Muffin Monday - Honey Pineapple Olive Oil Muffins with Lime Glaze

These week's muffin recipe for Muffin Monday is another easy one, if you have a bowl, a spatula and a muffin tray, you're all set to make these. The original recipe provided by Anuradha of Baker Street (our host) was for Honey Lemon Olive Oil Muffins with Lemon Glaze but I decided to switch it up a little and substitute the lemon flavor in the batter with pineapple, and in the glaze with lime.

I baked these in the evening and only 5 muffins survived for the photoshoot the following day! 

I have baked cakes and muffins with olive oil before and loved it. Having it in baked goods reminds me a lot of the breads and cakes of the Mediterranean region, ones I could eat truckloads of :). Thank goodness then that I reside far away in the tropics (where there are other, different food-related sins!).  From what I know, the combination of olive oil and tangy citrus are complementary flavors in cakes, so I reasoned that switching one citrus for another would have the same effect.

I opted for the more tropical citrus accents of pineapple and lime, both of which I have in abundance either growing in my garden or from the vegetable stall down the road from my home. The chopped pineapple bits were divided into two portions, one was mixed into the batter and the remainder was sprinkled on top of the muffins for effect. You won't get perfectly smooth muffin tops as a result, but there's no chance of mistaking these pineapple muffins for anything else! 

Pineapples from my local vegetable and fruit guy (L) and limes from my garden (R). 

Limes photo taken from my Instagram account :)

A quick half an hour is all you need to produce these beautifully light and refreshingly tangy muffins. If you have an extra 10 minutes, you might probably want to make the cute toppers shown here using toothpicks and bits of lime and pineapple. Squeeze the lime on top of the glaze for that extra zing and while you're at it, why not pretend you're on on a tropical holiday! ;)

Note: Muffin Monday is an initiative by Baker Street. A culinary journey of sharing a wickedly delicious muffin recipe every week. Drop her a quick line to join her on her journey to make the world smile and beat glum Monday mornings week after week.  

Honey Pineapple Olive Oil Muffins with Lime Glaze
(Adapted from Pinch My Salt)
Makes 12 muffins
Ingredients:
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup honey (preferably local)
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
1/2 cup buttermilk, at room temperature
2 large eggs, at room temperature
2 tablespoons grated lemon zest (I used 3/4 cup pineapple chunks, cut into small cubes)
2 tablespoons freshly-squeezed lemon juice (Omitted this)

Glaze:
1/2 cup powdered sugar
2 tablespoons freshly-squeezed lime juice

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 180C/350F. Spray a 12-cup muffin tin with non-stick baking spray or line with paper cups (spray the inside of the cups with baking spray to prevent muffins from sticking to the paper).

2. In a large bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt until well combined. Set aside.

3. In a separate medium bowl, combine honey, sugar, olive oil, buttermilk, and eggs. Whisk together until well combined. Divide the pineapple chunks into 2 portions and stir 1 portion into the mixture. Reserve the rest of the pineapple for the topping.

4. Pour liquid ingredients into the flour mixture and stir with a wooden spoon just until all of the flour is incorporated. Don’t overmix.

5. Divide batter between muffin cups using a large spoon or mechanical ice cream scoop – the cups should be mostly full. Sprinkle remaining pineapple on top of the muffins.

6. Bake for 17 – 21 minutes or until the center of a muffin springs back lightly to the touch or a toothpick inserted into the middle of a muffin comes out clean. Check early and watch carefully, they will brown fast.

7. While muffins are baking, make glaze. Sift powdered sugar in a small bowl and stir in the lime juice, mix until well incorporated.

8. Let muffins cool in pan for 5 minutes then remove to a wire rack. Brush the tops of the muffins with glaze while they are still warm. Let cool completely.

Muffin Monday - Blackcurrant Cheesecake Muffins

I think we're seeing in working mothers a change from "Thank God it's Friday" to "Thank God it's Monday." If any working mother has not experienced that feeling, her children are not adolescent.

