Strawberries & Cream muffins

It's past midnight, I retreated into my room after watching the late night news with my parents more than two hours ago. I've taken a shower, changed into my "Proud to be well adjusted" t-shirt I got from a chiropractor's convention in Las Vegas (long story, not for this entry) and sleep shorts, I have read a chapter of Crazy Rich Asians (get a copy if you haven't already)... and I can't sleep.

I keep thinking. My brain won't quit talking to me. The images keep speeding at me. Voices, memories, thoughts, hypothetical conversations with myself, questions I don't want answered, recipes, more recipes, cake decorating ideas, and oh my God, before you know it... I'm in the kitchen again, I've put the apron on (I only ever wear an apron when I'm baking in my pajamas, cos I don't want to get sugar in my bed), the oven is preheating and I'm flipping through my "Keep Calm and Carry On" red notebook of recipes.

Late night baking. It's surprisingly quite a normal thing to do for young professionals who love baking. It's also an excellent method of quieting the mind to ready yourself for bed. I've talked about the benefits of baking in approaching anxiety issues before... this time it's no different. I can't sleep cos I'm afraid, so I bake and worry about getting the measurements just-so instead of thinking about all the stuff I can't change.

Late last night, I decided to make breakfast muffins as I wanted to wake up to something positive. After a quick look in the fridge, I decided the strawberries I bought a few days ago would definitely go bad in the next two days, so the recipe just HAD to be strawberry based. No bananas, or else I would have made brown butter strawberry banana bread (an old late night baking favourite of mine), but the pantry told me I have an excess of white chocolate. Then I knew just the muffin I wanted to have my morning latte with.

Strawberries & Cream Muffins
Yield: 12 5.5oz muffins

• 2 cups all purpose flour
• 1 tbsp baking soda
• 1 tsp salt
• 1/2 cup caster sugar
• 2 cups whipping cream
• 1/4 cup sunflower oil
• 1 large egg
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 1/2 cup chopped strawberries
• 1 cup white chocolate chips

1. Preheat the oven to 180°C and prepare your muffin tin or muffin liners (I used 5.5oz standalone cups)
2. Combine the flour, baking soda, salt, and sugar in a medium bowl and set aside
3. In a smaller bowl, whisk the cream, oil, egg, and vanilla until incorporated
4. Pour the cream mixture over the flour mixture and stir with a spatula until thoroughly combined
5. Add the chopped strawberries and white chocolate chips (leaving roughly 1/4 cup of each to sprinkle on top of the muffins later) and fold into the batter
6. Scoop up the batter into the prepared muffin tins or liners, top each muffin with some more strawberries and white chocolate chips, then transfer into the preheated oven. Reduce the heat to 165°C/fan-forced and bake for 20-25 minutes or until the tops appear golden and a skewer inserted at an angle comes out clean (depending on the size of your muffins). Remove from the oven and allow to cool in the pan for 5 minutes before removing to a wire rack to cool completely

Clean up, wash up, go to sleep, then wake up 4 hours later when your alarm clock goes off and enjoy a fresh muffin, reheated quickly if you like, and a cup of brewed coffee. This happens to me at least twice a week, nobody in my house ever says anything about it, but they'll quietly watch me over breakfast as I set up my little studio and snap pictures of my late night baking spoils.

Orange Poppyseed Muffins

It's Chinese New Year, and everyone's on holiday (or to be more precise, everyone has been on holiday since Christmas). I'm flying off to Switzerland on Friday night for a ski trip, the same one I went on last year with my brothers' school, and I don't know if I'm super excited about it or just dreading the physical exertion (come on, I'm a baker with a full time office job and working out for me means walking up the stairs of the carpark to my car at the end of every day). Also, I'm of the old school holiday-means-sleep-and-rest set, so I'll probably need a holiday after my "holiday".

What's with this griping? I love skiing, really, and I can't wait, I just also wish I had the option to sleep in while I'm there. But nope, it's a school trip, and I'm an adult "chaperone", which means I have to work and earn my keep. The school bunch is loads of fun though, so I'm quite looking forward to catching up with the teachers I met last year. Also, skiing is so exhilarating when you've figured out how to do it, so I'm definitely jonesing for that rush when we go down the steeper slopes. 

