Chocolate Berry Muffins

My little one has been asking if we could bake some chocolate berry muffins, so this evening that is exactly what we did.  This recipe is so easy to make and comes together very quickly!  You get very full muffins that bake up perfectly and taste amazing!


Ingredients:
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup sugar
1 tbsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1 large egg
1 cup buttermilk ***
1/4 cup oil
1 cup berries (I used a mix of frozen blueberries, raspberries and blackberries)
1 cup white/chocolate chips (I used half milk chocolate, half white chocolate)

The yummy looking batter.

Directions:

1. Measure first 4 ingredients (dry ingredients) into a large bowl.  Stir.  Make a well in the centre.

2.  Combine the next 3 ingredients (wet ingredients) in a small bowl.  Add to well.

Muffin  liners filled right to the top
for a full looking muffin with a rounded top.

3.  Add the berries and chocolate chips.  Stir gently until just moistened.

4. Fill 12 paper-lined muffin cups at least 3/4 full.  (I was able to fill the liners almost right to the top.)  Bake in 375F oven for about 24 minutes until toothpick inserted comes out clean.

5. Let stand in pan for 5 minutes before removing to wire rack to cool.

***If you don't have buttermilk, you can use soured milk.  To do this, put 1tbsp of white vinegar or lemon juice in a 1 cup measuring cup.  Add enough milk to make 1 cup.  Stir and let stand at least 1 minute.***

The baked muffins cooling in the muffin pan for 5 minutes.
They cooked up perfectly in 24 minutes!

The final product cooling before we can taste test.
They are quite soft when warm, so patience is oh so important -
even though they smell so delicious!

Pink Lemonade Popsicles

My little one has been asking to make popsicles for such a long time, so tonight was the night.  Off to bed we would go afterwards and they'd be ready for a delicious snack the next day.  And with the temperatures they're calling for, we are going to need a frozen treat like this to cool off.

Please do not mind my photo of the popsicles.  I couldn't find my moulds for the life of me, so we had to improvise.  What you see is a result of placing the mixture in a parchment lined loaf pan, putting in a popsicle stick through when they were pretty solid and then cutting them into 8 pieces afterwards.

Ingredients:
1 tsp freshly grated lemon zest (I always use a bit more!)
1/2 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice (from about 4 lemons)
1/2 cup and 2 tbsp sugar
1-3/4 cup water
handful of frozen or fresh raspberries
pinch of salt

Directions:

1. In a blender or food processor, combine the lemon zest, juice and sugar.  Pour in water.  Add the raspberries and salt and blend until the mixture is smooth and pink.

2.  Pour into your popsicle moulds, dividing evenly among the moulds.  Cover and freeze until solid, at least 5 hours.    If you are using sticks, insert them into the moulds when they are partially frozen and will stand on their own, about 2 hours.  Continue to freeze them until solid.

If you're liking me and you can't find (or don't have) moulds, there are several workarounds.  As I mentioned above, you can line a loaf pan with parchment paper that overhangs on all sides and pour the mixture in.  The directions above didn't work too well for me as the mixture was still pretty liquidy 4 hours after it was placed in the freezer.  So what I did was at that time I placed the popsicle sticks in, went to bed and woke up in the morning.  Of course I couldn't pull out the block, so I cut it into 8-10 squares in the pan.  Then I was easily able to remove it from the pan and put them back in the freezer as individual pops.  If yours freezes up faster, then slice them individually  after 3-4 hours.

You can also use paper cups or individual glasses and follow the steps above for inserting the popsicle sticks.  When ready to eat, you may have to let them sit at room temperature for up to 5 minutes so they can be easily removed.

Alternate flavour: Instead of raspberries, add 2-3 strawberries (fresh or frozen) that have been hulled.

These had quite a tangy flavour, but they are really quite good and refreshing on such a hot day!

Raspberry & Lemon-Sour Cream Coffee Cake

Tomorrow is Greek Easter. I'm not Greek, but I did choose Greek people to be my daughter's godparents, so I guess we are honorary Greeks tomorrow. Easter is a big deal for Greek godparents (or so I've gathered from the stories), so my husband and I are very excited to take our daughter to her godparents' house tomorrow to celebrate her first (Greek, second ever) Easter with their family. I've already told her that she is so lucky to be able to celebrate Easter twice in one year. She gets to wear her Easter outfit that they got her again and that's awesome because she looks so adorable in it!

Anyways I've totally gone off topic. I'm supposed to be focusing on food here. And the reason for this blog entry is to share with you the recipe I will be bringing to their house tomorrow. Despite being told I don't have to bring anything, I want to. It's the least I could do to show my gratitude to them for being such awesome godparents and welcoming us into their family for this important holiday and always.

So I decided to make this coffee cake. I've made variations of it before and have always received good reviews. I almost couldn't find my recipe today, but after much searching it appeared. I can't remember where I got it, except that I remember it was from a book I took out of the library. So here it is....

FOR THE TOPPING:
1 cup all-purpose flour
2/3 cup granulated sugar
Grated zest of 1 lemon
1/2 cup unsalted butter, melted

FOR THE CAKE:
1 3/4 cups all- purpose flour
1 cup granulated sugar
2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
3 large eggs
1 cup sour cream
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
2 cups fresh raspberries (approx.)
2 tbsp icing sugar

DIRECTIONS:

1. Preheat oven to 350F. Grease and flour a 10" round springform pan.

2. To make the topping, stir together the flour, sugar and zest. Add the melted butter and stir with a fork until the mixture is crumbly. Set aside.

3. To make the cake, stir together the flour, sugar, baking powder and soda, and salt. In another bowl, whisk together the eggs, sour cream, and vanilla until well blended. Make a well in the center of the flour mixture and add the sour cream mixture. Beat until smooth and fluffy, a couple of minutes.

4. Pour the batter into the prepared pan and spread it evenly. Cover evenly with the raspberries.

Sprinkle the crumb topping evenly over the berries.

5. Bake until the topping is golden brown, 40-50 minutes (my oven always takes almost 50 mins). A toothpick inserted in the centre should come out clean. Transfer to a wire rack and let cool for 20 minutes.

Remove the sides of the springform pan. Dust with icing sugar. Serve warm or at room temperature.

TIPS: As the recipe is, you really shouldn't put lemon in the title. What I always like to do is add the juice of the zested lemon to the sour cream mixture. It shouldn't come to more than 1/4 cup. If the mixture is a little runny, you can always add another tbsp or so of sour cream. Continue with the recipe. I've also made this recipe with blueberries and it turns out just as phenomenal. Dusting the cake with icing sugar is also purely optional.