Pumpkin Muffins

We regularly have a coeliac trick or treater visiting us the last few years, so I always make a gluten free treat.  This year I have made Pumpkin Muffins, using gluten free self raising flour rather than self raising flour, and the scrapings from inside a couple of pumpkins we've carved.

Any leftover muffins will be used for grab & go breakfasts, in lunchboxes, or snacks next week.

Makes 12

125ml vegetable or light olive oil

2 large free range eggs

250g pumpkin puree 

100-150g sugar

100g mixed dried fruit

2 tsp pumpkin spice (or 1 tsp cinnamon + 1 tsp ginger)

250g self raising flour

1 tsp baking powder

Make pumpkin purée by simmering 250g of pumpkin in water for 15 minutes.  Drain and liquidise.  

In a mixing bowl, whisk the eggs into the oil, followed by the cooled pumpkin purée, sugar, dried fruit, spices and baking powder.  Mix well then stir in the self raising flour.  This is a quite a wet mixture, so unlike other muffin recipes don't be afraid to mix the flour in thoroughly, as the muffins still rise well having done this.

Divide into 12 muffin cases. Bake at 200C for 15 minutes, until a metal sewer comes out of the central muffins clean.

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Choc Chip Banana Bread Breakfast Muffins

More Grab & Go breakfast muffins for my 17 year old son, which he likes to alternate with Bacon & Cheddar Muffins I posted earlier, as he runs out the door to catch the bus to college.

Makes 12

100ml vegetable or light olive oil

75g sugar (optional)

2 ripe bananas (I freeze overripe bananas rather than throw them away, specifically to make this)

225g self raising flour or gluten free self raising flour

100g porridge oats

100g dark chocolate chips or cocoa nibs

1 tsp baking powder

2 large free range eggs

Put all the ingredients, apart from the chocolate chips/cocoa nibs, into a food processor and whizz until smooth. 

Add the chocolate chips/cocoa nibs and whizz to mix them in evenly. 

Divide the mixture into 12 muffin cases.  I use a generous vintage ice cream scoop, which only made 10 muffins the last time I made them.

Bake at 180C for 20 minutes, turning them through 180 degrees half way through the cooking time, until golden brown.  They are cooked through when a metal skewer comes out clean when pushed into the centre.  If not, cook for a couple more minutes then check again.

Keep in an airtight container for 5 days, or freeze.

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Dairy Free Chocolate Marble Cake

Using oil in this Chocolate Marble Cake makes it moist, dairy free, and cheaper than using butter! Made for my son's 15th birthday, hence the action cutting shot.

Makes 2x 2lb loaf cakes or 1 large cake

250ml vegetable (flavourless) oil
250g sugar
4 large eggs (at room temperature)
A few drops of vanilla extract
300g self-raising flour
1 tsp baking powder
25g cocoa powder
Zest & juice of 1 orange

100g icing sugar

1 tbsp cocoa

Hot water 

Weigh all the ingredients, APART FROM the cocoa and orange zest and juice, into a food mixer so you know the total weight of the mix.

Whizz these ingredients together.  Calculate half the weight of the mixture and pour this into a large greased & lined cake tin, or half this amount into two lined loaf tins.

Add the orange zest & juice and cocoa to the remaining mixture in the mixing bowl.  Whizz, and pour/scrape on top of the 'plain' mixture in the cake tins. Swirl to hearts delight in a kind of folding motion  to create ripples in the mix.

Bake for 45-50 minutes at 180C.  Drizzle with a quick chocolate icing if you like (mix icing sugar, cocoa with 1 tbsp of water at time to create a glossy double cream consistency).

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Swedish Cardamon Buns

Just like Cinnamon Buns, but with ground cardamon. Surprisingly easy, even the plaiting.

I've taken the Richard Bertinet's Cinnamon Bun recipe I first used a couple of months ago, and halved the quantity so it made 12.

