Oats Undetected, Yeay!

This is one muffin that makes the cut as a healthy breakfast muffin.  Quite a loadful of healthy ingredients in there with fruits, nuts, wholemeal flour and rolled oats to help start the day on the right note.  Whenever i try out new recipes with oats, apart from excitement about the taste, i can't wait to know if it slipped by undetected by son ;-)

Although the recipe calls for wholemeal flour and rolled oats, it still turned out soft and moist.  And i am assuming it did slip by undetected because the only complaint my son had was too much nuts on top which he doesn't care much about too.  So, mums if you are also into oats hiding, you could give this recipe a try :)

This muffin also ended up with sweetness that was just nice for us after reducing 25g of sugar from the original recipe.  I think apples would work equally well for this recipe. 

Recipe

Reference: Smitten Kitchen who adapted from Whole Grain Mornings by Megan Gordon

Ingredients

• 2 small medium size pears (1 medium size Korean pear)
• 85 grams unsalted butter, melted and cooled slightly
• 125g natural cane sugar, such as Turbinado, light brown or granulated sugar (100g)
• 1 cup (240 ml) buttermilk (1 tbsp lemon juice plus milk to make up 240ml left aside for 5 minutes)
• 2 large eggs, lightly beaten
• 1 to 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 3/4 cup (75 grams) rolled oats
• 1 cup (125 grams) all-purpose flour
• 1/2 cup (60 grams) whole wheat flour
• 3/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon 
• 1/4 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg (1/2 tsp mixed spice)
• 3/4 teaspoon kosher salt (1/2 tsp)
• 1 cup (120 grams) toasted hazelnuts, coarsely chopped (100g pecans)
• 1/2 cup (85 grams) bittersweet chocolate chunks (optional) (80g)

Method

1. Heat oven to 425°F (215°C).  Butter a standard 12-cup muffin tin or line it with papers.
2. Peel and grate pear finely.  Use 1- 1 1/4 cups of it. Stir in melted butter, sugar, buttermilk, eggs and vanilla until combined.
3. In a separate bowl, stir together the oats, flours, baking soda, baking powder, spices, salt, all but 1/2 cup coarsely chopped hazelnuts, and chocolate chunks (if using). 
4. Gently fold this dry ingredient mixture into the wet batter until just combined; do not overmix.
5. Fill muffin cups almost up to the top and sprinkle with the reserved 1/2 cup hazelnuts. 
6. Place muffins in oven and immediately reduce the heat to 375°F (190°C). Bake for 20 to 25 minutes, or until the tops are golden brown and a toothpick inserted into the center of muffins comes out batter-free.
7. Cool muffins in pans for 10 minutes, then transfer to a cooling rack. 

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Just Applelicious

Serving 2 applelicious treats in this post.  As they say an apple a day, keeps the doctor away, so 2 apples a day, keeps the doctor far far away?  Pretty sure most of us won't miss the doctor :)

I love the smell of freshly baked apple treats as almost always they come coupled with sweet smelling cinnamon and that by itself is good enough to perk me up.  I am already on cloud nine when my kitchen is filled with its aroma :)

These muffins were really good.  Super soft and moist, definitely above my expectations for muffins and on top of that it was wholewheat!  Smitten Kitchen (where the recipe was spotted) described it as crazy moist, so go figure!  They are easy to whip up and stores quite well too. A little reheating  is all it needs if you have extras to freeze that is.

Note : The recipe below is for half the recipe and it gave me 7 muffins. I have also reduced the sugar and omitted granulated sugar.   Hit the source for the original recipe.

Recipe
Wholewheat Apple Muffins
Source : Smitten Kitchen who adapted from King Arthur Flour

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup whole wheat flour
• 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/8 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 tablespoon cinnamon
• 55g unsalted butter, at room temperature 
• 1/3 cup dark brown sugar, packed, divided 
• 1/2 a large egg, lightly beaten
• 1/2 cup buttermilk or yogurt (1tbsp lemon juice with fresh milk to make 1/2 cup and put aside for 5 minutes)
• 1 large apple, peeled, cored, and coarsely chopped

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 450°F. Grease and flour 18 muffin cups and set aside. (I used 210C and paper liners.   Although 450 converts to 232, i find it rather high and was worried it will make the muffins dry)
2. Mix together the flours, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon, and set aside. 
3. In a separate bowl, cream the butter and add half the amount of brown sugar. Beat until fluffy. Add the egg and mix well; stop once to scrape the sides and bottom of the bowl.Mix in the buttermilk gently. (If you over-mix, the buttermilk will cause the mixture to curdle.) Stir in the dry ingredients and fold in the apple chunks.
4. Divide the batter evenly among the prepared muffin cups, sprinkling the remaining cup brown sugar on top. Bake for 10 minutes, turn the heat down to 400°F (I turned down to 190C), and bake for an additional 5 to 10 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of a muffin comes out clean. 
5. Cool the muffins for 5 minutes in the tin, then turn them out onto a wire rack to cool completely.

