Three Chimneys: Plums in Spiced Port Wine

Back to desserts this week, and something very simple - poached fruit. First prepare the poaching liquid. In this case, some ruby port, a little sugar, and some spices. Quite an interesting combination: cinnamon stick, bay leaf, cloves, juniper berries and cardamom. Bring to the boil, add halved plums and simmer until the plums are soft.
The plums sounded good, but they really need to go with something. One of the suggestions in the book was to serve with cinnamon ice cream. Well, if cinnamon would be good, how about adding chocolate and making a cinnamon chocolate ice-cream? So, out with my basic ice-cream recipe, and start playing.
The basic recipe is one I came across last year - it's the one I also used here. The good thing about this one is that it only needs a few ingredients, and doesn't involve making a custard using any eggs - so no fear of scrambling anything.
So, when heating the milk and cream at the start, I added a cinnamon stick to try to get some of that flavour infused in. I also added some very finely chopped chocolate which I wanted to melt in. When mixing up the cornstarch with the rest of the milk, I also added a tablespoon or so of cocoa powder. I didn't add the vanilla, thinking that it would either not go with or overpower the cinnamon. Once the mixture had thickened, I added a tablespoon or so of dark rum, partly for flavouring and partly because I'm sure I read somewhere that adding alcohol to ice-cream stops it getting too rock-hard in the freezer.
Well, I don't think I added enough alcohol to my mix, because the ice-cream did get very firm. But how did it taste? Not quite enough of all the flavours, but still very nice. And it went very well with the plums.

Double Chocolate Day

There's a guy that Duncan works with, P, who's allergic to eggs. I used to feel guilty every time Duncan took some of my baking to work - it all had eggs in it, and P couldn't have any of it. So, Amazon to the rescue. I found a book on baking wthout eggs (Bakin' Without Eggs by Rosemarie Emro), and started baking a few things from it, which seemed to be fairly well received. But then I sort of stopped baking as often, and things didn't go to work with Duncan.

However, P recently helped me out with sourcing a good price on my Dad's birthday present. He's good at that kind of thing, among all the other stuff he does to help people out, and I figured he deserved a little thank you. So I dug out the egg-free baking book, and whipped up a batch of the chocolate muffins that had gone down so well before. Apparently they went down pretty well this time too - not just with P, but with everybody else there too. So well, that I'm making another batch this weekend. Although, for variety, I plan on using Green & Black's Maya Gold cocoa, instead of their plain cocoa powder. Hopefully that should give a slight orange spice taste to them.

As the chocolate muffins were going to work, I thought we might need something else chocolatey to stay behind. This time, it was out with the not-quite-so-bad-for-you baking book (One Smart Cookie by Julie van Rosendaal), and into the chapter on brownies, where I picked a simple plain chocolate brownie.

Recipes:

Chocolate Sour Cream Cupcakes
(Adapted from Bakin' Without Eggs by Rosemarie Emro)
225 grams plain flour
50 grams cocoa powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
225 grams sugar
250 ml sour cream
125 ml vegetable oil
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
125 ml soda water

Preheat oven to 350F/180C Placu muffin cases in muffin tin.
In a large bowl, sift together the flour, cocoa and baking powder. Add the sugar and mix through.
In a jug, beat together the sour cream, vegetable oil, vanilla and soda water.
Add the wet ingredients to the dry, and stir until completely mixed.
Divide between muffin cases.
Bake for 15 to 20 minutes.


Easy Cocoa Brownies
(Adapted from One Smart Cookie by Julie van Rosendaal)
50 grams unsalted butter -- melted
200 grams caster sugar
1 large egg
2 large egg whites
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon instant coffee granules -- dissolved in 1 teaspoon water
140 grams plain flour
50 grams cocoa powder
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt

Preheat the oven to 350F/175C. Line an 8x8 inch pan with non-stick baking parchment.
In a large bowl, mix together the butter and sugar until well combined.
Add the egg, egg whites, vanilla and coffee. Stir until thoroughly blended and smooth.
In another bowl, combine the flour, cocoa, baking powder and salt.
Add the dry ingredients, together with any optional additions, to the egg mixture and stir until just combined. Do not overmix.
Spread the batter in the pan. Bake for 25 - 30 minutes, until the edge is starting to pull away but the middle is still slightly soft. Do not overbake.
Cool in the pan. Cuts into 16 pieces.