Makes 12 buns

For The Dough;
100g Full Fat Milk
1 Medium Eggs
300g Strong White Bread Flour
6g dried quick yeast
25g Caster Sugars

100g Salted Butter (at room temperature)

For The Filling;

75g Salted Butter (at room temperature)

125g Soft Brown Sugar

1 tsp ground cardamon or crushed seeds from 35 cardamon pods

For The Egg Glaze;

1 Egg

Start by making the dough. Put the milk and eggs into the bowl of a food mixer (I used a bread machine on dough cycle instead), add the flour, then the yeast to one side of the bowl, and the salt and sugar and butter to the other side of the bowl

Mix on a slow speed for 4 minutes then increase the speed to medium and mix for a further 10-12 minutes until the dough comes away cleanly from the side of the bowl. Or just leave the dough cycle on your bread machine to run. Mine is 45 minutes long, including proving time.

If using a food mixer, form the dough into a ball and pop into a clean floured bowl. Cover and leave for around 45 minutes or until doubled in size.

For the filling, beat the butter and sugar together until pale and stir in the cardamon. Spread the filling over the top of the dough (if softening the butter in the microwave, take care not to let it melt too much - mine was a little sloppy to work with and oozed out of my rolls when twisting).

Roll out the pastry to a rectangle roughly 35 x 45cm, with the longer edge facing you. Spread the cardamom butter over the surface, right to the edges. Fold the top third down to the middle and the bottom third up, like an envelope, so you have three layers of dough. Score, then cut into 12 equal strips, measuring about 3.5 x 11cm each. 

If you're able to plait, make 3 cuts down strips leaving 1 cm uncut at the top. Take each plait and roll it up along its length starting from the cut end then place, uncut end down, in a greased 12 cup muffin tray. I used silicone muffin cases to save greasing. If you can't plait, cut each strip into 2 and twist instead of plait. Cover and allow to prove for 1 hour.

Preheat the oven to 200°C. Brush the knots with the egg glaze and sprinkle with a little brown sugar. Bake for 15-20 minutes until golden.

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Richard Bertinet's Cinnamon Buns

I'm sure I saw a social media post of someone making cinnamon buns, but when I looked for it in my saved posts I couldn't find it. Instead, I ended up following Richard Bertinet's Cinnamon Buns recipe from the Gozney website.

Watching the video, it all looked very easy. And it was, apart from rolling the dough out large enough.  My strips of dough were too thin to plait. So I just twisted them instead.

Do note, the recipe makes 24 buns. I only realised this after I had started mixing the dough. I shaped all 24  but only baked 12, freezing the other 12 for another time. If you don't have the freezer space/appetite/mouths for 24, maybe half the ingredients?

The text from the web page is below, with my notes in brackets.

Makes 24 buns

For The Dough;
200g Full Fat Milk
2 Medium Eggs
600g Strong White Bread Flour
25g Fresh Yeast or 12g dried quick yeast
50g Caster Sugar
10g Salt (I used salted butter and omitted the salt)
200g Unsalted Butter (at room temperature)

For The Filling;

150g Unsalted Butter (at room temperature)

250g Soft Brown Sugar

2 Tsp Cinnamon

For The Egg Glaze;

1 Egg

2 Tbsp Full Fat Milk

For The Sugar Glaze;

100g Caster Sugar

100g Water

Start by making the dough. Put the milk and eggs into the bowl of a food mixer (I used a bread machine on dough cycle, leaving it in for the whole 45 minute cycle) then add the flour. Break in the yeast to one side of the bowl, then add the salt and sugar and butter to the other side

Mix on a slow speed for 4 minutes then increase the speed to medium and mix for a further 10-12 minutes until the dough comes away cleanly from the side of the bowl.

Form the dough into a ball and pop into a clean floured bowl. Cover and leave for around 45 minutes or until double in size.

Lightly flour a work surface and roll the dough into a rectangle roughly the size of an A3 sheet of paper.

For the filling, beat the butter and sugar together until pale and stir in the cinnamon. Spread the filling over the top of the dough (if softening the butter in the microwave, take care not to let it melt too much - mine was a little sloppy to work with and oozed out of my rolls when twisting).

With the long side facing you, fold in half lengthways to enclose the filling and slice it widthways into 24 strips each roughly 3.5cm across. Next, use a sharp knife to cut twice down the length of each strip to make three strands. Plait the three strands together and repeat to make 24 individual plaits.

Take each plait and roll it up along its length to create a knot. Grease a 12 cup muffin tray and pop the knots into the tray. Cover and allow to prove for 1 hour.