Don't like muffins? Or have room for more? How about this one?  This is another wonderful applecious treat.  Can't be more appley than apple looking buns with apple chunks and jam for fillings :)) These look cute don't they? I love the idea of using cinnamon stick as the stems, besides looking cute, it gave the buns an added cinnamony fragrance.    It was their cute appearance here that caught my interest.  I think they look more like apples from the top than the front.  From the front, they can pass off as mushrooms instead!  I should have used lesser dough to get a better apple shape, this one is a little heavy at the top.  I will also do away with the 'stem' and the 'leave' and put in a mushroom filling to make them mushroom buns, the next time :)

I used a simple straight method bread dough but this recipe is a keeper.  The buns are soft (not as soft as the more sophisticated methods like tang zhong or those with starter doughs) but they are good enough (especially if you are feeling lazy or short of time).    I will let the photo below speak for itself... 

As for the fillings, i spooned in a big heaped tablespoon of my apple jam and added some apple chunks and a small piece of cheddar cheese. 

Recipe
Apple Buns
Source : Bread Magic by Alan Ooi for bread dough

Ingredients

Bread Dough

Part A

• 300g high protein flour
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 1/2 tbsp milk powder
• 50g sugar

Part B

• 125ml water
• 1 1/2 tsp instant yeast
• 1 medium size egg (1 used 2/3 of a large egg and left 1/3 for glazing)

Part C

• 40g butter

Part D (for glazing)

• Mix 2 tablespoon fresh milk with 1/3 egg from Part B (I like using this as the glaze, it's not too glossy when egg is used solely or too matte and browns easily when only milk is used) 

Filling

• Apple Jam (recipe here)
• 1 medium size apple, peeled, cored, and coarsely chopped
• 1 slice of cheddar cheese, cut into small rectangular pieces

Method

1. Combine ingredient A in a mixer and mix well.  Add in ingredient B and beat till a dough is formed.  Add in ingredient C and beat till dough is smooth and elastic to touch.
2. Leave dough in a big bowl, covered with a damp cloth.
3. Let it rise in a warm place until double the size.
4. Divide dough into 50g portions. (Will reduce to 40g the next time around)
5. Flatten dough then wrap with some filling starting with 1 piece of cheese followed with 1 heaped tablespoon of jam and lastly some apple chunks. It's easier to wrap if it's not too full. 
6. Arrange on greased tray if not using paper liners.
7. Cover and rest buns until double the size again.
8. Glaze with Part D, decorate with cinnamon stick and almond flake.
9. Bake in a preheated oven at 180C for 15-17 minutes until golden brown.

Note: I combine all the ingredients and let my breadmaker handle steps 1-3.

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Morning Glories

Morning Glories? Yes, u heard me correctly, and most probably the first thought that would come to your mind would be "isn't that a flower?"  That was what came to my mind too, the simple but pretty  flower that comes in striking shades of pink, blue and purple.  Until I got to know that there's a muffin that is known as Morning Glory muffins too.  when I came across them here while looking for something quick and easy plus healthy for breakfast.  Looking at the list of ingredients,having one of them for breakfast would indeed make a glorious start to any mornings.  Wonder if that's how it got its name.  Strangely I couldn't find much about its origin (how it got its name and where did the recipe came from) although it is quite popular.

There's a lot of goodness in these muffins, to start off,  there's whole wheat flour, wheat germ,  loads of fruits (carrots, apples, shredded coconut, orange juice) seeds and nuts too.

Made some variations (used whatever I had in my kitchen).