- Ann Diehl 

Now that I no longer have to go into an office to do a regular 9 to 5, I really look forward to Mondays. For a start, I have the whole house to myself and after what is a normally hectic weekend full of activities, the peace and quiet is a much welcomed relief. Another reason I now look forward to the start of the week is of course, Muffin Monday, our weekly cooking group hosted by Anuradha of Baker Street.

This week's recipe is Berry Cheesecake Muffins, and it was up to us what kind of berries we wished to adopt in the recipe. I was all excited and enthusiastic until I went grocery shopping and no fresh berries were to be found anywhere! Which was really strange because only a few days ago, the store shelves were lined with punnets upon punnets of the most beautiful strawberries... That's one of the hazards of living out here in the low-lying tropics, we rely on the regularity of overseas shipments for fruits such as these and unfortunately, they are not as regular as I'd like... 

And so I surrendered to the fact that my muffins would not contain any fresh berries this time round. I located a jar of blackcurrant jam instead and used that as the filling for the cheesecake muffins. The jam was already very sweet so to compensate for that, I reduced the amount of the other sugars stated in the recipe. The added lemon zest provided a warm citrusy note that balanced off the sweetness and creaminess of the muffins quite well. 

The sight of some of the hot jam oozing out from underneath the batter as these came out of the oven simply added to the muffins' allure. If you love the idea of mini New York-style cheesecakes, then these muffins are  definitely for you!

Note: Muffin Monday is an initiative by Baker Street. A culinary journey of sharing a wickedly delicious muffin recipe every week. Drop in a quick line to join her on her journey to make the world smile and beat glum Monday mornings week after week.

Berry Cheesecake Muffins
Adapted from allrecipes.com
Ingredients:
1/2 (8 ounce) package cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup confectioners' sugar (I reduced this to 1/4 cup)
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 egg
1 1/4 cups milk
1/2 cup brown sugar (I reduced this to 1/3 cup)
1/2 cup butter, melted
1 teaspoon grated lemon zest
1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 cup strawberry jam (I used blackcurrant jam)

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 375F (190C). Grease 12 muffin cups or line with paper muffin liners.

2. Beat together cream cheese and confectioners' sugar until smooth and set aside.

3. In a large mixing bowl, combine all-purpose flour, baking powder and salt. In a separate bowl, beat together egg milk, brown sugar, butter, lemon zest and vanilla extract. Stir egg mixture into dry ingredients, stirring just until moistened.

4. Spoon half of batter into muffin cups. Top each portion with 1 tablespoon cream cheese mixture and 1 teaspoon jam. Spoon remaining muffin batter on top.

5. Bake in preheated oven for 20 minutes, or until golden. Cool in pan for 5 minutes, then remove muffins and cool on rack. Store in airtight container.

Muffin Monday - Triple Chocolate Muffins

In my dreams I gorge on chocolates, I roll in chocolates, and their texture is not brittle but soft as flesh, like a thousand mouths on my body, devouring me in fluttering small bites. To die beneath their tender gluttony seems the culmination of every temptation I have ever known.

~ Joanne Harris, Chocolat

So are you ready to face your week head-on with these devilishly decadent Triple Chocolate Muffins? I'm very late for this week's Muffin Monday, so late in fact that there's only a few hours left to my Monday over where I'm at. Let me explain the reason for this unusual (but fast becoming the usual!) tardiness - it's partly because I'm sick as a dog today, but mainly, it's because I've been very disorganized. The complete opposite of our event host, Anuradha of Baker Street, who actually sent this recipe early on last week. My apologies again, An and many thanks for letting me still participate. 

Get ready for some love....and lovin'.

Chocolate is hands down my most irresistable indulgence, as in, I am not able to resist having it in any of its forms. Sounds a bit like an illness when I put it that way, but maybe it is a kind of addiction. Well let's be grateful that at least it's legal :).

I looked through the recipe and the 'triple-ness' came from the cocoa, bittersweet and semisweet chocolate chips, with a dash of espresso powder to give the muffins a kick. My sister had brought back a stash of some rather lovely Swiss chocolates the last time she came home to get married (actually, she only got married once), so I decided to use some of those in place of the chocolate chips. I'm surprised we still had some left over, or perhaps our chocolate stash was really the size of a sweet-toothed pirate's treasure loot... ;).