Aim to have your Gozney oven (or fan oven at 200C) at around 200°C with little to no flame. Brush the knots with the egg glaze and pop into the outdoor oven to bake for between 15-20 minutes until golden.

Meanwhile, make the sugar glaze. Put the sugar and water in a pan and bring to the boil, turn down to a simmer until you have a light syrup (I was too impatient to bother with either the egg, or the sugar glaze).

Brush the baked knots with the syrup while still hot and leave to cool before devouring.

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These were served up with a candle in each instead of a birthday cake.

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Banana Bread, Gluten Free or Not

I'm late to the Banana Bread lockdown party. Unheated bananas are a rare thing in our house. And if any get overripe they are frozen, to reappear in smoothies or pancakes.

But yesterday, Rachel at West Lea Farm Shop gave me some ripe bananas and asked if I could make some.

I've followed Mary Berry's Banana Bread recipe from The Happy Foodie website, and made 2 with gluten free self raising flour (on the right), and 2 with ordinary self raising flour (the one on the bottom left is ours to try!).  They've both risen equally well.

Halloween 2024 - I made banana bread 'muffins' for the trick or treaters.  I replaced the butter with 100g rapeseed oil, and forgot the sugar in one batch, but no-one noticed!  I have now begun making these as a grab & go breakfast for my teens at sixth form college, adding cocoa nibs or chocolate chips

Makes one 2lb or two 1lb cakes

100g soft butter, rapeseed, or light olive oil

175g sugar (I now reduce to 100g, and may try 75g or 50g

2 ripe bananas

225g self raising flour 

1 tsp baking powder

2 large free range eggs

2 tbsp milk  (I don't add this anymore)

Put all the ingredients into a food processor and mix for 2 minutes until the mixture is smooth. Divide into lined loaf tins, or use an ice cream scoop per muffin liner, and bake at 180C for 40 minutes (20 minutes) until golden brown, and a skewer comes out clean when pushed into the centre.

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Coffee & Walnut Cake

I continue to use my elderly recuperating mother as an excuse to make cake, to help her gain some weight. One cake for her, and one for us.

I based this on Mary Berry's Coffee & Walnut Cake recipe on BBC Good Food website. I found it made quite a small cake (which was fine for my mother's lockdown 90th birthday), so doubled the quantities to make two cakes the next time.  I also, as ever, tweaked the ingredients to my own taste and supplies; I only ever have salted butter, I used a shot of espresso rather than essence, and I used half the amount of icing sugar!

Makes two loaf cakes

Cake
200g softened butter
200g granulated sugar
4 large free-range eggs
200g self-raising flour
2 level tsp baking powder
100g chopped walnuts
2 tbsp freshly made espresso

Topping
125g butter, softened
200g icing sugar, sifted
2 tbsp freshly made espresso

Make an espresso coffee and leave to stand.

Preheat the oven to 180C.

Mix the softened butter and sugar in a food processor until pale and creamy.  Add the rest of the cake ingredients and mix again for about 30 seconds until well incorporated and smooth (apart from small lumps of walnut).

Weigh out equally into two lined loaf tins. Bake for 40 minutes until golden brown and a clean skewer comes out clean.  Take out of the oven and leave too cool.

Whilst the cakes cool, mix the icing ingredients to a smooth spreadable paste.  When the cakes are cool enough for the butter in the icing not to melt into the cake.

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Carrot Loaf Cake

I don't usually make cakes, but I am cooking for my elderly mother who is recovering from a stay in hospital (not Covid) and not eating much.  She mentioned that she wasn't eating vegetable either right now so Carrot Cake came to mind as a high calorie (higher still if I'd had the ingredients for the topping when I made the ones above), fibre rich, snack.

Makes 2 1lb loaf cakes

225g self-raising flour
2 tsp baking powder
150g light brown sugar
50g walnut pieces, chopped
100g carrots, coarsely grated
50g mixed dried fruit
2 ripe bananas, mashed
2 eggs
150ml sunflower oil

Topping
250g (9 oz) tub mascarpone cheese or soft cheese
2-3 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 tablespoons icing sugar, sifted
about 25g (1 oz) walnut pieces, chopped

Preheat oven to 180C.

Add all the cake ingredients to a food processor, apart from the carrots and dried fruit.

