Apple and Toffee Muffins: They are good for everyone

Everyone have their weak point, for me I always love the bake goods with apple, I love the taste of bake apple. But I have the problem most of the recipe for this kind of recipe will require cinnamon, which my sister (who is my best customer, haha) really hate it. So, if I want to make them, I have to promise not using it. But this muffin can pass her rule, because there is toffee bit in it and that’s my sister weak point, too. Right now we get a recipe that can make us both happy.

Apple and toffee muffins

MAKES 12

2	eggs, beaten
80g	caster sugar
240ml	milk
100g	butter, melted
300g	plain flour
2 tsp	baking powder
½ tsp	salt
	good pinch of cinnamon (I use a small amount: you know why)
2	eating apples, such as Cox’s or Granny Smiths, peeled, cored and finely chopped
50g	toffee, broken into small pieces

Pre-heat the oven to 19O°C 375°F/Gas mark 5. Line a 12-hole bun or muffin tin with paper cases.

Stir together the flour, baking powder, salt and cinnamon in a large bowl. Mix the apple into the flour mixture, and set aside.

In a bowl, beat eggs with milk, sugar and melted butter. Pour all at once into the flour mixture. Mix quickly and lightly until moistened, but do not beat. The batter will be lumpy.

Spoon the mixture into the muffin cases, filling them a quarter full, then top with a few pieces of toffee, and cover with the rest of the muffin mixture until the paper cases are half full.

Bake in the oven for 30-35 minutes until well risen and golden.

Cool on a wire rack.

Very Strawberry Cup Cake: this one can be called strawberry cup cake!

I had a strawberry cup cake last month, at the coffee shop in the hospital. But I didn’t want to call it a strawberry cup cake. Not that the cake was poorly made or it’s tasted awful, the problem is I couldn’t feel or taste any strawberry in the cake. So, I dream about this cup cake, I wish I can have a real strawberry cup cake with a lot of strawberry. And today my dream comes true, I get what I want. The cup cake recipe is from the yellow butter cake from.....................(I take the recipe from my friend blog: bake-aholic) but I turn the simple cake to a strawberry one. The cup cake can’t be cup cake without a lot of buttercream, as I want the taste of the strawberry to be over the top, the strawberry buttercream is what I need.

And now I have it, the recipe for the real strawberry cup cake, the one that can have this title.

Very Strawberry Cup Cake

Makes about 12 cupcakes

Dry
100 g	All-purpose flour
30 g	Potato starch
¾ tsp.	Baking powder
½ tsp.	Salt
Liquid
½ cup	Half-and- half
2 tsp	Vanilla extract
Creaming
85 g	Unsalted butter, at room temperature
200 g	Extra-fine granulated sugar
2	Eggs (large)
150 g	Strawberry cut into small dice

1. Preheat the oven to 350°F or 180°C.

2. Set out the ingredients and equipment.

- Sift the flour directly into a bowl on a scale for accurate measuring.

- Measure the other dry ingredients into a separate mixing bowl, add the flour, and whisk for 10 seconds to blend. Set aside.

- Measure the liquid ingredients into a separate bowl and set aside.

- Measure the butter and sugar into separate bowls and set aside.

- Crack the eggs into a separate bowl and set aside.

3. Cream together the butter and sugar on the lowest speed for 3 to 5 minutes.

4. With the mixer still on the lowest speed, add the eggs one at a time, fully incorporating after each addition. Stop the mixer and scrape the sides of the bowl.

5. Add the dry ingredient mixture alternately with the liquid mixture in 3 to 5 additions each, beginning and ending with the dry mixture. Fold the strawberry with the last potion of flour mixture. Move swiftly through this step to avoid overworking the batter.

6. You can use muffin tin line with paper liners or use a paper cup. Use a 2-oz, trigger-release, ice-cream scoop to deposit batter into the lined pans so they-re 2/3 full. Bake for 22 minutes.

Strawberry Puree

170 g	frozen strawberry, thawed
45 g	sugar

1. Thaw a package of frozen strawberries in the bag. Do not strain the juice.

2. Combine the strawberries and their juice with the sugar in a heavy-bottomed saucepan. Gently bring the mixture to simmer over medium heat and promptly remove from the heat.

