Nutella-filled Raspberry Muffins #MuffinMonday

Every week my fellow Muffin Monday baker, Anuradha and I have an email discussion about which ingredient we should feature.  Sometimes we are organized and decide a month of ingredients in advance (rarely) and sometimes we are scrambling on Thursday or Friday to make a decision (more often) for the next Monday.   This week we chose Nutella, that wonderful cocoa and hazelnut spread, and since it’s an ingredient we’ve both used before, I knew I had to do something different with it.

So I piped the Nutella into the raspberries and froze them on a parchment-lined cookie sheet!   Then I folded them gently into a lovely batter with lemon zest, vanilla sugar and Greek yogurt.  I am pleased to report that the Nutella-filled raspberries held their shape (and Nutella) beautifully through the baking and the flavor combination was fabulous.

N.B.  The only drawback if that you do have to fill your raspberries and allow plenty of time for them to freeze before making the muffin batter.  Several hours might do but I left mine overnight to be sure.

Ingredients

I make my own vanilla sugar by adding a couple of split pods to
fine sugar and letting it stand for a few weeks. 

2 cups or 250g flour
3⁄4 cup or 170g vanilla sugar (or substitute normal sugar and add 1 teaspoon vanilla to the wet ingredients)
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1⁄2 teaspoon salt
Zest of one medium lemon
2 eggs
1 1⁄4 cups or 300g plain Greek-style yogurt
1⁄2 cup or 120ml canola oil
6 oz or 170g raspberries
About 1/4 cup Nutella plus more for decorating, if desired
Powdered sugar for decorating, if desired

Method
Start several hours or even one day ahead by putting your Nutella in a piping bag with a small hole decorating tip (Wilton 3, 4 or 5) and then filling all of the raspberries.  Lay them out on a cookie sheet lined with wax or parchment paper and put them in the freezer until frozen solid.

When you are ready to make the muffins, preheat your oven to 350°F or 180°C and prepare your muffin pan by greasing it or lining it paper muffin cups.

In a large bowl, mix together the flour, vanilla sugar, baking soda, baking powder, and salt.  Grate in the zest of one lemon.

In another bowl, whisk together the eggs, Greek yogurt, canola and vanilla extract, if using.

Pour your wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and fold them together until just mixed.

Remove the Nutella-filled raspberries from the freezer and fold all but 12 of them into the batter.

Divide the batter evenly among the muffin cups.

Top each muffin cup with a filled raspberry.  I put some up and some down because I rather thought the Nutella would ooze out and possibly make a mess.  As you can see, my fears were unfounded!  So put them all with the Nutella showing if you’d like.

Bake in the preheated oven about 20-25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean.

Cool on a rack for a few minutes and then remove the muffins to cool completely.

Top with some extra Nutella or a sprinkle of icing sugar to decorate.

Enjoy!

Porcupine Balls

I open the deep freezer with a big sucking whoosh.  I peer into its disorganized shelves and start rooting around for something that looks like it might want to be dinner.  Ah, ground beef.  We haven’t had Salisbury steaks in a while.  “Come with me, my minced friend,” I say.  Now for a starch and a veg.  The veg is easy because I have salad fixings.  But starch-wise, we just had potatoes last night and pasta the night before, so that leaves couscous – a possibility but, nah – or rice.  But rice would require gravy.  And if you are making Salisbury steak with gravy, you gotta have mushrooms in it.  Hey, I don’t make these rules up.  They just are.  And I have no mushrooms.  So.  So.  Let’s think.  And then suddenly, it pops into my head.  A meal I haven’t made or eaten or even thought of for a very long time.  Where it came from, I do not know.  Porcupine balls!   They are relatively quick and certainly easy.  They are a great weeknight meal and I almost always have all the ingredients on hand.  And kids love them.  More’s the pity, I have no kids left at home.  But never mind.  You might.  Porcupine balls, it is!

Disclaimer:  No actual porcupines were harmed in the making of this dish.  

