Savory Muffins

At this time of year we spend our Sunday's yacht racing.  I love sailing but it does sometimes make the weekends seem to short.  Sailing on Sunday, and 5 days of work in London, leaves only Saturday for everything else in life..... including the baking.

The allotment has very nearly been cleaned up - frost took all the pumpkins and courgettes a week ago.  The corn and beans are all harvested.  Only the bassica bed looks well stocked for Winter - that and some Swiss Chard (called Silver Beet where I come from) - nothing much there I can turn into baking (cabbage cake ....hmmmmmm .... although I have to say as an aside that kale in curry sauce - an accidental combination - wasn't as objectionable as might be anticipated).  We spent part of Saturday putting guttering on the shed so that we could collect rainwater for summer watering.  It felt like a mad project given that it has rained solidly for a week and the garden is completely waterlogged again.  

There had to be, however, time for the baking; muffins to feed to the crew on Sunday.  I have a recipe somewhere, but I tend to make muffins up as I go along and savory ones simply depend on what is in the fridge at the time....

Savory Muffins

Into a bowl: a small tin  of corn kernels (drained), some finely chopped up bacon, and some grated cheese (the tastier the better) - roughly equal quantities if you need better guidance - and a finely diced onion,

Yesterday I also threw in some grated courgette, tobasco sauce, and oregano.

2 cups of flour
4 tsp baking powder
2 small to medium eggs
1/2 cup oil  (or a couple of ounces of melted butter)
1/2 tsp B. Soda dissolved in some milk - made up to enough to turn the whole lot into a loosely sticky mess.

Dollop that into a greased 12 pot muffin tray.  Bake at 170-180 degrees C. for 15-20 minutes.

I find that muffins with cheese in them rise beautifully and have a disconcerting way of collapsing as they cool.  Slight overcooking helps to overcome this (and the corn, onion and courgette helps to stop them drying out in the process), or just eat them warm.

The photo is of the few that came back having beat around the Solent in a plastic box

No 32 - Fred's Original Bran Muffins

Wow – way too long without adding anything to the Blog.  It’s not that I haven’t been in the kitchen; it’s pickle, jam and chutney season and I have been making batches of preserves for a Charity Craft Sale, and for my Xmas hampers.  I’ve also been taking advantage of a remarkably (considering our wet summer) good supply of blackberries on the hedgerows to fill the freezer with fruit for winter puddings, and to make Blackberry and Apple Crumble on a regular basis.

Despite a waterlogged start the allotment is finally producing enough vegetables to feed us so I have been freezing beans and corn, and turning some of the surplus courgettes into cakes and muffins.  Courgette doesn’t add any flavour to your cake but it does contribute wonderfully to texture, making even bran muffins soft and moist.

This muffin recipe started my own recipe collection.  Prior to learning to make these in the ‘Home Economics’ class at school (aged about 10) all the recipes I baked from were my Mum’s.  Mum never made muffins - no idea why not, but maybe because microwave defrosting hadn't been invented in those (old) days!

The addition of courgettes to these muffins extends their delicious life by another 24 hours or so.  For years after I set up my own household, I would make variations on these a couple of times a week, to eat with soup for our evening meals.  They freeze well and microwave defrosting means you can have a hot fresh muffin anytime.

Original Bran Muffin Recipe

In a pot gently warm:
1/2 cup milk
1 oz butter
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 Tablespoon golden Syrup
When the butter is melted add
1/2 tsp Baking Soda

Pour the contents of the pot into the dry ingredients:
1 cup flour
1 cup bran
3 tsp Baking Powder
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp mixed spice
Handful Sultanas

Then add
1 beaten egg

Mix the whole lot up and bake  - 15 -20 minutes at 170 -180 degrees C.  Makes 12.

That's the standard recipe.  In the line after the sultanas add your own - 1 cup (or so) of grated courgette, grated pumpkin, carrot, apple, pear....etc, 1cup of frozen black currants (now that's a good one if you can get them), and 1/2 cup of sunflower seeds, or chopped nuts, etc if you like a bit of crunch.

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.

No 13 - Citrus Muffins

Citrus Muffins

Mum sent this recipe over a couple of years ago.  I’ve no idea where she got it from but it amused me because her enthusiasm for it indicates she must have finally got herself a food processor.

She apparently makes lemon ones.  I haven’t tried lemon yet but the orange, tangerine or mandarin ones are fabulous – fabulously easy, fabulously moist and tasty.  Rare for a muffin recipe, these are still moist and palatable on the second day after they were made, but there are seldom any left at the end of day one.

200g citrus (skin and all)

1 c sugar

 Blend these together in the food processor.

Add

1 large egg

½ cup of milk and blend thoroughly.

Sift together 1½ cups flour

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda and gently pulse these dry ingredients into the wet mix until just mixed.

Lastly mix in 100g melted butter

Bake in well greased muffin pans (12 standard size) or cupcake papers,  20 minutes at 170 -180C.

Citrus Muffins