Mrs W's Pear, Lancashire and Walnut Muffins

For various reasons, of which more another time, I haven't been doing much imaginative cooking or baking recently, apart from my Fairtrade Green Tea, Caradmon & Vanilla Cake yesterday. Still - who needs to when I have friends like Mrs W making the most DELICIOUS muffins. Honestly. She posted the recipe for these babies up on her Facebook and I asked if I could put them up here. 

 
Before I let you read her post, some more about Mrs W. She is down to earth, practical and a great laugh. She is the Senior Scout Wife and I count myself as very lucky to know her: she has saved my sanity on more than one occasion with wise words, and, on even more occasions, with gin.

I think  have long suspected that she is a blogger in the making. And I was not wrong. Here is her post for her gorgeous Pear, Lancashire and Walnut muffins:

"I like to bake, though I’m not quite in Recipe Junkie’s league (it’s always worth volunteering to babysit at the RJ household – just for access to the contents of Grandma’s cake tin) ...and have spawned a daughter who, though I hate to admit it, makes a much better lemon cake than I do... and some great chocolate cookies – which isn’t all bad (apart from my needing to run further) ... but every once in a while inspiration strikes – in this case due to lots of pears in my weekly veg box – and, combined with quite happily playing fast and loose with a recipe, these little marvels were the result.

After staying with my parents in a lovely, lovely B&B in the Lake District, which does the most amazing (you really won’t need lunch) breakfasts, I found they had their favourite muffin recipe on their website  - check it out: Lowthwaite B&B even better, go and stay (but don’t tell everyone or there won’t be space for me) – and I’ve been making these with whatever fruit I need to use up ever since ... and this was my starting point.

They were ok the first time, but too sweet – I’d left in the sugar and hadn’t used enough cheese -  but, I think I have it sorted now, this batch were pretty darn good:

200g plain flour

Going...

2tsp baking powder
1tsp bicarb
good pinch of salt
a good grinding of black pepper
75g melted butter
200ml buttermilk (or half and half milk/natural yoghurt)
1 egg
1 diced ripe pear
75g ish small diced cheese (I used tasty Lancashire - showing my northern roots)
50/75g or so chopped walnuts

Combine dry ingredients in a bowl, mix together the wet ingredients and add to the dry...

Stir until roughly combined then put into muffin tin (I have a silicone muffin mould which is great for these as I don't need paper cases) – makes 12

Baked at 200degC for 20/25mins, or so - your oven may vary - when they should be golden brown and done.

Yum"

going...

So you see - a blogger in the making. I was lucky enough to receive one of these lovely little muffins and boy was it delicious. I think you should too. And leave a comment - we need to get Mrs W into the blogosphere!  

Forever Nigella 22 - Food to Cherish Your Loved Ones - the Round Up

Well, I knew hosting a Forever Nigella would be a great way to start 2013 for me, and I wasn't wrong. I've been introduced to some lovely blogs that hadn't read before, and some of my old favourites have also contributed.

First up, Caroline Makes... included this delicious Tiramisu from Nigelissima as part of a special New Year's Eve meal for her boyfriend. Like Caroline, I also received Nigelissima for Christmas but I'm yet to make anything from it. It won't be long...

Next, the lovely Annie from one of my favourite food blogs Scrummy Suppers and Quirky Cakes entered the Old Fashioned Chocolate Cake from Nigella.com. Annie has made this cake on a number of occasions and it's never let her down - her cakes look pretty amazing, so I can see why she goes back to the recipe when she needs a cake to make someone feel special.

The great Miss Flash at Food Glorious Food  went down the bread route, taking inspiration from my favourite Nigella tome, How to be a Domestic Goddess. Based on a maple syrup and pecan loaf, Miss Flash made maple Syrup and pistachio loaf and mighty good it looks too.

Louise at Crumbs and Corkscrews, a blog I hadn't come across before cooked the most amazing looking flourless brownies from Nigella Express. She substituted white chocolate chunks and cherries for the nuts, and used Baileys in the chocolate sauce instead of camp coffee. Sounded like pretty good substitutions to me, and just the thing to cheer someone up after, say, completing the dreaded tax return....

Another droolsome chocolate cake next: Devils Food Cake from Nigella.com from another blog new to me: Garden, Tea, Cakes and Me. Doesn't it look wondeful? I know my family and friends would feel cherished if I served up something like that.

Another cherry & white chocolate combo (which happens to be a favourite of mine), this time in the shape of lovely Banana, Cherry and White Choc Chip Muffins made by Katharine who writes the beautiful Leeks & Limoni blog. Her muffins look totally scrummy, and I  embrace her philosophy for January which is "A little bit of what you fancy", rather than total denial, to get through the post-Christmas blues.

Choclette who writes the fantastic Chocolate Log Blog entered Parmesan Shortbreads which she made for a Christmas lunch which took place on 19th January as the result of a quirky family tradition.

Another savoury recipe, this time a gorgeous looking chicken tagine made by Jen at Blue Kitchen Bakes. She made this delicious looking dinner for her boyfriend. Lucky boyfriend, is what I say.

