Cherry Bakewell Muffins

If you're looking for a tasty muffin recipe then you can call off the search here. I was rather taken with these little muffins...when they came out of the oven they looked alright and I thought they'd be ok but actually they were really quite tasty! The taste testers concurred...so if you're a fan of the Mr Kipling cherry bakewells, I'm sure you'd love these.

The texture of the muffins is spot on and they're lovely and moist too as the recipe includes 175ml Greek yogurt. The flavour comes from 100g of ground almonds and also from the almond extract. I used Neilsen-Massey's Pure Almond Extract which is very good, they also manufacture lemon, chocolate, orange and coffee extracts.

 

 

The distinctive cherry flavour of the Bakewell comes from a teaspoon of cherry jam that is baked into the centre of each muffin.

When it came to the cases, these red and white spotty cases from Culpitt were the perfect addition to the theme. I would definitely recommend Culpitt cases as they come in vibrant colours but most importantly they're greaseproof and therefore retain their colour after they have been in the oven.

On the whole, I don't tend to bake the same thing twice but I may have to give these another whirl next weekend for a charity bake sale as they were so tasty!

Ingredients

150g golden caster sugar
1 egg
125g melted butter
175ml Greek yogurt
1 tsp almond extract (Nielsen-Massey recommended)
200g plain flour
1 tsp baking powder
100g ground almonds
10 tsp cherry jam
150g icing sugar
Flaked almonds
5 glace cherries

Preheat the oven to 180c/160c fan/gas 4 and prepare your muffin tin with 10 muffin cases. These muffins are easy to make, have two bowls at the ready, one for the wet ingredients and one for the dry ingredients.

Mix the sugar, butter, egg, almond extract and yogurt in a bowl using an electric whisk. Sift the flour and baking powder into a separate bowl and then add the ground almonds. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and mix quickly, it doesn't matter if there are some lumps as apparently this helps to give muffins their texture. Spoon half the mixture into the bottom of the muffin cases, then add a teaspoon of cherry jam to each one. Finally, finish by dividing the remaining mixture between the cases to cover the jam.

Bake for 20-25 minutes, they should be golden and risen. Once the muffins are cool, make up the icing to a smooth but thick consistency and then spoon over the top of the muffins. Finish with half a glace cherry and sprinkle over some flaked almonds.

* Original recipe from BBC GoodFood

Plum & Almond Crumble Slices

The September letter of the month for Alpha Bakes is 'P' and what better 'P' than plums. Plums are decliciously juicy and perfectly in season. I love nothing better than stewing plums and eating them as they are or adding them on top of porridge. It's a plum crumble slice too which has a really autumnal feel; as the nights draw in thoughts turn to warm puddings and espcially crumbles...or maybe that's just me always thinking of puddings! :-)

This is quite an interesting bake it's got an almondy, buttery, sugary, floury base which is baked on it's own for 20 minutes. Once golden an almond, sugar and butter paste is spread over the top to give a soft layer which the plums sit on top off. The paste also has eggs, cinnamon, baking powder and a small amount of flour. This is then baked again for 20 minutes.

The final step is to sprinkle over a crumble topping and flaked almonds. Then it's a final 20 minutes in the oven. The bake cools in the tin before slicing. If you decide to make this one, I found I pretty much had to make my own crumble topping from scratch. The recipe suggests reserving a few tablespoons of the almond, sugar and buter mix before making the paste layer. However, I was quite literal and did 3 tablespoons (a few) and found that this wasn't nearly enough, it was also quite soft and unlike crumble due to the amount of butter. I did put it in the fridge but it wasn't quite how I wanted it, so I made a small amount of regular crumble topping and sprinkled that on top instead.

Overall, this was a really tasty bake. The plums were lovely and sweet and gave you a real hit of flavour when you bit into it. The biscuity base, the soft almond paste and the crumbly top also provide a real contrast in textures and the plum and almond combination married together really well. I know that some people when they make crumble at home add ground or flaked almonds to their crumble mixture which I think would work really well in a plum crumble. The cinnamon in this bake also adds a little somthing extra.

