How to Prepare Muffins

Yesterday, I found half packet of chocolate chips left in the corner of the refrigerator the other day. The last time I used up the other half was when I baked Chocolate Chips Oat Cookie.

Another baking time for me today. I promised myself to bake another muffin series using chocolate chips, which is my favorite ingredients when comes to baking. The previous muffin I had baked was Chocolate Chips Raisin Muffin.

Good thing that I got this recipe from " The Complete Step by Step Cook Book" , a gigantic recipe book I had bought a few years back during the local book fair which was held in one of the shopping centre.

My little son ate quite a lot during teatime. I had to stop him because I was afraid that he might lose his appetite when dinner comes.

Needless to say, the wonderful combination of chocolate chips and orange make a great flavor and the soft texture are the favorites for sweet tooth eaters, especially little children running around at home. That's the only way to keep them down and quiet for a while.

TIPS on Baking Muffins

• When baking muffins, avoid using self-raising flour. You need to use plain flour and baking powder to bake well risen muffins. Self raising flour might not have enough baking powder to raise the fluffy soft texture muffins.
• I used light soft brown sugar instead of castor sugar because I prefer less sweet, low calories, healthy muffins.
• Remember to sift all dry ingredients before baking. This is to ensure any small particles, harden flour and air are removed to bake smooth fluffy muffins.
• Use FRESH ORANGE instead of prepacked orange juice to maintain the orange original zest and rind.
• Do not prepare overnight the orange juice or rind because the juice will turn sour the next day and the rind will change to dark brown instead.
• You can substitute chocolate chips with chunks of dark baking chocolate for more thick chocolaty taste. However, do take precaution when eating because the baking chocolate might still feel hot after freshly bake.
• In order to keep muffins fresh up to 3 days, store the leftover muffins in airtight containers. Refrigerate them , NOT FREEZE them.

Here is the recipe for Chocolate Chip and Orange Muffins.

How to Bake Coffee Walnut Cookie

I love coffee very much. Could not miss a cup a single day. Besides drinking coffee as a beverage, coffee can be used in making cookies, cakes and puddings too.

In the beginning, I thought that by adding coffee into cookies, it will taste bitter or ruin the whole batter. To my amazement, it taste delicious! I guess it is due to the butter and vanilla which well blended with the coffee flavor, eventhough I used 3-in-1 coffee powder instead of the original ones. Imagine the coffee fragrant lingers in the cookies and the mixture of walnuts gives out the crunchiness, better than normal groundnuts.

This recipe resembles chocolate chips cookie that has the soft texture, crunchy to bite, crispy on the edges and easily melt in your mouth.

Coffee Walnut cookie goes well with coffee or tea during teatime. I am sure your kids will fall for these cookies because my kids are asking for more!

How to Make Coffee Walnut Cookie

Preparation time takes around 10 minutes. All you need to do is , in a BIG bowl, pour in all the ingredients except the walnuts and coffee powder. Ensure that you have sifted all the dry ingredients before. Beat them up consistently until the batter becomes soft and creamy. Then add in the walnuts, coffee powder and blend well. Quick and easy , isn't it?

Baking time takes 15 to 20 minutes per tray. Therefore, it depends on how much batter you could put on the baking tray. If each tray makes 8 cookies, you will need to bake 4 to 5 times to finish up the whole batter.

Coffee Walnut Cookie recipe

3-in-1 coffee powder, butter

walnut, egg yolk

Ingredients:

• 225g plain flour sifted
• 225g butter
• 150g icing sugar sifted
• 1 egg yolk
• 1 tsp vanilla essence
• 150g chopped walnuts
• 2 tbs medium ground coffee / coffee powder
• 115g walnuts cut into pieces ( for decoration )

Method:

Step 1

• Preheat oven at 180C. Line the cookie tray with greased baking sheet.
• In a big bowl, sift flour, add butter, icing sugar, egg yolk and vanilla essence all together.
• Mix them well until batter becomes soft and creamy.

Step 2

• Add in chopped walnuts and coffee powder.
• Mix them with your hands.

Step 3

• Place heaped teaspoonful of batter on prepared baking sheets.
• Flatten lightly and decorate with walnuts pieces.
• Bake in the oven for 15-20min.

TIPS:

• When the cookies are starting to change color to brownish with crispy edges, use a spoon to touch the tenderness of the top cookie.
• If it is too soft, bake for another 2min.
• If it is semi-soft, you can turn off the oven now.
• Allow the cookies to cool off on baking tray because the cookies will harden by themselves.

My Recommendations:

Do you like walnuts? I am crazy over Walnut Cookies. Try it out. You won't regret!

Chocolate Chips Oat Cookie

Hi there ! This is the recipe for Chocolate Chips Oat Cookie with some step-by-step photos that I had taken for your convenience. Hope that you will have an enjoyable baking time !

Preparation time: 10min

Baking time 1.5 hour

Yield: 65-70 pieces

milk, chocolate chips, brown sugar

plain flour with baking powder, oats, egg, butter

Ingredients:

• 150g butter
• 200g brown sugar
• 1 medium egg-beaten
• 2 tablespoon fresh milk
• 135g plain flour-sifted
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder-sifted
• 125g quick cooking oats
• 150g chocolate chips

Method:

Step 1:

• Line cookie tray with baking sheet. Lightly grease the sheet.
• Sift plain flour and baking powder.
• Cream butter and brown sugar until light and fluffy.

Step 2:

• Stir in sifted flour, baking powder. Mix well.
• Beat in egg and milk alternately.

Step 3:

• Add in oats and chocolate chips.
• Stir until soft dough forms.

Step 4:

• Shape teaspoonful of batter into balls.
• Place them on the baking sheet.
• Gently flatten them with the back of a fork.
• Bake 175C for 15-20min.
• Turn the cookies upside down to ensure both sides are bake.

RICH GINGER CAKE

Have you tried ginger cake before? Well, ginger cake does taste sweet and tangy with a soft inner texture. You could reduce the cinnamon to 1/2 teaspoon instead if you don't like the cinnamon smell. Brown sugar gives the cake a well blended chocolate color and it is suitable for weight watchers to low down the calories. Instead of using stem ginger, you can substitute them with orange peel or diced cherries for the toppings.

Gold syrup can be replace with maple syrup or honey. The icing makes the whole cake looks rather tempting though. Sorry for the blurry photo. My handphone camera pixels are too low...

Ingredients

225g SR flour

3 ts ground ginger

1 tsp ground cinnamon

1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda

115g butter

115g light soft brown sugar

2 eggs

5 tsp gold syrup

5 tsp milk

Toppings

3 pieces stem ginger

115g icing sugar

4 tsp stem ginger syrup

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 160C.
2. Grease cake tin.
3. Sift flour, cinnamon and bicarbonate of soda in a bowl.
4. Rub in butter and then sugar.
5. In another bowl, whisk eggs, syrup and milk until well blended.
6. Pour into the batter and beat until smooth and glossy.
7. Pour into the cake tin.
8. Bake for 45min until well risen .
9. Leave in the tin for 30min and then overturn it to a wire rack to cool.
10. Cut stem ginger or cherries into quarters.
11. Arrange on top of the cake.

Method for making icing:

1. In a bowl, beat together the icing sugar, syrup and a little water to make a smooth icing.
2. Transfer icing into a grease proof paper or baking sheet.
3. Drizzle over top of cake into any patterns.
4. Leave it to set.
5. Cut into squares.
6. Best serve with tea or coffee