Peanut Butter Muffins

Sometimes, when that craving for baking hits you, it's not enough to make just one recipe. Because there are so many recipes which seem so nice! Luckily, muffins is quite easy to do, so you can without too much trouble make two recipes (or more!) at a time.

This recipe seemed a bit different, but it seemed oh so tempting. And I can assure you; I did NOT regret making these!

Ingredients:
125 g crunchy peanut butter
125 g light muscovado sugar (brown sugar)
50 g soft margarine
2 eggs
85 ml milk
150 g plain flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
A small handful of roughly chopped salted peanuts

1. Preheat the oven to 200 °C, and prepare a 12-hole muffin tray (or 2 6-hole trays).
2. Beat the peanut butter, sugar and margarine together in a bowl until fluffy.
3. In another bowl, whisk eggs and milk and set aside.
4. Sift flour and baking powder into the peanut butter mixture, and pour in the egg and milk mixture and beat together until you have a smooth batter.
5. Spoon the batter into the prepared muffin trays and sprinkle the chopped peanuts over the top.
6. Bake for about 20 minutes until risen and firm to the touch.

Delicious served lukewarm on its own, or with a toffee sauce.
Or just as it is ;)

Smoked Ham and Leek Muffins

When you love baking like I do, you sometimes get a craving to bake. You don't know what, but you know you want to bake, and you don't feel completely satisfied before you do. You start looking through your recipe books to find the recipe that screams out to you "MAKE ME!". When you find that one recipe, everything just looks great. The picture in the book looks really tempting and delicious, the recipe seems easy enough, and when you make whatever your heart set on, a feeling of fulfillment fills you. That is how much of an experience a baking session can be. It almost feels religious.

This time, for me, that recipe was found in my Cupcakes & Muffins book that I got for the anniversary with my other half. It was so many tempting recipes in it, and when I got to the savoury section, I knew that was what I wanted to make: Savoury muffins. These looked delicious on the picture, so it was straight to the shop to get the missing bits!

Ingredients:
50 g butter
1tbsp oil
1 leek, thinly sliced
150 g plain flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1 egg
150 ml natural yogurt
75 g smoked ham, chopped
A few drops Tabasco sauce

1. Preheat the oven to 200 °C, and prepare a deep 6-hole muffin tray.
2. Melt the butter and leave to cool.
3. In a pan, heat the oil and add the sliced leek. Fry till the leek is softened, and then put aside to cool.
4. Sift flour, baking powder and bicarbonate of soda into a bowl.
5. In another bowl, whisk the egg and the yogurt and pour into the dry ingredients along with the melted butter.
6. Whisk the batter together until it's combined. Then stir in leek, ham and a dash of Tabasco.
7. Spoon the mixture into the prepared muffin tray. The mixture makes 6 big muffins.
8. Bake for 15-20 minutes until the muffins are risen and golden.

Serve cold or warm, with a soup or salad or on its own.
Makes a delicious breakfast or small lunch.

Triple Chocolate Chip Cookies

For Christmas I got several cookbooks, and two of them were cookies only. Having a look through them makes me want to make 90% of the cookies in them, but I never get around to try them out. Especially not after I tried one recipe in one of them. Triple chocolate chip cookies. It just can't be wrong. After I tried these out the first time, I hardly wanted to share them with anyone. But I was good and sent them back to my extended family after having my other half visiting. These are simply delicious!

Ingredients:
225 g soft butter
140 g sugar
1 egg yolk
2 tsp vanilla extract
225 g all purpose flour
55 g cocoa powder
Pinch of salt
100 g milk chocolate drops
100 g white chocolate drops
100 g dark chocolate drops
Small handful of roughly chopped hazel nuts (optional)

1. Preheat oven to 190 °C
2. Mix sugar and butter in a bowl. Add egg yolk and vanilla extract.
3. Sift in flour, cocoa powder and salt and mix.
4. Add all the chocolate drops and nuts and mix them in evenly.
5. Form the dough into flattened balls in the size you want them and put them on baking trays clad in baking paper (non-stick version). Makes 12 very big, or up to 20 quite big cookies.
6. Bake in the middle of the oven for 12-15 minutes. Leave them to rest for 5-10 minutes on the baking tray before moving them.

Irresistible and simply delicious!

Oatmeal Pancakes

Pancake Day is supposed to be a day to use up the rest of "the good stuff" before lent. In general, I just like pancakes, as they're easy and rather quick to make. To honour Pancake Day, I opted for a slight healthier option than my previous ones, so that they could qualify as dinner instead of desert, and so that I could try something new. I came across this recipe in a magazine on the train back to where I study yesterday, along with several other exciting pancake recipes, but this one stood out as the "healthiest" one, with no white flour at all!

Ingredients:
150 g rolled oats
470 ml milk
150 g wholewheat flour
2 tbsp sugar
1 tbsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
100 g melted butter
Oil or butter for cooking

1. Mix oats and milk in one bowl.
2. In a separate bowl, mix flour, sugar, baking powder and salt.
3. Add the wets to the oats and milk.
4. Add whisked eggs and butter and mix till you have a smooth batter (as smooth as you can get it with a lot of oats in it).
5. Cook the pancakes in a heated pan.
6. Serve with topping of your choice (or just plain).

