Brownie-licious

Pardon my first attempt at baking brownies. I'm quite aware that my brownie ain't the prettiest or the tastiest that you've ever seen or eaten (not that you got a chance to do so :D). Anyway, I'm quite a novice in baking cakes and such, so I'm constantly picking up learning points each time. In any case, the brownie was nice enough for my hubby (he's not the type that would lavish me with praises if I didn't deserve them) though I thought it could have been fudgier. I later checked with my friend, the baking expert, who enlightened me on how I could have done the job better. Thanks Annie. :D

I got the recipe from http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Quick-and-Easy-Brownies/Detail.aspx and referred to Annie's blog too but I halved the amount as I didn't have enough eggs on hand to make the full recipe.

Here's my adaptation of the recipe:

Brownie

Ingredients

• 8 tablespoons white sugar
• 120ml melted butter
• 4 tablespoons cocoa powder
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla essence
• 2 eggs
• 8 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 cup walnut halves (I didn't add these as I'm allergic to tree nuts but I just left this ingredient here as an option to those who aren't allergic to nuts)

Method:

1. Melt the butter.
2. Combine melted butter, vanilla essence, beaten eggs and sugar.
3. Sift in the cocoa powder.
4. Combine flour, baking powder and salt and mix well. Sift in this mixture last. (I learned from Annie that this is DIY self-raising flour provided you follow the instructions carefully!)
5. Mix the ingredients together (but don't overmix the batter or you'd get hole-y brownies like mine) and pour batter into the cake tin.
6. Pre-heat the oven to 170degC (I used 180degC so the brownie turned out less fudgy... I'd definitely bake it at 170degC in future!).
7. Bake the brownie at 170degC for 25-30min (I baked it for 25min).
8. Remove and let brownie cool on wire rack before removing or cutting the brownie.
9. Serve with vanilla ice-cream on the side (which I didn't have this time!)

Mini Banana Muffins

I finally bought bananas recently and after waiting a few days more till the bananas were really ripe, I made the much-awaited mini banana muffins for alicia. These smell and taste much better than the applesauce muffins even though I love apples more than bananas and bananas rank really low on the list of favourite fruits for me. :D

I adapted the recipe I found on http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/banana-crumb-muffins/Detail.aspx. I made a really small batch of muffins coz i was afraid it wouldn't agree with alicia's palate and since I'm not a fan of bananas, I wasn't prepared to eat them in case alicia rejected them. But they turned out really yummy, even though I didn't do the crumb bit very well... hehe...

Mini Banana Muffins (makes 8)

Wet ingredients:

• 100ml mashed banana (2 bananas)


• 1 egg, lightly beaten


• 25ml olive oil

Dry ingredients:

• 60g or 120ml flour (I used 20g self-raising flour + 40g whole wheat flour)


• 1 tablespoon wheatgerm


• 1.5T brown sugar


• 1/3tsp ground cinnamon


• 1/3tsp baking powder


• 1/3tsp baking soda


• a pinch of salt

For the crumb topping:

• a dash of ground cinnamon
• 1/2 tablespoon unsalted butter
• 1.5 tablespoon raw brown sugar
• 1 tablespoon whole wheat flour

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 180 degC.


2. In a large bowl, mix together flour, baking soda, baking powder, ground cinnamon sugar and salt.


3. In another bowl, beat together bananas, egg and olive oil.


4. Stir the banana mixture into the flour mixture just until moistened. Spoon batter into prepared muffin cups (I use silicon cups).


5. In a small bowl, mix together the following for the crumb topping: brown sugar, flour and cinnamon. Cut in butter until mixture resembles coarse cornmeal. Sprinkle topping over muffins*.


6. Bake in preheated oven for 15 minutes until a toothpick inserted into center of a muffin comes out clean.

*This time round, I followed a reviewer's suggestion of adding the topping 5 min before the muffins are done. Thus, I added the topping at the 10-min mark but the topping couldn't mix well with the muffin already thus the crumbly and chunky bits of topping you see in the photo... I think I'll just follow the recipe's instructions the next time round and see how it goes.

Mini Applesauce Muffins

I finally baked a new batch of muffins for Alicia. Initially I had intended to make banana muffins this time round but I didn't manage to get the bananas I wanted so I just stuck with applesauce instead. In any case, she's a great fan of applesauce and when she saw me preparing her applesauce that day while she was having dinner, she insisted on having the applesauce before she continued with the rest of dinner. I gave her 2 tablespoons of applesauce but after she finished it, she asked for more but I refused to give her more coz if not she would not have space in her little tummy for the rest of dinner...


Anyway, here's the pic of the new applesauce muffins:



And here's the recipe:



Mini Applesauce Muffins


Wet ingredients
200ml homemade applesauce
50ml olive oil
1 small egg (lightly beaten) (I use Seng Choon's First Born eggs and they are really quite small)



Dry ingredients
50ml Origin's organic raw sugar
150ml self-raising flour (sifted)
50ml whole wheat flour (sifted)
2 tablespoons Origin's raw wheatgerm (for extra nutrition)
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt



Directions
Mix the wet ingredients and dry ingredients well separately.
Make a well in the centre of the dry ingredients.
Stir in the wet ingredients, until just combined.
Spoon into lightly greased mini muffin tins. (I used mini silicon muffin cups I bought at Daiso and the muffins came out so easily!)
Bake at 180degC for about 17min, or until golden.


Freeze up to 3mths.



With this amount of ingredients, I made 19 mini applesauce muffins. I had experimented earlier on two other batches of muffins: the first I made with 100ml sugar but they turned out to be too sweet. The next batch I made I added baby oats on top of the rest of the ingredients and cut the sugar totally but the muffins turned out too hard for Alicia and it was too bland - virtually tasteless. And so, the third batch I made, I removed the baby oats and halved the sugar and voila! Perfect for Alicia's palate: soft and moist and most importantly, not too sweet or tasteless!

Mini Muesli and Apple Muffins

I made mini muesli and apple muffins for Alicia yesterday while she was taking her nap. A close friend of mine whose daughter liked the eggless apple muffins I baked last time asked me to post the recipe here so that she can make the muffins in her own time. Well, this recipe's found on the packaging of the Heinz Muesli and Apple Cereal (for 10-15mths) so I think it's ok to share it here. :)

Mini Muesli & Apple Muffins

Ingredients

• 11/2 cups self raising flour, sifted
• 1/2 cup Heinz Muesli & Apple Cereal
• 1/2 cup light brown or raw sugar (I used Origin's organic raw sugar)
• 2T sultanas
• 1tsp cinnamon
• 3/4cup full cream milk (I used breast milk)
• 1/3cup canola oil (I used olive oil)
• 1 x 120g can Heinz Apples (I used 8T of homemade applesauce)

Method

1. Combine flour, muesli, sugar, sultanas and cinnamon.
2. Make a well in the centre of the dry ingredients.
3. Stir in the milk, oil and apples, until just combined.
4. Spoon into lightly greased mini muffin tins. (I used mini silicon muffin cups I bought at Daiso and the muffins came out so easily!)
5. Bake at 180degC for 12-15min, or until golden. (I had to bake it for 20-25minutes before they turned slightly golden.)

Freeze for up to 3 months.

I made 28 mini muffins (I told my friend 32 - mis-counted) but I ate 2 coz they tasted so yummy so there're just 26 mini muffins left for her. She's eaten one yesterday and one today... 24 left! :D

Here're a couple of pictures of the muffins:

The first batch fresh from the oven!

Yummy!