• Shredded coconuts ~ nutmeg strips
• walnuts ~ Almonds 
• Whole wheat flour ~ Cake Flour
• 1 cup sugar ~ 3/4 cup
• Wheat germ and Sunflower Seed instead of Wheat germ or Sunflower Seed

Verdict?? Glorious Indeed! It's a pity I was too lazy to use an ice-cream scoop to scoop the batter into the cases, so it's a rather flat top :(

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All my Love with a scoop of Mocha Ice Cream?

Literally lovely breakfast it was that morning, a heart shaped muffin (yup, it's a muffin not cake) topped with a scope of mocha ice-cream!  Imagine coming down to a table which has been beautifully set with this or even being served in bed (in my case, i will have to be the one serving and not the one being served unfortunately), romantic huh?  

The idea came from my little one, he was helping me in the kitchen when i made this.  I asked him to help me get some muffin cups, he came back with this heart shaped mini cake pan and suggested using them, reason being it's more environmental friendly, no wastage of the paper cups.  I wasn't too sure about baking muffins in cake pans, never done it before.  I thought it would not go terribly wrong, at the most it won't rise up so much  From the way it turned out, it doesn't look bad, does it?

This was also a healthy treat, orange blueberry yoghurt muffin.   Nice fruity flavour and with the addition of yoghurt it was soft and moist, topping it with some ice-cream (also little one's idea) made it even more delish!  

Give it a shot, it's simple, all you need to do is a simple mixing of wet and dry ingredients.  No beating required as the recipe uses oil.  All done within 45 minutes (includng baking time) and i bet it will touched the hearts of the ones being served :)

Orange Blueberry Yoghurt Muffins
Recipe
Source : Anncoo Journal  (adapted from Food for Tots)
Note : My variation in blue, i like it a little less sweeter, but you can stick to original, i think it won't be too sweet either)

• 250g Plain flour (cake flour)
• 3 tsp Baking powder
• pinch of salt
• 120g Castor sugar (100g)
• 2 Large eggs (at room temperature)
• 4 tbsp Fresh orange juice
• 2 tsp Orange Zest
• 180ml Extra light olive oil/sunflower oil (canola oil)
• 1 tsp Vanilla extract (1/2 tsp)
• 160g Greek yogurt or plain yogurt
• 125g Frozen bluerries (1 punnet) (fresh blueberries)

Method

1. Sieve flour and baking powder in a mixing bowl.  Add in sugar and salt.  Mix well.  Set aside.
2. In a separate bowl, lightly beat the eggs,  add in yoghurt, vanilla extract, orange juice, zest and oil gradually and mix until it just combined. Be careful not to overbeat the mixture. 
3. Add the wet mixture into the dry ingredients. Use a spatula, combine the ingredients with fold in method until they are well combined and no traces of flour. Stir in blueberries and mix well. Do not over-mix the batter. The batter should be thick ("spoonable" not "pourable").
4. Use a spoon to scoop batter into muffin cups until 80% full.
5. Bake at preheated oven 190C for 20-25 mins.

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Calling Coffee Lovers

If you are a coffee lover, I am 101% (possibly higher) sure you would love this! By far, this is the best coffee muffin that I've ever had.  Try it out, no regrets guaranteed, yes that's how confident I am of this one :)

The muffins turned out pretty, with a nice dome (2 different types, 1 rounded while the other was pointed, read on to know why) and the crust at the top layer was fine but crisp to the effect of melt in the mouth.  The muffin was very soft and moist, bursting with coffee aroma to please the coffee addict that I am.  It was that good! I am so happy I found this recipe.  Credits to Helen, the owner of the recipe  who  mentioned it took her some effort to fine tune the recipe to perfection.

I made 2 variations with the batter.  The ones in green with white polka dots muffin case had a teaspoon of Kaya in them (I got the idea from Happy Home Baking, something that I came across sometime ago but could never forget) while the pink with red polka dots ones had cranberries plus a little brown sugar as toppings.  I thought the adding of Kaya was a very creative idea (think having coffee with a piece of toast with kaya (coconut milk) spread, yummy right?)  They are both delightful.

The little patch in the centre is the Kaya spread.

Recipe 
Source : Eepoh.com

* Notes : My variations in red

• 100g butter
• 50g castor sugar (70g brown sugar)
• 50g icing sugar (30g icing sugar)
• 2 medium eggs (1 1/2 extra large eggs - the only type I have at home)
• 80g yogurt
• 1 tbsp whipping cream (optional.. but then the muffin texture is better if added)
• 135g all-purpose flour (Cake Flour)
• 1/4  tsp baking soda (not baking powder)
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1 - 2 tsp cinnammon (3/4 tsp, afraid it would overshadow the coffee aroma)
• 1 tsp vanilla essence
• 1 tsp butter essence (omitted)
• 1 to 1 1/4  tbsp instant coffee (I use Nescafe Classic) mix with 1 tbsp hot water. 