I chopped up a handful of bite-sized, white-tipped Toblerones which went into the batter as chips and to top each muffin, I placed a slice of milk chocolate filled with salted caramel in the middle. I don't have to tell you how good this combination of chocolate-everything tastes like as you bite into the muffin's warm belly, do I?

The recipe is so easy that I did everything by hand as soon as I rolled out of bed and had these ready in time for breakfast! We don't normally start off each day with Triple Chocolate Muffins (unfortunately, sanity and willpower prevail) but this one time we did, you can bet we walked out the front door with an extra bounce in our step!

Muffin Monday is an initiative by Baker Street. A culinary journey of sharing a wickedly delicious muffin recipe every week. Drop in a quick line to join her on her journey to make the world smile and beat glum Monday mornings week after week.

Muffin Monday: Triple Chocolate Muffins
Makes 12
Ingredients:
1/2 cup (1 stick) salted butter
1 3/4 cup unbleached, all-purpose flour
2/3 cup dutch-process cocoa
11/4 cup sugar
1 tsp instant espresso powder
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
3/4 tsp Kosher salt
1/2 c. bittersweet chocolate chips (I used mini-white topped Toblerones, cut into small chunks)
1/2 c. semisweet chocolate chips (I used salted caramel-filled milk chocolate, as a topping)
2 eggs
1 cup milk
2 tsp pure vanilla extract
2 tsp white vinegar

Method:

1. Line a muffin tin with 12 paper cups. Spray lightly with cooking spray. Preheat oven to 425.

Melt the butter; set aside to cool.

2. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, cocoa, sugar, espresso powder, baking powder, baking soda, salt and chopped chocolate.

3. In a separate bowl, whisk the eggs, milk, vanilla and vinegar until blended. Stir in the cooled, melted butter.

4. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients. Stir with a rubber spatula, just until blended.

5. Spoon into the prepared muffin liners…the cups will be very full. Bake for 15-20 minutes until the muffins bounce back when pressed with a finger. Cool on a wire cooling rack for 5 minutes.

6. Remove from the pan and let them cool just a bit longer. Serve warm.

Muffin Monday - Eggnog Muffins

The rays of happiness, like those of light, are colorless when unbroken.

~ Henry W. Longfellow

In most countries around the world, today is a public holiday or at the very least, the day after a public holiday. Whether you celebrated Christmas or not, I hope yesterday was good for you (and yours, if you're with them). I am writing this early, so that when this post gets published, I will be on a beach or in a pool somewhere under the hot sun. Hang on.... that sounds very much like everyday at home. Let me rephrase that - I will be going nowhere far but shall be taking a bit of a blogging break this week to ponder about the things I'd like to happen in 2012. In my life, I mean.

As I'm writing this, it's 3 days till Christmas and I'm feeling bad because most of my seasons greeting cards are sitting on my dresser, not yet mailed. Well, they have to be written in first before they can be posted, and I'm stalling on the writing part. Lately, I seem to have acquired a super-clingy new best friend and she goes by the name, Procrastination. I'm still trying to figure out how to give her the slip.

To cheer me up today though, 'P' (my new friend's nick) and I baked some eggnog-flavored muffins for Muffin Monday. Not having any eggnog essence, we stuck with vanilla and it still tasted great. Just for fun, P suggested we pipe some muffin batter into clean, empty eggshells just to go with the 'Egg'nog theme. She's so entertaining, that girl! 

Well, since I had oh...hours to waste, I agreed and we used this technique by SandeeA to attain our egg-shaped muffins. We didn't make them with the suggested topping in the original recipe, instead we sprinkled some crushed peppermint candy cane over the batter. These eggnog muffins had some serious swag, and they tasted delightful to boot!

Note: Muffin Monday is an initiative by Baker Street. A culinary journey of sharing a wickedly delicious muffin recipe every week. Drop Anuradha a quick line to join her on her journey to make the world smile and beat glum Monday mornings week after week. 

