Honey banana muffin

I ran out of sugar at home, but I still wanted to bake some muffins for little fella's friends at school. So I searched for a recipe that uses honey instead. These turn out nice and sweet (sweet enough even with just 1/3 cup of honey), they are also nice when steamed (for 12min) instead of being baked. I steamed 3 cos the oven tray couldn't fit more in.

It's lunar new year day 7 today, also known as 人日, translated as 'people's birthday', or 'birthday of men'. So here I am wishing everybody 'Happy Birthday'. 

Here's the recipe I adapted, from Kitchen Treaty

Ingredients (makes about 15-18 small size cupcake) 

• 2 cups of all purpose flour, sifted 
• 1 tbsp baking powder
• 1 tsp cinnamon powder 
• 1/2 tsp salt 
• 4 medium sized bananas, chopped
• 1/4 cup grapeseed oil (instead of butter) 
• 1/3 cup honey 
• 1 large size egg 
• 1 cup milk 
• 2 tsp pure vanilla extract 

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 175deg C. 
2. In a large bowl, sift in flour, baking powder, cinnamon and salt. 
3. In another bowl, combine oil, honey, egg, chopped bananas. Add the milk and vanilla extract and combine thoroughly. 
4. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredient bowl, with a spatula, mix until just incorporated. I used a hand mixer to mix until just combined. 
5. Divide batter between muffin liner, until about 2/3 full. 
6. Bake for 15-18min. 

I'm linking this post to 'Cook and Celebrate CNY 2015' organized by Yen from Eat your heart out, Diana from Domestic Goddess Wannabe and Zoe from Bake for Happy Kids. 

Banana muffin with choco chips and cinnamon streusel

It's my son's second day at preschool today. Tell me if you're like me. I have a feeling I'm the one more excited than him. I wake up early to prepare two special treats for him to bring to preschool. Well, not that he's not excited. He loves being in school. Everytime asked, he told me, school is fun! (oh well, I shall keep track and we'll see how long he'll think school is actually fun!). After he got home from his preschool, he has been singing all day long! I asked him, do you wanna go to school tomorrow? He said YES! So I guess it's only fair to say we are both equally excited about him going to school. 

Yesterday, I prepared him pasta with minced chicken in creamy pumpkin sauce, and a pot of yogurt. Food like that may be messy, and I do wonder what the other parents prep for their kids. Anyways, I shall make something that's easier and less messy to eat today, ie buttery cornflake cookies (a recipe shared by a mommy from Healthy Food for My Baby facebook group) and banana muffin with chocolate chips and cinnamon streusel, recipe adapted from Sally's Baking Addiction's blog. Both are delicious and very moorish!! When the cookies were just done, I have been munching on them, and I shouldn't cos they would give me sore throat but they are too delicious!! (Note: They are a little soft and chewy when fresh out of the oven, after about 15 to 20min when cooled down, they will turn crispy). For the cookies' recipe, please refer here. 

Here's the recipe for the banana muffin with chocolate chips and cinnamon streusel

This recipe yielded about 8-9 muffins 

Muffin

• 1.5 cups all purpose flour 
• 1.5 tsp baking powder (I omitted the baking soda from the original recipe) 
• 1/4 tsp salt 
• 1/2 cup brown sugar 
• 50g butter, softened to room temperature, chopped
• 40g grapeseed oil 
• 1 large egg
• 3 ripe bananas, mashed 
• 3tbsp plain yogurt / milk

Streusel topping (You may opt out the topping, but I felt that the topping makes it extra yummy!) 

• 1tsp cinnamon powder
• 1/4 cup dark muscovado sugar
• 3/4 cup chocolate chips
• 1/2 cup chopped walnuts 

Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 185deg C. 
2. Make the streusel first by combining all ingredients in a bowl. Set aside. 
3. In another bowl, sift in flour, baking powder and salt. Set aside. 
4. In another bowl, beat together sugar, chopped butter, oil and egg until fluffy. Beat in mashed banana and yogurt. Sift in dry ingredients until everything is just combined. Do not overmix. 
5. Fill muffin liner with about 3/4 full batter. Top with streusel topping.
6. Bake muffins for 10min at 185deg C. Lower temperature to 175deg and bake for another 10min. 

