Sugar Free Raisin Banana Bread

Lots of cakes out there claim to be sugar free.

But they are laden with synthetic sugar.

I’ve seen cakes that claim to be refined sugar free.

But they are laden with a whole party of unrefined sugar.

This cake however is wholly Sugar Free.

It relies wholly on bananas and raisins to its sweetness.

Perfect for my 10 month old baby Crusta.

Yup, she is still not allowed sugar. Refined, or not refined.

My poor baby.

So till you hit your 12 month mark,

and are finally allowed a moderate amount of sugar

here is something to tide you over.

Sugar Free Banana Bread with Raisins

Makes 2 large muffins

20 grams organic raisins, chopped

40 grams boiling water

40 grams whole wheat flour

12 grams All purpose flour

1/4 tsp organic/natural baking powder

28 grams olive oil

125 grams (about 1) banana

1 egg yolk

Pour the boiling water onto the chopped raisins, set aside for half hour

preheat oven to 180 degree celcius, Grease and line the muffin tins.

Sift whole wheat, all purpose flour with the baking powder.

Drain the raisins, reserving the liquid.

Put the olive oil, banana and 12 grams of the steeped raisin water in a food processor. Process till smooth.

Pour the processed banana mixture onto the flour mixture and mix till well combined.

Add the chopped raisins and pour the batter onto awaiting muffin tins.

Mango Yogurt Muffins

Let’s welcome the Mango Season with these mango Yogurt muffins!

 
Mango Yogurt muffin*makes 12 muffins

Taken from Nasi Lemak Lover
(printable recipe)
125g unsalted butter
150g cake flour
110g sugar
200g chopped fresh mango
100g yogurt (natural flavour)
2 eggs (medium)
1tsp baking powder
1/2tsp baking soda
1/4tsp salt

1. Beat butter, salt and sugar till pale and creamy.
2. Add egg one at a time, mix well.
3. Sift in flour, baking powder and baking soda, add in yogurt, combine well
4. Add in chopped mango, and lightly mix well.
5. Spoon batter into a muffin pan, sprinkle some chopped mango on top.
6. Bake at preheated oven 180c for 25mins or till golden brown.

Green Tea Cupcakes with Red Bean Paste

I know i shouldn’t be mentioning words like “boils” in a food blog, but this cupcake really looks like it has boils all over it.

Well, it wasn’t supposed to be like that.

Before i go any further, lemme just put your minds at ease and clarify that the “boils” were rounded red bean paste and the cupcakes, are green tea cupcakes.

Green tea and red bean- another classic combination.

But the real reason why i baked these today was because i wanted to finish my tub of  expiring yogurt which I know for a fact will cook to the most moist and delicious cupcakes.

Plus, the pictures didn’t show anything wart-like.

Because I was just supposed to pinch the red bean paste and drop it into the batter, NOT make rounded balls. What a pair of overzealous, idle fingers i’ve got this morning!

Green Tea Yogurt Cupcakes

A

120 gr butter

60 gr icing sugar

50 gr unflavoured yogurt

B

135 gr plain flour

1 tsp baking powder

1 tbs green tea powder

C

100 gr red bean paste filling

1. Beat butter and sugar of ingredient A until smooth. Add eggs in slowly and then yogurt. Mix well. Next mix in ingredient B.

2. Add in ingredints C, mix well. Spoon into paper cups, three quarters of the way up. Arrange on a baking tray. Bake in a preheated oven at 150 degree celcius for 20 – 25 minutes. Cool on a wire rack.

Mini Brown Sugar Muffins with Coffee Glaze

I have always had the impression that muffins in general are practical breakfast items. Unlike their petite counterpart, Miss Cupcake with her fancy dress-ups, muffins are effortless, and they are also ready in no time at all.

But sometimes, practicality can be boring. Yet, with the time constraints imposed on the everyday morning rush, practicality is indispensable.

So u can pretty much imagine my delight when i saw these muffins from daily delicious. I think these muffins make good compromises between practicality and boring. 

Muffins with coffee glaze.

I love how glazes dry up. They are fuss free and they are no-smudge. You dont have to worry about getting them all over your hands, or your face. or your hair. 

