Apple, toffee, raisin and butterscotch muffins

This is a variation on the toffee apple muffins that I posted earlier in the week. They were so popular I baked them three times in a week! I had further requests but had run out of ingredients. I decided to use up leftovers that I had to create a variation of the muffin and it worked beautifully. Personally I prefer this version as it has butterscotch chips and raisin. J prefers the toffee apple muffins.

I'm sending this to the No Waste Food Challenge guest hosted this month by Tracy from It's Not Easy Being Greedy on behalf of Elizabeth from Elizabeth's Kitchen Diary. This recipe uses up the bits of ingredients in my cupboard - raisin, butterscotch chips and 4 toffee sweets.

It's also suitable for the Credit Crunch Munch challenge guest hosted by Elizabeth from Elizabeth's Kitchen Diary on behalf of Helen from Fuss Free Flavours and Camilla from Fab Food 4 All.

Makes 14 muffins

2 apples, peeled, cored and chopped
1 pot of 165g fat free yoghurt
150mls milk
100g brown sugar
100g butter, melted
300g plain flour
1.5 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
2 eggs
4 toffee sweets, chopped into quarters
100g raisins
100g butterscotch chips

• Preheat the oven to 180C. 
• In a large bowl, mix the yoghurt, milk, eggs, sugar and butter.
• In a separate bowl, sift the dry ingredients.
• Stir into the wet ingredients until just mixed.
• Stir in the chopped apples,toffee sweets, raisins and butterscotch chips.
• Divide the mixture between the muffin cases.
• Bake for approximately 25-28 minutes or until golden brown and a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean.

Leftover Blackberry frosting cookies with white chocolate

Quick post today to tell you about a little experiment in the kitchen. I made some chocolate and blackerry cupcakes recently and had some leftover frosting. I've used leftover frosting to make cookies previously and as I've never had a blackberry cookie I thought it would be interesting to try. The frosting is made of blackberry puree, icing sugar and butter. Butter and sugar are basic ingredients for cookies so I added in flour and and an egg. The mixture then looked a little grey so I added a handful of fresh blackberries as well which I managed to get in the reduced aisle for 10p a box! It gave the mixture a lovely purple hue and boosted the blacberry flavour. I added in about 50g of white chocolate chips to give some contrast and sweetness. The cookie dough was really soft - in hindsight I should have added more flour but I baked them anyway and they turned out like soft baked cookies. They tasted like a cross between a cookie and a cake. It was slightly crispy around the edges but soft in the middle. The flavour combination of blackberry and white chocolate was delicious! I will now have to experiment with making actual blackberry cookies. Has anyone tried a blackberry cookie before?

I'm sending this to the No Waste Food Challenge guest hosted this month by Claire from Foodie Quine on behalf of Elizabeth from Elizabeth's Kitchen Diary. This recipe uses up leftover blackberry frostings and part of a reduced box of blackberries which have just gone past their sell by date. 

I'm also sending it to Credit Crunch Munch as this is quite a frugal recipe using leftovers and store cupboard ingredients. The challenge is hosted by Helen from Fuss Free Flavours and Camilla from Fab Food 4 All. 

 leftover blackberry frosting 

 adding a handful of fresh blackberries as the mixture looked a little grey

 

 adding in white chocolate chips

 Blackberry and white chocolate cookies! 

Quick and Easy Pizza Dough

I love how you can connect with others on social media particularly on twitter. A recent follower on my twitter account is David from Old Fat Guy (@DiscoDavid9)  He lives in Canada and likes to cook. He has lots of great recipes on his site but the one that caught my eye recently was this recipe for Quick Pizza. I'm not a huge lover of pizza and will almost always choose pasta over pizza if we eat at an Italian restaurant. Over the Easter weekend, we did a lot of work around the house and wanted something quick and simple for dinner. Instead of ordering a takeaway pizza, I decided to give David's recipe a try as it seemed so quick and simple. 