Cheese and mushroom muffin

My nanny is off for a whole week. So I'm a full time 'working' mom, taking care of my son in the shop, while looking after my shop, dealing with the clients with the little cheeky fella roaming around the shop. Phew! It's not easy, but surely fun to spend so much time with him daily. He's with me in the shop till about 3pm, then I bring him home for a bath and his dose of sedative - his MILK! and off he goes for his nap. I then return to the shop for a final hour before I call it a day. So what does he do in the shop? Everything! He reads, he draws, he plays with his playdough, he plays with his toys literally everything, other than napping in the shop. All in all, I'm still appreciative of this week. I got to get up close with him on a few issues, his temper, his basic manners and some other stuffs. Now that he's a 2 year old, he communicates and understands instructions pretty well. So I better start these early than later. 

Anyways, enough about my story. Here's the breakfast I made for us this morning, a savory breakfast muffin - cheese and mushroom muffin and a creamy pumpkin soup. I'll be sharing more about the easy 5-ingredients creamy pumpkin soup later on this month during my class in PJ (see this link for info), so do pardon me as I won't be revealing the recipe here in this blog, yet. 

Back to the muffin. I wanted to make cheese and mushroom scones. But I realized I didn't have any butter nor cream in the fridge. So instead, I searched for a recipe on savory muffin and adapted it to make it my own. It's a great recipe for a savory soft muffin if you don't like too much of sweet stuffs for breakfast. 

 Ingredients:

• 250g all purpose flour, sifted 
• 1tsp baking powder 
• 1/2 tsp salt 
• 50g cheese 
• 1 medium size egg 
• 50g oil, I used grapeseed oil 
• 150g milk 

• 4 brown button mushrooms, cleaned and slice (about 120g) 
• 2-3 cloves garlic, finely minced
• 1/2 onion, finely minced 
• pinch of salt 

Instructions: 

1. In a frying pan, heat up a tablespoon of oil. Stir in minced garlic and onion, followed by sliced mushrooms. Seasons accordingly. When mushrooms are soft and juices are drained off the mushrooms, they are ready. Keep the mushrooms, not the juice. Chop the mushrooms into small cubes. This step can be prepared in advanced. 
2. Combine dry ingredients, ie flour, baking powder, salt in a bowl. 
3. Beat together egg with oil and milk. Sift in dry ingredients. Add in the grated cheese and chopped stir-fried mushrooms.
4. Fill the batter into muffin cup to about 2/3 full (this recipe makes about 5 muffins). Option: top with an onion ring and more grated Cheddar. 
5. Preheat an oven to 175deg C. Bake for about 20-25min.  

Super moist and healthy carrot cupcakes

I haven't made carrot cake for the longest time ever. Maybe I just dreaded the process of grating carrots, or perhaps the process of cleaning the grater. In actual fact, neither the process are cumbersome at all. Okay, I dunno why. I should bake more of this, cos this is so healthy, with such little amount of oil (and I used virgin coconut oil), yet they turned out super moist and yummy. The taste or texture of carrot are seriously not noticeable. I prepared them for the lil' fella's take out breakfast box, fingers crossed the nanny will tell me he loves the cupcakes. Oh ya, the nanny is bringing him out for breakfast with her friends, so I made a take-out-breakfast-box for him, consisting of his favorite food, ie plain yogurt with freshly chopped mango, some cheese crackers and this carrot cupcake. He held the container tightly with him when we were on our way to our nanny's place. Bless him! Oh, I forgot to mention, with the amount of sugar I have used in this recipe, it wasn't too sweet, just right for my liking. Try it! You'll be in love with them! 

Here's the recipe, which I have modified, adapted from Little Miss Kimberly Ann.
It made about 7-8 medium size cupcakes

Ingredients

• 1.5 cup of all purpose flour, sifted (or 1 cup of all purpose flour; half cup of wheat flour) 
• 2tsp baking powder (I have ommitted the baking soda from the ori recipe, and replaced with baking powder) 
• 1tsp cinnamon powder 
• 1/2 cup brown sugar 
• 1 egg, lightly beaten 
• 2tbsp oil (I used virgin coconut oil) 
• 1tbsp apple puree (I used a tablespoon of blueberry jam) 
• 1/2 cup fresh milk
• 1 banana, ripe, mashed 
• 1.5cup grated carrots
• 1/2 cup grated Cheddar 
• 2tbsp sunflower seeds, as topping (optional)

Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 175degC. 
2. In a large bowl, combine all the dry ingredients. 
3. Add the wet ingredients and stir until combined thoroughly, but do not over mix. 
4. Pour batter into cupcake liner, filling about 3/4 full. 
5. Bake for about 20min, or until an inserted skewer or toothpick comes out clean. 

