Muffins with Whole Wheat Flour and Corn Flour

Saturday, May 22, 2010 - 



Last weekend I made an experiment mixing two types of flour: whole wheat flour and corn flour. The result was tasty, but very dry. The muffins looked like made of sand, crumbling into parts whenever I pressed them or tried to insert a fork. Perhaps I had to add more liquid - milk for example? Anyhow, here are the ingredients: whole wheat flour (1 cup), corn flour (1 cup), brown sugar (1/2 cup), 2 beaten eggs, olive oil (1/4 cup), 1 mashed banana, dry grapes (1/2 cup), baking powder (1 tablespoon), a bit of salt and vanilla extract. For topping I used either dark chocolate or coconut powder.

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Muffins with Almonds and Dry Grapes

Friday, May 07, 2010 -

This week I made muffins with "Crema de Orujo". Orujo is a liquor obtained from the distillation of the pomace (solid remains left after pressing) of the grape. It is a popular beverage in the northwest part of Spain, especially in Galicia. Orujo cream is a sweet liquor, of light colour and about 15%-20% of alcohol. I mixed the following: first dry ingredients in a large bowl (2 cups of white all purpose flour, 1/2 cup of sugar, 1/4 of almonds, 1/4 cup of dry grapes, 2 1/2 teaspoons of baking powder and a bit of salt (1/4 teaspoon). In another bowl, I beat 2 eggs, then added 2 tablespoons of orujo liquor, 3/4 of olive oil, 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract, and combined egg mixture well. Finally, I mixed all the ingredients, adding a bit of water until moistened. There was enough batter for 7 to 8 muffins. As usual, muffins were baked in preheated oven for about 35 minutes. The muffins were not too sweet, as I put just 1/4 cup of sugar. The taste was similar to sweet bread, or perhaps to German "rosinen Brötchen".

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Simple muffins with azahar aroma and grated orange peel

Tuesday  27/04/2010 - 

 

This weekend I made basic muffins, but with special taste. The most important ingredient was azahar aroma (made from orange and lemon blossom); usually used when preparing cakes in Moroccan style. In addition, I added grated orange peel too.

The recipe is simple: 2 cups of flour (I mixed 1 1/2 cup of all-purpose flour with 1/2 cup of whole grain flour), 3/4 cup of brown sugar, 1 tablespoon of baking powder, a bit of salt, two beaten eggs, mixed with azahar aroma, vanilla extract, 1/2 cup of yogurt, grated orange peel and 2 tablespoons of vegetable oil. Once all ingredients were mixed, I added a bit of milk (about 2 or 3 tablespoons), because the batter was too dry. There was enough batter for 7 medium size muffins. Bake for about half an hour, in preheated oven.

Here you can see these delicious muffins - decorated and ready to be served.

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Apple muffins with orange juice

Wednesday  21/04/2010 - 



Hi ! This is my second muffin adventure. This time I wanted to make some fruit muffins. The choice was apple muffins with oranges and orange juice. Let play with a bit acid taste. You can see the ingredients that I used on the first photo: flour, sugar, eggs, vegetable oil, orange, orange juice, apple, orange peel, vanilla extract, baking powder and soda. This time I took white flour, thinking that whole wheat flour would give muffins perhaps some other taste. I wanted to taste just oranges. Here is the muffins recipe: First, I prepared orange rind, peel the orange and mash it together with one apple, making puree. Then, I beat slightly two eggs, mixing them with fruit puree, 3 tablespoons of sugar, 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract, 1/2 cup of orange juice and 1/4 cup of vegetable oil. In another larger bowl I combined dry ingredients: 2 and 1/2 cups of white flour, 2 teaspoons of baking powder and 1 teaspoon of baking soda. Next step was combining all ingredients, stirring until moistened. There was enough muffin batter to fill 9 medium muffin cups. I had to bake them a bit more than 30 minutes (I use gas oven - perhaps temperature was just moderate). Muffins grew well, the shape was OK. When still warm, the taste was a bit bitter, because there were still some warm parts of oranges inside. I did not put a lot of sugar, as I did not want them too sweet. Once cooled, muffins lost bitterness, but turned out to be a bit juicy or perhaps even jelly. It seems that I had to put more baking powder or less liquid - no idea. Nevertheless, muffins disappeared in a couple of hours.

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Oatmeal muffins with apples and hazel nuts

Sunday 18/04/2010

Today I did my first muffin experiment. After reading tens of muffin recipes on the web, I have realized that the secret is just in mixing the ingredients which you like. OK, there is a basic procedure (such as combining dry ingredients separately, preheating the oven, etc.), but in fact everything is very simple - just prepare the batter containing everything you want to put in and bake it.

I decided to try making oatmeal muffins with apples and hazel nuts.

First I chopped 1/2 cup of hazel nuts - actually, I mashed them using mortar and pestle. Then, I covered 1 cup of oatmeal and several diet cookies (high in fiber / low in sugar) with 1 cup of milk and set it aside to soften. In the meantime, I turned on the oven (run by gas) in order to preheat it. The next step was preparing muffin cups. I used some metal cups for flan, because I did not find any muffin cups in the shop. OK, there were selling also some cups made of heat-resistant plastic, but I do not dare putting them into the oven. The cups were greased by olive oil and then slightly floured.

Now, I prepared separately dry mixture in a medium bowl, mixing first whole wheat flour (1 cup) with baking powder (1 teaspoon) and baking soda (1 teaspoon). I thought that one cup of flour would be enough, but later I had to add half a cup more to the final batter, as it seemed to be too wet. Next was adding and combining chopped hazel nuts (1/2 cup). In continuation, I took the third bowl and mashed two apples, adding 1/4 cup of honey, 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract and two slightly beaten eggs, and combining well.

The final step was blending all three mixtures, stirring until moistened. At that moment, I realized that I had forgotten to put in oil! So, I add also 1/4 cup of olive oil, but then the batter seemed to be too wet. I poured in additional 1/2 cup of wheat (as indicated before). There was enough mass to fill 11 muffin cups (3/4 full) - cups of medium size. I decorated each one putting one hazel nut on tops. Muffins were baked for about 35 to 40 minutes until browned. Twice, I checked if muffins were ready by inserting a fork into the center of one of them, looking if it comes out clean.

As you can see from the photos, this experiment was very successful. Muffins were quite tasty, neither too sweet nor dry, and very rich.

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Muffin Recipes

Hi ! I am Igor, living in sunny Alicante on Costa Blanca, in Spain. I like eating all kinds of desserts, among them muffins too. This blog is my space where I could share my ideas and experiences from baking muffins, exchange muffin recipes and get some useful cooking tips.

My plan is to read about variety of muffins recipes offered on the Web and try create my own combinations. Each weekend, I will bake some muffins, experimenting with the ingredients, posting photos, recipe for muffins and other comments.

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