Banana, Bran, Chocolate & Ginger Muffins

 SKINNY AND HEALTHY

204 CALORIES EACH

 

♬ 'Devotion' by Jessie Ware

 I was completely hooked on last weekends culinary pull out from The Times magazine, with loads of colourful recipes springing us back into a healthy start to the year, my eyes focused on healthy baked treats. Let's not stop eating cake! Treats are great and well deserved, the trick is to find a good recipe without loads of sugar or fat.

 Here's an altered recipe of Jacqueline WhiteHart's blueberry bran muffins. I've made these for a chef at Shoreditch House who always inspires and teaches me to be better when baking.

Makes 10 large muffins

Ingredients:

200ml Flora pro active skimmed milk

1 tbsp lemon juice

150g Doves farm gluten free plain flour

100g Doves farm gluten free self raising flour

1 tbsp oat bran

2 tsp baking powder

Half a tsp bicarbonate of soda

Pinch of sea salt

30g light brown sugar

1 tbsp Manuka honey

1 large egg

50g Green & Blacks white chocolate chopped into chunks

50g Green & Blacks dark chocolate also chopped.

1 large banana

2 tsp cinnamon

1cm ginger finely grated.

Method:

▶ Preheat oven 180°c.
Combine milk and lemon juice in a jug, and let it curdle for a few minutes.
Mix together all the dry ingredients (flours, sugar, raising agents, oats, cinnamon, salt).
Whisk egg with honey then pour onto dry ingredients and stir with a butter knife.
Mash up the banana and add to batter with grated ginger.
Scoop generous amounts into muffin cases and sprinkle dark and white chocolate equally on top.
Bake for 20 minutes until sponge is light brown and chocolate has melted into the muffins.

Eating them when warm is a fabulous idea, do it.

FEATURED ON WWW.52RECIPES.CO.UK 

http://www.52recipes.co.uk/2014/01/09/chocolate-ginger-muffins/



Randomly leaving you with the opening verse from my favourite song 'Wildest Moments'.
Full volume, fairy lights on and dance with someone..

"You and I, blurred lines,
We come together every time
Too wrongs, no rights,
We lose ourselves at night."

M

Cherry and Almond Cake

Album 'Fur and Gold' by Bat For Lashes


I've eaten so much today.

This wasn't breakfast, it was part of lunch!

Oven 200°C

4 eggs
200g sugar
1 tsp almond essence
1 tsp strawberry essence
whisk

200g soft butter
whisk in the mixture

180g wholemeal self raising flour
100g ground almonds
1 tsp baking powder
100g glace cherries chopped in quarters

fold in

Bake for 50 minutes

I had to get a second picture in, just noticed the cherry smiling in the first picture looks a bit bruised.

This album is getting a bit depressing...need something more upbeat tonight.

I can always rely on Florence :)

So when cake has cooled down, cut off the top and cover in cream, flaked almonds and fresh cherries.

I entered this cake in the Tesco Real Food Challenge:

http://www.tescorealfoodchallenge.com/recipes/heartbreak-healers/cherry-and-almond-cake

Banana and white chocolate cakes

♬ 'Lungs' By Florence and The Machine

Definitely one of my favourite albums to have on whilst baking.

I was so hungry after yoga this morning; cycling back from it just made me get road rage. So as soon as I got in, I turned on the oven to gas mark 6, 200 °c and found my Green and Black's Chocolate recipe book lying on the table waiting for me.......

The recipe in the book is " Banana, cherry, and white chocolate muffins". 

But who has those ingredients just lying in their cupboard? I was running low on eggs and just had loads of bananas from Ridley road market so I changed a few things and ran to the shop to buy some G&B's. 

This can be done in 30mins..

▶ Recipe:

Ingredients:

150g wholemeal plain flour

half tsp baking powder

pinch of salt

1 medium egg

40 golden caster sugar

50g melted butter

125ml semi skimmed milk

1 medium banana

100g G&B white chocolate

Method:

Sieve the flour, baking powder and salt in a large bowl.

Whisk the egg, sugar, butter and milk for about 20 seconds in another bowl.

Add the wet ingredients to the dry bowl and use a tablespoon to fold everything in, the mixture should still look lumpy.

Add banana, don't worry about size; it depends on how much you want to taste it! 

Then add 80g of white chopped chocolate, I put the bar in my blender for a few seconds.

Mix well and batter should be quite lumpy; then spoon in muffin tray.

Bake for 20 minutes.

Melt remaining white chocolate on hob in bowl over boiling water, if you've eaten the rest..... then go and buy some more! Chop some banana and pop on top and sprinkle with cinnamon.

Facebook your mates and let them know a cup of tea and cake is ready for them once they have finished work.

This recipe was featured in the 2011 July issue of BBC Good Food Magazine.

http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/1397638/banana-fairy-cakes

Even more reason to try it out!

xx