Steps

1. Beat butter and sugar until light and fluffy.
2. Gradually add the eggs, vanilla/butter essence and coffee mixture. Beat mixture to combine well.
3. Sieve flour, baking soda, cinnamon and salt.
4. Add half the flour mixture into butter-egg mixture. Fold in.
5. Add yogurt and whipping cream. Fold in.
6. Add the remaining flour mixture and fold in.
7. Spoon mixture into muffin cups and bake in preheated oven at 180C for 25 mins (baked at 200C, anything lesser doesn't give me a bloom, probably happens to my oven only).

If you like to try them with some Kaya, fill the cup with half the batter, put in a teaspoon of kaya and continue to fill up the cup.

For cranberry toppings, scatter some dried cranberries on top followed with a little brown sugar.

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Dragon's Eyes aka Longan Muffins

Dragon Eyes, the literal translation for the name of a small brown, juicy exotic fruit from the lands of Asia, known as Longan in Chinese.  It is so named because the fruit when shelled, resembles an eyeball (the black seed shows through the translucent flesh like a pupil/iris).  

The Chinese believe there is medicinal values in longans.  We eat them fresh and in dried form too.  In its freshest form, its flesh is sweet and juicy.  In its dried form, they are mostly used as ingredients and boiled to become  drinks, soups or desserts.  I thought the idea of using them in bakes was interesting.  The first time I came across them in bakes was when  Lavender Bakery introduced their Longan cupcake.   The longan aroma was prominent and it was slightly chewy.  I used to buy them for little one.   I searched around for a something similar and found a few.  I followed a longan muffin recipe.  The recipe looks pretty simple.  Just like any muffin recipe, it was mix wet ingredients with dry ones.

Verdict?

The batter was a little runny, which is quite unlike muffin batters that I am used to.  I was a little intimidated by the runny batter which saw me scrutinizing the recipe again to see if I got my measurements wrong, which I did not.  However, they rose well and was quite flavorful coming from the longan juice ( water used for soaking the longans) and the longan flesh.   I threw in some sunflower seeds to add an extra crunch.  I am not too sure if I did anything wrong but it was not up to my expectations.  There are spots which are dense, probably I overmixed it.  Gosh, I hate those air tunnels !!

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Muffins for Tots

Well, not all were tots, kids would be the better word but in short I made these for them when we visited them in a home together with a group of caring friends recently. Flavours decided based on previous readings on Little One's yummy-o-meter! I hope they got equally good readings on the kids' yummy-o-meters :)

So here we go, Nigela's Chocolate Chips Muffins and Strawberry Yoghurt Muffins.

Chocolate Chips Muffin
(Nigella's Lawson's recipe)
Source : Food Network.Com (But I followed the one in Small Small Baker's who has kindly converted it to metrics which I am more familiar with and the place where I fell for them)

Note : This one tastes heavenly and most importantly it is super easy to make.

Ingredients
250g plain flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
2 tbsp best quality cocoa powder (not sure what is best, just use 'in-house')
175g fine sugar
150g chocolate chips (save 1/4 of the chips for sprinkling)
250ml milk
90ml vegetable oil (canola/sunflower/corn)
1 large egg
1 tsp pure vanilla extract

Method

1. Preheat oven to 200C.
2. Put flour, baking powder, baking soda, cocoa, sugar, and 3/4 of the chocolate chips into a large bowl and mix well.
3. Pour all the liquid ingredients into a measuring jug and mix well.
4. Mix the dry and wet ingredients together with slow and gentle strokes. Stop stirring once the last traces of flour disappear. Do not overmix. A lumpy batter will ensure the muffins stay moist and fluffy.
5. Spoon the batter into paper muffin cases.
6. Sprinkle the remaining 1/4 chocolate chips on top and bake for 20 minutes or until the muffins are dark, risen and springy.