Banana and chia seeds cupcakes with cinnamon cream cheese frosting

Who could resist a beautifully frosted cupcake? Definitely not the lil' fella. 

The texture is soft and fluffy, even on the next morning. 

My buddy Flora whatsapped me and asked if I would like to have some banana, she has abundant of them harvested at home. Immediately, I said yes. We haven't baked banana cupcakes for some time. And today, I felt like making something beautiful for the lil' fella and since I still have a little cream cheese and butter left over in the fridge, I decided to frost my delicious banana and chia seeds cupcakes. I frosted the cupcakes in front of the lil' fella. He was so amused. He shouted, 'Ice Cream!!' 'Ice Cream!!'.. Hahaa.. it does look a little like a mini ice cream. 

The cupcake is made from the best banana muffin recipe I tried out sometime back. You should try it if you're looking for a simple, yet delicious banana muffin. This time, I added 2 teaspoon of chia seeds into it and 2tbsp milk into the recipe, knowing that chia seeds does soak up some liquid. Now what is chia seeds? It's a small seed that comes with mighty nutrition, it has 3x more iron than spinach, 5x more calcium than milk, 7x more vitamin C than oranges and 8x more Omega 3 than salmon. I have shared about it in detailed in my previous post here. You should definitely take it if you hadn't. 

Recipe for cupcakes

• 3 medium banana, cut into small cubes 
• 1/3 cup brown sugar (or less than this if I have sweet banana) 
• 1 egg, beaten 
• 2teaspoon chia seeds soaked in 2tbsp milk for 10min 
• 1/3 cup rice bran oil 
• 2tsp baking powder 
• 1/2 tsp salt 
• 1.5cup all purpose flour

Instructions 

1. Using an electric hand mixer, whisk together chopped banana, egg, milk and chia seeds and oil until frothy. Set aside. 
2. Combine flour, baking powder, salt and sugar. 
3. Combine wet and dry ingredients. 
4. Pour into muffin liner. 
5. Preheat an oven to 170degC. Bake for about 15-20min or until an inserted toothpick comes out clean. 
6. Let muffin cool down prior to frosting. 

Recipe for cream cheese frosting 

• 100g cream cheese, roughly chopped 
• 100g butter, at room temperature, roughly chopped
• 3tbsp icing sugar 
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon 

In a bowl, using an electric hand mixer, whisk all the ingredients until soft and fluffy. Frost when the cupcakes has cooled down to room temperature.

NOTE:
I have baked few different variations of this recipe, among them include:

• Banana and cream cheese cupcakes (omitted the chia seeds, replaced with 2tbsp of chopped cream cheese) --> this version is super yummy!! 

This post is linked to the event Little Thumbs Up (August 2014 Event: Flour) - organised by Zoe (Bake for Happy Kids) and Mui Mui (My Little Favourite DIY) and hosted by Diana from Domestic Goddess Wannabe.

Banana and jackfruit muffin

A friend made this and shared about this on FB. She was commenting on how fragrant they were while baking in the oven. I was intrigued. I have never cooked nor baked with Jackfruits (or more commonly known as Nangka here) and almost forgot how it smells. Hahaa.. so I decided to give it a try.

The lil' fella didn't like eating nangka. I realized that he's at this phase where he would double consider when comes to anything slimy or chewy, eg nangka, lychee... er.. and what else. Suddenly I got brain-freezed. Pardon me.. I'm writing this post at 3:14am. Yes it's 3:14am! I have been really occupied at my shop lately and with all my electronic gadgets failing on me (my personal laptop died due to the frequent electric surge or electric cut that's been happening in Sandakan, my Android phone has been half dead for over a few months.. its battery won't charge till over 50% and refuse to charge on powerbank) I have been quite lagged in terms of updating my cooks and bakes on my blog. I know that I won't be doing them if I get this delayed any further. So I woke up after about 6 hours sleep to do up this post.

