Chocolate Zucchini Muffins

As strange as it is, one of my favourite vegetables to grow on my allotment is courgette. No one else really likes it, mainly because generally we end up with more marrow then zucchini, but I love how much you get from one plant and actually how much you can do with one courgette.

I probably also like it because you can bake cakes from it!

I didn't get a chance to try this recipe with last year's crop. As soon as I pulled the first courgette of the summer, I couldn't wait to give it a go.

Zucchini and chocolate seems weird but actually the zucchini makes the muffin moist and helps bulk it out. You don't actually taste zucchini.

I actually got this recipe from a collection of Weight Watcher recipes. The zucchinis take the place of some of the fat and milk. It's a good low-fat and low-calorie tea-time treat and can be baked as either a loaf or muffins.

1 cup flour

1 cup whole wheat flour

1/4 cup cocoa powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

1 egg

2 egg whites

1 cup sugar

3/4 cup applesauce

1/4 cup vegetable or sunflower oil

1 tsp vanilla

1 oz chocolate pieces

2 cups shredded zucchini/courgette

325/gas 4

Combine flours, baking powder, baking soda, salt and sugar.

Whisk eggs, applesauce, oil and vanilla. Add dry mix gradually. Fold in zucchini and chocolate pieces.

Pour into prepared load tin or muffin tins. If muffins, bake 20-25 minutes, or until tops of muffins spring back. If a tea loaf, baking 55-60 minutes or until skewer inserted comes out clean.

Let cool entirely.

You can also add 1/2 cup walnuts in with the zucchini if you wish. I omitted them in mine to keep it lower in fat and calories.

Honey Shortbread

Good morning fellow readers. It's rather gray and overcast out but that doesn't stop me from wanting a bit o' honey.

And what better way to get a bit then in a piece of ginger-tinged honey shortbread?

I cut these into little squares which gives me more but you could bake this like regular shortbread, in a round then cut into wedges.

40z butter
6oz flour
1/2 - 1tsp ginger, based on preference
1oz honey

Rub or cut butter into flour. Add the ginger and honey. Mix with a spoon until you have a stiff dough.

Transfer to floured surface. Roll out and cut into squares or rounds, or shape into large round. Prick with a fork or create your own design.

Bake 350/180/mk 4 10 minutes or until golden.

The ginger in this makes for a very interesting flavour but feel free to alter based on your own preferences for ginger.

Honey Banana Cake

Last week a co-worker, Kerry, gave me a jar of honey from his neighbor's bees (aptly titled Wayne Hooney. hehe.) Oh boy! The baking possibilities were seemingly endless. So I decided to take a go at a few different honey-based recipes. 

The nice thing about honey recipes is because the honey takes the place of sugar and some of the fat, the end result is generally healthier than honeyless baked goods. These muffins are low-fat and don't have a lot of calories compared to other muffins (ahem, Starbucks!) The banana and the honey mixed together mean you need almost no butter/margarine at all. 

The following was originally a cake recipe so feel free to try either.

Honey Banana Muffins

2oz butter or margarine

1 tbsp honey

1tbsp brown sugar

4oz self-raising flour

pinch cinnamon

1 egg

1 med banana, mashed

pinch salt

Beat butter or margarine with honey and sugar. Add egg and banana, beat well until mixed. Add sifted flour, salt and cinnamon. Mix until just moistened. 

Bake gas mark 4 for 18-20 or until browned and the tops spring back when touched. If making a cake, a skewer inserted in the middle should come out clean. 

In case you're wondering about nutrition facts (as I do with all my recipes) per muffin: 91 calories, 4g fat, 1g saturated fat, 11g carbohydrates, 1g protein, 3g sugar

Double Chocolate Brownies

Another picnic. Another chance to try out a healthier version of a recipe. And it almost went well. Brownies came out a little gooey, which is great for standing at the kitchen counter, picking at the goo and licking the chocolate off my fingers. In the future, I'll try a bigger pan to spread out the batter. That will give me a lot more nice crispy edges that I love.

Either way, it's only 111 calories and 4 grams of fat per bar. So even if you have to lick the goo off your fingers, go for it.

4 tbsp butter
2/3 cup sugar
1/2 cup cold water
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup flour
1/4 cup cocoa powder
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 cup milk or semi sweet chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350/gas 4

Melt butter. Remove from heat and stir in sugar, water and vanilla. Mix in flour, cocoa and baking powder. Add chocolate chips pieces. Baking times will vary depending on your pan; I kept mine in the over for about 45 minutes. You want to be able to stick a skewer into the middle and it comes out clean and the edges crispy.