Chocolate Gingerbread

No entries for a couple of weeks. Well, I did make some biscotti a few weeks ago, but I've been on holiday, so no baking got done since then. I was in Orkney, where I picked up some interesting flour, bere meal. There was a recipe leaflet to go with it, but I plan on using it a bit differently to the usual savoury scones and bannocks; hopefully I'll talk about that in a week or so.
Anyway, this week I was in the mood for cake. Thinking of Nigella's chocolate gingerbread, I thought I'd try a chocolate variation of the buttermilk gingerbread in my last post. Very simply, it's the same recipe, with the addition of some melted good quality dark chocolate. The method's also a bit different, more akin to a brownie. How did it turn out? Well, I think I had my oven a bit hot or left in it a little too long because the crumb's a little bit loose, but it tastes delicious.

Recipe:
150 grams plain flour
60 grams wholemeal flour
1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 1/2 teaspoons ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
1 1/2 teaspoons bicarbonate of soda
50 grams unsalted butter
75 grams dark chocolate (Green & Black's, 70%)
80 grams sugar
1 egg
100 grams molasses
110 millilitres skim milk

Preheat oven to 325F/170C. Line an 8 inch square cake pan with non stick baking parchment.
Mix together the flours, spices and bicarbonate of soda in a medium bowl
In a large bowl, melt together the butter and chocolate.
In a bowl or jug, beat together the sugar and egg.
Once the butter and chocolate are melted, allow to cool slightly then beat in the egg and sugar.
Add the molasses and milk. Mix well.
Add the dry ingredients to the wet. Mix until smooth.
Pour into the batter into the pan.
Bake for about 20 minutes.

Strawberry Chocolate Cupcakes

Not quite sure what I thought I was doing with these. I came across a reference to Crazy Cake, which is basically an eggless chocolate cake which I think uses the reaction between vinegar and bicarbonate of soda to give the raising effect. Anyway, I can't leave good enough alone, so I made a number of changes to the recipe, throwing in mashed banana as a replacement for some of the vegetable oil, and strawberry jam because, well, it was in the fridge (see Marmalade Cookies), and I thought it might give a hint of something to the cupcakes.
So, how did all this experimentation turn out? Quite well actually. Very soft and fluffy cupcakes, rich enough but not too heavy.

Recipe:
200 grams plain flour
150 grams sugar
1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
25 grams cocoa powder (Green & Blacks)
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 tablespoon vinegar
250 millilitres water
50 grams mashed banana
50 grams strawberry jam

Preheat oven to 350F/180C. Line muffin tin with muffin cases.
Mix dry ingredients together in a large bowl. Mix wet ingredients in a jug.
Add wet ingredients to dry, mixing until smooth.
Divide between muffin cases.
Bake for 20 - 25 minutes.

Chocolate Cake

I was in the mood for chocolate this week, so chocolate cake of some description had to be made. These started out with a recipe for low-fat brownies that I got off the SparkRecipes website. I made quite a few changes to the recipe, either because I wasn't quite sure what was meant, or just because it felt right. I mean, when a recipe of American origination calls for apple sauce, what exactly do they mean? I'm not sure - will things turn out OK if I use that jar of stuff I normally eat with my roast pork? I decided not to risk it, and instead of using the applesauce, I used mashed banana instead. I'm fairly certain that in most baking cases the two things can be interchanged; in a low-fat recipe like this, hey are both intended to do the same job - act as a replacemet for some of the fat. It certainly didn't seem to cause any harm here.
The next substitution I made was the use of self-raising flour instead of the plain plus raising agent. Why? Well, I wasn't sure exactly which agent the original writer meant - does baking soda equal bicarbonate of soda, or baking powder? Normally I'd use bicarbinate of soda. However, with the use of banana instead of apple I also wasn't sure about how dense the mixture would be, so decided to skip the whole problem and just use the self-raising flour.
The result? Not quite a classic brownie, which is supposed to be very dense. This is more of a cake, but a very moist one. Completely delicious.