I can still remisnesce the nice aroma of this cupcake looking at these photos. They turned out quite sweet, cos I actually pureed the banana and jackfruit. I wouldn't have done it if the lil' fella eats the jackfruit in pieces. I preferred having some textures in this muffin. So if you're keen on this recipe, try having a mix of pureed jackfruit with chopped jackfruit. I am sure they will turn out great, taste and texture wise.

The recipe is adapted from my favorite banana muffin recipe. I have made so many variations of it, and it has not failed me so far, unlike my phone and my laptops :p

Ingredients:

*2 eggs 

*50g brown sugar (original was 100g)
*1 ripe banana and about 8 pieces of Jackfruits (chopped or pureed)
*100g top Flour (or plain flour/superlite flour/cake flour)
*1/2 tsp baking powder (original recipe had baking soda, I omitted it)
*60g grapeseed oil (this time I used rice bran oil)
*1/2 tsp cinnamon powder (I omitted this)

 

Topping (Optional)

*1tsp of cinnamon and 2tsp of brown sugar. Combine and sprinkle on top of cupcake batter prior to baking, OR 

*Rolled oat, OR

*Walnuts 

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 170deg C. 
2. Sieve flour and baking powder together. Set aside.
3. Whisk eggs till frothy. Whisk in banana and jackfruit puree, and brown sugar.
4. Fold in flour, baking powder and mix well with spatula.
5. Add in oil and mix well.
6. Spoon batter into cupcake liner. Decorate with topping (see above).
7. Bake for 20min, or until an inserted toothpick comes out clean.

Best banana muffin

I'm always looking for an easy but GOOD recipes for banana muffins. This time I simply googled for soft and moist banana muffin, and this is what I found, a simple recipe for some awesome banana muffins.

 

It's super easy. Check out the ingredients. You would probably have over half of the ingredients somewhere in your kitchen now.  I don't have enough butter lying in my fridge, so I just replaced the butter with grapeseed oil. I also used half a cup of 10-grain oat flour replacing the white plain flour. But the texture of my muffins still turned out great. I had lots of leftover walnut streusel topping from my previous bake (walnut streusel coffee cupcake), so I use them as a pretty topping for these banana muffins.

 

 

Recipe

• 3 or 4 large ripe banana, mashed
• 1/3 cup brown sugar (original recipe called for 1 cup, then reduced to 1/2 cup by catcancook)
• 1 egg, beaten
• 1/3 cup melted butter (I used 1/3 cup grapeseed oil)
• 1tsp baking soda (I would replace this with baking powder next bake. I don't like its taste)
• 1tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1cup all purpose flour + 1/2 cup 10-grain oat flour (or 1.5 cup all purpose flour)

Combine the mashed banana, sugar, egg and oil. Set aside.

In a separate bowl, mix together baking soda, baking powder, salt and flour. Combine wet and dry ingredients.

Pour into muffin liner. Bake at 165degC for approximately 18-20minutes.

Eggless steamed banana cupcake

昨天是我发现新大陆的日子。 Yesterday I made a real ecstatic discovery! I was soooo overjoyed I was shouting when I saw my soft and springy steamed cupcakes. I have always known that egg can be replaced by ground flaxseed, but I have never wanted to try it, cos flaxseed when ground has a fishy taste which I don't think I want in my banana cupcake. A couple of days ago, a mommy from the FB group Healthy Food For My Baby was sharing on a cupcake she made using chia seeds, and no egg was used! I was quite surprised, that would mean chia seeds, too, can replace egg, just like flaxseeds, and it totally make sense!! I have made chia seeds pudding without using any agar-agar or gelatin powder, knowing the gelling ability of chia seeds, they would be able to act as egg in cupcakes. Having this in mind, I rushed home from work after fetching the lil' fella and started trying it out using my favorite steamed cupcakes recipe. It works!! Actually, the texture is even more springier and fluffier than the recipe with egg. I have yet to understand why. But I'll find out more. But again, this is a really superb discovery. This means those babies (under one) or kids with egg allergy too can enjoy soft and fluffy cupcakes. To benefit those with dairy intolerance, I have also tried the same recipe out without milk, the milk was replaced by fresh orange juice, which I believe can be replaced by other sweet juice (like apple, carrot or pear juice).

 

 

 

 

Here's the recipe, adapted from here.