3. Scrape the puree from the bowl using a rubber spatula and carefully strain through a fine-mesh sieve set over a large bowl. Try to capture all of the strawberries seeds in the strainer.

4. Scrape the underside of the strainer.

5. Set aside while you make the buttercream.

Italian Meringue Buttercream

75 g	Egg Whites
140 g	Sugar
1/8 cup	Water
225 g	Unsalted butter

To make the sugar syrup, place the candy thermometer in the saucepan and heat the water and 120 g of sugar over medium-high heat. Partially cover with a lid to capture the evaporating water this helps to moisten the sides of the saucepan to prevent sugar crystals from forming.

With the mixer on high speed, begin whipping the egg whites to stiff peaks. When the peaks are stiff, with the mixer still running slowly pour the remaining sugar into the meringue.

Raise the heat under the sugar syrup to bring the syrup to 245°F, if it is not there already. When the syrup is at 245°F, remove the thermometer and slowly pour the syrup into the meringue.

After 1 to 2 minutes reduce the mixer speed to medium for 3 to 4 minutes, or until the meringue is cooled. Add the butter 1 tablespoon at a time. Increase the mixer speed to high for 1 to 2 minutes, or until the butter is fully incorporated.

Strawberry Butter cream

Beat together butter cream and strawberry puree.

Now you got everything you need for the delicious cake, so feel free to decorate them.

LENOX ALMOND BISCOTTI: FROM BAKING FROM MY HOME TO YOURS

I bake a lot last week, but the result is not worth talking about (anyway, the problem could come from me, ha ha, I wanted to try many recipes and doesn’t read the recipe carefully). I feel tried and bored, but you should know me, I won’t stop baking. So, I turn to the person whom I admired, Dorie Greenspan and I hope she wouldn’t disappoint me. I wanted to try this recipe for a long time, but as I always be, I got new books almost every week and want to try many recipes from them, too, and it took me almost a years to pick this recipe and go into the kitchen. I like biscotti very much, and I tried many recipes before but I have to say this one is great. So, after a lot of failure, this cookie can comfort me, and what’s more, it’s so delicious too.

LENOX ALMOND BISCOTTI: FROM BAKING FROM MY HOME TO YOURS

Makes about 30

1½ cups	all-purpose flour
1½ teaspoons	Baking powder
¼ teaspoon	Salt
½ cup	yellow cornmeal
1 stick (8 tablespoons)	unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 cup	sugar
2	Large eggs
1½ teaspoons	Almond extract (I use vanilla extract)
¾ cup	sliced almonds, blanched or unbleached

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line a baking sheet with parchment or a silicone mat.

Whisk the flour, baking powder and salt together. Add the cornmeal and whisk again to blend.

Working with a stand mixer, preferably fitted with a paddle attachment, or a hand mixer in a large bowl, beat the butter and sugar together at medium speed for 3 minutes, until very smooth. Add the eggs and continue to beat, scraping down the bowl as needed, for another 2 minutes, or until the mixture is light, smooth and creamy. Beat in the almond extract (or vanilla extract). Reduce the mixer speed to low and add the dry ingredients, mixing only until they are incorporated. You’ll have a soft stick-to-your-fingers dough that will ball up around the paddle or beaters. Scrape down the paddle and bowl, toss in the almonds and mix just to blend.

Scrape half the dough onto one side of the baking sheet. Using your fingers and a rubber spatula or scraper, work the dough into a log about 12 inches long and 1½ inches wide. The log will be more rectangular than domed, and bumpy, rough and uneven. Form a second log with the remaining dough on the other side of the baking sheet.

Bake for 15 minutes, or until the logs are lightly golden but still soft and springy to the touch. Transfer the baking sheet to a rack and cool the logs on the baking sheet for 30 minutes.

If you turned off the oven, bring it back up to 350 degrees F.

Using a wide metal spatula, transfer the logs to a cutting board and, with a long serrated knife, trim the ends and cut the logs into ¾ niche-thick slices. Return the slices to the baking sheet and slide the sheet back into the oven.

Bake the biscotti for another 15 minutes, or until they are golden and firm.

Transfer them to racks and cool to room temperature.