red currant muffins

         
           I consider myself to be quite lucky as it comes to my family's food preferences: they like the simplest foods the most, maybe because of how little time it takes to make them. Especially my brother isn't one to find joy in awaiting treats, and these muffins, photos of which I just stumbled upon, are, I believe, his favourite. They look so extremely plain that it might be difficult to want to make them, but it's worth a try.\

          They are really super easy and super simple to make, and if you don't have to collect the currants before, you don't need more than 10 minutes to make them (plus baking time). They don't grow, and are very buttery; to me, they taste like a cake we used to eat when we went to the seaside before my brother started school. Currants could be swapped for anything, maybe even nuts (I'll try that sometime soon and report on the results), but here in Italy, you can still buy fresh currants, so maybe you can get them in other places, too. 

Red currant muffins:

(makes 12, based on Nigel Slater's recipe)

Ingredients:

125 g flour

125 g sugar (I used brown sugar)

125 g soft butter

3/4 teaspoon baking powder

2 eggs 

125 g red currants (or any other berries)

Preheat the oven to 200C. Line a muffin tin with paper muffin cups.

Put all the ingredients but fruit in a bowl, mix until smooth. If the batter is stiff, you can add a spoonful or two of milk (I never do that).

Using a spoon, mix in the currants.

Divide the batter between cups evenly. You can sprinkle brown sugar on top to get a crust, which I didn't do  with the photographed batch but I do at other times.

Bake for 20-25 minutes, checking doneness with a toothpick before turning the oven off.

gingerbread cookies

/royal icing and crunched mint candy cookie/

 

Gingerbread cookies

(from Martha Stewart) 

Ingredients (makes about 80 5-cm cookies)

• 6 cups all purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt 
• 5 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 5 teaspoons ground ginger
• 2 teaspoons ground cloves
• 1 1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
• 230 g unsalted butter, at room temperature
• 1 brown sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract or 1 tablespoon vanilla sugar
• 1 cup molasses

Directions:

1.  Sift together flour, baking soda and baking powder.

2.  Put butter and sugar in a bowl, mix until fluffy. Add all of the spices and salt, mix until combined. Add molasses and eggs, whisk until combined. 

3. Add the flour mixture, adding three times. The dough will be very dense so you may want to work with your hands instead of a whisk at this point.

4. Preheat the oven to 180*C. Line baking sheets with parchment paper. 

5. Roll out the dough until about 5 mm thick. Using a cookie cutter or a round glass, cut cookies. Collect the remaing dough and roll out again, repeat until all of the dough is used. 

6. Bake for 10-12 minutes, let cool. The cookies will be soft straight out of the oven.
 

/red sugar cookie/

You can dust warm cookies with confectioners' sugar, it will stick to the cookies as they cool. You can also ice them and dust with any kind of sprinkles. I used crunched mint candy and red sugar. Here is the recipe for icing:

Ingredients (makes enough for 80 5-cm cookies)

• 1 egg white
• 300 g confectioners' sugar
• 4 tablespoons water or lemon juice
• food coloring, if desired. 

Directions:

1.  Whisk sugar and egg white until very thick and opaque. It should take about 3 minutes.

2. Gradually add the juice or water. Check the texture after each addition, don't continue if it spreads nicely.

3. Add coloring. Decorate cookies as you wish!
 

 

/snowflake cookie/

 

/more cookies!/

white chocolate pomegranate cookies

As the days become shorter and colder, I find kitchen to be more comforting than ever, and baking becomes therapeutic. The more work there is to be done for school, the more time I spend looking for great recipes. It just feels more important, not to mention more pleasurable. Cookies are great when I have a lot of other duties to fullfill, because they are so little work. The ones with pomegranate took a teeny more effort, but they look so festive and taste really nice, too, that it was definately worth it.

Btw, the Two Peas and Their Pod is an amazing, inspiring blog, and their photos of cookies make me feel so bad about mine. I always have a hard time taking shots of these.

Whie chocolate pomegranate cookies:

(adapted from Two Peas and Their Pod) 

Ingredients (makes about 24 cookies)

• 1 1/4 cup all purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
• 1/2 cup light brown sugar
• 1/4 cup white sugar
• 1  egg
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract or 1 tablespoon vanilla sugar
• 1 cup oats/wheat bran
• 100 g white chocolate, cut into chunks
• arils of 1 pomegranate

Directions:
1. Preheat the oven to 190*C. Line two flat tins with baking parchment.

