Recipe: Moist Banana Muffins with Chocolate Chips (Nigella Lawson)

A friend of ours passed us a huge bag of bananas over the weekend - I think there were at least 30 bananas in there! We kept them in the fridge to slow the ripening process, but we had to use them up quickly before they went bad. Hence banana muffins and cakes made an appearance almost everyday in our house this week.

Moist, Sugar-Free Banana Muffins

The first recipe that we tried was Nigella Lawson's banana muffins recipe from her "How to be a Domestic Goddess" cookbook. My daughter was tasked in making these muffins, and this recipe seemed apt since it's from the "Children" section in the book. Furthermore, these muffins have no added sugar as it is sweetened by the bananas and honey. We also sprinkled some extra chocolate chips on top. The bananas also keep the muffins very moist; you can store it in an airtight container for up to 4 days. They're great just eaten like that, or for a touch of luxury, we cut it in half and slather Bordier butter all over it!

Easy to make, healthy and delicious! My daughter made these a couple of times this week, and the whole family loves it. We also made sure that we gifted some of these muffins to our friends who presented us with the bananas. :D

Hubby also served it with warm custard one of the days. YUM!

By the way, in August 2014, I will be co-hosting "Cook Like a Star" with Mich and Zoe, and the chosen chef is Gordon Ramsay! Do join us by cooking your favorite Gordon Ramsay recipes :)




Moist banana muffins with chocolate chips
Recipe adapted from Nigella Lawson's How to be a Domestic Goddess
Preparation time: 15 minutes
Cooking time: 23-25 minutes
Makes 14


Ingredients
4 tbsp unsalted butter
4 tbsp clear honey
1 tsp vanilla extract
4 large, very ripe bananas, mashed
2 cups plain flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/8 tsp salt
2 tbsp dark chocolate chips (optional)


1. Preheat oven to 190°C (no fan). Line a baking tray with 14 paper baking cups.

2. Put the butter, honey and vanilla extract in a pan over low heat, until butter is melted. Remove and set aside for a few minutes.

3. Place the flour, baking powder, baking soda, ground cinnamon and salt in a large bowl. Mix the melted butter mixture with the mashed bananas, and then mix it into the dry ingredients. Don't overmix, just stir a few times until the flour is incorporated.

4. Fill the muffin cups about 2/3 full of mixture. Sprinkle dark chocolate chips on top. Put in oven and bake for about 23-25 minutes,or until a skewer inserted in the centre comes out clean. Leave in the tray to cool for 5 minutes, then remove to a wire rack to cool completely.

5. Store in airtight containers. These muffins will keep well for 3-4 days.

Note: Your child can do all the steps in this recipe, however for younger kids, you may want to do Step 2 for them as it requires melting in a pot over a hob.

* I am submitting this post to "Cook-Your-Books #14" hosted by Joyce.

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Recipe: Banana Nut Muffins (Paula Deen)

It's very rare to find overripe bananas in my house, as my kids will usually finish them a couple of days after we buy them. This time, I hid 2 bananas in the fridge since I wanted to make muffins with them over the weekend.

Banana Nut Muffins

Since Cook Like a Star this month is Paula Deen, I searched for a banana muffin recipe and found this. I changed a few things, such as reducing the sugar from 1 cup to 1/3cup (bananas are naturally sweet) plus I substituted 1/4 cup of walnuts with chocolate chips (my kids love them in muffins!). I also used walnuts in lieu of pecans since I have them in the fridge. This is an easy stir-and-bake recipe, so my kids could do it with minimal supervision.

The muffins were moist, nutty and just right in terms of sweetness. Thank you kids for making them!

On a separate note, my blog has surpassed 4 million hits today... thanks again for all your support! :D

Photobombed by a cutie! :D

Banana Nut Muffins 
Recipe by Baby Sumo, adapted from Paula Deen
Preparation time: 15 minutes
Cooking time: 18-20 minutes
Makes 12-13

Ingredients
2 cups plain flour
1/3 cup caster sugar
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp salt
2 very ripe bananas, mashed (about 1 cup)
1/2 cup corn or vegetable oil
2 large eggs
2 tbsp  milk
3/4 cup chopped walnuts
1/4 cup chocolate chips



1.Preheat oven to 200°C (no fan) . Line a 12-cup muffin pan with paper liners.

