Hot Cross Muffins

I have made some hot cross buns this Easter, but I decided to blog about these Hot Cross Muffins instead. I found the recipe in Delicious magazine, and decided to make them for dessert today.

I was a bit short of dried fruit, so only used a tiny amount compared with the recipe - but I was quite happy with the amount I used, and would use this amount again.

First put dried fruit in a bowl with hot water and leave to stand for 10 minutes or so.

Put flour, bicarb, cinnamon, mixed spice and sugar in a large bowl. In another bowl or jug whisk together buttermilk, oil and eggs.

Add wet ingredients to dry, and stir in gently. Add (well-drained) soaked fruit and stir to combine.

Eeek! At this point I realized I had forgotten the sugar, so I stirred it in at the last minute. Whoops - luckily it didn't affect the muffins.

Put the mixture into muffin tins or cases. The recipe states that it makes 12 muffins - I made 6 large muffins and 12 small.

Cook at 200 C for 20 minutes or so, until golden on top.

Cool muffins on racks. The 'Delicious' recipe made the muffins look shiny like real hot cross buns, but I decided my children are sticky enough already, and I gave this step a miss.

For the crosses, add a drop of lemon juice to some icing sugar, then enough water to make a smooth paste. 'Draw' on icing crosses with a teaspoon.

I really liked these muffins - the cranberries give a nice tang, and they do taste a little like untoasted hot cross buns.

Ingredients:
30 g dried cranberries
60 g currants
375 g (2 1/2 cups) self raising flour
1/2 tsp bicarb
1 tsp mixed spice
165 ml (2/3 cup) oil (I used olive oil)
250 ml (1 cup) buttermilk
2 eggs

The original recipe is here

Blueberry Buttermilk Muffins (again!)

This time I used brown sugar instead of white sugar in this recipe and they are pretty good! Lovely crunchy top and fluffy interior.

So if you've got some blueberries and buttermilk hanging around, these (here and here) are good muffin recipes, and this blueberry buttermilk cake is worth making too.

Blueberry Buttermilk Muffins (another version)

This is a slightly different version of blueberry and buttermilk muffins. The other ones I made contained demarara sugar and butter, while these have white sugar and oil.

Put flour and sugar in a bowl, and in a large jug put oil, buttermilk, egg and vanilla.

Add the buttermilk mixture and blueberries to the flour and sugar, and stir until combined.

Because of the white sugar, the mixture is very pale - I normally use brown or demarara sugar, so I was surprised at how white it was.

Spoon into muffin trays and cook at 200 C for around 20 minutes. My little muffins took 15 mins.
The cooked muffins have a golden, crispy top and are very light and fluffy inside. I'm used to the more solid, substantial and sticky muffins, so to me these are a bit like the 'white bread' version - not as tasty - more like a light cupcake.

But very popular with everyone else, and they come out of the muffin papers very cleanly with no residue, which is unusual for a muffin!

Ingredients:
2½ cups (375g) self-raising flour
¾ cup (165g) caster sugar
1 egg, beaten lightly
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
2/3 cup (160ml) vegetable oil (I used olive oil)
¾ cup (180ml) buttermilk
100 g blueberries

Based on this recipe.

Blueberry Buttermilk Muffins

I love muffins made with buttermilk - it seems to give them a slightly sour tang (as in cheesecake rather than off milk!) which goes especially well with blueberries.

The recipe started as a loaf, but now I use it for muffins instead, as it's more practical for school lunches.

Put flour, baking powder, bicarb, nutmeg and sugar in a large bowl. In a jug put egg, buttermilk and have melted butter ready.

(I don't put the butter in with the other wet ingredients to keep it warm and fully melted.)

Add buttermilk/egg and melted butter to the flour mixture, and stir in gently. When almost combined, add blueberries and continue to stir until everything is just combined.

Spoon into muffin pans and cook at 190 C for 15-20 minutes (my smaller ones took 15 mins, and the bigger ones took 20 mins).

I had about 4 tablespoons of mixture left over and didn't have room for another muffin pan in the oven, so I oiled my mini quiche dish and made a little muffin cake instead. I sprinkled some extra demarara on the top and we shared a mini cake for dessert.


Ingredients:
2 cups (300 g ) plain flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp bicarb of soda
small grating of nutmeg
1 cup (220 g) demarara sugar
1 punnet (175 g) blueberries
1 egg, lightly beaten
60 g butter, melted
1 cup (250 ml) buttermilk

Blueberry Buttermilk Bread

Another way to eat blueberries in a cake - this is like a big loaf-shaped muffin made with buttermilk (I think blueberries and buttermilk seem to work well together).

