aqua profunda

Another riff on Bittman, as per last weekend.

These muffins aren't too sweet, and the chunks of jam throughout (especially while hot) are delightful.

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup chocolate chips


• Few spoonfuls of a nice berry jam (try to go with something tart like raspberry or blackberry)


• 80 grams sugar


• 45 grams melted butter


• 250 grams plain flour


• pinch of salt


• 1 egg


• 3 teaspoons baking powder


• 240ml milk

Method

1. Pre-heat the oven to 190° celcius. Line a 12-cup small muffin pan and spray/grease the liners


2. Mix together dry ingredients and chocolate chips


3. In a separate bowl, mix the wet ingredients (excluding jam) together well (whisking the egg)


4. Make a well in the dry ingredients, pour in the wet ingredients. Fold in gently only until all dry ingredients are wet - just before it's done, add some spoonfuls of jam, and gently fold in. You don't want to blend the jam through, but leave nice chunks (!IMPORTANT).


5. Spoon mixture into muffin pan


6. Bake in pre-heated oven for 20 minutes, test with skewer/toothpick


7. Cool in pan for 5 minutes, then transfer muffins to cooling rack


8. Eat while they're still warm!

Another re-post from doublejoint. Keeping the commentary this time :)

Dear anatsuno,

I hear you have some overripe bananas, so I'm sharing my banana cake recipe. It hales from my childhood--I think I had some at my friend's house (age 5? 6?), and Mum made sure to get the recipe, and it's been made hundreds of times since.

I made another one of my own last night, after finally purchasing a thermometer for my increasingly decrepit oven. The first time I tried to use the oven after I moved into this house, the temperature knob came off in my hand; another time when I opened the door the glass panel on the front fell right off (it's since been repaired).

At one point a few months ago I tried to cook a honey and spice cake, but within about 15 minutes of being in there the top had started to burn while the bottom remained liquid; by the time it was no longer raw I had to saw 2 inches of charcoal off the top of it.

So, upon installing the oven thermometer, I discovered that ~160°C on the thermometer = ~120° on the dial. Thus I was able to set it accordingly, and lo and behold, my banana cake turned out awesome. I forsee more baking in my future.

At any rate, here's the banana cake recipe. Measurements are Australian (I believe there's a slight difference in US/Aus cup & spoon sizes, I'm not sure how we compare to European measurements).

The cake itself is rather 'mild' for a cake, I suppose--leaning towards banana bread, but I think a bit too soft and sweet for that. But not too sweet for my tastes! It doesn't need to be iced--the browned top sort of caramelises deliciously, it really is just perfect as it is. But don't make the same mistake I did and take it out of the pan too soon--I ended up peeling the top and the bottom of the cake off because I didn't let it cool for long enough. (On plus side, it meant I got to eat all those delicious scrapings aaall at once.)

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Another re-post from double joint. No CC on this entry because it's not mine to licence :)

This recipe is kind of circular in its origins. A British friend tweeted about it, I begged for the recipe, she emailed it to me. She sold it as "cake in a saucepan", but it's really just mixed in a saucepan and cooked in the oven. For a very short amount of time, I learned! So basically, it's a super-simple recipe that you can throw together usually with things already in the pantry, and very quickly. And quite delicious without being too fancy!

( Read more... )