Friday, January 20, 2012

Chocolate & Berry Muffins from Bourke Street Bakery





I would normally try a new recipe atleast twice before I post it on my blog. These came out really nice, but I will try again, as they're not just 100% yet. 




Use a 12 hole muffin tray. (with large paper cases)
I used 2 x 12 hole large cupcake trays with the same batch.


Ingredients
• 400g (2 2/3 cups) plain flour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 300g caster sugar
• 310g unsalted butter
• 480ml buttermilk
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 3 eggs
• 225g dark chocolate, roughly chopped
• 225g raspberries, fresh or frozen.
• raw sugar (keep a Tablespoon or so on the side ready to sprinkle on top)
• Icing sugar, for dusting



Method
1. Preheat the oven to 190°C (375°F). 


2. Chop up your chocolate really rough and leave to the side. (you will mix this into the batter mix in point 6)


3. Melt the butter in a saucepan over low heat, then remove from the heat and stir in the buttermilk. Using a whisk stir the butter and milk. (it should change into one colour. Then whisk in the eggs to combine. (the colour of the mix should change to a more pale yellow)


4. Sift the flour and baking soda into a bowl and add the sugar, mixing well to combine.


5. Pour the melted butter over the dry ingredients and whisk to combine. 


6. Add in the chocolate and berries. 
Use a large spoon to gently fold through the chocolate and raspberries.
For those in my family that dont like berries, I've mixed the chocolate into the batch without the berries first and made a tray of 12. Then mixed in 1/3 of the berries into the mixture, then made another 10. 

7. Spoon the mixture into the prepared muffin tins. (i have now learnt that you need to fill the muffin tins to the top)



8. Sprinkle the tops with raw sugar. 


Reduce the oven temperature to 180°C (350°F) and bake for 20-25 minutes. It may be necessary to drop the temperature about 10 minutes before the end of baking time if the muffins are starting to brown on top.

To test if the muffins are done, push the top gently to feel that it is firm. Remove from the oven and allow to cool in the tins for 10 minutes before eating. 



Dust with icing sugar to serve.
Drizzle some melted chocolate on top. 



Sunday, January 15, 2012

Plum jam ( from my tree)

Home Made Plum Jam from Home Grown plums

Once again this Summer my plum tree produced a great crop. 5 large ricotta baskets to be exact. A friend of mine suggested that I give him a basket so that his partner will make jam out of them. As so she did. 2 jars of this home made plum jam. I was overwhelmed. And today we tried it for the first time. I have asked her to email me he making process so I can post it.