Anyway, in honour of the Lunar New Year celebrations, I made Orange Poppyseed Muffins for work earlier this week. I also made Lemon Poppyseed Muffins.... and a beetroot chocolate cake covered in thick chocolate ganache. But, let's focus on the Orange. I've been spoiling my colleagues this week with daily treats, and like I said in my previous post: how selfish of me! I get to bake, which I love, then I don't even have to eat the stuff and make my friends take all the calories instead! You see, guys, that's my ultimate diet plan; make everyone around me bigger in comparison while I stay the exact same size. 

Here's to a week of binge eating (for those of you celebrating the Lunar New Year)! Happy holidays, much love and see you when I get back (hopefully in one piece and slightly slimmer for all the exercise). 

Orange Poppyseed Muffins

Makes 14 regular sized muffins

• 175g caster sugar
• 225g all purpose flour
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1 1/2 tbsp poppy seeds
• Zest of 1 orange (or lemon)
• 2 eggs
• 50ml freshly squeezed orange juice (or lemon)
• 50ml natural yoghurt
• 125g butter, melted
• 50ml vegetable oil
• 1/2 tsp pure vanilla essence

1. Preheat the oven to 180C and line your muffin tray with pretty paper
2. In a large mixing bowl, combine the sugar, flour, baking powder, poppy seeds and orange zest. 
3. In a separate bowl, lightly whisk the eggs, orange juice and yoghurt, then add it to the flour mixture
4. Stir in the melted butter, then the vegetable oil and vanilla
5. Pour the batter about 2/3 of the way up each muffin mold and bake for 20-22 minutes
6. Remove from the oven when ready and allow to cool completely. When cool, you may choose to drizzle some orange glaze over the tops of the muffins for a full orangey experience. Or leave them bare for a "healthier" option

Gingerbread Muffins

Tis the season to eat plenty
Trallalalallaaaa lalalallaah

I've been stretching myself a bit thin this past month, what with a full time job, side baking business, choir rehearsals, and now the holiday season is fast approaching, which means deadlines and holiday baking! We're also flying back to Miri (beautiful seaside town in Sarawak, Borneo, where I spent the first seven years of my life) over Christmas to spend time with family and friends for a special occasion (can't say yet!).

Tonight, however, is the final rehearsal for the choir's Christmas show (check it) which consists of one (1) caroling session in Publika (come by and bring me a Boost juice!), and two (almost) back-to-back full concerts almost across town. I thought to bring some treats for the group before we break up for the holidays, just as a "thank you for being so fun over the past few months" gift.

So here's the recipe (for what would have been gingerbread cupcakes... but I didn't feel like adding more sugar).

Gingerbread Muffins
Yield: 12 standard sized muffins

• 1/2 cup canola oil
• 1/2 cup caster sugar
• 1/2 cup molasses
• 1 egg, beaten
• 1 1/2 cup flour
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp ground ginger
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/8 tsp ground cloves
• 1/2 cup boiling water

1. Preheat oven to 180C and lay out muffin liners
2. Beat the canola oil, caster sugar, and molasses until combined, then add in the egg and continue beating until incorporated
3. Combine the flour, baking soda, baking powder, ginger, cinnamon, salt, and ground cloves in a medium sized bowl and add to the liquid mixture. Beat until incorporated, then slowly trickle in the hot water. Continue beating for about another minute or two then divide between the muffin liners
4. Lower the heat to 165C, and bake for 35 minutes or until a skewer poked through an angle comes out clean
5. Eat!

Butternut Squash Muffins

Hello! 

It's my birthday week, in which I turn 22 (HAHA) on Saturday! I've been contemplating making my own birthday cake... which I have absolutely no problem with, as the baking of the cake itself is a treat for me, yet I'm not so sure others are as cool with the idea as I am. So I'm going to bake an undercover cake! 

But first, lets dive into my birthday week stories. The thing is, celebrating just the one day anniversary of my birth is never enough, and my friends and I usually like to milk these events for as long as we possibly can. So we derived BirthWeeks! 

