Banana, strawberry and white chocolate muffins

This month Dom from Belleau Kitchen asks us 'how do you like your eggs in the morning?' as his theme for SimplyEggcellent #5. My answer is that it would depend on what day it is. For weekends when there is time for a more leisurely breakfast which is usually brunch by the time we are up and ready it's got to be poached eggs. Smoked salmon, bagel and a poached egg is a particular favourite as well as waffles with fruit, bacon and a poached egg. On weekdays, breakfast is usually a quick and simple affair and more often than not it's muffins! Muffins are really easy to make - usually a mix all in one method and they freeze really well. They are easy to transport and are quite filling especially if you make them a decent size. I've made sweet as well as savoury muffins but almost always come back to a variation of a banana muffin. 

This recipe is another banana one and I used up ingredients that I could find - a box of over ripe strawberries, a bag of giant white chocolate buttons at the back of the cupboard and some yellowing bananas. I also found some frozen strawberries in the freezer which I added just before baking.  The muffins were really moist and flavourful and I loved the addition of the white chocolate buttons. I made a double recipe as I had a lot of ingredients and J and I both took some to work. The muffins disappeared really quickly and I had lots of positive reviews. 

I'm sending this to Simply Eggcellent hosted by Dom from Belleau Kitchen as muffins are a favourite breakfast food of mine which contains eggs.

I'm also sending it to the No Waste Food Challenge hosted by Elizabeth from Elizabeth's Kitchen Diary as this was a good way to use up over ripe bananas, very ripe strawberries and an old bag of white chocolate buttons. I also used up a bag of frozen strawberries which has been in the freezer for a few weeks. 

 adding chopped strawberries and white chocolate buttons (I made a double recipe in case you are wondering why there's so much batter!) 

 ready to go in the oven but not quite... 

 I had a bag of frozen strawberries in the freezer so I decided to put one in each muffin before baking 

 fresh from the oven 

 You can see the whole strawberry which obviously defrosted during the baking process! 

Makes 12 muffins

250g plain flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
120g brown sugar
3 ripe bananas, mashed
250mls milk
80mls sunflower or vegetable oil
2 eggs
120g strawberries, washed, hulled and sliced
80g white chocolate buttons
12 frozen whole strawberries (optional)

• Preheat the oven to 180C.
• In a large bowl, mix together the flour, baking powder and sugar. 
• In another bowl, beat the eggs lightly and add the mashed bananas, milk and oil.
• Pour the wet mixture into the dry mixture and fold gently until just mixed.
• Add the chopped strawberries and white chocolate buttons and mix. 
• Divide the mixture into 12 muffin cases.
• Add a frozen strawberry on top if using.
• Bake for approximately 25-30 minutes or until golden brown and a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean.
• Allow to cool completely before storing in an airtight container. 

Blueberry Pancakes with maple syrup

Happy weekend everyone! I love weekends for many reasons and I'm sure most of you will agree that generally it represents time to relax and unwind and if you're lucky to have a lie in. Most of all it's about the food. When we have a free weekend at home, we like to cook our own brunch and our favourites are waffles, pancakes or poached eggs on muffins. Easter seems like such a long time ago now but I still remember these pancakes which we had on Easter Monday. J wanted blueberry pancakes so I found a recipe online from Sally's Baking Addiction and it turned out beautifully. It was light, fluffy and full of blueberries. I served it with more fresh blueberries, fresh strawberries and lashings of maple syrup.  It made for a really filling brunch and I'm pretty sure there's at least one of my five a day in there! 

                                       

     

 wet ingredients, dry ingredients and fresh blueberries 

 adding the fresh blueberries 

 serve with maple syrup 

Recipe adapted slightly from Sally's Baking Addiction

250g plain flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
250g low fat natural yoghurt
300ml milk
60ml Clarks Carob fruit syrup
2 eggs
45g melted butter
300g fresh blueberries

• In a large bowl, mix all the dry ingredients - plain flour, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda, ground cinnamon. 
• In a separate bowl, whisk the eggs, milk, carob fruit syrup, yoghurt and melted butter. 
• Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and mix gently until it forms a smooth batter. 
• Finally stir in the blueberries. 
• Heat a frying pan with cooking spray or oil or butter. 
• Add a ladleful of batter to the hot pan and cook until the edges look dry and there are bubbles in the mixture.
• Flip the pancake in one go and cook until it is browned on both sides. 
• Keep the pancakes warm in a pre-heated oven about 150C until all the pancakes are cooked.
• Serve with fresh berries and maple syrup. 