Mix the cake ingredients thoroughly until well incorporated.  Stir in carrots and dried fruit with a spatula and then divide equally between two loaf tins, lined with loaf tin liners.

Bake at 180C for 50-60 minutes, or until clean skewer comes out clean when pushed into the centre of the cake.

While the cake is cooling mix the cheese, vanilla extract and the sieved icing sugar together in a small bowl. When the cake is cool to the touch,  spread the icing evenly over the top of the cake and scatter the chopped walnuts on top. Store in the refrigerator if iced.

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Easy Hot Cross Buns

I started off making Hot Cross Buns with Paul Hollywood's recipe.  But over the years I have simplified it, and now no longer glaze them as it just makes them too sticky in my experience. It also requires a bread machine with a dough cycle, or kneading the dough for 10 minutes in a food processor.

Makes 12 buns

500g strong white bread flour
75g caster sugar
7g quick yeast
125g dried mixed fruit
Zest of 1 orange (optional)
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp mixed spice
1 tbsp sunflower oil
300ml water

For the cross
1 tbsp plain flour

Add all the ingredients to the bread machine pan in the order specified by your bread machine, then knead on the dough cycle.  Turn off the machine and leave the dough to rise to the top of the warmed pan for 1 hour.  Set a timer so you don't forget it!

After an hour, tip the dough out onto a floured surface and divide into 12 even pieces.  Shape into balls and place on a piece of greaseproof paper on a baking tray.  Leave to rise for another hour.

Heat the oven to 220C.  Mix the flour and water until you have a double cream consistency.  Spoon into a piping bag or a small plastic bag with the corner cut off to drizzle a line along each row of buns and back across the rows the otherway to make a cross.

Cook for 20-25 minutes or until they are golden brown.  I found these browned very quickly and only needed 20 minutes.  But every oven is different so just watch them carefully the first time you make them and take notes.  Remove from the oven and leave to cool.

I tend to eat them like toasted teacakes.

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All in One Apple Cake - Dairy Free Version

I stumbled across this recipe earlier in the year, when looking for a rhubarb cake recipe.  I thought I'd try it with apple, and using the all in one approach just to save time.  It seems to work.

2 small eating apples
225 sugar
240ml sunflower oil
240g self raising flour (gluten free self raising can be used instead)
3 eggs
2 tbsp apple juice
1 heaped tsp baking powder
2 tbsp brown sugar
1tsp cinnamon (optional)

Preheat the oven to 180C.

Peel the apples, cut into quarters and core.  Place in the food processor with all the other ingredients.  Whizz until you can just see pea sized lumps of apple.

Pour the cake into a greased and lined cake tin.  I use two sandwich tins and make 2 small cakes.

Mix the sugar and cinnamon in a small dry bowl and sprinkle evenly over the top of the cake. If using 2 sandwich tins mix 1 tbsp brown sugar and 1/2tsp cinnamon, sprinkle over one cake and then do the same with the other.

Bake at 180C for 40 minutes.

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Food Processor Gluten Free Lemon Drizzle Cake

I'm not a big cake maker.  Historically, my cakes did not rise and were only fit for close family consumption.  But I tried this Lemon Drizzle Cake for the infant school cafe a few years ago and it rose to my amazement, even experimenting with gluten free flour, so I haven't stopped making it since.

It is a Mary Berry recipe which I simply substituted the self raising flour with gluten free self raising flour, and bake in loaf tins rather than as a traybake.

Makes 2 1lb loaves

225g soft butter
225g sugar
zest of 1 lemon
275g gluten free self raising flour
2 level tsp baking powder
4 tbsp milk
4 large free range eggs

Drizzle:
Juice of 1 lemon
80g sugar

Preheat the oven to 180C.

Place the butter, sugar and zest in the food processor and mix until pale and smooth.  If your butter is straight out of the fridge, microwave it for 30 seconds on High, in the processor jug if you can.

Add the rest of the ingredients and mix until just smooth.  Spoon into 2 lined loaf tins and bake for 40 minutes.  Check it is cooked with a skewer then leave to cool for 5 minutes.