To kick off this year's Birthweek, I went on a trip to Singapore over the long weekend to catch the Harry Potter Exhibition as well as an incredibly satisfying foodie trip. I went with two girlfriends, Alena and Diyana, who both have a heightened sense of appreciation for good food and nerdiness. We stayed at an amazing hotel (thank you, online deals!), and managed to fit in a good mix of relaxation and going out. Even if our "going out" is just more relaxing, but outdoors over food and drinks. 

On our first day there, we headed over to Mandarin Gallery for brunch at Wild Honey, but forgot to factor in the fact that it would be packed on a Sunday. So we put our names down for an hour long wait, then trotted on downstairs to Antoinette, a French patisserie that Diyana has been raving about for ages! We sat down, chose our pastries (pain au chocolate and a pear danish), and decided to share an Antoinette mini cake.

It would be impossible for me to describe the myriad of emotions that went through me when I took my first bite of the pear danish. Suffice to say that it was life-altering, that I had an epiphany, that I decided then and there to be happy and just enjoy that dang pastry! It was so beautiful that I teared up (my eyes glazed over with tears, my throat tightened, and my heart felt like it would burst), which is something that I will never be able to live down to these girls. 

Then there was the actual brunch at Wild Honey, which was so flavourful and rich! We ordered the Tunisian Breakfast, and the Scandinavian breakfast to share as they seemed the most exotic on the menu. We can easily get good English, Continental, American, and Australian breakfast dishes here in town, but I don't think there's a good Scandinavian or Tunisian anywhere. It's a good thing Singapore is so close, as now I'm just going to eat sparingly for 4 weeks and make one weekend trip to eat well, just to satisfy the foodie in me. 

Of course, after the Harry Potter exhibition (which is held at the Marina Bay Art Science Museum), we made our way over to Mozza Osteria, where I had dinner with another friend, Jasmine, on a previous trip. I have been dreaming of the Francobolli Di Brasato al Pomodoro (basically braised beef rib ravioli with a tomato based sauce) since I had my first taste of it earlier this year, so for my Birthweek kick off dinner, I wanted nothing less than just that. We also ordered the truffle tortellini, roasted cauliflower, and the Fazzoleti with rabbit ragu and rosemary. Everyone had their favourites, but the Francobolli di Brasato was the big winner of the night, leaving all of us with the knowledge that there is great Italian food just next door, yet we'd never be able to find anything close to it back home. 

I suppose my best bet to have good pastries at my beck and call is to either hire a professional, or just become a professional. Pastry has always intimidated me though, no, not the cakes and cupcakes and cookies and mousses and stuff... I mean puff pastry, or bread, or the soft, light layers of pastry that would crumble on your tongue and leave you in love, sort of pastry. I've never tried it, as all recipes I've found look so damned complicated, and also because I'm afraid of failure. 

This may have to change quick. I've made up my mind to make pastries, so I suppose the smart thing to do would be to sign up for a pastry course, something I can take on weekends or on nights after work. Now to find a good one! 

For now though, let me share a recipe I've been dying to try with you guys. I found this recipe in one of my Jamie Oliver cookbooks, and have bookmarked it for over a year now. But I finally had some leftover butternut squash lying around my kitchen the other day (butternut squash soup, that's another recipe I'm going to share as soon as I get decent pictures of it) and a few extra hours on my hands, so why not? 

They didn't turn out looking as cute as Jamie's, as I didn't fill my liners high enough and most probably botched the recipe... But they turned out tasting wonderful! Especially with the added toppings :D 

Butternut Squash muffins with Mascarpone & orange zest topping

• 375g butternut squash, skin on, deseeded and roughly chopped
• 300g light brown sugar
• 4 large eggs
• 300g all purpose flour
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/4 chopped walnuts (optional)
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• 175ml vegetable oil

1. Preheat the oven to 180C, and line your muffin pans
2. Run the butternut squash through the food processor until thoroughly chopped, then add in the sugar and eggs and continue to whizz until mixed
3. Add the flour, baking powder, salt, walnuts, cinnamon, and olive oil until well combined
4. Pour the batter into the lined muffin pans and bake for 25 minutes, or until browned

Mascarpone topping

• 1/2 cup mascarpone cheese
• 1/4 cup Philadelphia cream cheese
• 1 cup sifted confectioners sugar
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Beat the cheeses together until fluffy and light, then slowly add the sugar until all is fully incorporated. Swirl in the vanilla extract, then once the muffins have cooled, dollop on some frosting and grate the orange zest over the top
These were quite a hit in my house this week, especially with the younger cousins. They've probably never willingly eaten pumpkin/squash before, and were all quite surprised when I informed them of the main ingredient for this (sugar, lol I joke). The orange zest added a nice refreshing touch, and the mascarpone frosting is light and flavourful while not interfering with the taste of the actual muffin. I may have to make more of these, maybe even in a cake form!