The randomly selected letter from AlphaBakes for September was 'P' so these Plum and Almond Crumble slices are my entry. This month's host of AlphaBakes is Caroline from Caroline Makes. Ros from The More Than Occasional Baker hosts on alternate months.

Finally, this is the perfect recipe for 'Simple and in Season'. This month it's hosted by Katie at Feeding Boys and a Firefighter The home of Simple and in Season is Fabulicious Food. Plums are at their peak right now and really make me think of late summer/autumn.

Ingredients

250g cold butter
225g caster sugar
300g almonds
140g plain flour, plus 25g
2 eggs
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp baking powder
6 plums cut into sixths
50g flaked almonds

Heat the oven to 180c/160c fan/gas 4 and then prepare you're tin which should be 20 x 30cm, although mine wasn't quite this size. Butter and line it with baking paper.

Use a food processor to whizz together the butter, sugar and ground almonds, you should end up with rough breadcrumbs. Place half of this mixture into another bowl and then add 140g flour to the half that is still in the processor, if you whizz it, it should form a dough. This dough forms the base of the back, so tip it into the tin and press down with the back of a spoon until level. Then pop this base in the oven for 15-20 minutes until golden. The set aside to cool for 10 minutes.

A filling then goes on top of the base. To make this take the remaining butter, sugar and almond mixture and tip it back into the processor but reserve a few tablespoons for the topping. Add 25g flour, eggs, cinnamon and baking powder and then whizz. This should form a soft batter which you can then spread over the base.

Finally, top this mixture with the plum slices and then sprinkle with a little caster sugar and cinnamon. Bake this for about 20 minutes before sprinkling with the reserved crumble mix and flaked almonds. Then there's a final bake for another 20 minutes until the whole bake is golden. Cool in the tin and then slice.

If you wish to make your own crumble topping for the last step there are plenty of recipes online.

* Recipe adapted from BBC GoodFood

Jammy Almond Melts

These biscuits certainly lived up to their billing...they literally melt in the mouth and due to the copious amounts of butter they tasted divine...a little bit like really soft shortbread!

The dough for these biscuits was easy to make but it was extremely soft as there's a whole block of butter in them, so when it came to rolling out, it was really difficult. My advice would be to roll out as quickly as possible. Due to the excessive softness, some of my biscuits spread during baking...in order to avoid this it is advised to put the baking tray back into the fridge once the biscuits have been cut out. This allows them to firm up again before going straight into the oven.

Kids will love these biscuits, and they'd make a lovely little treat for anyone with a sweet tooth! :-)





225g unsalted butter

100g caster sugar

200g plain flour

100g gound almonds

Pinch of salt

55g jam - either strawberry or raspberry

Preheat the oven to 150c/130c fan/gas 2. Prepare 2 baking sheets, grease and line. I used a reusable silicone baking mat. Using your electric whisk, beat together the butter and sugar until it becomes pale in colour and nice and fluffy. Then sift in the flour and add the ground almonds and salt, you should then be able to bring it together in a dough with your hands.

The ball of dough can then be wrapped in cling film and fridge for two hours. After chilling, the dough can be rolled out to about half a centimetre thick.  Take a heart shaped cutter and cut out as many biscuits you can out of the dough. Then cut smaller heart shapes in the centre of half the biscuits...these will make the tops.

The biscuits should bake for about 25-30 minutes until golden. They should then be left to cool on a wire rack before spreading jam on the bottom biscuits without the small heart cut out. Finally, place the cut out heart on top and sandwich together. To present your biscuits, dust the tops with icing sugar. However, to prevent the jam from being covered with icing sugar, cover it over with a small bit of baking paper.



* Adapted from Love Baking Magazine