It was also a good chance to make use of ingredients in the fridge to use as pizza toppings. I was terrible at shaping the pizza so mine looks quite 'rustic'. Let's just say that was how I intended it to look in the first place :) I rolled out the dough quite thinly as I prefer a thin base pizza and made 2 different ones. The first had a tomato and pepper pesto as a base and was topped with pepperoni, mushrooms, tomatoes, grated cheese and mozarella cheese. The second one had a bbq sauce base and was topped with ham, cheese and tomato. I baked them on my pizza stone and they tasted absolutely delicious! The pizzas were ready in about 35 minutes from start to finish! That's quicker than some pizza deliveries particularly on a busy weekend. This is definitely going on the regular menu plan and it would be great for parties or when I have guests round. 

I'm sending this to Bready, Steady, Go! hosted by Jen from Jen's Food and Michelle from Utterly Scrummy Food For Families. Both Jen and Michelle are keen bread bakers so they've decided to host this challenge together. 

I'm also sending it to Bookmarked Recipes hosted by Jacqueline from Tinned Tomatoes. I bookmarked this and a few other recipes whilst going through David's blog.

It's also perfect for Credit Crunch Munch guest hosted by Michelle from Utterly Scrummy. The challenge is run by Camilla from Fab Food 4 All and Helen from Fuss Free Flavours. Making your own pizza is definitely more cost effective than ordering one for delivery even if you bought all the ingredients from scratch. Hopefully you will have some of these ingredients at home. The bonus is you can custom make your own pizza and not have to pay extra! As mentioned I used up leftovers from the fridge for toppings. 

 

 mix until the dough starts to clump on the hook

 almost ready - you can see that the dough is smoother and sticks to the dough hook 

 my 'rustic' pizza 

 spread base of pizza on dough 

 add your toppings and bake 

 first pizza - tomato and pepper base with pepperoni,mushroom, tomato and cheese 

  second pizza - bbq sauce base with ham, tomato, mushroom and cheese 

Recipe adapted slightly from Old Fat Guy

I used bread flour instead of plain flour as I'd run out of plain flour (shocking but true) 

My pizzas only needed 8-9 minutes to cook as the dough was very thin and I used a pizza stone. 

240g bread flour (or plain flour), divided into 120g x 2

2.25 teaspoon easy bake yeast 

1 teaspoon sugar

3/4 teaspoon salt

160ml very warm water

3 tablespoons vegetable oil

Pizza toppings of your choice 

• Place a cold pizza stone in the oven and pre heat the oven to 220C or as high as your oven will go.  
• Mix 120g flour, yeast, sugar and salt in the bowl of a stand mixer.
• Add the water and oil to the mixture. 
• Give it a quick stir then add the remaining 120g flour and place on the stand mixer with a dough hook.
• Mix until the dough starts to clump on the hook and continue mixing for another 7 minutes. Set a timer and let the mixer do all the work! 
• Leave the dough to rest for 10 minutes. 
• Roll out the dough in a circle and toss the pizza if you know how! Otherwise, roll it out thinly into a rustic shape like mine.
• Transfer the pizza to the hot pizza stone and spread pesto sauce, bbq sauce or pizza base on top of the dough then add the toppings. I found it easier than transferring a ready made pizza to the hot pizza stone. Alternatively you can use a cake lifter or pizza paddle to transfer the ready made pizza to the hot pizza stone. 
• Bake for about 8-9 minutes or until the cheese is bubbling and the dough is brown on the edges. You may need to bake it longer if your dough is thicker. 
• Slice and enjoy! 
• Note: If you don't have a pizza stone, you can bake this on a pizza pan which has perforations to ensure a crispy base.

Banana and Berry Lemon Muffins

The sun is shining and the daffodils are blooming. Spring has definitely arrived. These muffins are perfect for spring as it's full of berries, banana and lemon. They are moist and fruity and you definitely get some of your five a day in this. I adapted a muffin recipe from BBC good Food and used up leftover fruit that I had. It was also a good chance to try out the lemon extract paste from Taylor & Colledge. They kindly sent me a range of their new flavour pastes to try. The range includes vanilla bean, lavender, lemon, coconut, almond and peppermint. They come in a handy tube and it's very easy to use with no mess. The lemon one smells really nice and lemony and the paste is a good consistency - not too thick and not too thin. These are a great way to add flavour to your bakes. 

I'm sending these muffins to AlphaBakes hosted by Caroline from Caroline Makes and myself on alternate months. The letter ths month is B for banana and blueberries.