2. In a large bowl, combine flour, sugar, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon, and salt.

3. In a separate bowl, combine banana, oil, eggs, and milk. Add the wet mixture to flour mixture, stirring until just incorporated. Stir in walnuts and chocolate chips.

4. Spoon batter into prepared muffin cups. Bake for 18-20 minutes, or until golden brown. Allow to cool on wire rack.


Note: I reduced sugar from 1 cup to 1/3 cup and replaced 1/4 cup of walnuts with chocolate chips. You can also use pecans.

Loving my new mini mason drinking jar :)

I am linking this to Cook like a Star (Paula Deen and Deen brothers theme) organised by Zoe of Bake for Happy Kids, Joyce from Kitchen Flavours and Diana from Domestic Goddess Wannabe.


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Recipe: Super-Easy Chocolate Chocolate-Chip Muffin (Nigella Lawson)

Since the kids are on their school holidays, we did some baking last week on a weekday night. Baby C invited her friend over to join in the fun. I looked for an easy muffin recipe which the kids could do all by themselves (with minimal supervision), and picked this chocolate chocolate-chip muffin recipe from Nigella Lawson. Which kid wouldn't love chocolate?

Chocolate chocolate-chip muffins

The day has arrived for our first "baking class". I merely arranged the ingredients and equipment, and the kids did the rest, and followed instructions really well. A bit of measuring and mixing, and the muffins were ready for the oven. We watched as the muffins rose up high and tall.

The muffins were moist and chocolatey. The kids gobbled up two muffins each after their hard work. I could sense how proud they were of themselves. Fantastic job, kids! :)

Hubby decorated some of our bananas as cute minions from Despicable Me :)

Chocolate chocolate-chip muffins
Recipe by Baby Sumo, adapted from FoodNetwork - Nigella Lawson
Preparation time: 15-20 minutes

Cooking time: 18-20 minutes
Makes 12


Ingredients
1 3/4 cups plain flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
2 tbsp best quality cocoa powder
3/4 cup caster sugar
3/4 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
1 cup milk
1/3 cup + 2 tsp corn or vegetable oil
1 egg, lightly beaten
1 tsp pure vanilla extract

For sprinkling

1/4 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips for sprinkling

1. Preheat oven to 200°C (no fan). Line a muffin tin with 12 muffin cases.

2.  Put the flour, baking powder, baking soda, cocoa powder, sugar 3/4 cup of the chocolate chips into a large bowl. 

3. Place the milk, oil, egg and vanilla extract into a measuring jug.  Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients, and mix until combined. Do not overmix, a lumpy batter makes the best muffins. 

4. Place the batter back into the measuring jug and fill the muffin cases, about 3/4 full. Alternatively, you can spoon the batter into the prepared muffin cases. 

5. Sprinkle the remaining 1/4 cup chocolate chips on top and then bake for 18-20 minutes or until the muffins are dark, risen and springy.

Fresh from the oven

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Recipe: Asparagus and cheese muffins + Asparagus ends soup

After a few days of eating asparagus, I've gathered up quite a lot of asparagus ends (which I usually throw away because they're woody and fibrous).  I've always felt that it's wasteful to throw them away, so this time I will be making a soup with them.

To go with the asparagus soup, I've also made some savoury asparagus and cheese muffins. The original recipe uses Cheshire cheese, which I couldn't find in the supermarkets here, so I substituted with Cheddar cheese. These were really easy to make, a simple mix-and-bake recipe.

This is only my second time making savoury muffins, but we really enjoyed them. I was especially surprised that Baby D ate 2 whole ones (cheese-lover!). I like how the asparagus stems peek out of the muffins, which gives it an elegant appearance. These muffins were moist, with a lovely top crust and pretty substantial. They're best eaten warm with some cold butter.

For the soup, the asparagus ends are boiled with the chicken stock, and then pureed using a hand blender. This then needs to be sieved to remove the inedible fibrous bits. Using asparagus ends, the soup was pale green in colour (my head went "oh-no!") - I've made asparagus soup before with the stalks and it was a vivid green. I googled and saw other asparagus ends soup images which was a similar shade, so this colour is perfectly normal... phew.