 You can also pretty much muck around with them anyway you want, like stack them up.

LOL.

I also love how easy glazes come together. With this, some instant coffee gets dissolved in some hot water, to which icing sugar is added into the mixture to get them into that drizzling consistency. No heavy whipping required here, in fact, i managed to get everything incorporated just by a whisk of my fork (not even a balloon whisk).

Glazes aside, these muffins are also wonderfully moist and soft. And i think it has got to do with the the brown sugar, which is known to attract more moisture than the regular white.

I am also fancying the petite sizes these nuggets come in. They appear innocous and are warm in inviting the strictest of the dieters.

But of course that doesnt guarantee that you will be able to stop at one!

Brown sugar mini muffin with coffee glaze

Taken from Daily Delicious

110g …………………………. Cake flour

1½tsp ………………………. Baking powder

60g …………………………… Unsalted butter

50g …………………………… Brown sugar

1 ……………………………….. Egg

45g ……………………………. Crème Fraîche

½tbsp ……………………….. Honey

…………………………………… A pinch of salt

Coffee glaze

30g ……………………………. Icing sugar

⅓ tsp …………………………. Instant coffee granule

1tbsp ………………………… Hot water

Preheat the oven to 170°C 

Put paper case in 14 mini muffin pans.

Sift cake flour and baking powder together, set aside.

Beat butter salt and sugar together until light in color, add the egg, beat to combine.
Pour the honey into the butter and beat to combine. 
Add the flour to the butter in 3 parts, alternating with the Crème Fraîche. 
Divide the batter into prepared pans.
Bake for 15-17 minutes or golden and spring when touch lightly.
Let the muffin cool on a wire rack.
Mix the hot water and instant coffee granule together, add the icing sugar and stir to combine.
Drizzle over the muffin and serve with a smile^^.

Makes about 14 mini muffins

Banana Espresso Chocolate Chip Muffins

The espresso in that irregular shaped banana cake was so impressionable that i just had to attempt another recipe with the same banana, espresso combination.

I knew i found gold with Tracey’s Banana Espresso Chocolate Chip Muffins

Cause not only were they easy to whip up, they also have a third delightful ingredient – Chocolate Chips.

While this recipe adopts the convenient muffin method of just mixing wet ingredients to dry ingredients, u do have to set aside time to peel and puree the bananas.

Frankly speaking, i am not a huge fan of measuring pureed bananas in cups. I find that it is not as accurate as the reliable metric measurement. I know i am being a bit of fussypants here, but really, the last thing i wanted was for me to add excess banana puree which would cause the muffins to have this weird wet gummy texture.

Not a biggie, a quick search on the internet revealed the weight of a cup of mashed bananas at 227 grams.

The extra step at weighing was definitely worth the effort cause i got a lovely banana cake done just right with none of that gelatinous,  wet, pudding-like interior.

And of course, let’s not be forgetting about that espresso, which added not only an extra depth in the flavour department, but also that mandatory boost of caffeine in your breakfast.

And of course, let’s not forget to set aside a handful of chocolate chips to strew on top of your batter  just before they go into the oven!

Banana Espresso Chocolate Chip Muffins
Taken From Tracey’s Culinary Adventure

1 1/2 cups mashed, very ripe bananas (about 4 medium bananas)
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, melted and cooled slightly
1/4 cup milk (I used 1%)
1 large egg, at room temperature
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon instant espresso powder
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
2/3 cup semisweet chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 F.  Line a 12-cup muffin pan with paper liners.

In a medium bowl, stir together the bananas, sugars, butter, milk and egg.  Whisk together the flour, instant espresso powder, baking soda and salt in a large bowl.  Make a well in the middle of the dry ingredients and pour in the wet ingredients.  Stir until just combined.  Fold in the chocolate chips.

Distribute the batter evenly among the muffin cups, filling each about three-quarters full.  Bake for 20-25 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center of a muffin comes out clean.  Move the muffin pan to a wire rack, and let cool for about 10 minutes, then remove the muffins from the pan to the rack to cool completely.

Muffins can be stored in an airtight container for up to 2 days.