I couldn't host this event and not enter these myself. back to How to be a Domestic Goddess then, for the Norwegian Cinammon Buns. These are what I bake for the Husband, kids and any other family members or friends that need cherishing...

Stacy at Food Lust People Love made another Nigelissima soon to be classic - the Meatzza . I certainly remember Nigella making this in the TV series and thinking I would have to try it myself. Well if Stacy's version is anything to go by, this is going into my meal plan sooner rather than later.

Another Nigelissima recipe - this time a delicious looking chocolate mousse entered by the founder of Forever Nigella, Sarah over at Maison Cupcake. It looks totally rich and decadent - just the sort of thing to make a loved one feel cherished.

Finally, Sam at The Yorkshire Bakery entered some delicious chocolate cherry cupcakes from How to be a Domestic Goddess.

So there we have them - I think you'll agree all fantastic offerings to cherish your loved ones with - but then, that's one of the things Nigella does best, in my view...

The next Forever Nigella will be Nigella Nostalgia to be hosted by Urvashi at  The Botanical Baker

G&T time - but not before I tell you about these chocolate muffins

I was mentally trying to review the day ahead over breakfast this morning with half an ear on the children’s conversation. They’re big on jokes at the moment and Blue in particular is trying to push the comedy boundaries

“What do you canaries eat for breakfast” “Tweetabix!”

“What do you get if you run a canary over with a lawnmower” “Shredded Tweet!”

“What do you get if you run a banana skin over with a lawnmower” “Slippery gears” then (rather despondent) “That’s not really funny is it mummy?” “Well, not really, love, but it’s a good try.”

It’s hard being 8.

“Mummy” “Yeeessss” “What if I really did have a lawnmower, and there really was a banana skin and I revved it up really hard – vvvrrrroooommmmmmm - and it went racing over the banana skin?”

cup of tea - necessary when listening to Blue's jokes
www.samanthabarnes.co.uk

Too early.

So where was I? Oh yes, reviewing the day. With a cup of tea.

I remembered that I’d had a vague arrangement to see a friend for coffee. I was rapidly coming to the conclusion that I wasn’t going to be able to fit it in during school hours, but that I could invite her and her boys over for tea. Quick text, job done. Now, what are we going to eat?

Nigella’s fabulous marmite spaghetti was already on the menu for the kids – easy to double, no problem, slice up some carrots and cucumber, add a few cherry tomatoes (with lots of added food miles) -  but what for pudding? I still have some of Hugh’s pumpkin and raisin tea loaf left over (although I made the beetroot variation – I couldn’t resist the promised purple marbling, and it didn’t disappoint, although I’d say not so much purple marbling as pink flecking). Blue and Pink have been enjoying it in their lunch boxes all week (really, they have – Pink, who will often survive a day at school on half a slice of cucumber and a few crumbs of oatcake regardless of what delights I put in to tempt her, has eaten a whole slice every day – amazing when you consider (1) that normally she won’t touch beetroot with a bargepole and (2) how much giggling and whispering time eating a whole slice must take up). However, I’m not sure it’s the kind of thing I would offer up as pudding to guests. Especially discerning guests of the 7 & 5 yr old boy kind.

I had a quick flick through Kitchen, and then reached for Dan. Muffins had occurred to me, and when I saw this recipe, I couldn’t resist. It also appeared that I already had everything required in the cupboard apart from eggs which I was going to have to buy anyway. Excellent.

Having completed the daily beasting that is making sure the kids are dressed and ready for school, and having kissed Blue goodbye (he walks to school on his own – I bite my nails every morning) I had a few minutes (have to give him a head start) so decided to be super-organised and get everything lined up and ready to go so that I could whip up the muffins while I was making my coffee and before settling down to the day’s work . While doing this, I realised that we didn’t have enough cornflour, but given the recipe decided that custard powder would probably do in its place, and headed out the door, Pink and the dog in tow.

After a glorious walk  – bright blue skies, crisp frosty morning, dog basically behaved – I got home with my eggs and some vegetable oil, and set to. I’ve never made muffins this way before, basically making a chocolate custard then beating in eggs and sifting the flour on top and beating in – and I was worried that they might be quite dense, but after the requisite 25 minutes, they looked risen and cooked and smelled divine.

out of the oven and looking good!

treacle chocolate fudge frosting

I had to put off the frosting till after pick up this afternoon. But work, another dog walk and dealing with the fall out of a busy week at school on the 15 minute walk home, had at least given me the time to decide between meringue butter cream and treacle chocolate fudge. More custard (again custard powder instead of cornflour, this time with treacle) and not quite enough dark chocolate, plus some butter and vanilla extract, and bingo. Treacel chocolate fudge frosting. Divine doesn’t begin to describe it.

I have to say that I couldn’t wait – in the interests of deciding whether they were the best chocolate muffin I would ever eat, I had to try them. Reader, I was not disappointed. If I was going to make any adjustments, I might include some chocolate chips, rather than just melting the chocolate in to the custard when making the muffins, but they weren’t heavy, and the frosting went beautifully.

Did I mention that my friend and her boys couldn’t make it after all? All the more for us!

a better cup of tea - one with a muffin attached