Recipe:
75 grams self-raising flour,
2 tablespoons cocoa powder (I used Green & Blacks)
1/4 teaspoon salt
50 grams dark chocolate (again, Green & Black's, 70%)
20 grams unsalted butter
145 grams light brown sugar
1 egg
1 egg white
6 tablespoons mashed banana
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350F/175C. Line an 8 inch square baking tin with non-stick baking parchment.
In a small bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder and salt.
In a large bowl over a pan of simmering water, melt together the chocolate and butter.
In another small bowl, whisk together the egg, egg white, brown sugar and vanilla extract.
When the butter and chocolate have melted, remove from the heat and leave for a minute or so to cool slightly.
Pour the egg and sugar mixture into the melted chocolate, stirring constantly. Add the banana, and mix until well combined.
Add the flour mixture to the wet ingredients, a couple of tablespoons at a time, mixing each addition until combined.
Pour into the baking tin and bake for 20 minutes.

Choca Mocha Mousse

Another dessert recipe this week, from the same magazine as the last one (OK, it's the Weight Watchers magazine). Yes, I made a few changes to it - artificial sweeteners are one of the things I absolutely will not use, and this recipe called for them. So of course I replaced that ingredient with good old sugar.
One of the other things used in this recipe is something I've never used before, so I was a little worried about it - gelatine. For some reason, I have the idea that it's a tricky thing to work with, and if you don't get it exactly right things are going to turn out inedible. Well, I followed the instructions and things worked out just fine. In fact, it looked just like the picture. This was reassuring - when I was pouring the mousse into the glasses, it was quite worrying to see that some of it was nicely foamy, but that there was a good quantity of liquid too. Pouring the liquid in, it settled to the bottom, with the 'foam' sitting on top. I really didn't think it was going to set, but it did, in two distinct and complementary layers - a denser mousse on the bottom, with a lighter one on the top. Very nice, and one to make again. I'm tempted to try variations, but there's that fear of it all going so wrong...

Recipe:
3 grams leaf gelatin (2 sheets)
40 grams dark chocolate (I use Green & Black's)
75 millilitres strong black coffee
25 millilitres skim milk
2 egg whites
2 teaspoons caster sugar

Cut the gelatine into strips and soak in cold water for 10 minutes to soften.
Melt the chocolate in a heatproof bowl.
In a small pan, heat together the coffee and milk. Do not allow to boil.
Squeeze the excess water from the gelatine. Add to the hot coffee and stir to dissolve.
Whisk the egg whites until soft peaks form. Add the sugar and whisk to combine.
Gently fold the egg whites into the chocolate.
Drizzle the coffee into the mixture, and fold in gently, keeping as much volume as possible.
Divide between two 150ml glasses or ramekins.
Cover and chill for about 2 hours until set.

Rhubarb & Custard

I was supposed to be too busy with work this weekend to do much baking. Luckily, two weeks ago I started a small experiment for just this kind of situation. When I made the last batch of chocolate chip cookies, I froze half of them unbaked. So today, it was time to see how they would bake.
Rather than waste the whole batch, I thought it best to try just a few. The unfrozen batch were originally baked at 175C, but with these being frozen, I figured a lower temperature might be better - to allow the dough to thaw all the way through before the outside baked. So the oven was preheated to 160C, and the cookies went in for a few minutes longer than they would have done unfrozen - 15 minutes rather than the original 12. The result? Well, they didn't spread as much as the unfrozen batch, but I still ended up with 4 perfectly yummy cookies. With another 5 still in the freezer for later.
What's this got to do with Rhubarb & Custard? Well nothing much, except that while I knew I wouldn't have time for actual baking today, I didn't want to do absolutely nothing. In a magazine, I'd seen a recipe for a baked custard. Since it didn't look like it would take too long, I though I'd try it. And with some stewed rhubarb (with just enough sugar to sweeten it, but not so much that it takes away all the sharpness), it was exactly the comforting dessert I needed. I'm pretty sure I'll be making this again. It seems like it would lend itself to variation too - different flavourings in the custard, maybe something baked into the custard. Or even a simple brulee topping.

Recipe:
200 millilitres skim milk
1 egg
1 tablespoon caster sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Preheat the oven to 160C
Put the milk in a pan and heat gently until fairly warm. Meanwhile, whisk together the egg, sugar and vanilla extract in a jug.
When the milk is warm, pour it slowly into the mixture in the jug, whisking as you do so.
Put 2 150ml capacity ramekins into a roasting tray or other deep sided baking tray. Divide the custard between the two ramekins.
Pour hot water into the tray, to come about half way up the side of the ramekins.
Put the tray into the oven and bake for 40 minutes, until the custard is set but still with a slight wobble.
Serve with some stewed rhubarb on top.

