Sweet Potato Muffins

 I had a load of sweet potatoes in the fridge peeled, chopped and bobbing in a bowl of water, leftovers from a red onion parmentier thingy and I figured I would use them up. 

These are more breakfast type muffins, healthier than those that you get at service stations etc and super moist.   I am on a bit of a breakfast muffin kick at the moment and I stockpile them in the freezer and have them in work for breakfast.  At the moment I have these, banana muffins, and apple muffins which taste lovely but there are a few tweaks needed in the recipe before I post it.

The measurements are in cups and I've left them that way because it's a very straightforward recipe using cups.  The recipe I originially used didn't include either nuts or sultanas but I like bits in my muffins.  I found these a little bitter to be honest and I would be inclined to up the soft brown sugar to a cupful of packed soft brown sugar.  The other thing I did was to perforate them and pour over a little maple syrup while they were still warm so that they would soak it up.  The original recipe also said that it was for 12 muffins which I filled but then I also filled 10 bun cases too because I ran out of muffin tins.

Two things I mentioned before with regards to muffins but they are quite useful so I'll say 'em again.
First up: in order to measure out even quantities use an ice-cream scoop it's one of those things that's so easy but makes life so much easier when you're making muffins.  Secondly preheat the oven as hot as you can get it and when you put your muffins in reduce down to 170-180c; it will give you well risen muffins.

The dry ingredients:
2 cups of Self Raising Flour
1/2tsp ground cinnamon (or more if you like)
1/2tsp ground nutmeg
1 cup of soft brown sugar
a handful of pecans and sultanas
The wet ingredients
1 cup milk
2 eggs
1 cup vegtable oil
1 tsp Vanilla
1 cup sweet potato cooked and mashed.

1. Preheat the oven as per instructions above and slip the muffins cases into their tins.
2. In the first bowl whisk together the dry ingredients and make a little hole in the middle.
3. Mix the wet ingredients together (you can probably use the whisk again for this just make sure the ingredients are well mixed)
4. Pour the wet ingredient into the dry and mix well.
5. Scoop into the cases, pop into the oven and reduce the temp.  15-20mins later they should spring back to the touch and if you stick a skewer in them they should be done.

What is a pinch of salt? How much is a pinch of salt?

Literally it refers to the amount of salt that you can pick up between your index finger and thumb.

Raspberry Friands

So here's the story.  I got my grubby little paws on some amazing eggs from my mates Bren and Hazel's chuckens.  But the question was what to bake that was worthy of such lovely eggs?  The answer is contained in this recipe.  Sweet and moist with the juicy contrast of the berries, they are simply divine.  There are a lot of egg whites in this and I made a deliciously rich custard from the leftover yolks.  - Happy Eating

75g Plain Flour

240g Icing Sugar

125g Ground Almonds

6 egg whites lightly whipped

150g melted butter cooled

150g Raspberries frozen or fresh

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 180c.  Grease muffin tin.
2. Sieve together flour and icing sugar.  Stir in the ground almonds.
3. Add melted butter and egg whites and mix well.
4. Using an ice-cream scoop measure out 12 portions.  Place 4-5 berries in each friand.
5. Bake for 25 mins until golden brown.

Tiramisu

Not my first choice on the menu when I'm out, not because I don't like it, in fact I'm quite the fan but I know what it tastes like and more often than not it's the disappointing pre-pack version that's served up to me in restaurants.

Below is the Paolo Tullio version and I need to make some exchanges because I don't have the ingredients here and I'm not going shopping especially for it.  You can use stale cake instead of ladyfingers providing you avoid brownies they're too gooey to soak the liquids.  I don't always have brandy so rum or coffee liqueur is good.

Like any trifle a nice glass dish to show the layers is pretty cool.

Please note that this is not suitable for children or those with a bun in the oven because of the raw eggs.

250g Mascarpone Cheese
200g Caster Sugar
Ladyfingers/savoiardi biscuits
3 eggs
Marsala
a room temp espresso
Cocoa for sprinkling

1. Separate the eggs and whisk yolks with sugar.  Add half an espresso and a splash of brandy and mix well.  Next add the mascarpone cheese a bit at a time until is thoroughly mixed.
2. In a clean bowl whisk egg whites until stiff and fold them into the mascarpone mix.
3. Lay down a layer of ladyfingers into the bottom of the glass dish dipping each biscuit into the remaining espresso on one side first (or you could just layer them down first and sprinkle them with coffee liqueur)
4. Place a layer of the mascarpone mix on top and repeat finishing with a layer of the mascarpone mix. Sieve a layer of cocoa powder on top.
5. Chill in the fridge for at least an hour.

Bread and Butter Pudding

I love those recipe books that lack glamour but are just packed with really good tried and tested recipes.  You quite often find real peaches of recipes in fund raising cookbooks for schools or hospitals and the ingredients tend to be a lot more accessible too.

 The other place that you will find good recipes tends to be with manufactures of baking suppliers Dr Oekter in Germany, McDougalls in Lancashire in the UK, Odlums and Shamrock here in Ireland and one I got as a present from New Zealand which is the Edmonds Cookery book from a friend of mine called Gillian who has since moved back home to NZ.

I made this recipe base on the Edmonds version except I used up a little brioche I had in the house, used vanilla extract instead of lemon rind to lift the flavour and used sultanas instead of currents.  It looked gorgeous when it was done and it tasted better than any Bread and Butter Pudding I've ever had, but I still don't like it.  I didn't as a child and it would appear that my opinions of it haven't changed and yet I love french toast - go figure.

This is an all in one recipe that is really easy to make and if you prepare it you can pop it in the oven while you have dinner and it should be ready for dessert.  Stale bread works well on this because it's so thirsty it absorbs more of the liquid.


6 Slices of Brioche or 4 slices of sliced pan
2 tbsp sultanas
3 eggs
2 cups/ 500ml milk
1/4 cup /50g Sugar

1. Layer slices of brioche or quoter triangles of bread, sultanas and sugar in a Pyrex dish.
2. Whisk eggs and milk together with 1 tsp of vanilla extract and pour over bread. Allow to stand for 15 mins meanwhile preheat the oven to 180c.
3. Bake for 30mins until set and if you're feelin' swanky sieve a bit of icing sugar over the whole thing to make it look pretty.