Healthy Savoury Muffins

This is such a healthy recipe for kids.  The muffins are packed with vitamin A & E, calcium & fibre.  I didn't add salt as I made these for my little girl.  She loves them! She was even trying to dance (moving her shoulders) while eating them, so funny... Next time I might also add some onions in to make them even more nutritious.

For adults, the taste is quite blend.  You'll need to add some extra ingredient like bacon in order to further enhance to flavour.

 
Healthy Savoury Muffins

Make 6 muffins

Ingredients:

75g wholemeal flour
37g wheat germ
2.5tsp baking powder
2 cups shredded carrots & zucchini 
60g shredded cheddar cheese
1 medium egg
80ml water (or milk)
80ml olive oil

Optional Ingredients:  bacon, salt & pepper

Method:

Preheat oven to 180C (conventional, if fan-forced preheat to 165C).

Put wholemeal flour, wheatgerm & baking powder into a large bowl and mix well. then add in carrots & zucchini and cheese, mix until they are well combined.

Whisk egg, water & oil together in small bowl.  Add the egg mixture into the flour mixture, mix UNTIL THEY ARE JUST COMBINED (Do NOT overmix or they will become tough)

Put the mixture into the prepared muffin pan and bake for about 20 mins.

Best serve while they are still warm.  These muffins will turn hard when they are cold.  You can use microwave oven to warm them up again.

Orange & Almond Slices

My sister & brother-in-law made orange & almond cakes recently.  They were so moist & yummy.  So I decided to give it a go.  I like the fact that it's made of almond meal & it's FAT FREE :-)

The texture didn't come up as what I expected, perhaps they were a bit overbaked.  Anyway, I must try this again!

Orange & Almond Slices


Ingredients

450g to 500g orange puree (2 large or 4 small navel oranges)
5 medium eggs 
200g caster sugar
250g almond meal(i.e. ground almonds)
60ml Cointreau liqueur (optional)
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp bicarbonate soda 

Method

Preheat oven to 170°C.  Grease & line a rectangular baking pan (or any shape you would like to use).

Place the whole oranges in a saucepan and cover with water. Bring to the boil and simmer for 1 hour.  Drain and cool. Chop the oranges into chunks, discard any seeds, then place them into a blender and puree until smooth. 

Beat the eggs with the sugar until light & fluffy, then add the liqueur, orange puree, ground almonds and baking powder and mix well.

Pour into the prepared pan and bake for 45 mins to 1 hour (depending on the type of pan you use).

Leave the cake in the pan until it is cooled.  Cut into small slices & serve.

Raspberry Chocolate Brownies

I haven't done any decent baking since this winter as I've been sick and very busy with everything in my life.  Anyway, as I had a little time on Tuesday night and suddenly felt the itch to bake, I made Raspberry Chocolate Brownies. 

I brought them to the office the next day and surprisingly everyone loved it.  I thought they were overbaked as I left them in the oven for too long while I went to have my shower :-p

I forgot to take a picture after the brownies were cut into squares... what a shame...But I did take a picture of the mixture before it was baked.  I came out so sticky and I thought it would be a failure, but it wasn't, yeah!

It's very important to use good quality chocolate, don't ever attempt to use those cheap ones as they are just NOT the same! 

Here's the recipe.  Have a go and enjoy...... :-)

Raspberry Chocolate Brownies

INGREDIENTS:

150g butter

200g premium quality 70% cocoa dark cooking chocolate

100g premium quality white chocolate

165g caster sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
3 eggs, beaten lightly
150g plain flour
1tsp bicarbonate soda
150g frozen raspberries

METHOD:

Preheat the oven to 180°C (160°C fan-forced). Grease & line a retangular baking pan (or any shape you with baking paper.

Chop the butter & dark chocolate into small pieces and put them in a medium heatproof bowl over a saucepan of simmering water.

In a large bowl, put the sugar, vanilla extract and eggs together, whisk until they become light in colour.

When the dark chocolate & butter mixture is melted and cooled down,  pour it into the sugar, vanilla & egg mixture and stir well.

Stir into sifted flour & bicarbonate soda , white chocolate (chopped into small pieces) and raspberries.

Spread the mixture into the prepared pan and bake about 35 minutes or until just firm (depending on the pan you use).

Cool in pan. Turn out & cut into squares.