Muffins! Blueberry, Parmesan and Herb, and Parmesan and Bacon

Yesterday I made muffins!  Three lots in fact as there were a few I wanted to try.  I made 6 blueberry muffins for my boyfriend, 12 wheat free mini parmesan and herb for his mum, and then 12 mini parmesan and bacon for me...or his sister when she comes home on Wednesday.

The recipes for these came from Good Food magazine (February 2005 issue), and are something I've been wanting to try out for a couple of weeks since I picked it off the shelf.  All the recipes in the magazine worked off of one basic recipe (the one for the blueberry muffins) but made substitutions depending on the type of muffin you wanted.

Blueberry Recipe - makes 6 full sized muffins

Ingredients:

• 70g/2/5oz caster sugar
• 125g/4.5oz self-raising flour
• 1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
• 42g/1.5oz butter
• 1 large egg
• 100ml/3.5fl milk
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 75g/2.6oz blueberries

1. Melt the butter in a saucepan and then leave to cool.
2. Preheat the oven to 200°C/390°F/Gas Mark 6 and place 6 muffin cases in a muffin tray. 
3. Combine the sugar, flour and bicarbonate of soda in a bowl.
4. In a jug, beat the egg and add the milk, cooled butter and vanilla extract.
5. Pour the jug ingredients into the bowl with the flour mix and stir until just combined.
6. Fold in the blueberries.
7. Spoon the mixture into the cases and then bake in the oven for 15-18 minutes.  You want the tops to be golden and a skewer inserted into the centre to come out clean.
8. Cool on a wire rack.

Parmesan and Herb - makes 12 mini muffins or 6 full size muffins

Ingredients:

• 125g/4.5oz wheat-free self-raising flour
• 1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
• 42g/1.5oz butter
• 1 large egg
• 142ml/4.8fl.oz buttermilk
• 50g/1.75oz grated parmesan
• 1 tbsp thyme
• 1 tbsp basil

1. Melt the butter in a saucepan and then leave to cool.
2. Preheat the oven to 200°C/390°F/Gas Mark 6 and place 12 mini muffin cases in a mini muffin tray (or grease the tray if you don't have the cases).
3. Combine the flour and bicarbonate of soda in a bowl.
4. In a jug, beat the egg with the butter and buttermilk.  
5. Add to the flour mix and stir until combined.
6. Fold in the parmesan, thyme and basil.
7. Spoon into the cases/greased tray and top with additional grated parmesan.
8. Bake in the oven for 10-15 minutes.  You want the tops to be golden and a skewer inserted into the centre to come out clean.
9. Cool on a wire rack.

Parmesan and Bacon - makes 12 mini muffins or 6 full size muffins 

Ingredients:

• 125g/4.5oz wheat-free self-raising flour
• 1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
• 1 tbsp caster sugar
• 42g/1.5oz butter
• 1 large egg
• 142ml/4.8fl.oz buttermilk
  
• 50g/1.75oz grated parmesan
• 2-3 rashers of crispy bacon

1. Melt the butter in a saucepan and then leave to cool.
2. Preheat the oven to 200°C/390°F/Gas Mark 6 and place 12 mini muffin cases in a mini muffin tray (or grease the tray if you don't have the cases).
3. Combine the flour, sugar and bicarbonate of soda in a bowl.
4. In a jug, beat the egg with the butter and buttermilk. 
5. Add to the flour mix and stir until combined.
6. Cut up the bacon and fold it into the mix along with the parmesan.
7. Spoon into the cases/greased tray and top with additional grated parmesan.
8. Bake in the oven for 10-15 minutes.  You want the tops to be golden and a skewer inserted into the centre to come out clean.
9. Cool on a wire rack.

Mini Chocolate Chip Cupcakes with Cookie Dough Buttercream

Okay, that title is a bit of a lie.  These are actually chocolate chip cookie dough cupcakes.  Each of them has a ball of cookie dough in the centre (it's something I've noticed on a few blogs whilst I was browsing around and wanted to try out yesterday after a bit on a downer of a day).  Unfortunately, the cookie dough is far too floury and not that nice to eat.  But the rest of it is soooo good I can't bring myself to call it a failed experiment.  Hence I'm not.  I'm just missing out the cookie dough middles.  I will attempt the cookie dough centre again at some point but for now I am going to post the recipe for the cakes and the icing.  

Recipe:

 

The cakes were made in a mini muffin tray because it was a trial recipe and I thought tiny cakes would make a nice addition to my lunch.  They use a halved batch of my standard fairy cake recipe, with the addition of 75g of chocolate chips.

Cookie Dough Buttercream - adapted from What's Cooking on Planet Byn 
This is a halved recipe.

• 85g/3oz butter
• 45g/1.5oz brown sugar
• 110g/4oz icing sugar
• 32g/1.1oz plain flour
• 1/8 tsp salt
• 3/4 tbsp milk
• 3/4 tsp vanilla extract
• 25g chocolate chips/chunks

1. Mix together the butter and the brown sugar until creamy.
2. Beat in the icing sugar until it is smooth.
3. Add flour and salt and beat in.
4. Finally add milk and vanilla and keep mixing until everything is combined and you have a reasonable smooth mixture.
5. Put in a piping bag with a small star nozzle (mine was a 30) and pipe swirls ontop of cakes.
6. Finish with some chocolate chips/chunks on top.