2. Mix flour, baking powder, soda and salt in a bowl.
3. Whisk the butter with both sugars until very light and fluffy, about 3-5 minutes. 
4. Add vanilla extract and the egg, beat until combined. 
5. Add dry ingredients in the addings. The dough will be stiff, so you may want to stop using mixer at this point.
6. Mix in the oats/bran alongside with the chocolate chunks. 
7. Make dough balls using a tablespoon, adding 8-10 arils of pomegranate to each ball. 
8. Bake for 10-12 minutes, until golden brown. Straight out of the oven, the cookies will be soft. They will become cripsy as they cool down. You can put them on the rack after 15 minutes. 

chocolate cookies and honey and spices cookies

These are really easy to make, the recipes are super simple! The dough can be prepared in 5 minutes if you prepare the butter earlier - it has to be soft! The chocolate cookies are rather cruchy and not really sweet. The honey ones are soft in the middle and rather flat - due to the honey added, it makes the cookies soft and moist, if you can call a cookie moist!

Chocolate cookies:

(adapted from www.marthastewart.com) 

Ingredients (makes 24 cookies, more or less)

• 150g plain flour (1 cup)
• 30g cooca powder (4 tablespoon)
• 250g brown sugar, 70 g caster sugar (1 cup total)
• 1/3 teaspoon baking soda
• 110g butter
• 1/2 teaspon salt
• 1 egg
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions:
Preheat the oven to 175*C.

Line a flat tin with baking paper.
Mix butter and both sugars until uniform and fluffy. Beat in the egg, add vanilla and salt. Mix until well-combined. Sift cocoa, flour and soda to the mixture. Mix until just combined. 
Make balls of dough of 1 tablespoon each.
Bake for 10-12 minutes, depending on how crisp you want the cookies.

 

Honey and spices cookies

(heavily adapted from www.marthastewart.com) 

Ingredients (makes 24 cookies, more or less)

• 150g plain flour (1 cup)
  
• 1/2 teaspoon ginger
• 1 teaspoon nutmeg
• 1-2 teaspoon cinnamon
• 2-3 tablespoon honey
  
• 250g brown sugar, (2/3 cup)
• 1/3 teaspoon baking soda
• 110g butter
  
• 1/2 teaspon salt
• 1 egg
  

Directions:
Preheat the oven to 175*C.

Line a flat tin with baking paper.

Mix butter and both sugars until uniform and fluffy. Beat in the egg, add vanilla and salt. Mix until well-combined. Sift all the spices, flour and soda to the mixture. Mix until just combined. 
Make balls of dough of 1 tablespoon each.
Bake for 10-12 minutes, depending on how crisp you want the cookies.

chocolate cupcakes with peanut butter frosting

I had this real need to bake these cupcakes ever since I found the recipe - which was yesterday. My family normally loves peanut butter and a chocolate cake, so I though it would be great!

But my brother and dad both declared that they are trying to cut down on fats and sugar,

and my mom was perfectly happy eating the unfrosted cupcake. Which is kind of bad, because now I have an excuse to eat them all.

They came out lovely. The cake is soft and moist, and the frosting isn't too sweet - there is something salty to it from the peanuts, which is great.

Chocolate cupcakes with peanut butter frosting:

(adapted from www.browneyedbaker.com) 

Cupcakes:

Ingredients (makes 12 muffins)

• 100 g butter
• 55g dark chocolate
• 40g Dutch-processed cocoa powder
• 100g plain flour 
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon baking powder 
• 1/2 teaspon salt
• 2 eggs
• 150g caster sugar
• 1/2 pocket vanilla sugar
• 110g sour cream 

Directions:
Preheat the oven to 180*C.