Strawberry Yoghurt Muffin

Inspired by : Nasi Lemak Lover (Instead of mangoes, I used strawberries. Secondly, I used a small portion of the sugar as sprinkles to create a snowy effect)

125g unsalted butter
150g cake flour
110g sugar
200g chopped fresh strawberries
100g yogurt (natural flavour)
2 eggs (medium)
1tsp baking powder
1/2tsp baking soda
1/4tsp salt

Method

1. Beat butter, salt and sugar till pale and creamy.
   
2. Add egg one at a time, mix well.
3. Sift in flour, baking powder and baking soda, add in yogurt, combine well
4. Add in chopped fruits and mix well lightly.
5. Spoon batter into a muffin cups, sprinkle some chopped fruits and a little sugar (taken from total amount of sugar).
6. Bake in preheated oven 200c for 20mins or till golden brown.

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Blueberry Mania - Antioxidant Overload

Recently, i noticed that the stores were carrying blueberries from Chile. They are pretty big and most importantly on the sweet side which were quite rare. On top of that, they were cheaper than the American ones. What a bonus, good time to overload on some antioxidants!

I even went to the extent of contemplating whether I should buy some extra boxes and freeze them for future use. I actually did some research on how to freeze them :). Apparently, all one needs to do is to wash and dry them before putting them in one flat layer and smaller single usage volumes for ease of use.

These two new bakes are the results of the blueberry hoarding.

1. Blueberry with Lemon Sugar Muffin

Blueberry muffins are common but to have them with lemon sugar toppings made them special. Added to that, the recipe called for yoghurt making them soft and light. They were really yummy. I made them twice, the second batch was for a friend. For the second batch, I added part of the lemon sugar in between to give the muffin a more overall lemon tang because i felt that having it on top wasn't good enough for me! Having them on top means one can only enjoy the lemon tang with every bite if you have a mouth which is big enough to make a bite from top to bottom! Besides that, I used slightly lesser sugar (5%) and also baked it at 200C. I am not sure if it's my oven temperature but I realised that anything lesser doesn't give my muffins a nice dome. I am glad to say that it got good review from my friend and his family. Yeay! The recipe is listed below for my friend who wants to try making it at home :)

Recipe

Source :Table for 2 or more

250gm cake/superfine flour (I used All Purpose Plain Flour)
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
200gm sugar (I used 190 gm)
1 heaped tsp lemon zest
125gm blueberries

2 eggs

80gm melted butter

200ml plain yoghurt

1. Preheat oven to 180/170C (I used 200C)

2. Sift flour with baking soda and baking powder.

3. Remove 2Tbsp of sugar and combine it with the lemon zest. Set aside.
4. Mix the balance of sugar with sifted flour. Set aside.
5. Lightly beat eggs and combine with melted butter and yoghurt.
6. Make a well in the centre of the flour mixture and pour in the eggs mixture.
7. Mix just to combine, never overmix.
8. Put in blueberries and stir lightly to mix only. Do not break the berries.
9. Spoon batter into muffin cups (approximately 12). Just make sure it's only 3/4 full . Top with some lemon sugar (3).
10. Bake for 20-25 minutes or until tester comes out clean.

Alternatively for step no. 9, you can fill half the muffin cup, put some lemon sugar in between before topping up with more batter and lemon sugar again.

2. Blueberry and Plum Yoghurt Cake


I gave in to this one because of the beautiful photos that I saw when i was reading the recipe for the muffins. Similar ingredients meant i won't have too much of leftovers lying in the fridge. There are many variations in terms of the choice of fruits that can be used for this cake. No nectarines lying around, I used plums instead. I was very happy when it turned out looking as nice as the ones I saw on fellow bloggers' blogs (Table for 2 or more and source). It actually lived up to expectation, pretty and tasty too! This time, a friend who tasted it asked me to make a whole cake for her because she couldn't get enough of it with the bit that I could spare :)

Recipe

Source : Piggy's Cooking Journal who adapted from 手のひらサイズのベイクドケーキ

144g butter, at room temperature
100g castor sugar
2 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
144g self-raising flour
2 tablespoon yoghurt
2 nectarines, cut into slices (I used plums for this time around)
Blueberries (Enough to go around )


1. Preheat oven to 180C. Grease 2 small loaf pans.
2. Cream butter and sugar until pale and fluffy.
3. Beat the egg into the batter, followed by vanilla extract. Mix until just combine.
4. Mix in yoghurt, follow by flour. Mix until the flour just disappear from the batter.
5. Pour batter into loaf pan. Arrange fruits on batter according to preference.
6. Bake for 35 minutes or until tester inserted turns out clean.
7. Remove from oven and cool cakes on wire rack.

