Honey and Lemon Muffins

Ingredients:

50g (1 3/4 oz)unrefined caster sugar
2 tbsp unsalted butter, melted and cooled slightly
150ml (5 fl oz) buttermilk
2 eggs, beaten
4 tbsp honey
finely grated rind of 1 lemon and juice of 1/2 lemon
225g (8 oz) plain flour
150g (5 1/2 oz) oat bran
1 1/2 tbsp baking powder

For a 12 hole muffin pan it will take 25mins at 180 deg C (350 deg F)

Recipe:

1) Line the muffin tray with paper cases. Put the sugar, butter,buttermilk, eggs, 2tbsp of honey and lemon rind into a jug and mix briefly.

2) Sift flour into a large mixing bowl then add the oat bran and baking powder and mix. Make a well in the centre and add the mixture from part 1. Quickly mix, but do not overmix as it should be slightly lumpy.

3) Spoon mixture into the paper cases and bake for 25mins.

4) Mix lemon juice with 2tbsp honey and drizzle over muffins whilst hot. Stand for 10mins before serving.

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Verdict:

They do smell good, and indeed look better than initially thought when done. However, after biting into the top and tasting that lemon-honey drizzle, the rest of the muffin is pretty tasteless afterwards. The bottom half resembles a tea cake/scone type of item which would do excellently with some jam or butter to add to the flavour and bring in some moisture.

I am not sure if the fact that I used a makeshift buttermilk, and didn't use melted butter had anything to do with it. Doubtful though as it looks, smells and tastes more 'healthy' than the additional muffins ( I am thinking chocolate chip, double chocolate chip here...)

Chocolate Fudge Brownies

Ingredients:

100g (4oz) plain chocolate drops
2 large eggs

125g (5oz) butter

275g (10z) caster sugar

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

50g (2oz) self-raising flour

25g (1oz) plain flour

2 tbsp cocoa powder

100g (4oz) walnuts

For a 2ocm (8in) square cake tin, 6.5cm (2.5in) deep it will take 35mins at 180 deg C (350 deg F)

Recipe:

1) Heat oven. Wipe a little oil on the insides of the tin, cut baking paper to fit the bottom of the tin and place in the tin.
2) Melt chocolate using a bain-marie and break eggs into a small bowl and beat
3) Put the butter, sugar and vanilla extract into a mixing bowl and beat until fluffy. Add eggs, a little at a time, beating between each addition

4) Sift both types of flour and cocoa powder into the bowl, add the melted chocolate and stir to mix well

5) Cut nuts into small pieces and stir into mixture

6) Place mixture in tin and smooth over. Bake for 35mins. (They are ready when slightly risen, and a crust has formed on top, but still soft in the middle

7) When done, leave in tin for 20mins then cut into squares.

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Verdict:

Well, let's be fair I don't follow recipes word by word, or ingredient to ingredient which often results in variations and the inability to recreate something amazing.

In my haste to bake, I realise that I misread the recipe as instead of oil spread around the tin I used butter, and alot of it which strongly leads me to believe that its why the bottom of the brownie batch ended up covered in more grease than the spring rolls in Yi-Ban (see Come Dine With Mei post), and resulted in a oily fight to remove the baking paper. I shall blame this for the overly soft nature of the brownies in the bottom half and hope that the trick of leaving it to air on a wire rack will help transform it into something amazing. We shall see...

7 hours later

A.M.A.Z.I.N.G. the brownies are still moist but have set just enough so that it doesn't break when you lift a piece. I have never had this recipe fail on me even though I have my doubts somewhere along the baking process, but the result its just divine and is like a fine wine/cheese, it gets better with age. (Although you don't leave it more than a couple of days..you might run the risk of someone else finishing it off!).

p.s. I used milk chocolate as the supermarket ran out of plain chocolate drops.

**Addition** This has now been tested and verified by 8 independent taste testers. The description of amazing still stands.

Quotes:

"Delivered in terms of taste and texture..ticked all the right boxes, it was irresistibly gooey but still had that bite, and while it was sumptuously chocolaty it still felt light and not at all sickly"

"mmmmmmm, these are seriously goood"