Sorry no pictures, my actual camera is in a friend's car and my iPhone died this weekend. Hopefully I'll have pictures for the rest of the recipes this week. But you all know what a brownie is supposed to look like.

Chocolate Chip Peanut Butter Reese's Cookies

The biggest thing I love about Aldi, whether in the UK or the US, is the middle section. The random assortment of one-time-only goods that make you wonder if they fell off the back of a truck. Sometimes the merchandise is relevant, sometimes not.

In yesterday's case, I believe the management team were attempting an American promotional sale, loosely linked to 4th of July, which no one celebrates here anyway. 

The amount of pure cheap American tack wafting off the products was enough to make me feel a little ill. Maple syrup, hot dogs in a jar, marshmallows, fried onions and toffee popcorn. Oh, and strawberry creme toffee popcorn. That's not even a thing! Let alone something to epitomize what Americans eat. 

And all decorated in blue with red and white strips, emphasized with white stars. No brand names. I wouldn't even want to know where they were manufactured. 

In spite of my, what I'm sure seems like a pompous and snobby anti-American rant, they were selling Hershey's. Cookies and Creme bars, milk chocolate bars....and....Reese's! Both the peanut-butter cups and the pieces. 

I snagged a few bags of the Reese's Pieces when inspiration struck. Cookies! What better way to a

ttempt a show of appreciation for selling my 'favourite' American foods then by making the cookie, something distinctly not British, but I'm unsure of it's exact origin. Possibly America?

Anyway...

Straight forward recipe. Add nuts if you want. Add peanut-butter or chocolate chips if you want. 

115g butter room temperature.

50g caster sugar

110g dark brown sugar

1 egg

1/2 tsp vanilla essence

170g plain flour

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/8 tsp salt

170g Reese's Pieces

350F/180C/gas 4

Cream butter and both sugars together until light and fluffy. Beat in egg, then vanilla. 

Sift in flour, baking soda, and salt. Add Reese's Pieces and mix well. 

Bake by teaspoonfuls on baking sheets 10-15 minutes. Cool on wire rack. 

Low-fat Spiced Apple Raisin Muffins

M and I went away this weekend to Bath to celebrate our anniversary. It was an over-indulgent weekend, as holidays go, and we are both feeling incredibly full of food, even today. I didn't think I'd feel up to baking, as the thought of food has my stomach crying for mercy, but I also wanted to bake something to bring into the office tomorrow. A nice middle ground was to take a spiced apple muffin recipe and make it as healthy as I can. Each muffin has only 1 gram of fat and a lot of nutrients, thanks to whole wheat flour and wheat germ. 

The recipe below is how I made mine but watch for notes on substitutions you can make. 

1 2/3 cup/180g whole wheat flour*

1/3 cup/40g wheat germ

1/2 cup/100g sugar

1/4 cup/40 brown sugar

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp salt

1 cup/100g spiced apple butter (I had left over jars from last autumn's supply)**

1 cup buttermilk or soured milk#

1 egg

1 egg white

1/2 tsp vanilla

1/4 cup/45g raisins

Preheat 350F/gas 4

Mix together flours, sugars, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a large bowl. In a small bowl, mix together buttermilk, eggs and vanilla. Stir into dry until just mixed. Stir in apple butter followed by raisins. 

Divide into 12 muffin tins. Bake 15-20 minutes. I sprinkled mine with a bit of wheat germ, demerara sugar and cinnamon before they went into the office. A nice crumble-esque topping or oats would be good as well. 

*The original recipe calls for 2 cups plain flour but basically any 2-cup flour mix can be substituted. I used whole wheat flour and wheat germ but oats, spelt, or a mix of any could be used.

**Apple butter (especially spiced) is not easy to find in England, which is why I made my own last autumn. Apple butter is very smooth and will make a moister muffin without the chunks of apple. If you use apple butter but want to chunks, throw in a feel pieces of diced apple as well. If you don't want to make your own apple butter, use 3/4 tsp cinnamon, 1/4 tsp allspice, 1/8 tsp nutmeg and 1 large diced apple. Add the spices in with the flour at the beginning and the apple in with the raisins at the end. 

#Buttermilk is something else I haven't been able to find in England yet. If a recipe calls for buttermilk, simply add 1 tbsp lemon juice or vinegar to 1 cup milk. 

On a side note, entirely unrelated to muffins, I was granted Indefinite Leave to Remain in the UK last Friday. Means lots more expat baking!