Cranberry-Bran Super Muffins

A muffin that's full of bran and yet is tasty and not like eating cardboard?!  Madness!

Muffins differ from cupcakes in that they are not... you know... cake.  Muffins tend to be coarser in texture, and are far simpler to make that cupcakes.  None of this creaming butter and sugar silliness, it's just mix the dry and the wet, and bake.  No cupcake cases!  Just pure muffin glory!

Cranberry-Bran Super Muffins

1 cup oat bran (OAT bran.  Oat bran is tasty - other brans are cardboardy)
1 and 1/2 cup self raising flour
1 teaspoon baking powder (not baking soda)
1 tablespoon white sugar
3/4 cup brown sugar
1 cup dried cranberries in water
3/4 cup milk (I use evaporated milk, because I can)
1 egg
1/2 cup vegatable oil (feel free to use 1/2 cup melted butter instead)

Preheat oven to 190 C (370ish F)
Grease a 12-hole muffin tin
Cook the dried cranberries covered in water for 90s in a microwave
Drain the cranberries and put aside
Mix together the dry ingredients (bran, flour, baking powder, sugars)
In a separate container mix together the wet ingredients (milk, egg, oil/butter)
Add the wet ingredients to the dry and mix until just combined (over-mixing will cause the muffins to be tough)
Fold through the cranberries
Bake at 190 C for 20-25 minutes

Remove from the oven when the muffins are firm to the touch and lightly browned.  Cool in the pan for 5 minutes before turning out of the pan, then cool completely on a rack.  Eat by the fistful, and pretend that you are being healthy...

Super Lazy Cake Batter Candy Bark

Candy bark isn't really much a thing in Australia.  Sure, people will recognise it when they see it, but it's not something that the average Australian would eat, let alone make, on a regular basis.  Candy bark is basically a base of chocolate with different tasty things sprinkled on it while it's still melty, and maybe a drizzle of a different chocolate over the top, broken into pieces.  Low fuss, great results.

This recipe goes against the grain for me, because it uses pre-prepared cake mix.  On the other hand, if you want something sweet in half an hour with minimum fuss, this candy bark will sort you out.

Super Lazy Cake Batter Candy Bark

1 cup milk chocolate chips (or dark, depending on what you like most)
3 tablespoons packet vanilla cake mix
1 and 1/2 cups white chocolate chips

Line a baking tray with baking parchment
Place the chocolate chips in a microwave-proof bowl, and microwave in 30 s bursts until the chocolate it fully melted.
Handy Tips For Melting Chocolate; check the chocolate every 30 s and stir vigrously - chocolate is very easy to burn.  Also, resist the urge to lick the spoon!  Adding anything water-based (like saliva) to melted chocolate will cause the chocolate to seize (turn gritty).
Pour melted chocolate out onto prepared tray, and spread out to the edges as evenly as you can
Leave to set for at least 30 minutes
Once the chocolate is set, put your white chocolate into a microwave safe bowl and repeat the melting/stirring procedure until it is all melted an smooth
Add the cake mix and stir briskly to mix through the white chocolate (you want to be pretty quick so that the chocolate won't set)
Pour the white chocolate mix out onto the milk chocolate layer and smooth out into a roughly even layer
(You can add spinkles or hundreds and thousands at this point if you like)
Leave to cool and set completely (30 minutes or so), then break into pieces

And that's it!  Sweet, chocolately, cakey goodness.  This can be made in bulk by doubling or tripling the ingredients, but I would not recommend it because you will go into sugar shock :)

Sour Cream and Sweet Love Brownies

Sour cream is one of those ingedients in baking that is always unexpected, and yet gives the most fabulous results.  I'm planning on trying out some more unusual ingredient tasties (sauerkraut brownies, mayonnaise cake, and the like), but in the meantime I give you an ultra moist and fudgey brownie recipe c/o the wonders of sour cream!