Corn Muffins/Chocolate Chip Cookies

Two lots of baking done this week, one savoury and one sweet. Both of them seem to have turned out well; they certainly met with approval.
The corn muffins first. This is corn as in cornmeal - polenta. Now, I've made cornbread before, a long time ago, and I no longer have the recipe I used. So when I came across a recipe for these (fairly low calorie) cornmeal muffins in a book, I wanted to give them a go. Of course, the recipe called for one thing I've never been able to find - buttermilk. Normally, I'd substitute yogurt, but here I thought I'd try a tip I came across, and use the same quantity of milk mixed with a bit of lemon juice (1 tablespoon lemon juice made up to 1 cup with milk is, I believe, the suggested mix). It seemed to work, although I didn't use exactly that mix.
The mix seemed OK, although the muffins didn't rise quite as much as I'd hoped - maybe I did overwork it. They also stuck to the muffin cases a bit, so if (when) I do this again, I think I'll bake it in a cake pan lined with non-stick parchment, and cut it into pieces. They certainly went very well, still warm out of the oven, with the lunchtime soup.

This isn't the first time I've made these chocolate chip cookies, and if my experience with them so far is anything to go by, it's a very forgiving recipe. Cookie recipes that make more than can be fitted on a single tray need to get baked in multiple batches in my oven. Last time, the first batch turned out pretty perfectly. Luckily, as they were destined for my Dad. However, the second trayful weren't so lucky. After taking the first lot out, I'd done my usual thing of turning the oven up to a higher temperature than is required for the baking, so that when I open the door to put the tray in, it falls down to the correct temperature. I must have been distracted, because I turned it up more than usual. And forgot to turn it down again when the cookies went in. Oh dear. Well, they got whipped out of the oven a bit before their time was up, a bit browner that they should have been. And they still tasted OK. Some of them were on the verge of being singed, but nothing too bad. These went to a different set of recipients, who were apparently quite happy with them.
Nothing so dramatic with this lot. I made another change to the original recipe, besides my original substitution of golden syrup for corn syrup; the use of part wholemeal and part plain flour. I thought it might give an extra bit of texture and flavour to the cookes. It seemed to work. Another thing I'm trying with this recipe is freezing half the mix to be baked later. No idea if it will work or not, but I wanted to give it a go.

Recipes:
Corn Muffins (from 'The 1200 Calorie a Day Menu Cookbook, Nancy Hughes)
2/3 cup plain flour
1/2 cup cornmeal (I used quick-cook polenta)
2 teaspoons caster sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup skim milk
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1 egg white
2 teaspoons vegetable oil

Preheat oven to 450F/230C. Put 8 muffin cases in a muffin tin.
Place the milk and lemon juice together in a bowl. Note: you can use 3/4 cup plus one tablespoon fat-free buttermilk instead of the milk and lemon juice.
In a mixing bowl combine the flour, polenta, sugar, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda and salt.
Whisk the egg white and oil into the milk.
Make a well in the middle of the dry ingredients. Pour in the wet ingredients and mix until just combined.
Divide the mixture between the 8 muffin cases.
Bake for 15 minutes. Remove from the tray immediately.

Chocolate Chip Cookies (based on one from One Smart Cookie, Julie van Rosendaal)
50 grams unsalted butter
1 cup brown sugar
1 egg
2 tablespoons golden syrup
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup plain flour
1/2 cup wholemeal flour
1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
70 grams dark chocolate, chopped (I used Green & Black's)

Preheat oven to 350F/175C. Line two baking sheets with non-stick baking parchment.
In a large bowl beat butter and sugar together until well combined - the mixture will end up with the consistency of wet sand.
Add the vanilla, syrup, and egg. Beat together until smooth.
In another bowl combine the flour, bicarbonate of soda and salt. Add the flour mixture and chocolate chips, a third at a time, to the sugar mixture, stirring after each addition until well combined.
Drop spoonfuls of the dough, well spaced, onto the baking sheets. Bake for 12 - 15 minutes, until golden and the outside is set but the middle is still slightly soft.

Chocolate Chip Angel Cupcakes

I decided to try something I've never tried before today. I've seen recipes for angel cake before, but they all seem to need to be baked in special pans. So when I came across a recipe for Chocolate Chip Angel Cupcakes on the Cooking Light website, I thought I'd give it a go.
Well, the recipe says it makes 24, but I thought I'd just make a half quantity - as it is, that made 10 cakes.
I suppose they turned out OK. They certainly taste fine. It's just, well, I guess I'm not sure quite what I was expecting. I think I may have left them in the oven too long. I certainly wasn't expecting the shrinkage and slight misshapenness of the resulting cakelets. I hadn't intended to ice them, but I changed my mind once I saw them. The icing used isn't the one in the original recipe, but a simple one made by melting butter and chocolate together (twice as much chocolate as butter) and adding icing sugar to give the desired consistency.