You combine the wet with the dry ingredients until just combined, and then cook in a lined loaf tin at 180 C for one hour.

(I undercooked mine and only cooked it for 50 mins - it needed the extra 10 mins because it's a bit squashy in the middle - I think the kitchen got a bit busy at that time and I took it out too early without thinking.)

This is the kind of cake I like - easy to make, not very sweet (I only added 3/4 cup of sugar), solid and filling.

Ingredients:
2 cups (300 g ) plain flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp bicarb of soda
1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
1 cup (220 g) demarara sugar
1 punnet blueberries
1 egg, lightly beaten
60 g butter, melted
1 cup (250 ml) buttermilk

Buttermilk and Apricot Crumble Cake

Not the most photogenic cake in the world!

I had some apricots and buttermilk in the fridge (both past their best), and found this recipe to use them up in a tasty way.

It's a sort of cross between a cake and a pudding, with a sponge bottom, fruity middle (you could use any soft fruit here, I imagine) and a sweet oaty topping.

First you cream the butter, sugar and egg, then add the flour, baking powder and buttermilk. Spread into a lined pan (I used a square Pyrex dish lined with a strip of baking paper) then top with chopped fruit.

Combine the topping ingredients in a bowl and spoon over the top of the fruit.

Bake at 200 C for 45 min (test with skewer) and cool before serving. Goes well with custard, especially if you find cooked apricot a bit tart. I think some cooked apple would be nice in the winter.

Ingredients:
100 g caster sugar
1 egg
60 g butter (soft)
160 g flour
1 tsp baking powder
50 ml buttermilk
300 g chopped apricots or other fruit
topping
100 ml buttermilk
50 g rolled oats
50 g ground almonds or walnuts
80 g brown sugar
pinch of cinnamon

(adapted from 'The Passionate Cook' blog)

Blueberry Buttermilk Cake

I've made this recipe before, with strawberries (here) and today I used blueberries instead. Delicious! Blueberries definitely are the fruit to use rather than strawberries because they melt into the cake so well.

Berry and Buttermilk Cake

This is another recipe from 'Apples For Jam'. In the book it's made with blueberries, but strawberries are suggested as an alternative. Blueberries were a bit expensive when I was at the shops yesterday, so I decided to use strawberries.

The cake is like a muffin mixture with the wet ingredients stirred gently into the dry and then spread into a baking pan. Fruit is scattered over and then a sprinkling of demarara sugar. I pressed the fruit pieces into the surface which I think was a good idea because they blended with the cake.

This is a good cake to eat with a cup of tea or coffee if you don't want anything that's too sweet or overbearing. The lemon zest and buttermilk give a mild tangy flavour to the base and the strawberries and demarara give sweetness on the top. Good for lunchboxes because it's not crumbly and only a little bit sticky.

Ingredients:
2.5 cups flour (I used wholemeal for the half cup) and 3 tsp baking powder
90 g sugar
ground nutmeg
2 eggs, whisked well
250 ml buttermilk
60 g butter, melted
1 tsp lemon zest
150 g fruit (blueberries or strawberries)
demarara sugar to sprinkle
(greased and lined 30 x 20 x 5 cm pan) cook at 200 deg C for about 25 mins

Buttermilk Ice Cream

I saw this recipe on the We Don't Have a Blog Blog, made by Coby. It's a Tessa Kiros recipe from 'Apples For Jam'. I've borrowed this book from the library before, and now I've ordered it from the Book Depository (early birthday present!)

You whisk together 250 ml single cream and 200 g caster sugar until the cream thickens a bit, then add 1 tsp vanilla extract and 500 ml buttermilk. Churn it up in an ice cream maker and put it in the freezer to harden.

It makes a tangy, fresh-tasting ice cream which is perfect with fruit. Everyone else had chocolate topping and hundreds-and-thousands with theirs though!

Banana Buttermilk Pancakes

I had some buttermilk hanging around in the fridge, and decided to use it to make some banana buttermilk pancakes (Bill Granger recipe).

I usually make little plain pikelets, so I made some of these too in case the banana ones weren't popular (they are the smoother ones at the back of the plate).

The batter for the buttermilk pancakes was very thick so I added some milk. I also decided to make them small so they'd be more manageable.

They had an interesting tangy flavour because of the buttermilk, and the banana tasted good (you add slices to the top of each pancake then add more batter before turning), but I had trouble browning them. I have much more success with making the normal pikelets, and the boys prefer them (they add jam, syrup or lemon and sugar) so I'll just stick to them in future!

PS Banana pancakes taste nice cold the next day! Have just found a Nigella recipe for banana pancakes where the banana is mashed and added to the batter, which sounds like a better idea.