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Tuesday 12 June 2012

No 28 - Rhubarb Muffins


These too are from Lindsay - she of the banana cake recipe.   It is scrawled in my notebook in a combination of red and green inks in both mine and Lindsay's handwriting which suggests she might have been giving me this off the top of her head, and had to call me later to fill in the bits she forgot.  (I keep muffin recipes in a pocket sized notebook - no idea why they are separate from my other recipes, and I have dozens of them.)

You possibly also need to understand that these are Kiwi (or possibly US) style muffins (not English style yeast muffins).

They are quick breads which means eat within a few hours (24 max) of baking, or put them in the freezer and microwave them back into life when you want to eat one.

Muffins are quick to make and at their best eaten warm.  I often make savory ones to have with soup as a quick warming lunch or 'tea' in Autumn, or or bake muffins for 'round the cans racing' food.

This recipe (possibly in keeping with the banana cake) is a generous one.  Most of my recipes make 12 muffins, this makes 18 to 24.

Rhubarb Muffins

Beat together 1/4 cup of oil, 3/4 cup of sugar, and 2 eggs

Add 2 cups of milk, 1/2 cup of plain yoghurt and 1 tsp vanilla.

Stir in 2 cups of chopped raw rhubarb

Sift in: 4 cups of self-raising flour
              1/2 tsop baking soda
              1 tsp cinnamon

Spoonfuls into greased muffin pans (I put hald spoonfuls, a tsp of cream cheese and then the rest of the muffin mix making sure th cream cheese is enclosed).  Sprinkle brown sugar on top if you like a bit of extra sweetness or brown topping.

Bake at 170-180 degrees C for about 20-25 minutes.




Tuesday 5 June 2012

Mum's Bacon and Egg Pie

Bacon & Egg Pie is picnic food tradition in our family.  I hope you discover how easy it is to be impressive with this pie.












Another weekend spent yacht racing: Cowes to Deauville (and getting back).  I missed the Jubilee River Pageant, and given that I have lived on (literally ON) the Thames for the best part of the last16 years, that is unforgiveable.  I hope those of you who were there enjoyed a spectacular. 

In the spare hour I had before we left on Friday, I threw together one of my mother's reliable stand-bys - a bacon and egg pie - for 'easy to eat racing food'.

Half of it was gone before we made the start.....

Bacon & Egg Pie a la Diana

Line a fairly large roasting dish with ready rolled flaky pastry/puff pastry,

Cover the bottom with bacon - either strips of streaky or chopped up bacon ends. 
Sprinkle a generous quantity of frozen peas over that

Beat up enough eggs to cover all that (with 1/4 pint of cream if you like rich) add ground black pepper, and pour it in.


Decorate the top with sliced tomatoes and strips from any left over pastry

Bake at 200 deg C until the egg mix is set and pastry golden.


(For an even more substantial pie, chop up any left over boiled spuds lurking in the fridge and throw them in with the peas.)

Eat hot (with homemade tomato ketchup) or cold, or slightly warm.  Freeze leftover slices (or make extra for the freezer).  Thawed and reheated works well too.

Bacon & Egg Pie is picnic food tradition in our family.  I hope you discover how easy it is to be impressive with this pie.