November 24, 2008

Honey Muffins



Yet another basic muffin recipe again. A plain muffin, nothing spectular, but I was really elated when I saw it puffing so high in the oven as the usual smell of baked muffins filled the entire kitchen on a weekday night. If I happened to miss my baking sessions that weekend, I'll satisfy that urge and bake something during a weekday night, more of enjoying the process rather than eating the muffin. :P
This was in fact my very first muffin, yeah and a very successful muffin despite I'm using the old, small oven back then. This recipe was shared by a university friend of mine, who told me that baking was not difficult as she graciously passed this recipe to me, telling me that it's a simple and good recipe and I'll definitely gain more confidence after I succeeded. True enough, the muffin turned out so well that it ignited my passion for baking and probably that's how I continue thereafter... baking whenever I have the time to spare, and even more crazy now that I no longer have to face exams, tutorials, tests, etc and can better plan my time.
Once in a while, I still come back to this recipe whenever I have the ingredients but somehow it doesn't turned out as good as it was and this had been puzzling me until this time round, I think I finally got the answer. As this recipe called for self-raising flour, which I don't often stock up, I tend to replace it with plain flour + baking powder (as a substitution). Although the result was okay, I mean still edible of course but somwhow it was dense and just not right. It did crossed my mind that the flour could be the culprit. So I need to try it out to confirm. I guess I'm right, cos' this time round, I faithfully followed the recipe using self-raising flour and yeah! I got it! The muffin was soft and fluffy, and the sweetness that comes from honey always makes me love it more. My dd's mum commented it's a little dry, though I felt it was okay. Hmmm, well probably adding a little more butter helps?
I baked in mini muffin pans and yielded 16 minis using only half recipe. I deliberately filled the muffin cups with batter right up to the top to achiev a very big dome like a mushroom! I think it looks pretty don't you think so?? :P
Honey Muffins (This is the original recipe, should yield 12 standard size or 32 minis with big mushrom head!)
Ingredients:
300g self-raising flour
150g castor sugar (I reduced to 120g)
15g milk powder
120g butter
30g honey
90g eggs
165g water
3g Vanilla essence
90g Blueberry (optional)
Method:
  1. Preheat oven to 180°C.
  2. Cream butter, sugar, milk powder and honey until light.
  3. Add eggs in stages.
  4. Sift in the Self-raising flour and add alternately with the water to the batter.
  5. Blend in the blueberries and vanilla essence.
  6. Bake for 20-25 minutes (I used 15 minutes for mini muffins) or until done.

8 comments:

Happy Homebaker said...

Lovely, lovely, lovely muffins you have got!!! All those muffins I've made look real ugly, I have yet to achieve such nice smooth domes ;p

Yan said...

cutey sweety muffins... slurps...
cheers
yan

Aimei said...

Thanks HHB and Yan! I'm always wondering how did some confectioneries baked muffins that have such huge dome. Some are really nice, it extends beyond the circumference of the top, really like a mushroom! Was thinking it is because they used a smaller muffin case with bigger hole..haa...

Art of Eating said...

Hi,

Your muffin looks as good as those confectioneries baked. It's lovely in shape, i like your. I would give this a try too.

Anonymous said...

Hi,

I'm 11 years old and happen to be looking for smething to bake :D

I was living in SG but had to move cos of parents work to AU. In my school, each student had to do a "VIP". Where you tell them about urself etc. So a part of my VIP is skill. My skill is baking :D and my VIP is soon, Wednesday I think. And I just wanted to know if this recipe is nice [yummy to eat!] and will be loved my friends. :P reply soon! P.S - I dun think THE WHOLE class LOVES honey, maybe they think it's alright or smething so I nid to know if "Not Really Honey lovers" would like it.

Thanks

Aimei said...

Hi Anonymous

I think I can't answer you whether "not really honey lovers' will like it or not but personally I've not met r heard of anyone who don't love honey. In baking (this recipe), honey is added as one of the sweetener and it gives that sweetness which is somewhat different from normal sugar. People who don't bake or cook will not really know I've added honey.
But so far, all those who have tried this muffin said it's nice! The sweetness is just right. :) P/S: except my bf's mother said it's a little dry whic I felt was ok. Best eaten fresh on the same day. Do remember to use self-raising flour, NO substitions if you really wanna try this.

Alternatively you can try the vanilla sour cream muffin. That one is good too. Good luck! :D

Hong 阿豐 said...

Woh, It is first time I heard Honey Muffin, looks like the method should not tough^^

Aimei said...

Hi dolphing

Yeah, it's not tough, just normal creaming method. You don't need to have milk, but milk powder instead. The honey also taste good on muffins!