Eat without feeling bad!

Chicken Pie

Recipes that I get from family and friends will always mean a little more to me. This recipe is one I have with me from my childhood, where my mum would cook it once in a while. She herself had gotten it from a friend. Now it's a family favourite. My dad and my other half both love it, and when served to my in-laws this weekend, it was a great success. It does take some time to do, but it's as easy as anything to do. And it is definitely worth it! And this is quite big and could probably feed 6-8 people. But it is just as good the day after heated up, so I never cut down on it!

Ingredients:
Pastry lid:
200 ml white all purpose flour
100 ml wholemeal flour
100 g melted butter
50 ml cold water
1/2 tsp salt
1 egg for brushing

Filling:
250 ml unboiled rice
2 red bell peppers, chopped into chunks (easy to pick out for the ones who don't like them)
2 tbsp soy sauce
2 whole grilled chickens
1 onion, roughly chopped
200 g closed cap mushroom, roughly sliced
1 tbsp butter for cooking
2 tbsp flour
300 ml chicken stock
200 ml single cream

1. Mix the ingredients for the pastry lid together to form a firm dough. Leave the dough to rest coolly while preparing the rest.
2. Boil the rice as instructed. When the rice is finished, add the soy sauce and the bell peppers. Add this mix to the bottom of a big oven proof dish. Make sure it is big enough to fit everything.
3. Rinse the chicken off the bones. This is a messy job and takes a while, so it can easily be prepared before. Make sure there are no bones left in the meat! Lay the chicken in a thick layer over the rice.
4. Sautée mushroom and onion in the butter. When they have gotten a light golden colour, add the cream, chicken stock and flour to make a sauce. Let it simmer for a bit to make it thicker. Taste with salt and pepper, and pour over the chicken.
5. Roll out the pastry till it's just big enough to cover the dish. Lay it across your pie, and tuck any excess pastry down the inside of the dish to let it soak up some extra saucy goodness.
6. Cook at 220 °C for 15-20 minutes, until the crust is a lovely golden brown.

Serve just as it is or with a green salad.

It might not look too pretty, but it tastes delicious!

Irish Oaten Rolls

Baking has been a lifelong passion of mine. Anyone I know can vouch for that. I love trying out new things, and it's always encouraging when a new recipe turns out good. I've wanted to make bread for a bit, but I don't eat a lot of bread on my own, and living in university halls, I don't have a lot of freezer space. Therefore, I decided to make rolls. But I also wanted to try something new. I found this recipe on one of the food blogs I read, and it caught my eye.

This recipe makes 12 rolls
Ingredients:
400 g wholemeal flour
100 g oats, plus a little bit to sprinkle over the rolls before they go in the oven
1 tsp salt
2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
300 ml Guinness
150 ml natural yogurt
4 tbsp vegetable/sunflower oil
4 tbsp honey

1. Preheat the oven to 220 °C.
2. Mix all the dry ingredients in a bowl.
3. Measure and mix the wets. A good tip is to alternate between the oil and the honey, starting with the oil, which makes the honey run off the spoon more easily.
4. Add the wets to the dry and mix well. The dough is supposed to be a little bit sticky, but if it seems too sticky, add some extra flour.
5. Form the dough into 12 rolls. Keep the tap running with cold water, so that you can rinse off your hands every now and then, which also makes it easier to form the rolls.
6. Just before you put the rolls in the oven, sprinkle a bit of oats over them, and press them a bit down into the rolls. The rolls are supposed to be a bit flattened, about 3-4 cm thick.
7. Put the rolls in the oven for about 12-15 minutes, until they are dark brown.

Serve with some butter and a topping of your choice, like a slice of mild cheese or marmalade.

Taco Pie

After a long weekend of not a lot to do, I decided to make a proper meal for when my other half came visiting, and I wanted to try something new and exciting. I looked through several websites, some of my recipe books, and most of the food blogs I read regularly. A lot was tempting, but this recipe caught my eye. I had been craving Mexican food for a while, and this one was a bit different from what you usually think of when you think of taco. It was a great success, and the "hubby" ordered it again after only a few days. And I loved it!

Ingredients:
1 roll of ready made pastry (You can make your own, but I decided to do it the easy way)
500 g mince meat
1 sachet of Taco meat spice mix (2 if you want it extra spicy)
1 chopped onion
100 ml water
1 tin chopped tomato
300 ml crème fraîche
A pinch of pepper
Some garlic (powder, fresh or purée)
Grated cheese

The meat can be changed after what you prefer. I want to try making it with chicken some time, but for now I've only made it with lean minced beef.

1. Preheat the oven to 200 °C
2. Cook the mince and onion in a pan.
3. When it's cooked through, add the taco spices and water, give it a quick stir, and add the tomato.
4. Mix the crème fraîche, pepper and garlic after taste
5. Pour the meat mix in the prepared pastry
6. Pour the crème fraîche over the meat, and add cheese on top. Be careful with the crème fraîche, as it might be a bit much. I left out about 50 ml, which I used kept and used as a topping.
7. Put in the oven for 20-30 minutes.

Serve hot with a green salad and soured cream topping