Choc Berry Macaroon Muffin

I had a stressful day last week and I knew I needed to bake and create something, anything even on that particular day!. Baking for me is a great reliever of stress because it's in the measuring of ingredients, sifting, weighing, beating and beater licking that I find some relief and a sense of rightness (if that's a word) again!

Even if I can't solve the problems of the day or make them go away at least I have a window of time that I can concentrate on making something delicious, that looks great, its healthy and gives me a sense of purpose - even for 45 minutes!

I was initally inspired to create something "chocolate" that could also be quite healthy in terms of a cake anyway - from Healthy Pursuits.... Rich Chocolate Quinoa Cake. I didn't have a lot of the ingredients that were called for in this recipe so I decided to make my own "chocolate" muffin recipe that was white sugar and flour free, dairy free and delicious! I started off with a chocolate & berry theme which I thought would work well together.

My next inspiration was coconut and use it as a macaroon topping on the muffin to give it a nice crunchy topping. So born was the Choc Berry Macaroon Muffin. I know I seem to do an awful lot of muffins and cupcakes - but any of these recipes could be easily turned into a cake or slice by simply placing them in a different sized cake tin/slice tin and cooking for a longer period of time.

Choc Berry Macaroon Muffin

{Download & Print Recipe}

Ingredients:

Dry:
2 Cups Wholemeal Self Raising Flour
¼ Cup Cocoa Powder
1 Tsp Baking Powder
½ Tsp Bicarb Soda

Wet:
½ Cup Milk
3 Egg, (1 egg white separated from these)
½ Cup Golden Syrup (or Honey), warmed until runny
1tsp Vanilla Essence
1 Cup Mixed Frozen Berries
1 Tbsp Oil
½ Cup Apple Puree
*Optional: ¼ Cup 70% Dark Chocolate, Chopped

Macaroon Topping:
½ - ¾ Cups Desiccated Coconut
1 Egg White (From Above), Lightly Beaten
2 Tbsp Golden Syrup or Honey, warmed until runny

Method:

1.    Preheat oven to 175 Degrees. Line muffin pan with muffin papers.
2.    In a bowl add 2 whole eggs and left over yolk and beat until frothy. (About 2 min), add warmed golden syrup and beat for another 2 min.
3.    Add sifted dry ingredients and mix briefly and add remaining wet ingredients and mix until combined.
4.    Fold berries into the mixture and spoon into muffin papers.
5.    Combine macaroon ingredients in a bowl (Start with ½ cup of coconut and add more if required for good fluffy consistency) Spoon over the top of the muffins and bake in oven for 15-20 min or until skewer comes our clean.

What do you do when you've had a stressful day to relax?

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Triple Citrus & Poppy Seed Muffins......

It's been a while since I posted any recipes and it seems that the weeks just fly by without me realizing it. I got around to baking this weekend as I found i had some spare time to indulge myself with a bit of baking and photography.

Lemons from our lemon tree!

Citrus season is coming into full swing in our Orchard (if you can call it that). We have an assortment of citrus trees in our orchard dripping in fruit. There are lemons, limes, oranges, lemonade, and cumquat's (I think). I thought I would take advantage of this abundance of fruits and whip up some sore of deliciously citrus delight

.

I had an idea in my head of creating some sort of citrus muffin as they always come up a treat. Poppy seeds always compliment citrus well in baking so i thought lets go with a citrus poppy seed muffin. I added a bit of bang by combining the zest of lime, orange and lemon to create these Triple Citrus & Poppy seed Muffins.

Triple Citrus & Poppy Seed Muffins

{Download & Print Recipe}

Ingredients:

125g Butter
2 Tsp Lemon Zest
2 Tsp Lime Zest
2 Tsp Orange Zest
2/3 Cup Castor Sugar
2 Eggs
2 Cups Self Raising Flour
½ Cup Milk
1 Tsp Vanilla Essence
2 Tbsp Poppy Seeds

Icing:
2 -2 ½ Cups Icing Sugar
3 Tbsp Butter
Juice of ½ Lemon
Juice of ½ Orange
Water

Method:
1.  Preheat oven to 180 Degrees.
2. In a bowl add the butter and sugar and beat until creamy. Add the eggs one at a time and the vanilla essence, beat until combined.
3. Add sifted flour and add milk, zests and poppy seeds. Beat on medium speed until combined.
4. Spoon mixture into prepared muffin papers and bake in oven for 15-20 min or until golden brown. Set aside to cool.
5. Icing: In a bowl sift the icing sugar and add the juice of the lemon & orange. Stir to combine. Add the butter and whip with a whisk if needed to combine until smooth. Add water if the icing needs to be thinner or add more icing sugar if it needs thickening. Garnish with shredded coconut or a sprinkle of poppy seeds.

These are great to pop in lunch boxes for school lunches or even your own lunch box for work!

They are super zesty and very refreshing with a cuppa tea....... 

Simply Tea Selection

Early Grey - one of our classic tea's would be the perfect pairing with one of these Triple Citrus & Poppy Seed Muffins. Our Earl Grey is classically scented with natural Bergamot oil which gives a refreshing, lightly citrus flavour.

Order Now

Our Earl Grey tea is available in 100g Natural Pouches ($9.00) or 10g Sample Bags ($2.00).

Enjoy......

Visit Us At: The Simply Tea Shop ~ "For The Love Of Tea" ~