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Pretty Blue Babies

I really like this one. It tasted so good and because it has a healthier element, it felt extra good to serve this to loved ones. Added to that it was an easy recipe making me want to share it so that you can try making it at home for your loved ones too. This recipe is worth a keep (thanks to Happy Home Baking) and will used it as a base for more variations .

What's so special? Instead of butter, the recipe called for vegetable oil. I used organic extra virgin olive oil. This is the first time I am using olive oil for muffins. I was very happy with the results. It was a lot less oilier for sure, making it very light, soft and fluffy too. I was really surprised by the difference between using olive oil and butter. There was a nice hint of freshly cut grass coming from the olive oil which blended well with the fragrance from the bananas and the occasional burst of blueberry juice from the fruits although slightly sourish was just right to balance of the entire sweetness.

The muffins rose up very well too, this is the first time I got such a nice dome for my muffins.

Try it out and let me know if it's worth your thumbs-up too!

Ingredients:
(makes 9 muffins)

210g plain flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 egg, lightly beaten
100g sugar
1/4 cup (60 ml) oil (I used extra virgin olive oil)
1 teaspoon vanilla essence
3 medium sized bananas, mashed (Pisang emas preferred for its fragrance and sweetness)
1 cup of blueberries (fresh or frozen)

Steps:

1. Mix and sift flour, baking powder, baking soda in a bowl. (Not sure if sifting it twice was the reason why it rose so nicely)
   
2. Toss blueberries with 1 or 2 teaspoon of the flour mixture in a sieve, and set aside. Coating the blueberries with flour helps to keep them from sinking to the bottom.
3. Beat egg and sugar until well blended and sugar granules looked slightly melted.
   
4. Add in oil, vanilla essence and mashed bananas. Mix until well blended.
5. Add in flour mixture to the wet ingredients. Stir lightly until blended. DO NOT over stir as it will make the muffins tough (Very important).
   
6. Fold in blueberries gently.
   
7. Fill muffin cups until almost full.
   
8. Bake in preheated oven at 200 degC for 20 to 25 mins.

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Chocolate! Chocolate!

This is indeed chocolate heaven! Cocoa powder and occasional burst of melted chocolate from the chocolate chips! As a bonus, there was mashed bananas mixed in plus a whole piece of banana wedge right in the centre. It is really delicious, good ratings from family members and friends whom i shared it with. Personally, I love it!

This recipe was courtesy of fellow blogger, Honey Bee Sweets. The way a piece of banana was hidden right in the centre was a very nice and creative breakaway from the entirely monotonous chocolate taste, something that was different, sweet, soft, moist and fragrant . The texture of the muffin itself is very soft and moist too. Best eaten warm for the hot, melting chocolate chip effect.

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Berrilicious

I never seem to get strawberries which are sweet. They are either sour or worst still, very sour. How I wish I could get hold of some big, sweet and juicy ones which I always see 'the faraway princess' eating...am sure they are sweet because she seems to be really enjoying them, without the slightest twitch on her face :)

As for me, some are bound to end up in the bin when they start turning mouldy after everyone hesitates to eat them. Quite a waste as they don't come cheap but I like buying them because they look so tempting with their bright red colour especially those with little leaves still intact giving a sharp contrasting colour with the fruit, their shape and those small little seeds...aww

As usual, this box that I bought was from Australia and again it was sour. Referenced some berry recipes, made some adaptations and these were the results. It was definitely better than eating those berries raw. I tossed some sugar over the berries to make them less sourish. The muffin was soft and the juice from the berries overflowed giving random red spots and a jammy feeling. Quite nice :)

It only made up 5 muffins. Finished them over tea, at least the berries didnt go to waste. Happy Ending!

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Holiday Treat

I have came across many recipes which uses Oreo Cookies and had been tempted to try one of them out. The recent school break was no better time to do it. The thought of how it would add to the joy of little one's holiday mood motivated me to go for it. I chose the Oreo and Raisin Muffin recipe from aunty yochana. It was easy and took less than 1 hour to have it all done. The verdict? Enough to say that little one had 2 at one go!

Little one gobbled down the other half before I could stop him when I was busy trying to take this photo to show how soft and moist it was :)

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