Mix the sugar and lemon juice in a little bowl.  If your lemon is very juicy you may need to add a little more sugar to get the mixture to a syrupy consistency.  On the other hand, if your lemon is not very juicy, try microwaving the mixture for 10 seconds or so to make it runnier and help it go a little further.

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Spiced Pumpkin Muffins

Making Pumpkin & Ginger Jam yesterday morning gave me a great idea for the 24 little cakes I need to make for the infant school.

There is a River Cottage recipe for marbled muffins (sadly not available online right now I’ve just seen), and I thought I’d stir in some pumpkin jam.  But as my jam just fitted into five jars with none leftover I’ve had to revise my plan, and use my go-to fresh fruit/vegetable muffin recipe.

I only began making muffins a few years ago.  Before that my sister in law would put me to shame, effortlessly wiping up a batch as soon as she saw black banana or the like.  My muffins, by comparison, were more solid than rock cakes and even more inedible.

Then I stumbled across this recipe on the web.  I’m not sure where it came from, but it works.  My muffins are soft, slightly moist and most importantly, edible. I use these quantities for fresh fruit/veg + dried ingredient for consistently reliable results ie beetroot & white chocolate, apple & raisin, banana & choc chip, courgette & raisin, carrot & raisin (carrot cake) etc etc.

250g self raising flour

1 tsp baking powder

110g sugar

1 tsp ground ginger

1 tsp ground cinnamon

1 handful (50g) mixed dried fruit

80ml sunflower oil

150ml milk

1 egg

170g grated pumpkin

Place 12 muffin cases into a muffin tray.  If, however, you want big American sized muffins, I would suggest 8-10 muffin cases only.  You’ll have to experiment!

Weigh out the dry ingredients in a large mixing bowl and mix with a fork to break up any lumps of flour.

Measure out the milk and oil and whisk in the egg.

Pour the wet mixture into the dry and fold in until only just mixed.  The trick to not making solid muffins, I have learnt, is not not overmix.  And a few patches of dry flour is okay.

Spoon immediately into the muffin cases. Sprinkle the tops with brown sugar if you wish.

Bake for 20-25 minutes at 190C/170C Fan, turning the tray halfway through cooking.  Bake until the muffins are lightly browned and spring back when touched.  Leave to cool on a cooling rack until bearable.

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Hugh's Marbled Chocolate or Nutella Muffins

I've been meaning to make the chocolate version of Hugh Fearnley Whittingstall's muffins for quite a while but never seem to quite have the opportunity.  The recipe is dead simple, swirling Nutella through the muffin mix, but most of my sweet baking is destined for the Infant School Cafe who have a strict no nut policy.

But Sunday was my darling Isabel's 10th Birthday.  Sadly, she does not like cake.  However, my Victoria Sponge was so pathetically small I thought I'd better boost the sweet treats for the assembled extended family by making a batch of muffins.

Producing something with a healthy hint of chocolate wowed the children ranging in age from 2-10, and even my fussy 6 year old niece couldn't restrain herself, announcing out of earshot of her parents, that they were really yummy.

Hugh's Jammy Muffins

I haven't got a sweet tooth nor do my kids regularly eat enough supper to be rewarded with sweet treats, but about once a month I volunteer to bake 36 muffins/biscuits for the Infant School Friday After School Cafe.  And this is where I get to experiment with my sugary culinary muscle.

So last Friday, fed up with rolling and cutting out gingerbread dinosaurs which is my usual offering, I remembered Hugh Fearnley Whittingstall's Jammy Muffins.

As I was baking ostensibly for 4-7 year olds I opted for strawberry jam rather than lemon curd, and have to produce nut-free cakes which ruled out Nutella which probably would have been the kids favourite.

Having repeatedly failed in the past to make edible muffins (despite being able to make bread good enough to sell!) I was pleased how easy these muffins are to make.  The only 'difficulty' was taking care not to mix the mixture too much whilst trying to marble the big lumps of set jam.  The muffins puffed up in a very satisfying way in the oven, and then collapsed a little when cooled down reminding me of oozy jam doughnuts.  Next time I think I'll try adding some almond like Hugh suggests to the jam muffins, and of course make some nutella ones for my kids - large and small - to eat at home.

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I am entering this into Lavender & Lovage  and What Kate Baked's monthly Tea Time Treats challenge in the hope that I am not too late for this month!