couldn't make myself finish eating those things. When I threw the last muffin in the garbage bin at the office, it actually made a loud CLANG sound when it hit the bottom of the bin.  Wow… maybe I shouldn't have ate them after all…

Just in case you're wondering… I got the idea to make these jam-filled muffins from Tim Horton's fruit explosion muffins.  I practically lived off those muffins in my uni days… and I didn't realize how difficult they were to make!  I've still included the recipe that I used below… maybe someone out there will want to make some rocks. =P

Ingredients:
2 cups unsifted plain flour
3 tbsp sugar
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 cup butter
1 cup buttermilk
1 egg, lightly beaten
1/4 cup strawberry jam

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 375°F.
2. In a large bowl, mix together the flour, sugar, baking soda, and salt.
3. Melt the butter in a small saucepan over moderate heat.
4. Combine in a small bowl with the buttermilk, then beat in the egg with a fork.
5. Add the mixture to the dry ingredients, stirring only enough to moisten.
6. Spoon half the batter evenly into the muffin cups.
7. With the back of a spoon, make a shallow indentation in the batter in each muffin cup, then spoon 1 teaspoon jam into each one.
8. Top with the remaining batter, spreading to cover the filling.
9. Bake the muffins for 20 to 25 minutes or until golden brown.