Eggnog Muffins
(recipe from King Arthur Flour)
Makes: 12 muffins

Batter

1/4 cup (1/2 stick, 2 ounces) butter

3/4 cup (5 1/4 ounces) sugar

2 large eggs

2 1/2 cups (10 1/2 ounces) King Arthur Unbleached All-Purpose Flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon ground nutmeg

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon eggnog flavor or 1 teaspoon vanilla

1 1/4 cups (10 ounces) eggnog or half and half

Topping*

1/2 cup (3 1/2 ounces) sugar

1/2 cup (2 1/4 ounces) King Arthur Unbleached All-Purpose Flour

1/2 teaspoon nutmeg

1/8 teaspoon eggnog flavor, optional

3 tablespoons (1 1/2 ounces) butter, melted

*(I used crushed peppermint candy cane)

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 425°F. Line a muffin tin with 12 paper or silicone muffin cups, and grease the cups with non-stick vegetable oil spray; this will ensure that they peel off the muffins nicely.

2. In a medium-sized mixing bowl, cream together the butter and sugar till smooth. Add the eggs, beating for several minutes and scraping the bowl, till the mixture is smooth and light colored. Beat in the baking powder, nutmeg, salt, and eggnog flavor or vanilla.

3. Stir the flour into the butter mixture alternately with the eggnog or half and half, beginning and ending with the flour and making sure everything is thoroughly combined. Spoon the batter evenly into the prepared muffin cups.

4. Stir together all of the topping ingredients JUST till crumbly. Stir gently, and don't overmix; you don't want to turn this crumbly topping into a solid mass. Sprinkle the topping over the muffins.

5. Bake the muffins for 20 minutes, or until they're a pale golden brown. Remove them from the oven, and serve warm, or at room temperature.

Muffin Monday - Basil Lime Olive Oil Muffins

I'm back on the Muffin Monday wagon this week, and what a delicious and healthy recipe we were given to try out. Our host,  An of Baker Street provided one of Giada De Laurentiis's recipes to make Olive Oil Muffins. As much as I think butter rules when it comes to baking in general, olive and coconut oils do come in as equal seconds.

Muffin Monday - Lavender Granola Muffins with Apricots, Cranberries and Chocolate

After a whole week of decadent feasting, baking these granola muffins made me feel immensely better about my eating binges of late. Admittedly, I did try to work off the calories by running and hiking up hills under the blazing heat over the past several days, but all that simply made me tired and not really that much happier. It'd been a while since my muffin pan had seen the inside of my oven walls anyway, so I decided it was time to put it to good use again.

Banana-Apricot-Cranberry-Nutella Muffin

Is that title a mouthful or what? Let's just nickname this "BACNut Muffin" to save us the the tongue-twister, shall we?

Anyways, I felt like having some something chocolatey, something fruity in the oven this morning, so I came up with this conconction. This is the easiest recipe in the world, I learnt it while I was in Washington DC and it doesn't even need any special baking equipment - just a bowl, a spoon and a muffin tin. Trez simple! For lazy bakers like me, this recipe is heaven-sent and best of all, I can make it just about anywhere I go if there's an oven within my reach.

We happen to grow bananas in our garden too, so what better use for them than to throw them in this batter? The apricots and cranberries are dried ones, I'm afraid, and together with the Nutella spread, they come straight off Hua Ho shelves. (Hua Ho being our local equivalent of Tescos, Cold Storage or Giant).

Soooooo.... here are the ingredients:

I put dollops of Nutella inside the batter....yummms!

 

Rising steadily in the oven

Here's a close-up of these BACNut babies..... just for you.

Mango-Raspberry Muffins

It's mango season where we're at, and looking out into the garden, I could see our mango trees being burdened by their seasonal offerings. In fact, our trees produced more mangoes than they could bear, with many being unpicked and just falling to the ground during the rainy days (our neighbours have already had their fair share of mangoes - up to their eyeballs, in fact - and would no longer accept our neighbourly gestures). So what to do with all these darned mangoes?

Well, yesterday I churned them into my no-brainer mango muffins with raspberry filling. Chopped the succulent fruits into tiny pieces and mixed them into the batter.

Voila! What do you think? The dessert plate looks hot too, no?

Can't get enough of that plate, so here it is again in its full glory...