Lemon Muffins

From Le Cordon Bleu Home Collection: Muffins, Murdoch Books, 2007.

Every so often I get tempted to make muffins. Sometimes they work wonderfully, but other times they are just average.

For these lemon muffins I mixed together 300g self-raising flour, 125g caster sugar and a good pinch of baking powder. I then sifted them into a bowl and stirred in lemon rind grated from two lemons.

Now 100g unsalted butter was melted and left to cool a little while I beat two eggs into 180ml buttermilk and added a little vanilla extract.

The butter and the egg mixture was now stirred into the flour with a metal spoon. When it was just blended it was spooned into the holes in a muffin tin and went into a 200ºC oven to cook for a little over 10 minutes until a skewer came out clean when it was poked into the centre of a muffin. The muffins were left to cool a little before they were taken out of the muffin tin.

I made an icing by beating 100g cream cheese with a good tablespoon softened butter. When they were well combined 2 tablespoons icing sugar and 1 tablespoon lemon juice were added. The mixture didn’t firm up sufficiently to use as an icing. I then realised I had been using a fat-reduced cream cheese so it stayed a little too soft. A little more icing sugar helped somewhat but didn’t completely fix things. So it went into the refrigerator to be added to the muffins just as they were being served.

These were not the best muffins I had made. The lemon flavour didn’t come out strongly enough so they were a little tasteless for me. The icing helped as that was much more lemony. On the whole though these were edible yet dull and a little bit too firm.

Taste: ✔✔

Ease of cooking: ✔✔✔

Apple Muffins

From Le Cordon Bleu Home Collection: Muffins, Murdoch Books, 2007.

When I consider cake-like foods I think I prefer muffins to cakes. I guess it’s because they are generally less sweet.

These muffins had a mix of flours to begin: 225g self-raising, 150g plain, with a teaspoon and a half of baking powder. I measured them all and then added 2 teaspoons cinnamon, 1 teaspoon ground nutmeg and 3 tablespoons caster sugar. The lot was then sifted.

I beat 2 eggs into 170ml milk. I stirred 3 tablespoons honey with 155g butter in a saucepan over a medium heat until they were combined.

I peeled, cored and then chopped 4 granny smith apples (they were quite small).

All was now ready for the big combine. Into the flour went all of these ingredients, all at once, and then they were stirred until just combined. They went into a previously oiled 12-hole muffin tin. I sprinkled a mix of caster of sugar and ground cinnamon over the top. Twenty minutes in a 200ªC oven saw them cooked.

Muffins always go down well and these were especially good with pieces of juicy apple, still with the slightest bite in them. I think I’ll go and have another one right now as it’s afternoon tea time.

The book was a gift a few years back and has seen a bit of wear since then as the recipes are all well worthwhile making.

Taste: ✔✔✔✔

Ease of cooking: ✔✔✔