Despite the colour, the asparagus flavours really came through. The soup was silky smooth, creamy and comforting. So next time, don't discard those woody ends... they make a good asparagus soup.

Asparagus and cheese muffins
Recipe by Baby Sumo, adapted from Good Food Channel
Preparation time: 15 minutes
Cooking time: 25-30 minutes
Makes 9

Ingredients
9 asparagus, woody ends removed, stems cut into 1cm pieces, leave the tips a little longer
200 g self-raising flour
100 g cheddar cheese
62g butter
1 spring onion (green parts only), snipped
75ml milk
50ml natural yogurt
1/2 tsp English mustard
1 egg

1. Preheat the oven to 200°C (no fan) and line a muffin tin with 9 cases.

2. In a large bowl, mix the flour with the cheese. Melt the butter and pour into a jug. Add the spring onions, milk, yogurt, mustard and eggs into the melted butter. Mix well until combined and season generously with salt and pepper.

3. Gently fold the wet ingredients into the flour and cheese, and stir in the chopped asparagus stems. Be careful not to over mix and stop as soon as the mixture is combined.

4. Spoon the mixture evenly between the muffin cases and push an asparagus tip into the middle of each. Bake in the oven from 25-30 minutes until golden. Best eaten hot out of the oven, spread with a little cold butter.

Note: I halved the original recipe, to yield 9 muffins. I could not get Cheshire cheese here, so I substituted with Cheddar cheese.

Creamy asparagus ends soup
Recipe by Baby Sumo, adapted from here
Preparation time: 10 minutes
Cooking time: 20-25 minutes
Serves 2

Ingredients
300g asparagus ends
2 cups chicken or vegetable stock
1 onion, finely chopped
Salt
2-3 tbsp cream
A knob of butter

To serve (optional)
Asparagus tips
Parmesan cheese
Bacon


1. In a saucepan over medium heat, melt the butter and add onions and cook for 2 minutes until they have softened. Make sure that they do not brown. 

2.Then, add the chicken stock and asparagus ends and cook for 15 minutes until softened.

3. Remove from heat and use a hand blender to puree the asparagus ends. Pass the soup through a sieve to remove the inedible fibrous bits. Place back into saucepan, and season with salt and pepper, simmer at very low heat and add the cream. Serve immediately.

* I'm linking this post to Little Thumbs Up (May 2014: Milk) hosted by Tze of Awayofmind Bakery House.


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Recipe: Christmas Morning Muffins (Nigella Lawson)

Ah, wouldn't it be great waking up to the smell of cinnamon and nutmeg on Christmas morning? That was exactly what happened in our home on Christmas morning 2012.

Every Christmas, we would spend all day in indulging in good homecooked food. Usually for breakfast, it would be scrambled eggs and smoked salmon, but last year, I decided to make bacon egg toast cups as well as Nigella Lawson's Christmas morning muffins.

Christmas morning muffins.. a brilliant start to Christmas

Nigella suggests measuring out the dry ingredients the night before, but it really isn't too much trouble to do it on Christmas morning itself. I found this a relatively easy and laidback recipe, as I just had to mix everything together in a mixing bowl by hand. The smell of baking and spices filling the home was simply wonderful and the smiles on the children's face when they saw muffins first thing in the morning was just priceless.

Cherries are usually in season in December, and we bought a box for Christmas - for me, cherries are pretty festive. Suffice to say, we had an excellent breakfast that morning - the cherries were sweet and juicy, the bacon egg toast cups were delicious, and the muffins were fantastic (moist and smells so good!). Full of dried cranberries plus some chocolate chips thrown in for good measure.

Top your muffins with a cherry, if you like :)

Bacon egg toast cups (click for recipe)

Christmas Morning Muffins
Recipe adapted from How to be a Domestic Goddess - Nigella Lawson
Preparation time: 20 minutes
Cooking time: 20 minutes
Makes 8

Ingredients
1 1/3 cup all purpose flour
3 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/3 cup sugar
Good grating of fresh nutmeg
1 clementine or small orange, juice only
Approximately 1/4 cup milk
1/4 cup unsalted butter, melted
1 large egg
1/2 cup dried cranberries
2 tbsp chocolate chips

For the topping
1 tsp sugar
1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
Fresh cherries (optional)

1. Line a 12-cup muffin tray with paper liners.

2. Preheat oven to 400°F/200°C.

3. In a large bowl , sift the flour, baking powder, baking soda and sugar and grate over a generous amount of fresh nutmeg.

