Is it wrong to have chocolate for breakfast?

Back before Christmas I posted about christmas muffins.

I tried out a few recipes and in the end made up my own variation.

Here is the recipe -

2 cups self-raising flour
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup chocolate chips 
1/2 cup dried cranberries
1/2 cup chopped pecans
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1 egg
1/4 cup oil
1 cup milk

In a large bowl thoroughly mix the first 6 ingredients.
Lightly beat the egg, add the oil and milk.
Mix the wet ingredients into the dry and gently mix just until the flour is moistened. Do not over mix.
Spoon into muffin tins and cook for about 20 mins at 180 degrees C.

So we did have chocolate for breakfast on Chrsitmas Day!
....and it didn't feel wrong at all!

Making it Monday - Christmas muffins

I have an inkling to make muffins for Christmas breakfast - not just your common or garden variety, but muffins infused with the smells and tastes of Christmas.

What would those be?
Spices? Cranberries? Nuts? Chocolate?

I have looked in my vast collection of recipe books and couldn't find anything.
And, OK, I could just make it up, but I thought - "hey, there's a blog post in this!"

So I googled and up popped Nigella - of course.

They would be sure to work (you can find the recipe here) but....not quite what I'm looking for.

How about this one, which looks great as a gift -

The recipe - how to make them as well is here. 

Cranberries, pecans and orange? Yum! Now that sounds more like the aromas of Christmas.

The recipe is here.


But I really like the sound of these fruity muffins -

They have got cranberries (which I have 2 bags of), dark and white chocolate (how can I resist?) and fruit mince (Huge jar in pantry)....so this could be the go!
I found the recipe here and here one version is metric, the other imperial - take your pick!

I'll let you know how they turn out.

Have you got a fabulous Christmas muffin recipe?
Or a tradition that you have for Christmas breakfast?

Makin' it Monday - muffins

Another easy as pie recipe - or easy as muffin!

Muffins are a great snack, they are very versatile. You can use white flour, wholemeal flour - you can add all sorts of goodies - fruit, nuts, flavourings - and you can even make savoury ones.

This is my basic recipe.
Today I'm making peach and almond muffins. Often I make blueberry (as I have a wonderful supply of frozen berries) or lemon and coconut ones.

Heat oven to 190 degrees C.

Prepare your muffin tin, oil your tin or line with paper muffin cases.

  In a large bowl combine 2 and 1/2 cups of self-raising flour (or 2 and 1/2 cups plain flour sifted with 5 teaspoons of baking powder)
1 cup of sugar (I used raw sugar, but you can use white sugar or brown sugar)

Chop 1 cup of peaches.
Add to flour with 1/2 cups chopped nuts (I used slivered almonds)

Mix together with a spoon.
Then add 1 cup of milk, 1 beaten egg and 1/4 cup of vegetable oil (of your choice)

Mix until the dry ingredient are moistened, do not over mix - it doesn't need to be perfectly smooth.

Spoon into your prepared muffin tins.

Cook for 20 mins until risen and browned.

Let cool as much as you can before you eat and enjoy!

Other ingredients could be date and walnut, fig and hazelnut, banana and choc chips, raspberries and white chocolate, grated apple and cinnamon, pear and pecans, - oh, the combinations are endless!
What are you favorite muffins?

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