For sometime I have been sporadically getting my eggs from Lavender Cottage, which is just round the corner from our house . I pop up there regularly hoping to see the blue cool box and honesty box on their garden wall . Some days it's there, sometimes it's not . If the box is not there my heart sinks because if I am honest I am a little bit addicted to the lovely blue, white and brown eggs fresh from the Lavender Cottage hens . Their eggs are so fresh and totally free range and make my cakes so rich .
Today I decided to take matters into my own hands and spoke to the lovely people who own the hens and have now made an agreement to get a regular delivery of eggs on a weekly basis . Hooray !
So I better get baking to use some of these eggs !
My Son loves breakfast breads and muffins. One of his favourites is banana muffins. He requested these muffins today and as it is the school holidays i decided to add an extra surprise to the banana muffins. Chunks of 70% cocoa solids dark chocolate . These muffins freeze well .
Chocolate Chunk Banana Muffins
250g plain flour
3tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
A pinch of salt
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
115g caster sugar
75g melted butter
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp honey
2 large ripe bananas
2 medium eggs (free range)
125ml Milk
100g 70% cocoa solids plain chocolate
Preheat oven to 190c .
Mash the bananas well .
Sift the flour, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda, salt, cinnamon and nutmeg into a bowl .
Add the sugar and mix well . Stir in chocolate chunks .
In a second bowl, beat together the eggs, vanilla extract, honey, butter and milk .
Add the bananas to the egg mixture and stir.
Make a 'well' in the dry mixture and add the egg mixture . Stir with a metal spoon until the flour mixture is just incorporated (don't stir too much - its meant to be thick and lumpy!)
place mixture into muffin pan lined with paper cases .
Put in the oven for 20-25 minutes.
Once golden brown and firm remove from oven and place on cooking rack .
Enjoy Fresh . If you have any left over just pop them in the microwave for 10 seconds each to refresh them .
Viennese Whirls and fingers
I tried many years ago to make viennese whirls and just made an absolute mess and never tried again until today!
I have to say, with the aid of my food processor and a piping bag, these biscuits were so easy to make and so yummy!
250g unsalted butter
55g icing sugar
225g plain flour
75g corn flour
25g plain chocolate
Cooking Time: 15 minutes.
Place all the ingredients into a food processor with the metal blade . If you don't have a food processor then a mixing bowl with an electric mixer.
Mix the ingredients to a paste and then stop. You don’t want to add too much air.
For the classic look of the biscuit place the paste into a piping bag with a star nozzle and pipe the mixture out onto non-stick baking parchment .
Pipe the biscuits on the tray they will be baked on and make sure they are spaced sufficiently apart because they do expand.
Bake the biscuits at 170°c for 15 minutes until lightly golden brown, then place them onto a wire rack to cool to room temperature .
Melt the chocolate and drizzle across the biscuits leave to set .
Loving the blog honey!! As you know we are quite partial to banana muffins in our house (especially with a chocolate surprise!!). I am planning to copy your recipes and make gluten-free alternatives to see how much I need to alter the recipes. Will let you know how I get on xxxx
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