Lemon Posset with Fresh Strawberries

Hurrah for Friday! It's been a long busy week and I'm really looking forward to the weekend. This is a really quick and easy dessert to make. I had some leftover double cream that was near exipiring so I did a quick search on google and came up with lemon posset. This is actually something I wanted to make for my New Year's Day Afternoon Tea but I never got round to it. I also had some fresh strawberries in the fridge so I did a mini layered dessert with fresh strawberries, lemon posset and more fresh strawberries. It was really zingy and fruity and felt quite refreshing despite the cream in there. 

I'm sending this to No Waste Food Challenge hosted by Elizabeth from Elizabeth's Kitchen Diary. I used up leftover cream that was near expiring and some fresh strawberries for this recipe.

 cooking the lemon posset 

Recipe from BBC Good Food 

600mls double cream
200g golden caster sugar
zest and juice of 3 lemons
fresh strawberries (optional)

• Place and cream and sugar in a large saucepan and heat gently until the sugar has melted.
• Simmer gently once the mixture is bubbling and turn off the heat.
• Add the lemon juice and lemon zest and stir.
• Allow to cool in the pan before dividing into serving dishes.
• Chill in the fridge for a few hours or overnight.
• I placed a layer of chopped strawberries followed by the lemon posset and more fresh strawberries. 

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. 

Mini Fruit Tarts

This is my second pastry offering at my afternoon tea. They were a bit of a rush job and I didn't get as many photos as I wanted. I also ran out of time and only managed to glaze the strawberry tarts. I used Eric Lanlard's recipe for a sweet shortcrust pastry and also used the same creme patissiere as for the mini eclairs. The tarts were blind baked then filled with creme patissiere and topped with fresh fruit. They were really tasty little bites and my guests were impressed that I made my own pastry. 

As before, I'm sending this to the Pastry Challenge hosted by Jen from Jen's Food and Lisa from United Cakedom.

 rub flour and butter together then add in the sugar. Make a well in the centre..

 ... add in the egg and knead until you form a soft dough. Place in the fridge for about 30 mins 

 I couldn't find my other pastry cutters and only had 1 size with a straight edge! 

 ready to blind bake the pastry 

 mini fruit tarts 

Lindt Chocolate Creams and a giveaway

I love Lindt chocolates especially their dark chocolate truffles. I was really excited when I was asked if I wanted to review a copy of Lindt Gold Bunny recipe book. Lindt's Maitres Chocolatiers have compiled some of their best recipes in this really cute and fun book. My favourite part is that it is shaped just like the famous Lindt gold bunny and comes complete with a bell! The book is really beautifully presented with 26 recipes in total. Each recipe is really easy to follow and accompanied by a beautiful colour photograph which is a must for every recipe book. 

 How cute is the book? The bell works too :) 

 Some sample pages 

 Sample page inside with a recipe on one page and a colour photograph opposite. 

 Another recipe page

The recipes included in the book are

• Chocolate lollies with a caramel centre
• Chocolate cheesecakes
• Milk chocolate and hazelnut mousses
• Crispy chocolate eggs
• Chocolate and pecan barquettes
• Greedy chocolate mice
• Chocolate mini choux buns
• Chocolate brioche toasts
• Chocolate dulce de leche
• Chocolate fondue with French toast fingers
• Home-made hot chocolate
• Chocolate-iced madeleines
• Petits beurre millefeuilles with chocolate cream
• Chocolate spread
• Fizzy chocolate lollies
• Choco-mint brownies
• Hot bananas with chocolate squares
• Soft chocolatey caramels
• Chocolatey meringue layers
• Coconue-chocolate cigars
• Chocolate tiramisu
• Chocolate eggs with meringue bursts
• Florentines
• Muffins with chocolate cream filling
• Chocolate creams
• Panna cotta with praline cream

I decided to make the chocolate creams recipe as I liked the sound of it and it was the accompanying photograph on the contents page. It was really easy to make and tasted really chocolatey. I brought it to a friend's house to serve as dessert and it was very well received. It's not overly sweet due to the dark chocolate and yoghurt and feels like a healthier version of chocolate mousse as it contains natural yoghurt.