Well, I've put off writing this post for a while now (it's been in my drafts for a few days), that my birthday is actually tomorrow. I'm not too sure what's in the cards, but tonight I have plans with my friends to paint the town red, and tomorrow I think I'm just going to have a nice, Spanish dinner with my family. Can't wait!
Lots of love,
Nabs

Brown Butter Blueberry muffins

Brown butter,

brown butter,
love of my life,
only wish I could
write a better ode. 

The traffic was sooooo horrendous coming home from work last night, even though I had stayed an extra half hour in the hopes that traffic would ease up by then. But nooooooo, resistance is futile. You will get chlamydia and die stuck in traffic, and want to remove your brain from your ear with the windshield wiper.

So about halfway home, with my petrol running dangerously close to the red zone, I took a last minute detour to the mall. I just needed to stretch my legs, and breathe, and basically get my retail therapy done cos I was going a little insane. I bought a new work dress, lots of breakfast stuff (bran, cereal, coffee, instant oats, marmite, etc) and fresh produce. One of which were blueberries!

When I finally did make it home, at 9.30 pm, I wasted no time getting the ingredients ready. And for a little added dose of happiness, I went with brown butter. It felt like just the thing to get the job done.

 

So here we have a batch of happy-making Brown Butter Blueberry muffins!

• 1/3 cup of brown butter
• 1/3 cup buttermilk
• 2 large eggs
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 1/2 cup all purpose flour
• 3/4 cup brown sugar
• 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 cup fresh/frozen (thawed) blueberries

1. Preheat the oven to 180C and prepare your muffin pans
2. To brown butter, place the required amount in a saucepan and melt down, stirring occasionally so it doesn't burn. When the butter aroma begins to rise, and you see little brown specks appear in the melted down butter, remove from heat and set aside for use
3. In a large bowl, whisk the buttermilk, eggs and vanilla
4. Fold in the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt
5. Stir in the cooled brown butter
6. Finally stir in the blueberries
7. Fill your muffin liners 3/4 of the way up, and bake for 15 minutes. Allow to cool completely on a wire rack before nomming

Indecisive Muffins

With five productive hours left to my Sunday evening (productive hours meaning those before I have to get ready for bed and work...) I decided to whip up a batch of blueberry muffins for breakfast, and also to bring a few with me to the office for my workmates. However, my mum was craving banana bread too... and so I thought I would just make a carrot banana bread first, then blueberry muffins later.

Though having spent the majority of my weekend in the kitchen, I kind of wanted an extra hour to watch some telly before sleep... so halfway through making the banana bread batter, I decided to add in blueberries, bit more flour, and just make a hybrid of the two wishes. I don't entirely know what I was thinking when I added some of the stuff, but none of the ingredients seemed that bad as standalone ingredients so they couldn't be too bad put together, right?

Absolutely.

So this Monday morning, I popped one of the cooled muffins back in the oven for about 5 minutes while I blow-dried my hair and had myself a nice warm muffin on the way to work. Yummy!

Banana-Blueberry-Carrot Muffins (That's 3 of your 5-a-day!) 
Yield: 12 medium sized muffins

• 1/3 cup vegetable oil
• 3/4 cup soft packed brown sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1/4 cup buttermilk 
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1 cup ripe mashed bananas 
• 1 cup grated carrots
• 1 cup blueberries

1. Preheat the oven to 180C and line the muffin pan
2. Beat the vegetable oil and sugar in a large bowl, then beat in the eggs, vanilla and buttermilk
3. Add the bananas and beat until incorporated
4. Combine the flour, baking powder, salt and cinnamon then gradually add into the wet mixture
5. Stir in the carrots and blueberries
6. Pour the batter into the muffin cups about 3/4 of the way up, then sprinkle with the topping and bake for 20 minutes. Leave them to cool in the pan for 5 minutes then cool completely on a wire rack