Sour Cream and Sweet Love Brownies

300 g dark chocolate chips
150 g butter
3/4 of a cup white sugar
2 eggs (whisked)
1 and 1/2 cups plain flour
1/2 cup sour cream
1/2 cup white chocolate chips
1/2 cup caramel chips (or milk chocolate chips)

Preheat oven to 180 C (350 F)
Line a 20 cm x 20 cm (8 inch x 8 inch) pan with baking parchment, leaving an overhang to help lift the brownies from the pan once cooked
Melt the dark chocolate and the butter together over a low heat (or in a microwave), stirring continuously to keep the chocolate from burning, until the mixture is smooth and the chocolate melted
Leave to cool to room temperature
Once cool, add the whisked eggs and the sugar, mixing well to combine
Add the flour and the sour cream and mix until smooth
Fold in chocolate chips, pour into the lined pan, and smooth the top
Bake for 30-45 minutes (until a skewer comes out mostly cream)
Leave to cool completely before removing from the pan and cutting

My oven is, at best, cantankerous, so my brownies were super squishy in the middle, but I didn't mind one bit.  Share with friends, of scoff the whole tray by yourself.  You may die from sugar overdose, but it would be worth it.

Death by Diabetes Cookies

Sometimes you just need a cookie that's impossibly sweet and bad for you, but also very simple and low fuss.  As it happens, I was in that sort of mood when I found a tin of sweetened condensed milk in my pantry.  You know where this is going...

Death by Diabetes Cookies

200 g butter
1/3 cup white sugar
395 g (one small tin) sweetened condensed milk
1/2 teaspoon salt (or more, if you're feeling frisky)
2 cups self-raising flour
250 g (one cup) dark chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 180 C (350 F)
Cream together the butter and sugar
Mix in the condensed milk until smooth and creamy
Add the salt
Add the flour, 1/2 cup at a time
Stir in the chocolate chips
Bake for 12-15 minutes until lightly brown at the edges

The dough with be very, very soft and creamy because of the condensed milk, so I'd recommend either a cookie scoop or teaspoons to place small balls of dough on a parchment-lined tray, about 3-5 cm apart - they will spread and puff a little as they cook.  Keep an eye on them; because of the high sugar content they can brown super fast.  Cool for 5 minutes before trying to shift them to a rack - they will be very soft until they cool, and then they will be quite crisp.

I'm not going to lie, these cookies border on the lethal side of sweet.  When first baked the condensed milk taste will be very strong, but the following day the flavours will be blended better.  They are super simple, and super tasty!

Just watch out for the diabetes.

Super eggy almond cake

I have a love-hate relationship with Nigella Lawson's recipes.  Some of them are absolutely fail-proof, while others I have never managed to get to work.  The good thing about her recipes (the ones that work) is that they are super simple and easily modified.

This is an adaptation of Nigella's "Damp Lemon and Almond Cake"; mostly because I didn't have enough almond meal or a spare couple of lemons.  It will end up a little drier than the original because of the lower almond meal content, but it is lovely all the same.  Due to the large number of eggs it ends up as a very rich cake without being overly sweet.

Super Eggy Almond Cake

225 g butter (just under a cup - feel free to live dangerously and add a full cup)
225 g white sugar
4 large eggs
150 g plain flour
225 g ground almonds
1/4 of a cup milk
1 teaspoon almond extract (less or more according to taste)
1/4 of a cup white chocolate chips

Preheat oven at 180 C (350 F)
Grease either a loaf pan or a round cake tin
Cream butter and sugar
Add eggs alternately with dry ingredients, incorperating well between each egg
Add milk and almond extract before the last of the dry ingredients
Stir through the white chocolate chips and pour into prepared tin; the batter will be very thick, so don't forget to smooth the top before it goes into the oven
Bake for about an hour (50 to 70 minutes, depending on your oven), until the cake is firm to the touch and a skewer comes out clean
Be prepared to loosely cover the cake about 30 mins through to stop it from browning too much (my oven is notoriously awful, so I ended up over-browning my cake)
Once done, leave in the tin for about 5-10 minutes before turning out, and cool completely before slicing

This is a super moist cake, so it will break apart and crack if you take it out of the pan too soon.  Patience!