Banana Walnut Blueberry Muffin

When I went to grocery shopping at Cold Storage, I saw that the blueberry was on sale. So I bought some and bake banana and blueberry muffin. Normally, I will wait for the banana skin to turn black as that is the best time for baking banana cake or muffins.

INGREDIENTS FOR BANANA WALNUT BLUEBERRY MUFFIN

75 g - Butter (Softened)

110 g - Brown Sugar

1 piece - Egg (Slightly beaten)

1 teaspoon - Vanilla Extract

1 1/2 cup - Plain Flour

1 tsp - Baking Powder
1 tsp - Bicarbonate Soda

135 g - Plain yogurt 

3 large ripe bananas
150g - Blueberries
Some toasted walnut
Some Caster sugar/icing sugar

METHOD FOR BANANA WALNUT BLUEBERRY MUFFIN

1. Pre - heat the oven at 190C.

2. Line muffin paper on the muffin tray. Then set aside.

3. Mashed the ripe banana with a fork and set aside.
4. Sieve the plain flour, bicarbonate soda and baking powder. Mix well then set aside.

5.  Beat the butter, vanilla extract and sugar until white and fluffy with a electric hand mixer.

6. Add egg and yogurt, beat well. 

7. Fold blueberries, mashed banana and walnut into the wet mixture.

8. Use a spatula combine the dry ingredients into the wet mixture until just blend.
9. Pour the batter into the prepared muffin tray. Sprinkle some caster sugar/icing sugar on top of muffin.

10. Bake at oven for 20 minutes or until a cake tester came out clean.

11. Remove from the oven and set aside.

Before pouring into the muffin tray.

Banana Walnut Blueberry Muffin

This is the first time I sprinkle some caster sugar on top of the muffin. It turn out to be nice and sweet on top of the muffin. It is a moist type of banana blueberry muffin.

Cheesy Bacon Pineapple & Herb Muffins

After the first trial of the savory muffins, I decided to try another recipe again which I modified some changes. This is because I ran out of ham in my fridge so I substitute with bacon.

It was equally nice the second day. I packed some for my tea break at work on the second day. I love the pineapple that add into it and the chunky bacon. With the nice herbs aroma which makes my day.

INGREDIENTS FOR CHEESY BACON PINEAPPLE AND HERB MUFFINS

315g - All purpose flour (Plain flour)

4 tsp - Baking powder

1 tsp - Salt

125g (1 cup) - Grated cheddar ( I use about 3/4 cup)

200g - Chopped bacon

1 tablespoon - Caster Sugar

Some dried oregano and basil (depends your taste buds)

310ml (1 1/4 cup) - Milk

4 tablespoon (60g) - butter, melted (I use olive oil)
1 egg
400g - canned crushed pineapple, drained.

Some sunflower seeds 

METHOD FOR  CHEESY BACON PINEAPPLE AND HERB MUFFINS

1. Pre - heat the oven to 180C. Lightly greased muffin tray and set aside.

2. Sieve flour, baking powder and salt into in a large mixing bowl.

3. Add half of the cheese and all the ham, sugar, dried oregano and basil. Toss well to combine.

4. In another bowl, whisk together milk, oil and egg.

5. Make a well in the centre of the flour mixture and stir in milk mixture and pineapple until just combined. Do not over mix it.

6. Spoon mixture evenly into prepared muffin tray. Sprinkle remaining sunflower seeds and dried oregano and basil on top.
7. Bake at oven for 20 minutes or until cake tester came out clean. 

Cheesy Bacon Pineapple & Herb Muffin

Cheese and Ham Mega Muffins

I have bake many different kind of  muffins but never try baking any savory muffins before. I came across this recipe from one of my cooking book. The title of the book is CUPCAKE & MUFFINS. I bought it in one of the year end Popular sale. There are over 100 recipes in it. 

I flipped through the book and saw the following Cheese and Ham Mega Muffins recipe. I check the ingredients and basically I have them all. So I start baking. 

INGREDIENTS FOR CHEESE AND HAM MEGA MUFFINS

250g - All purpose flour (Plain flour)

2 tsp - Baking powder

1/4 tsp - Salt

125g (1 cup) - Grated cheddar ( I use about 1/2 cup)

80g (80g) - Chopped ham

50g (1/3 cup) - sun dried tomatoes (I use around 25g and I cut it into strip)

3 tbsp - Chopped Parsley 

250ml (1 cup) - Milk

60ml (1/4 cup) - Olive oil

1 egg, beaten

METHOD FOR CHEESE AND HAM MEGA MUFFINS

1. Pre - heat the oven to 180C. Lightly greased muffin tray and set aside.

2. Sieve flour, baking powder and salt into in a large mixing bowl.

3. Add three-fourths of the cheese and all the ham, sun dried tomatoes and parsley. Toss well to combine.

4. In another bowl, whisk together milk, oil and egg.

5. Make a well in the centre of the flour mixture and stir in milk mixture, until just combined. Do not overmix it.

6. Spoon mixture evenly into prepared muffin tray. Sprinkle remaining cheese on top. 

7. Bake at oven for 20 minutes or until cake tester came out clean.

 Just before I sent my muffins into the oven.

CHEESE AND HAM MEGA MUFFINS

I have made some adjustment with the ingredients like cheese as I worried that my muffin will came out too cheesy. And I cut down the dried tomatoes too as not sure how it tested if too many sun dried tomatoes in it. Therefore you can see that my cheese and ham mega muffins are not that creamy. I have done this just in time for lunch and brought some over to my sister in law office for her lunch. She reckon that it tastes nice. However, I will add more cheese next time if I would like to do this again.

* Please note that step 3 is very important. Make sure that the flour mixture are well combined with the ham, sun dried tomatoes and parsley. Toss well.