Treat Petite hosted by Kat from The Baking Eplorer and Stuart from Cakeyboi. The theme this month is Hello Spring. 

Credit Crunch Munch guest hosted by Michelle from Utterly Scrummy. The challenge is run by Camilla from Fab Food 4 All and Helen from Fuss Free Flavours. This is quite a frugal recipe as it uses up store cupboard ingredients and leftover fruit. I didn't buy anything new for this recipe. If you don't have the lemon paste, a bit of fresh lemon juice and zest will suffice or you can omit it.

No Waste Food Challenge hosted by Elizabeth from Elizabeth's Kitchen Diary. I used up lots of leftover fruit and yellowing bananas for this recipe. 

  

 adding lemon paste 

 adding berries 

 sprinkle some chopped strawberries before baking

Makes 12 muffins

250g flour
115g brown sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
3 ripe bananas
125mls vegetable oil
60mls milk
60mls honey
2 eggs, lightly beaten
85g blueberries
220g strawberries - keep aside about 6 or 7 strawberries to put on top of the muffin before baking
1/2 teaspoon lemon paste

• Preheat the oven to 180C. 
• In a medium sized bowl, mix together the flour, sugar, baking powder and bicarbonate of soda and set aside.
• In a large bowl, roughly mash the bananas with a fork.
• Add the vegetable oil, milk, honey and eggs.
• Add in the flour mixture followed by the lemon paste.
• Stir gently until just combined - be careful not to overmix.
• Add in the strawberries and blueberries.
• Divide the mixture into 12 muffin cases
• Sprinkle the tops with the reserved, chopped strawberries and bake in the oven for about 20 minutes or until golden brown and a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean. 

Disclaimer: I was sent a range of flavour pastes from Taylor & Colledge for review purposes. A positive review was not required and all opinions expressed are my own. This is not a sponsored post. 

Cinnabunnies for Easter

Another quick and easy recipe for Easter. This will be a hit with both adults and children alike. The kids will have fun making and eating these and there's still time to get the ingredients before Easter Sunday. I saw this reipe online from Pillsbury. It's an American brand and I wasn't sure if I would find the equivalent here so I was really pleased when I saw this Jus Rol Cinnamon Swirls in the supermarket. One box makes 6 swirls which is 3 bunnies as you need 2 per bunny. You also need some raisins and almond flakes for decoration. It's really simple and looks so cute! The pastry was really flaky and you can definitely taste the cinnamon. It also comes with a little tub of icing sugar - just add water and drizzle over the pastry. This is brilliant for when you don't have time to make cinnamon buns from scratch.

 flaked almonds, raisins, box of Jus Rol cinnamon swirls 

 It comes in a can and the dough looks like this. Cut into 6 even slices. 

 You need 2 swirls - one for the face and one for the ears. Place one swirl on your baking tray then unravel the second swirl as shown. Turn it around so the cinnamon filling is facing downwards. 

 Push the middle of the top pastry on to the swirl and tuck both ends under to look like bunny ears. Pinch the adjoining ends to ensure that it bakes in 1 piece. 

 add 3 raisins per bunny - two for eyes and one for the nose and 2 almond flakes for the teeth. Press firmly in the dough before baking. 

 Bake in the oven according to the box instructions. 

 I tried drizzling the icing and only putting the icing on the ears - which do you prefer? 

I'm sending these super cute Easter Cinnabunnies to a few blog challenges this month...

AlphaBakes hosted by Caroline from Caroline Makes and myself on alternate months. The letter ths month is B for Bunny!

Treat Petite hosted by Kat from The Baking Eplorer and Stuart from Cakeyboi. The theme this month is Hello Spring. 

Food Year Link Up hosted by Charlotte from My Recipe Book.

Cook Blog Share hosted by Lucy at Supergolden Bakes

Credit Crunch Munch guest hosted by Michelle from Utterly Scrummy. The challenge is run by Camilla from Fab Food 4 All and Helen from Fuss Free Flavours. This recipe uses ready made ingredients which cuts down on time. It's also quite cost effective as I bought the box of cinnamon swirls for £2 and it makes 6 swirls which is a cost of 33p each or 3 bunnies at 66p each. The raisins and almond flakes were store cupboard ingredients.