Orange apricot muffins

I am really happy to put this recipe up… coz I “invented” it..all by myself!:D

Ingredients:

• 2 eggs
• 80 gms maida/APF
• 80 gms powdered sugar
• 80 gms softened butter
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 50 ml orange juice
• 2 tbsp chopped dry apricots
• 1 tbsp orange zest

Method:

• Sift maida and b.p. and keep aside.
• Beat butter and sugar together till light and fluffy.
• Add the eggs and beat till well incorporated.
• Add the maida along with the chopped apricots, juice and zest.
• Pour in a well greased muffin tray and bake at 180 deg.C for about 20 mins.

Notes: I had some apricots lying around  that I dint know what to do with. I though up this recipe on the bus to work- the traffic is dreadfully boring to watch and thinking up recipes is definately more fun that inhaling vehicular exhaust and counting cars!  The orange juice makes the muffins moist and soft and add a distinct flavour. I dont normally add juice to cake/muffin batter because I fear it would spoil the batter consistency. But done in the right amount, it yields encouraging results.

I tried making a glaze for the muffins and thats the only thing about them that flopped!! You see there is only so much “invention” you should indulge in in any given day. I had met my quota with the muffins, the glaze was therefore destined to fail. I didnt have the vagues idea about how an orange  glaze is made and so something went terribly wrong with the consistency.It was waaay too thin. And I kinda boiled the apricot piece along with the glaze and that made them too soft and caused discolouration. I am sticking to non-glazed cakes and muffins from now on.. unless you have a basic glaze recipe that works..

Banana chococlate chip muffins

This is a modification of the banana bread. It was done on an experimental basis but the results were so good that it had to put it up on the blog!

Ingredients:

• 1 egg
• 100 gms AP flour/maida
• 75 gms powdered sugar
• 100 ml fresh cream
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp vanilla essence
• ½ slightly over ripe bananas(mashed)
• 25 gms chocolate chips (or more!)

Method:

• Sift the AP flour and the baking powder together three times.
• Beat the egg till light and fluffy.  Add the powdered sugar and continue beating.
• Add the fresh cream and beat for another 3-4 minutes.
• Fold in the maida and baking powder.
• Add the mashed bananas, chocolate chips and vanilla essence and ensure that they mix properly in the batter.
• Pour the batter into a well greased muffin tray.
• Bake at 190 deg.C for about 20 minutes.

Source: my creative mind

Mandira’s notes:

Make sure you take slightly over ripe bananas. I used just ripe bananas when I made the banana bread and over ripe ones for these muffins and the difference was quite evident. Over ripe bananas lend a stronger aroma and flavour while other bananas sort of lose their distinct flavour after baking.

If you dont have choclate chips you can easily subsitute them with tiny cubes of any chocolate cooking bar.I did exactly that.