Blueberry and Lemon Muffins

I love making muffins as it is so quick and easy.  There are not many pictures as I made them in a rush before going to work one day.

First I mixed together all the liquid ingredients; melted butter, milk, lemon juice and egg.  Then in another bowl I mixed together lemon zest, plain flour, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda and sugar.  The liquid and dry ingredients were then mixed together – until they were only just combined – and finally the blueberries were gently folded in.

The resulting muffins are soft and fluffy with a lovely lemony flavour which combines well with the sweetness of the blueberries.

Toad in the Hole

This is another ‘not strictly baking’ recipe but as it involves flour and egg and cooks in the oven I thought I would include it.

First I put 4 oz plain flour, 5 fl oz milk, 5 fl oz water, an egg, salt and pepper in a mixing bowl.

These were then whisked together to make a batter –  this is the same recipe I sometimes use for Yorkshire puddings.  My mum taught me that I should leave the batter to stand at this point for at least 30 minutes but I have not really found it makes any difference.

It is also usual to cook Yorkshire pudding or toad in the hole in a dish in which oil has been preheated.  However, in this case I used a Pampered Chef stoneware dish which would crack if I poured cold batter into it once heated so I lightly oiled it, put the sausages in then poured the batter around and put it in a preheated oven.

The resulting toad in the hole was light and airy, crunchy around the edges and more dense in the middle – just how I like it…

Blackberry and Apple Cake

 

There are still lots of blackberries on the bushes and when I go for a walk I feel as if I have to pick them – it would be wasteful not to!  So going for a walk yesterday resulted in me making this blackberry and apple cake.  It is based on a recipe from the BBC Good Food site.

First I rubbed some butter into some plain flour and then added some light brown muscovado sugar.

 

I then put a little of this mixture to one side to use for a crumble topping adding some cinnamon and demerera sugar.  To the main bulk of the mixture I added some baking powder.

I then grated some apple and mixed it with egg and orange zest.

 

The egg and apple is then folded gently into the flour mixture to make a soft dough.

At this point most of the blackberries were added.

 

However, to prevent them sinking to the bottom of the cake I tossed them in a little flour first.

 

I then gently folded them in to the cake batter and put the batter in a lined 2lb loaf tin.

 

The remaining blackberries were sprinkled on the top of the cake.

 

Followed by the crumble topping.

 

The cake was then baked in a cool oven for about 1 1/4 hours until it was golden and cooked through.

 

This recipe is also lovely made with raspberries, apple and lemon or blueberries, pears and orange.

 

 

Banana and Chocolate Chip Loaf Cake

I made this cake to use up some bananas that no one would eat as they were a bit overripe.

First I mashed the bananas and then added plain flour, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda, sugar, butter and eggs and beat the mixture until it was smooth.

I then chopped some chocolate – which I always do instead of using chocolate chips as it is cheaper – and stirred them in.

I poured the batter into a lined loaf tin – the one I used was a bit big for the amount of mixture I made so the cake ended up quite flat – and baked the cake at a low heat for about 45 minutes.

Unfortunately the chocolate chips sank to the bottom.  I think this was partly due to the fact that I was a bit lazy and didn’t chop the chocolate small enough!  Also tossing the chips in flour first can help to stop them sinking.

Despite the sunken chocolate the cake was delicious and moist.