Recipe:
1/2 cup plain flour
3/4 cup caster sugar
6 egg whites
1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar
1/8 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3/4 teaspoon lemon juice
50 grams dark chocolate, Green & Black's, 70%

Preheat oven to 325F/160C. Line a muffin tin with muffin cases.
Lightly spoon sifted flour into a dry measuring cup, and level with a knife. Combine the flour and 6 tablespoons sugar in a bowl.
Put egg whites in a large bowl. Beat until foamy.
Add the cream of tartar and salt. Beat until soft peaks form.
Add 6 tablespoons of sugar, 2 tablespoons at a time, beating until stiff peaks form.
Beat in vanilla extract and lemon juice.
Sift 1/4 cup flour mixture over egg white mixture; fold in. Repeat procedure with remaining flour mixture, 1/4 cup at a time.
Fold in the chopped chocolate.
Spoon 3 heaped tablespoons batter into each muffin cup. Bake for 15 minutes, or until the cupcakes spring back when lightly touched.
Remove from pans and cool on a wire rack.

Dark Chocolate & Ginger Biscotti

Well, last weeks's honey rhubarb muffins went down well. Can't say the same for the rock buns - I'm really not impressed with them. Any of them left at the end of this week are going out.
So, another biscotti variation this week (again, based on One Smart Cookie). In the mood for some dark chocolate, and having some crystallized ginger in the cupboard, it seemed natural to put the two together. I wasn't quite brave enough to play around too much with the basic biscotti dough, so I settled for just chopping up the chocolate and ginger and adding it as chunks. I think it works quite well. You get something different with each bite - sometimes a bit of chocolate, sometimes a chewy hit of ginger, sometimes a bit of both. Maybe if I make these again, I'll try a chocolate dough, but all in all I'm pretty happy with how they turned out.

Recipe:
2 tablespoons unsalted butter -- softened
3/4 cup caster sugar
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 cups plain flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
50 grams crystallised ginger, chopped finely
75 grams dark chocolate (I used Green & Black's, 70%), chopped

Preheat oven to 350F/175C. Line a baking sheet with non-stick baking parchment.
In a large bowl, beat butter, sugar, eggs and vanilla until smooth.
In a medium bowl, combine the flour, baking powder and salt. Add the ginger and chocolate to this mixture.
Add the dry ingredients to the wet. Stir until just combined. If it seems dry, use your hands to complete the mixing until the dough comes together.
Turn the dough out onto a floured surface. Divide in half. Shape each piece into an 8 inch by 3 inch rectangle.
Place the logs fairly far apart on the lined baking sheet.
Bake for 20 - 25 minutes until firm and starting to crack on top. Remove from the oven and leave to cool for about 15 minutes.
Reduce the oven temperature to 275F/135C
Cut each log into 1/2 - 3/4 inch slices (12 slices per log) with a sharp knife. Place slices cut side down on the baking sheet.
Return to the oven for 15 minutes, then flip over and bake for another 15 minutes.

Lemon & White Chocolate Biscotti

Another recipe from One Smart Cookie. I've still got brownies left from last week (although very few), and biscuits from the week before, so I thought I'd better make something that will last for a while. Having baked dark and rich things for the past couple of weeks (chocolaty brownies, treacly biscuits) I also wanted something a bit lighter. I've tried making biscotti in the past, but wasn't too happy with the results. I think these have turned out a bit better.
The book gives a basic biscotti recipe, and suggestions for a number of variations. Having a lemon in the fruit bowl, and a bar of Green & Black's white chocolate in the cupboard, that's the one I went for.
Forgive the mixture of measurements in the recipe; some are from the book, some are my measured additions.

