Mocha Muffins

I have been travelling for the last 7 days (which explains this silence) and I miss the cooking part when I'm on the road. However, the last thing I baked before I left were some good old Mocha Muffins. The whole idea with me baking muffins centres around my kids loving them and me aiming to put atleast a dozen different muffin recipes on this blog. They are easy to bake if you follow simple instructions. Personally, they are also a good 'pick up and eat on way to office' stuff.

Mocha Muffins

Ingredients:
Refined flour - 1 3/4 Cup
Granulated sugar - 3/4 Cup
Cocoa - 2 Tblsp
Instant coffee powder - 2 Tsp
Baking powder - 2 1/2 Tsp
Salt - 1/2 Tsp
Milk - 1 Cup
Unslated butter, melted - 1/2 Cup
Egg, beaten - 1 No.
Vanilla essence - 1 Tsp
For topping -
1 tblsp powdered sugar mixed with 1/2 tsp cocoa

Method:
1. Heat oven to 375*F (190*C). Sift together flour, sugar, cocoa, coffee, baking powder and salt in a large bowl. Mix well and set aside.
2. In another bowl, combine milk, butter, egg, and vanilla essence. Whisk until well blended.
3. Pour the wet mixture into the dry mixture and stir until moistened.
4. Fill into greased and floured muffin tins (only three-fourths full). NOTE - Makes a dozen muffins.
5. Sprinkle the topping mixture of sugar & cocoa over top.
6. Bake for 15-18 minutes at 375 deg F (190 deg Celsius).

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Apple Muffins

Baking muffins every alternate weekend is something of a ritual at our household now. So much that my younger one who turns two next month calls all cakes as muffins ( or maapin in his lingo).
I tried baking apple muffins a long time back this year and met with disastrous results. The fault was entirely mine. I had gone against the one rule I follow in the kitchen- When cooking follow instinct, when baking follow instructions. I let my instinct take over and was left with something that resembled a crumble than a muffin. That explained my jitters when I set about baking apple muffins this time. This easy to follow recipe ensured success and the aroma of the freshly baked muffins made it into a hit. The first lot of 12 are over and I'm about to make another fresh batch for my muffin crazed sons.

Apple Muffins

Ingredients:

Flour - 2 Cups
Baking powder - 2 Tsp
Sugar - 1/2 Cup
Nutmeg, freshly ground - 1/4 Tsp
Cinnamon powder - 1/2 Tsp
Salt - 1/2 Tsp
Milk - 1 Cup
Egg - 1
Butter, melted - 1/4 Cup
Apple, cored, peeled and coarsely chopped - 1 Cup

Method:
1. Mix all the dry ingredients (Flour, sugar, spices, baking powder,salt) in a big bowl and whisk.
2. Mix all the wet ingredients (egg, Milk, butter) in a separate bowl. Whisk well.
3. Add the chopped apple and wet ingredients to the dry ingredients.
4. Stir to combine. Spoon into muffin molds.
5. Bake at 220 deg. Celsius for 20-25 minutes.

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Oat Bran Muffins

Cooking at home is a great stressbuster and relaxation technique for many. Cooking with your kids is a great way to bond with them. Not only are you spending time together but are also creating something new. It is also very educational for your kids. They feel a part of something important and learn new things. It also personally, solves a big problem for me. My kids are very fussy and choosy eaters. When they help me in the kitchen, they want to try out their creation (that's the important part ...the kids made it, not you ).
Last weekend was one such bonding time for me with my kids and what better than baking. Baking is a great way to teach them counting, measuring, time and so on. We baked muffins ...and that too Oat Bran muffins. I found this great recipe on Joyofbaking and since I had oat bran in the kitchen, we decided to give it a try.
Bran is the hard outer layer of grain and is rich in nutrition. Oat bran is the edible, outermost layer of the oat kernel. They are rich in B complex vitamins, protein, minerals & a heart healthy soluble fiber. They are known to lower cholesterol levels by as much as 25% over 1-3 months when taken regularly. The muffins made with oat bran are easy to make and taste delicious.

Oat Bran Muffins

Ingredients:

Whole wheat flour - 1 Cup
Oat bran - 1 Cup
Brown sugar - 1/3 Cup
Baking powder - 1.5 Tsp
Baking soda - 1/2 Tsp
Salt - 1/4 Tsp
Cinnamon powder - 1/2 Tsp
1 large egg
Honey - 60 ml
Vanilla essence- 1 Tsp
Refined oil - 2 Tblsp
Milk - 300 ml
Raisins - 1/2 Cup

Method:

Cool on a wire rack.

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Stuffin myself with Muffin

Breakfast is the most important meal of the day. Enough has been said and written about it. It provides the body with the right fuel to keep us going through the day. And as said, “Well begun is half done”.

The weekend happened to be a long one, with the Ugadi festival (Telugu New Year ) on Monday and it was just the break I needed to get away from the maddening workplace. Since this was an unwinding and catching movies weekend, there was to be no golf and come Monday the skies opened up and rain gods again poured down.

The weather was perfect for some good food, and I had been contemplating making some muffins for a long time. Today was just the day to go ahead and have them ready for breakfast.

I had this good recipe from cooks.com which I had tried out in the past and felt the need to make some adjustments. Firstly, it was for strawberry muffins and I wanted to make some chocolate ones, secondly, the sugar quantity prescribed in the recipe was extremely low. The muffins per that came out, so to say, bland. So I made my own adjustments and made the chocolate muffins …it surely was a good breakfast :)

For the original recipe you can visit the cooks.com site and have a look at that one too. Just remember my words on the sugar part.

Chocolate Muffins

Ingredients:

2 1/4 cup sifted refined flour
2 cup powdered sugar
3 tsp. baking powder

5 tsp cocoa powder

½ tsp Eno (optional)
1/2 tsp. salt
2 eggs
3/4 cup oil
3/4 cup milk
1 tsp. vanilla essence

1 tsp chocolate syrup (Hershey’s)
1 chopped chocolate

Method:

1. Stir together flour, sugar, baking powder, cocoa powder, eno and salt.

2. Beat eggs. Blend in oil, vanilla essence, milk & chocolate syrup.

3. Add the liquid to dry ingredients. Stir quickly just until moistened.

4. Fold in the chocolate chips.

5. Spoon into well greased muffin tins.

6. Bake at 220 degrees for 25 minutes or until done.

7. Remove to wire rack. Serve.

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