Topping

• 1/2 cup all purpose flour
• 3 tbsp butter
• 1/4 cup granulated sugar

1. In a medium bowl, combine all the ingredients and mix with your fingertips until they resemble course crumbs. Or use a food processor if you have one to minimize the mess and time taken

Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins

As I was driving home from town earlier today, I came to the scary realization that one of my biggest fears is that I have a brain tumor... but I think it's just bad headaches. And then I end up in hospital where the doctor is nowhere near as good-looking as McDreamy because this is real life.

In conclusion, I watch far too much television, and I should also not drive without the radio on because then I start thinking up weird situations.

I'm a very imaginative person, some (my school teachers, for example) would say I'm a day-dreamer, and thus I tend to come up with far-fetched scenarios, or over-think things (very much in the way Taylor Swift over-thought things in the song Mine) and then before I know it... I'm in the car, sobbing by the side of the highway because I've scared myself with a possibility of a horrible life.

Over the years, I've always looked for distractions, things that could take me away from me so that I can just be, for a little while. In my teenage years, it was SnitchSeeker (it still is, sometimes heh) that provided that escapism, and now I find that baking shuts up my fears better than anything!

It's something to do with the precision of measuring out ingredients, the routine of mixing, melting, baking... the whir of the Kitchenaid works as well as any sleep machine, too, and then... there's the payoff. Chocolatey goodness, cookies, cupcakes, breads, muffins, pies, pastries, anything and everything that is good and guaranteed to cheer me up.

Today, I'm sharing a very simple recipe, a particular favourite of mine that has always been a hit with my baby brother, Adam. As a rather fussy customer, I find his to be one of the highest recommendations. He's also quite cruel, in the way that Simon Cowell can be, when he doesn't like something I've made. Enough rambling! On to the banana chocolate chip muffins!

Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins

• 1 1/2 cup all purpose flour
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
• pinch of salt
• 1 cup mashed bananas
• 1/2 cup butter, melted
• 1 large egg
• 1/4 cup buttermilk (or milk)
• 3/4 cup chocolate chips

1. Preheat the oven to 180C, line/grease your muffin tray
2. In a large bowl, mix the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt
3. In a medium bowl, mix the banana mash, melted butter, egg and buttermilk
4. Pour the banana mix into the flour mix, and stir until just combined (I simply used a spatula for this entire recipe cos I didn't want to over-mix anything)
5. Stir in the chocolate chips
6. Bake for 30 mins, or until a skewer inserted at an angle comes out clean
7. Pop one into your mouth whole, mere minutes after it's out of the oven, then soldier on as tears stream down your face cos it's too damned hot, but sooooooo good!

Banana Lemon Muffins

My mother has finally handed me her cookbook, the notebook in the picture above. It's chock-full of recipes she's been hoarding for the past 20+ years, and I've been eyeing it for almost as long as I remember. She's got ALL my favourite recipes in there, and they're all written in her hand, and there are stains and spots in the pages from the paper aging as well as whatever cooking spills she might have encountered.

It's glorious! I love it, and honestly can't wait to try every single recipe, as well as add in my own in the empty pages in the back.

Here's the first:

Banana Lemon breakfast muffins (yum!)

• 110g unsalted butter
• 1 1/4 cups sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 1 cup mashed banana
• 2 tbsp lemon juice
• 1 tsp vanilla essence
• 2 cups flour
• 1 tsp baking soda
• pinch of salt
• 3/4 cup buttermilk

1. Grease/line muffin pans
2. Cream the butter and sugar until light and pretty and fluffy
3. Beat in the eggs one at a time
4. Stir in the banana, lemon juice and vanilla
5. In a separate bowl, sift flour, baking soda and flour together.
6. Stir the flour mixture into the creamed mixture, alternating with the buttermilk (you can use yoghurt or just plain milk as a substitute)
7. Bake at 180 degrees for around 20 minutes

Great to have freshly baked muffins in the house, but these are great to just have ready as well. I usually grab one on the way out the door to serve as my breakfast when I'm rushing to work.

x Nabs