Date Muffins

I have a packet of dates sitting in our fridge for some time now - it was from a friend - pasalubong from Syria. Eating it by itself is quite good enough - but I thought of making some muffins or cupcakes or something with it, and only till today did I finally got into it.

Preparing the muffin is pretty quick except for the dates - it took me sometime because each date has to pitted out and chopped up.

I reduced the amount of sugar in the muffin ingredient because the dates are sweet. Overall they tasted goodah!!!

depression therapy - BAKING!!!

i got up feeling low .. depression eating me up ... slowly - i could feel it .. i got to do something to shake it off :o and what i did? do my own therapy .. either cooking, baking or washing .... was thinking of making baked mac ... but i don't have the (full) ingredients. eyeing the 2 pieces of large ripe banana atop the microwave - i decided to whip up a batch of muffins instead of the butterscotch that i was thinking of trying out.

using the basic muffin recipe from group recipe, and after adding the wet ingredients with the mashed bananas, i divided the batter into two and added nuts to the first half and choco chips to the other half. .... the batter yielded 14 pcs. i remembered to use the ice-cream scoop, and glad that i am getting used to it :D ... my muffins are some kinda 'even' in size and guess what? they have nice domes!!!!

though i must admit that few pieces of the batch are slightly browned - hehehe - esp. the two extra muffin that i placed in the aluminum cups - so anemic in color! ahahahah...

i read that baking/cooking time is affected with the color of the pans used .. hmm should read that thing again! nonetheless - my muffins are 'still' .... yummylicious ....

i had one ( ok...ok .. i had two!!! one of each flavor!!!) :D .. with a nice cup of coffee ... no, not the latte - just plain coffee with milk .... and with both my feet on the cushion ... munching on the muffins .... thinking of the butterscotch recipe ....... heheheheheh

and you know what happened next!? :0

more on cravings....

yet another craving (or was it simply hunger?!) anyways, i was like wanting to eat muffins since last night - and have something in my head to whip up. however, this afternoon (teehee... it was just after lunch! :D) .. while preparing the ingredients - i saw the bunch of apples that i already have forgotten .. :D. so instead i made a batch of apple spice muffin and half of cherry-jam muffin (again heheh .. i just love jam-filled muffins!)

after just cooling for a few minutes - i ate two ... the cut ones .. :D and had them with a nice cuppa coffee .... my afternoon is complete, or almost complete :)

the recipe i used for these muffins was from 'basic muffin recipe' of Group Recipes:

Ingredients:

• 2 cups flour
• 1 cup sugar
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 egg
• 3/4 cup milk
• 3/8 cup oil (that is 1/4 cup plus 2 Tablespoons)
• About 1 cup of any additional optional ingredients

How to make it

• Stir together dry ingredients in a large bowl.
• Add wet ingredients and any optional ingredients and stir just until moistened. (Adjust amount of milk depending on how moist your add-ins are - add less for moist things like banana, crushed pineapple, or pumpkin and add a bit more if needed for dried fruits.)
• Scoop into greased muffins tins (an ice cream scoop works well for this).
• Sprinkle the tops with sugar if desired, and bake at 400 degrees for 25 to 30 minutes or until done.

for the apple spice - add i/2 cup chopped apples, 1/4 tsp cinnamon and dash of nutmeg ( i don't have the nutmeg but still tasted good!)

for the jam - i added 1 tsp of jam into each muffin cup and topped-off with more batter.


ref: http://www.grouprecipes.com/72374/basic-muffins-with-variations.html

muffin craves

i've been craving for muffins and so i whipped up some ... i used the recipe from group recipe and it was mentioned there that with the same mixture i could come up with different 'flavors' - so that i tried and made three in one baking !! it turned out good and yummy :D

first i threw some chocolate chips on 1/3 of the batter, then splashed cherry jam on the next 3rd, and threw in some cinnamon sugar on the last 3rd....

used an ice cream scoop too that's why the muffins are quite 'even' in sizes :D

yummylicious!!!! will try the apple spice next time and i have a box of dates from a friend. i saw a date-nut recipe and will surely do that next time .. next week maybe? hmmmm maybe tomorrow? ahahaha can't wait ...

hayzz.... this is what happens when one doesn't have any job ... :( haven't found one yet ... huhuhu ....