 

1/2 cup (75g) all purpose flour* (or self raising flour)

1 tsp. baking powder (if you're using self raising flour, just add 1/2 tsp baking powder)

1 egg (replaced by 1tbsp chia seeds soaked in 4tbsp water, for at least 10min)

2 Tbsp. milk or cream  (replaced by 3tbsp fresh orange juice)

2 Tbsp. sugar (I used 1tbsp dark muscovado sugar)

1 Tbsp. vegetable oil (I used rice bran oil)

1 medium banana

 

You will also need

4 cupcake liners

4 ramekins / ceramic bowl or I used silicone cupcake liner and had paper liner inside it

 

*This recipe yielded 4 cupcakes.  

 

Instructions:

1. Sieve flour and baking powder.
2. In a blender, blend together chia seeds gel (after soaked in water), banana, fresh orange juice and oil until creamy.
3. Combine the blended liquid mix with the sifted flour and baking powder.
4. Place about 2tbsp of batter into paper cupcake liner and place in a silicone cupcake holder.
5. Place water in a wok and set up a steaming rack. Bring water to boil. Steam the cupcakes for 9-10min.

This post is linked to the event, Little Thumbs up organised by Bake For Happy Kids, and My Little Favourite DIY, hosted by Ann of Anncoo Journal at this post. 

 

 

 

Steamed savory cupcakes - tomato and cheese

 

 

Since I was diagnosed with gestational diabetes when I was pregnant with the lil' fella (which has left me after I gave birth), I'm no more a big fan of sweet stuffs. I tried not to drink my coffee with sugar, and also stopped indulging in cheesecakes from the shops. Instead, I make my own sweet indulgence, so I can control the amount of sugar I add in.

 

This steamed muffin is something I always make, sometimes 2-3times in a week, cos it's sooo easy and convenient to make. No mixer no oven needed. It only requires about 5-10min to prepare and put everything together, and it only needs 8min to steam them. It makes soft and fluffy cupcakes. Best of all, it's a recipe that makes about 4-6 cupcakes, which is great, cos we don't have lots of us in our household to finish them.

 

When I prepared these, I thought to myself, these are gonna be savory, no sweeteners added into them at all, a person has to be quite mature in terms of their palate to appreciate them. I hope the lil' fella will like them.

 

Recipe, adapted from my previous ones.

• 1/2 cup all purpose flour with 1.5tsp of baking powder (I used natural b.p. cos they are aluminum free)
• pinch of salt
• 1tbsp of grapeseed oil
• 2tbsp tomato puree, homemade (you should be able to use store-bought or ketchup)
• 2tbsp grated cheddar cheese
• 2tbsp fresh milk
• 1 egg

1. Beat the egg with milk, oil and salt. Add in tomato puree and grated cheddar cheese. Combine.
2. Sift in all purposed flour and baking powder.
3. Divide the batter between 4-5 cupcake liner and place into a silicone cupcake liner.
4. Steam for 8-9min.

Verdict: Yes!! The lil' fella has complicated tastebud! He eats them. These are good. I love them myself. They are quite a good compliment if taken together with a hot a creamy soup.

 

Note: The batter was pink in color before steamed. The pink or red color goes away after steamed. It's quite common with all dish involving red-color fruits or veg, came across info that the anthocyanin (the natural food colorant) loses its color after steaming, something like that.

My best choco-banana cupcakes

 

The accidentally crushed M&M created an even better effect.

 

Cutie mini oreo on sticks and marshmallow pops

My favorite cupcake topper - witch's broom

 

It was Josh’s first birthday cum Halloween party and I wandered on a few recipes for his birthday cupcakes. I needed a recipe that is fairly simple and straightforward, yet delicious enough to be served to all guests. I needed to bake 60 of them so it can’t be something too complicated.

Initially I wanted to use a sponge cupcake for the base. Tried out a few times, and I realized it wasn’t as ‘simple’ as I thought it would be. The yolk and white separation and beating needs to be quite precise and done well to make good cakes. So I ditched the idea after failing on a couple of attempts making good sponge cakes. My buddy Kim then suggested why not I bake chocolate cupcakes. I considered on it, and thought, why not, it’s chocolate and everybody loves chocolate.

I tried out a few different chocolate cupcake/muffins recipes and finally I chose this. This is highly rated by Ann. I tried it out about two weeks ago baking it for Karen. I realized the cupcakes were super moist and soft a few hours out of the oven. After about a day, it turned quite dry. I couldn’t understand it, cos Ann said that it remained soft and moist even after a day, and it was better after chilled.