4. Place clementine or orange juice into a measuring cup, then pour milk on top till it comes to the 2/3 cup mark. Add the melted butter and egg, and beat to combine.

5. Pour the liquid ingredients into the bowl of dry ingredients and stir until the ingredients are just combined. It's okay if it's a little lumpy  (according to Nigella, lumpy batter makes light muffins).

6. Lightly fold in the cranberries and chocolate chip, then fill the muffin cups 2/3 full.

7. Mix the sugar and cinnamon and sprinkle over the tops of the muffins. Place in preheated oven and bake for 20 minutes until golden brown. Garnish with a fresh cherry, if you like.

I am submitting this to the "Baby Sumo's Christmas Recipes Collection 2013" event which I am hosting. You can link your recipes here.


I am also submitting this to Cook-Your-Books #7 hosted by Joyce of Kitchen Flavours .


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Recipe: Moist Oat, Banana and Blueberry Muffins

This month, Vivian from Vivian Pang's Kitchen is hosting Little Thumbs Up and her chosen ingredient is "oats". I was going through my drafts folder, and found this recipe for oat, banana and blueberry muffins which I baked sometime ago but had not blogged about yet.

Oat, banana and blueberry muffins

Bananas and blueberries are two of Baby D's favorite fruits, so he was very excited when I told him we were baking these muffins. A really easy one to put together as you just need to mix the ingredients with a wooden spoon (no electric mixer required), hence a great recipe to do with your kids.

This recipe is adapted from Tana Ramsay's (wife of Gordon Ramsay) "Real Family Food" cookbook. I reduced the sugar from 150g to 80g and also added 2 bananas to give it moistness and also some natural sweetness. The recipe calls for buttermilk, which you can make from scratch if you can't find it in the shops -simply mix full cream milk and lemon juice and allow the milk to curdle. See Step 1 in recipe below for full instructions.

These muffins were moist and bursting with fruity flavours. The oat topping lends an extra crunchy texture to the muffins. Definitely a big hit with the kids.

Two of his favorite fruits wrapped into one delicious muffin!

Beautiful day in KL!

Oat, banana and blueberry muffins
Recipe by Baby Sumo, adapted from Tana Ramsay's Real Family Food
Preparation time: 15 minutes
Cooking time: 25-30 minutes
Makes 12


Ingredients
340g self raising flour
80g soft brown sugar
25g porridge oats (plus 10g extra for sprinkling)
180ml buttermilk
125ml vegetable oil
2 ripe bananas, mashed
125g fresh blueberries
1 egg, beaten

1.  To make buttermilk using milk, simply place 1 tbsp fresh lemon juice in a measuring jug, then pour milk until the 1 cup mark. Leave for 5 minutes for the milk to curdle. Alternatively, you can also whisk whipping cream with an electric whisk until it separates into buttermilk and butter (which you can reserve for other uses).

2. Preheat oven to 180°C (no fan).  Place 12 paper cases into a muffin tin.

Lining the muffin tray with paper cups

3. Sift the flour into a large mixing bowl, add the sugar and oats and mix thoroughly. Add the buttermilk, egg, vegetable oil and banana, mix well then gently fold in the blueberries, taking care not to crush them.

Mixing the flour with sugar and oats

Kids love mashing bananas!

And also beating eggs!

Mixing everything together

Fold in the blueberries gently

4. Spoon the mixture into the muffin cases, dividing it equally between them. Sprinkle the extra oats on top and place in the oven for 25-30 minutes until golden and firm to the touch.

5. Remove from oven and transfer to a wire cooling rack.

*I am submitting this to the Little Thumbs Up "Oats" event organized by Bake for Happy Kids, my little favourite DIY and hosted by Vivian Pang's Kitchen. You can link your oat recipes here.

*I am also submitting this to Cook-Your-Books #6 hosted by Joyce of Kitchen Flavours .


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