Line a muffin tin with paper cups.
Put butter, chocolate and cocoa powder in a bowl, place the bowl over a pan with simmering water. Heat, mixing, until completely combined. Set aside to cool for 15 minutes.
Now, whisk flour, baking soda, salt and baking powder in a small bowl. 
Take a yet another bowl, whisk eggs until combined. Than, add both sugars and a pinch of salt. Whisk, until you get an almost white, fluffy mixture. This should take about 5 minutes. Add cooled chocolate and whisk carefully. Now, sift in 1/3 of the dry ingredients. Whisk quicky. Add the sour cream, whisk it in. Add the rest of the flour and mix until the batter is thick.
Divide the batter among muffin paper cups. Bake for 20-25 minutes. You may want to rotate the tin after 15 minutes.
Cool the cupcakes for an hour before frosting.

Peanut butter frosting:
Ingredients (makes enough for 12 muffins + surplus for enjoying on its own. Or you can just frost with more than I did)

• 3/4 cup well-sifted confectioners' sugar
• 3/4 cup creamy peanut butter
• 4 tablespoons soft butter (unsalted)
• 3-4 drops of vanilla extract
• 1/4 tablespoons salt (but you may want to taste the peanut butter - they come quite salty sometimes)
• 1/3 +  3 tablespoons cup heavy cream 

Directions:
Mix everything but the heavy cream until smooth and well combined. This should take about 5 minutes. The longer you whisk, the smoother the frosting gets. Scrape down at least once. When the frosting is satisfyingly smooth, add heavy cream and whisk for another 2 minutes.
Frost the cupcakes in whatever way pleases you: I find using spatula (or a knife) the easiest. Piping isn't quite my thing (yet!). Sprinkle with specks of chocolate and dust with some cocoa powder.


Keep refrigarated, or eat right away.

peach muffins

Since I had little time at the end of schoolyear, I haven't posted a recipe in a long time now. I made cupcakes last night (they didn't make it to the morning, so I couldn't take photos), and thus reminded myself about a recipe that I wanted to post a while ago. 

These muffins are my family's favorite. They all seem to fall for the combination of soft fruit and crunchy top of the muffin, which is a great alternative to any frosting, and compliments the taste of this treat, which contains oat flakes for texture (it fights morning hunger as well!). And these muffins always come out perfect. I have changed the recipe slightly. It was originally posted here. It calls for can peaches and syrup, but you can also use fresh peaches and increase amount of both oil and buttermilk by 40 ml.

Peach muffins:

Ingredients (makes 12 muffins)

• 1 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 3/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 2/3 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup oat flakes
• 1 large egg
• 100 ml buttermilk
• 80 ml peach syrup from the can       
• 1/2 cup oil      
• 250 g can peaches (about 5 halves)

For the crunchy top:

·         Brown sugar

·         Almond flakes

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 190*C.

Mix dry ingredients: flour, baking powder and soda, sugar, oat flakes, in one bowl. Mix liquid ingredients: buttermilk, oil, egg, syrup, in a second bowl. Add the dry mix to the liquid mixture, mix until just combined. Add diced peaches.

Line the muffin tin with cupcakes lining paper. Divide the batter evenly into cups of the tin, filling to more than 3/4 of it. Sprinkle with  almond flakes and brown sugar so that there is no batter visible.

Bake for 25 minutes. Test with a toothpick before you turn the oven off!

Home made twix squares

I often feel like baking, and it's very therapeutic to me. After a hectic day at school, no matter if I need to do tons of work for the next day, I make a cake. I have a very long list of things I want to give a try in my kitchen, but sometimes I find a recipe that needs to be done straight away. The home made Twix bars from Not Without Salt had to be prepared as soon as I got home!

For the shortbread, I followed the recipe carefully. I enjoyed the crips effect that ground rice left - my family on the other hand hated it. My dad would just cut it off and eat caramel with chocolate. If I make this again, I will definitely skip the rice because I prefer when other people eat the super high in sugar and fat goods that I make :) The caramel seemed too much of work for a Friday night, so I just melted toffee candies which I got at store and added some salt. For chocolate glaze, I used half milk and half bitter chocolate to balance the sweetness.

The caramel had to set overnight. I cut my twix into 1-inch squares, because I though they would look prettier that way. My mom requested smaller pieces. Also, I am no good at cutting in straight lines. It was easier to eat them in this shorter shape, since they crush and leave a lot of crumps. On the photo below, there is one bar I wrapped in paper.

A lemon pound cake is in the oven right now. I really wanted to have a piece for a while now, and I took a long break in studying to make that cake. I really hope it will come out good!