On the actual day of baking, I made slight adjustments to it and I knew the slight adjustments shouldn’t ruin the cupcakes. I changed the milk to chocolate milk, reduced the sugar (cos I ran out of sugar), added mashed banana to the recipe and some other minor details (see below for my recipe). It turned out to be the BEST chocolate cupcakes I have ever done! It was still soft and moist even after a day, in room temperature or chilled.

I baked 60 or a little more, I didn’t count. I knew I had more than 60. Baked about 40 standard size and over 20 mini ones. I made two different types of toppings for the cupcakes. Most of the standard size ones were decorated with cute owl-face using mini oreo (which was not easily available in Malaysia, I bought them when I was travelling back from Bangkok at Bangkok Don Muang Airport), mini M&Ms and chocolate ganache (a recipe by Martha Stewart). The mini size ones were frosted using the same chocolate ganache, but whipped and topped with chopped blue M&Ms (to fit in the theme) and some were topped with my DIY witch’s hat and broom (my fav!)

Here’s my recipe for 60 choco-banana cupcakes (make your own adjustment to bake the amount you want)

Recipe modified from Ann’s must-try chocolate cupcakes

• 300g butter, at room temperature
• 500g sugar
• 6 eggs, at room temperature
• 1tbsp pure vanilla extract
• 2.5 cup chocolate milk
• ½ cup of whipping crème/ heavy cream (if you don’t have this, you can just replace this with milk or chocolate milk)
• 3 tsp baking soda
• 580g superfine flour (or cake flour)
• ¾ tsp salt
• 3tbsp baking powder
• 50g cocoa powder (I forgot to tripled this from the original recipe, that’s why my cupcakes didn’t appear as dark)
• 1tbsp chocolate emulco (optional)
• 9 banana, ripe (I freeze the bananas whole, cos they were too ripe 3 days before the actual day, and on the night before I defrosted them in the fridge)

Instructions:

1.     Sift flour, salt, baking powder and cocoa powder in bowl. Dissolve baking soda in chocolate milk.

2.     Cream butter and sugar till light and fluffy. Add vanilla essence and eggs, one by one, continue beating.

3.     Add in the mashed banana and the rest of the ingredients, chocolate milk and flour mix. Beat till smooth.

4.     Bake in a preheated oven at 160deg (fan-forced) for about 15min (for standard size) and 12min (for mini size). Adjust the temperature for your oven. My oven is a little on the strong side.

5.    Leave to cool on rack before decorating/ frosting.

The owl-decorated cupcakes didn’t need to be chilled but the chocolate ganache frosted cupcakes must be chilled or else the frosting may melt in our temperature.

Note:

1. The Oreos turned soggy after getting in contact with the chocolate ganache.

2. Love it that it was themed Halloween. I got quite messy when decorating or frosting the cupcakes. But it was okay to my own standard, cos it's Halloween, it's supposed to be messy, not neat :p

3. Make all the preparation ahead, this is a doable recipe, I made and decorated all in about 4-5hours.

Read more about the party here:

• Early pre-party planning
• Pre-party preparation
• Actual night of celebration

 

Cheddar cheese and zucchini muffin

Sometimes, I don't like to have sweet stuffs for breakfast. Since I still have some leftover zucchini that I brought back from KL and there are some nice tasty cheddar cheese in the fridge, I have decided to make this zucchini muffin for myself and also the lil' fella. I have read and come across zucchini muffin a lot, but I haven't given it a try myself. The ingredients seems simple and okay for the lil' fella.

 

If you're looking for a soft fluffy savory muffin, this is a MUST-TRY. I was quite surprised of the soft fluffiness. Been baking muffins for the lil' one, and because most of his recipes don't have sugar, so the muffin may turn out to be quite dense. This muffin, too, doesn't consist of any sugar, but it end up so soft and moist. Must be the zucchini and cheese that gives it the moist.

 

 

 

Recipe adapted from here. But I halved the recipe to  make 3 standard size muffin.