Recipe:
30 grams unsalted butter, softened
3/4 cup caster sugar
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 cups plain flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
Zest of 1 lemon, finely grated
100 grams white chocolate (Green & Black's)

Preheat oven to 350f/175C. Line a baking sheet with non-stick baking parchment.
In a large bowl, beat butter, sugar, eggs and vanilla until smooth.
In a medium bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, salt and lemon zest.
Add a few tablespoons of the flour mixture to the wet ingredients. Stir until combined. Add the chopped chocolate and mix well. Continue adding the flour mixture, a few tablespoons at a time, stirring until just combined. If it seems dry, use your hands to complete the mixing until the dough comes together.
Turn the dough out onto a floured surface. Divide in half. Shape each piece into an 8 inch by 3 inch rectangle.
Place the logs, well spaced on the lined baking sheet. They will spread slightly.
Bake for 20 - 25 minutes until firm and starting to crack on top. Remove from the oven and leave to cool for about 15 minutes.
Reduce the oven temperature to 275F/135C
Trim the ends and cut each log into 1/2 - 3/4 inch slices (12 slices per log) with a sharp serrated knife. Place slices cut side down on the baking sheet.
Return to the oven for 15 minutes, then flip over and bake for another 15 minutes.

Chocolate Cherry Brownies

No clear verdict on the cookies from last week. I've decided I'm not keen on them; the treacle in my opinion just overpowers everything else. Duncan, on the other hand, thinks they're really good. If I do make them again, I'll definitely reduce the amount of treacle used.

I got this recipe from the SparkPeople website. It's an American website, so the recipe is in cups. I think I'm getting used to working in them now. The basic recipe is just for plain chocolate brownies, with nothing in them. Naturally I couldn't leave it like that, so after a bit of thought I decided that the bag of dried cherries I had in the cupboard would be a good addition.
The recipe says that the batter will be a bit thick. It's not kidding. I'm used to a brownie batter you can pour out of the bowl; this one you have to dollop spoonfuls of into the pan, and then attempt to spread them out to a single even layer.
Just like there's an absolute commandment for muffins (do NOT overmix), there's one for brownies. What is it? Do NOT overbake. What did I do with these? Overbake. Not by much, according to the timing given in the recipe, but enough so that the brownies were drier than I'd have ideally liked. I'll know better next time. I also didn't use the full quantity of cherries, but I think I should have.

Recipe:
1 cup sugar
2 large eggs
2 teaspoons instant coffee, dissolved in 1 tablespoon water
1/4 cup butter, melted
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup plain flour
2/3 cup cocoa powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
50 grams dried cherries, chopped if large

Preheat oven to 325F/160C. Line an 8 inch square baking pan with non-stick baking parchment.
In a large bowl, whisk together the eggs and sugar until thick and creamy.
Add the dissolved coffee, melted butter and vanilla to the egg mixture. Whisk gently until combined.
In another bowl, mix the flour, cocoa and salt.
Gradually add the dry ingredients and cherries to the egg mixture. The batter will be very thick.
Spread the batter in the prepared pan. Bake for 20 - 25 minutes.
Cool in the pan. cuts into 16 pieces.

Chocolate Pear Muffins

First baking of this year. Getting a bit fed up of Christmas cake. It's very nice (Nigella's Easy Action Christmas cake from Feast, with a few variations of my own in it), but you can have too much of a good thing. I fancied something chocolatey, and had some dried pears left over from the cake, so I thought I'd make some muffins. I've adapted the Blueberry Muffin recipe from the WI Healthy Fast Food book successfully before, so I used that as my base again. This time, I added some cocoa powder and the dried pears, chopped up. They turned out OK - maybe not quite chocolatey enough, and a touch drier than I'd have ideally liked, but then, I'm picky. If I do them again, I'll probably remove a couple of tablespoons of flour, and find some way of upping the chocolate - maybe adding a little coffee?

Recipe:
80 grams unsalted butter
225 grams plain flour
2 tablespoons cocoa powder (I use Green & Blacks)
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
115 grams caster sugar
225 ml low-fat yoghurt
1 egg, beaten
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
90 grams dried pears, chopped

Preheat oven to 180C / Gas 4. Put 12 muffin cases into a muffin tin.
Sift the flour, cocoa, baking powder and bicarbonate of soda into a large bowl.
Stir in the sugar
Melt the butter and allow to cool slightly
Beat the egg into the yogurt
Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients
Add the butter and the egg/yogurt mixture to the dry ingredients. Stir to just combine. The mixture will look lumpy. This is fine - overmixing will make the muffins tough.
Add the pears. Gently mix through until evenly combined.
Divide between the 12 muffin cases. Bake for about 30 minutes until the muffins are risen and cooked.