If you like the sound of this book and want to get your hands on a copy then you are in luck. Jacqui Small Publishing have very kindly agreed to giveaway THREE copies to my readers. The closing date is 23rd March 2015 so that the prize can be delivered in time for Easter. 

Terms and Conditions

Entry is via the rafflecopter widget below.

You have to answer the question which is a mandatory option to unlock further entries to the giveway.
This GIVEAWAY is open to all readers over 18 with a postal address in the UK.
Closing date is 23rd March 2015 at 12 midnight GMT.
The WINNER will be chosen at random via Rafflecopter and will be contacted by email. If no response is received within 48 hours, another winner will be selected at random.
I am running this COMPETITION on behalf of Jacqui Small Publishing who will be sending out the prize directly. By entering you are giving me permission to pass your email address on to them so they can contact you for delivery of the prize.
All entries will be checked and verified.

Recipe reproduced with kind permission from Jacqui Small Publishing

Serves 4
Preparation time 10 minutes
Chilling time 3 hours

160g Lindt Excellence Cocoa 70%
200ml milk
25g caster sugar
1 heaped teaspoon vanilla sugar
375g natural yoghurt
sugar sprinkles to decorate

• Roughly chop the chocolate and melt in a bowl in a bain-marie. 
• Add the milk, caster sugar and vanilla sugar.
• Mix together gently.
• Quickly beat the yoghurt with a fork and add to the chocolate mixture.
• Divide between 6 small glass dishes and refrigerate for at least 3 hours. 
• Decorate with sugar sprinkles before serving. 

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Disclaimer: I was sent a copy of Lindt Gold Bunny for review purposes. A positive review was not required and all opinions expressed are my own. This is not a sponsored post. 

Mary Berry Lemon Cheesecake

Last week I had a craving for cheesecake. A lemon cheesecake to be precise. I remember watching Mary Berry demonstrate this cheesecake so I decided to look up the recipe. It's a really simple no bake recipe which took all of 10 minutes to put together. The longest wait is for the cheesecake to firm up and we were too impatient so it was still a little soft when we first tried it. It firmed up nicely in the fridge for the next day. I used Hobnobs for the base instead of ginger biscuits as I'm not a fan of ginger and used different berries to decorate. The result was divine. It's a really creamy, rich, lemony cheesecake and I loved the crunch of the hobnob base. This would be great for a dinner party and will be sure to impress.

 cheesecake base on left, cheese filling on right 

 I just couldn't wait for the cheesecake to set properly so it's a little soft but it tasted divine! 

Recipe is available on Mary Berry online

I made a few minor changes listed below

I used a large cake tin 23cm which resulted in a very flat cheesecake, I'd recommend using a 18cm or less cake tin.

200g hobnob biscuits, crushed
100g butter, melted
500g mascarpone cheese
325g jar luxury lemon curd
Juice of 1 small lemon
Fresh strawberries and blueberries, to decorate
Icing sugar, to dust

• Place the biscuits in a ziplock bag, seal and bash with a rolling pin.
• Melt the butter in a microwave.
• Add the melted butter to the biscuits and mix well.
• Press firmly into the base of your cake tin making sure not to go up the edges.
• In a large bowl, mix the mascarpone cheese, lemon curd and lemon juice until smooth.
• Pour over the biscuit base and smooth the top with a spatula.
• Chill in the fridge for 4 hours but preferably overnight.
• Decorate with fresh berries and a sprinkling of icing sugar before serving.