Orange Butter Cake top with Almond Crust (蜂蜜杏仁香橙奶油蛋糕)

I love almond flakes very much. Sometime I just toasted in the oven for a few minutes and sprinkle on top of the salads. Love the textures. While surfing the net for recipe, I came across this Orange Butter Cake top with Almond Crust recipe by Nasi Lemak Lover. 

After browsing through the recipe, I went to my pantry and fridge to search for the ingredients. 

"Yes......... I shouted in my heart." I can bake this cake for my afternoon tea time. 

Please pop over to the original recipe, here.

INGREDIENTS FOR ORANGE BUTTER CAKE

125g - Butter

90g - Sugar (I use brown sugar)

2pieces - Egg

1/2 teaspoon - Vanilla Extract

125g - Cake Flour

1/2tsp + 1/4tsp - Baking Powder

4 tbsp - Freshly Squeeze Orange Juice

1 tsp -  Orange Zest

METHOD FOR ORANGE BUTTER CAKE

1. Pre - heat the oven at 170C.

2. Line paper for the loaf tin. Then set aside.

3. Sift the cake flour and baking powder. Then set aside.

4. Beat the butter, vanilla extract and sugar until white and fluffy with a electric hand mixer.

5. Add one egg at a time. Beating well after each addition. After well combined increased speed and beat for 1 minute till fluffy.

6. Pour the batter into the prepared loaf tin and slightly tap the loaf tin to release the air bubbles.

7. Bake at oven for 30 minutes or until a cake tester came out clean.

8. Remove from the oven and set aside.

INGREDIENTS FOR HONEY ALMOND CRUST

60g - Almond Flakes

25g -  Honey

15g - Butter

METHOD FOR HONEY ALMOND CRUST

1. Set the oven temperature to 180C.

2. In a small saucepan, melt butter and honey at low heat. Stir occasionally. After combined remove from stove.

3. Pour almond flakes into the butter honey mixtures and make sure the almond flakes are well coated with the mixtures.

4. Place the honey almond crust evenly spread on top of the cake. Then return the cake to oven and bake for 8 - 10 minutes or until the honey almond crust turn golden brown.

5. Remove the cake from the oven, let the cake cool down completely before slicing.

This cake is very popular in my family. Especially my hubby, I think it will be gone in a short while. I personally think that it is best to consumed on that day when the almond flakes still crunchy. The cake itself is quite moist. Sorry for the slightly burnt honey almond crust. This is one of the good recipe to keep.

Blueberry Cheese Tart

I am not a certified nor qualified baker. I just love to play around with flour. Occasionally, my hand will feel itchy after browsing through many recipe. I will start baking. Actually I bake with my mood. When my baking mood is back, I can bake every day but when the strong winds blown away my mood, I can stop baking for months. Hahaha........ that's me!

Following were just the blueberry cheese tart that my friend shared with me few years ago. She baked the cheese tart for her eldest daughter charity fun raising at school. I did not have the chance to savour her piece of cheese tart as all sold out during the food charity fair. So my dearest friend gave me a link for this recipe, here.

I love GS Kitchen Mini Cheese Tart recipe as I love the cheese filling where she added lemon juice on it. So the cheese tart came out to be nice. I made some minor changes in the recipe and method for this blueberry cheese tart.

INGREDIENTS FOR PASTRY

150gm - Cold Butter (Cut into cube)

50gm - Caster Sugar

2pieces - Egg Yolk

1/4 teaspoon - Vanilla Essence

250gm - Plain Flour (Sieved)

METHOD:

1. Pre-heat the oven at 170C. 

2. Sieve plain flour and put aside.

3. Beat cold butter and caster sugar to become pale in colour. Add in egg yolk and beat thoroughly.

4. Fold in sieve flour and mix into the dough. (If the dough is too sticky, you can pop into refrigerator for 15-20 mins).

5. Divide the dough into small balls that can fit in your tart shell case. Slowly press the dough into the dough to clockwise direction and trim off the excess dough.

6. Use fork/satay stick to prick few hole.

7. Place the tart shells into the pre-heated oven and bake for 25 minutes.

INGREDIENTS FOR CHEESE FILLING

250gm - Cream Cheese

50gm - Butter (at room temperature)

60gm - Icing sugar (I use caster sugar)

1 piece - Egg

1 tablespoon - Lemon Juice

100gm - Whipping Cream (Cold)

Blueberry Jam (Some)

METHOD FOR CREAM CHEESE FILLING

1. Pre-heat the oven at 160C. 

2. Beat cream cheese, butter and sugar until fluffy. 

3. Add in lemon juice and beat until smooth. 

4. Add in egg and beat till combine thoroughly. Then put aside.

5. In a clean bowl beat whipping cream till stiff. Then mix the whipping cream to the cheese mixture till combine (just use spatula).

6. You can use pipping bag to pipe the cheese batter into baked shell tart. However, I just use spoon to scoop the cheese batter to the baked shell tart.

7. I filled half of the tart with cheese batter and I add 1 teaspoon of blueberry jam into it. Then cover the cheese batter to fill the tart.

8. Place the cheese tart into the pre-heated oven and bake for 15 minutes.

9. Leave the cheese tarts to cool before keeping them in fridge.

10. After few hours chilling, ready to be served.

Mary's style of Blueberry Cheese Tart

This cheese tart is a good keeper. It can store for many days in the fridge with airtight container. I do some purely cheese. As sometime my princess will shredded some chocolate and put on top of the cheese tart. 

Interior of the blueberry cheese tart.

Cheese Tart with sweet relish

I would like to try out the sweet relish from a friend as a souvenir. So I put one tablespoon to try it out. Well, I still prefer the normal blueberry cheese tart.