 

*50g low protein flour (or superfine flour)
*30g grated cheddar cheese (I used Beqa)
*1/2 tsp baking powder
*a pinch of salt (optional)
*half a zucchini (grated) ...
*1 medium egg
*1/2 tbsp. organic grapeseed oil
*40ml milk
*pepper and other seasoning (optional)

1. Preheat oven to 200deg C.
2. In a large bowl, mix together sifted flour, baking powder, salt, pepper and seasoning.
3. In another bowl, whisk egg, add in milk and oil. Add in courgette. Add all to dry ingredients.
4. Spoon mixture into muffin liners to about 3/4 full (this recipe makes 3 muffin).
5. Bake at 200deg C for about 5min. Then reduce oven temperature to 180deg C and bake for another 25min.

 

The lil' fella gets really excited whenever he sees me baking and the muffin fresh out of the oven.

 

 

 

Steamed pumpkin and banana muffin

Since I've initiated the cooking event for the Facebook Group: Healthy Food for My Baby that involves pumpkin (for September), I've been cooking and baking a lot with pumpkin. Fingers crossed the lil' fella is not gonna turn yellow. I realized some babies (or even adults) are particular sensitive to the yellow pigment (beta-carotene) in these yellow food (including sweet potato, carrot, pumpkin, kiwi etc). Their skin turns yellow after two consecutive meals involving these yellow-color food. The reason for this is because their body takes longer time to flush out the beta-carotene (a great antioxidant). Many parent may find it unappealing, but it is generally harmless.

 

I baked a lot! At times, I wonder if the lil' fella would get heatiness eating all my baked food. But he seems not to be affected. But I tried out this recipe for the sake of the mommies in the group, as I realized that many mommies are looking for a simple snack recipe for their lil' ones, that's straight forward, without involving too complex steps making it. Also, many mommies don't like to bake (for fear of heatiness) or just because they don't own an oven at home. If you're one of them, then you can try this out.

 

This steamed muffin turns out to look and even taste like 'Huat Kueh' 发糕。 I don't eat 'Huat Kueh' (translated as prosperity cake) any other time of the year, except for Chinese New Year. I find them quite dry.

 

This recipe is adapted from food-4tots. You may refer to her beautiful photos of her version of this steamed muffin and also very detailed pictorial step-by-step description on how to make it. Even before I made mine, I already knew mine wouldn't turn out to have the bright yellow color like hers, cos I was going to add banana into mine. Banana will turn a little brownish upon cooking. But I wanted to add banana into the recipe, cos I knew pumpkin taste would be quite subtle and I wasn't gonna add sugar into my muffin (this is a snack for the lil' fella, and I haven't been adding sugar or salt into his food, he's not one yet). I needed the banana to sweeten the muffin.

 

These are the photos of my steamed pumpkin and banana muffin. Love the way the muffin smiles (or laughs) happily at me :)

 

Wrap the lid with a cloth when steaming the muffin, so that the condensate
won't go onto the muffin and ruin the look of the muffin.

HUAT ah!! All muffin smiling happily :D

The texture was soft and fluffy, especially when warm.

Lil' fella has his plain. I have mine with strawberry yogurt.

 

 

 

Lil' fella's breakfast platter

Recipe:

(Adapted and modified from source)
This recipe makes 8 muffin

 

*80g steamed pumpkin

*50g mashed ripe banana

*1 egg, beaten

*pinch of salt

*1/2 cup fresh full cream milk (or coconut milk or formula milk)

*2.5 tbsp. virgin coconut oil

*200g superfine or cake flour, sifted

*1.5tsp double acting baking powder

 

1. Beat egg till foamy.

2. In a mixing bowl, combine all wet ingredients, ie pumpkin, banana, milk, oil, add in beaten egg.

3. Add in sifted dry ingredients, ie flour, salt and baking powder.

4. Fill muffin batter into a cupcake liner till about 80% full.

5. Bring a pan of water to boil. When water is boiling, place muffins on a steaming rack over the boiling water and steam for 15min.

 

Note:

1. This muffin is okay to freeze for future consumption. Just steam it for another 5-10min before serving.

2. This muffin is a snack and morning breakfast for the lil' fella at his 11th month. He has been tested okay on egg yolk and egg white.

 

 

This post is linked to the cooking/baking event, Yummy Homemade BabyFood, organized by me and Healthy Food for My Baby. To join, simply cook and bake any dishes for your babies under 2, using pumpkin (for month of September 2013). For more details, please see this.