Yields 12 muffins

Of Blueberry Muffins and Starbucks

There are plenty of things you can make with blueberries,

but really when i think of bluberries, the first thing that came to mind is blueberry muffins.

And the first thing i relate to with blueberry muffins is Starbucks.

I’ve had a blueberry muffin from Starbucks INDONESIA before. It was pretty good, but i can’t vouch its authenticity from the ones sold in the states.

I mean, we are halfway across the globe, and i am guessing there was no way the blueberry muffins here are from the same supplier as the ones in the states.

I decided i should attempt a Starbucks blueberry muffin copycat recipe. I googled and decided upon the recipe featured on Amanda‘s site, which she felt came pretty close to the original ones.

And while this tastes pretty good, i thought that the muffins were a bit too heavy. The batter was thick, but i am guessing that was necessary to hold all the blueberries suspended, and not have them sink to the bottom.

While some of the blueberries burst and bled into the muffins, some remain whole- plump and juicy. I find myself picking at the ones that stayed intact, and was surprised that they still retain the juices within.

The crumb top was quite amazing too, crunchy with a hint of cinnamon.

Blueberry Muffins
Taken from Amanda

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup white sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1 egg
1/3 cup milk
1 cup fresh blueberries
1/2 cup white sugar
1/3 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 cup butter, cubed
1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C). Grease muffin cups or line with muffin liners.

Combine 1 1/2 cups flour, 3/4 cup sugar, salt and baking powder. Place vegetable oil into a 1 cup measuring cup; add the egg and enough milk to fill the cup. Mix this with flour mixture. Fold in blueberries. Fill muffin cups right to the top, and sprinkle with crumb topping mixture.

To Make Crumb Topping: Mix together 1/2 cup sugar, 1/3 cup flour, 1/4 cup butter, and 1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon. Mix with fork, and sprinkle over muffins before baking.

Bake for 20 to 25 minutes in the preheated oven, or until done.

 

Blueberry Muffins on a Blue Monday

It’s Monday, and i am a severe case of the blues. And ironically i baked up some BLUEberry muffins  this morning. Geez, BLUEberry muffins on a BLUE monday. That’s a negative all right .

But in my defense, these aren’t your average muffins. These are the Baking Bites VERY Blueberry Muffins. We’ve got twice as much of the Blue stuff in there. And since double negative cancels out each other, These are positively a worthy candidate to offset your Monday blues. LOL. Okay, not making much sense here.

So why are they called the very Blueberry Muffins again? Cause they call for fresh blueberries, dried blueberries AND blueberry juice in the recipe.

The blueberry juice kinda gives u a weird murky blue brown colour. But seriously, no one cared. And i havent even gotten to the best part of these muffins. They contain NO butter.

Hold up, did someone say butter?

okays, so now they do contain butter, but it’s just for this one. I promise. The others were left untainted. LOL.

But seriously, these muffins didn’t really need all that butter, or jam. Beside all that wonderful berryworks, these muffins were sprinkled with sugar over their tops before they went into the oven. They tasted very good on their own, and that’s how the others were eaten when i brought them to work to help ease the others’ with their Monday blues.

Just my lil’ contribution to make the world a berry happy place.

Very Blueberry Muffins (Adapted from Baking Bites) Thanks Nicole for sharing!

1 ¾ cups all purpose flour
½ tsp baking powder
½ tsp baking soda
½ tsp salt
1 cup sugar
1 tbsp oil
zest of one lemon
1 egg
¼ cup sour cream
½ cup blueberry juice or milk
1 cup blueberries, fresh or frozen
¼ cup dried blueberries

1 tbsp sugar

Preheat oven to 350F. Line a muffin tin with paper liners.

Whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Set aside.

In a large bowl, beat together sugar, oil, lemon zest and egg for 1 minute or until smooth. Stir in sour cream and blueberry juice. Gently stir in dry ingredients until almost fully combined. Add the blueberries and continue mixing until just combined.

Spoon mixture into muffin tins, filling each one 2/3 full. Sprinkle with sugar.

Bake 20-23 minutes at 350F, until tester comes out clean and the muffin springs back when lightly pressed.

Makes 12.