Photo credit: Michael Richert 

Yay for all you organized types who plan ahead, but this is often how the dinner menu gets decided at our house.  Raise your hand if you do the same.  Ha!  I knew I liked you!

Ingredients
For the porcupine balls:
About 1 lb or 500g ground beef
1/2 small purple onion – about 1 1/4 oz or 35g
1 egg
1 beef stock cube
A few good grinds of fresh black pepper
1 cup or 180g white Basmati or other long grained rice

For the cooking sauce:
1 14 oz or 400g can chopped tomatoes in juice
2 generous tablespoons or 60g tomato paste
2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
1 teaspoon sugar
1/2 -1 teaspoon crushed red pepper (depending on your taste)
1 large clove garlic

For optional garnish:  chopped parsley or cilantro

Method
Using a hand blender, purée the onion and beef cube with the egg.  Add in the black pepper.

Pour the puréed mixture into the ground beef and mix well.  Then tip in the rice and mix thoroughly.

Roll the meat/rice mixture into small balls.  I divide these using my cookie dough scoop and then roll them smooth.   Set aside.

Put the first five sauce ingredients into a heavy pan with a tight fitting lid, along with some water.  If you use the tomato can to measure the water, about half a can will do.  Grate the garlic into the pan.

With the pan over a medium flame, bring the sauce to a boil.  Stir occasionally.  This should take just a few minutes.

Carefully immerse the meatballs in the sauce.  Do not burn yourself!  Give the pan a little shake so the meatballs will work their way to the bottom.

Top up with more water, until meatballs are almost covered.

Bring to a boil once more and then simmer, covered tightly for 30 minutes.  Set a timer.  During the first 10-15 minutes of the cooking time, pick the pot up with oven mitts occasionally and give it a gentle shimmy.  Do NOT open the lid.

When the timer goes off, turn off the stove and leave the lid on until you are ready to serve but another 15-20 minutes would be good.  NO peeking.

When you finally open the lid, the rice will have cooked and swollen out of the meatballs, turning them into, voilà, porcupine balls.  Your starch and meat all in one neat package.  Serve with salad or the vegetable of your choice.

Enjoy!

Note:  My backdrop material was created by my talented younger daughter.  It can be seen in its almost entirety here.  

Browned Butter Pecan Banana Muffins #MuffinMonday

If you have never browned butter to use in a recipe, you are in for a real treat! These browned butter pecan banana muffins are made with browned butter soaked pecans which I've swirled into rich banana muffins. They are a great breakfast or snack. Or, in fact, anytime!

I fear I may have a problem, friends.  In fact, an intervention may be necessary already.  Our muffin ingredient for today is banana.  But somehow, all I could think to add was browned butter.  Oh, sure, you say, lots of things go with banana.  Peanut butter and bacon.  Chocolate.  Caramelized sugar and rum.  Walnuts.  Apples and carrots.  Even honey. 

All of which I’ve done.  Because those are all awesome combinations.  So I added my new love, browned butter and a healthy helping of pecans.  The result was a rich, delicious muffin.  Because it’s impossible to make a bad banana muffin and that’s the truth.

Ingredients
2 1/4 cups or 280g flour
1 cup or 225g sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda or bicarbonate of soda
2 1/2 teaspoons double-acting baking powder
2 well-ripened bananas
1/2 cup or 120ml milk
1/2 cup or 115g butter
1 cup or 130g whole pecans
2 eggs, preferably room temperature
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Method
Preheat your oven to 350°F or 180°C and prepare your large 12-cup muffin pan by greasing lightly or lining with muffin papers.  This batter will fill more than your standard muffin pan.  Either use a larger one or tall muffin cups that will hold their shape, like the ones pictured.

Brown your butter, following these instructions, right here, from The Cooking Actress:  How to brown butter.   When the butter is browned,  pour your pecans into the hot pot and stir like crazy and then turn it off.  Leave the pecans in the browned butter as it cools.

Once it has cooled, take out 12 pecan halves for decorating the muffins before baking.  

Yes, I took out 13.  I like to have a spare.

In a large mixing bowl, whisk together your flour, sugar, salt, baking soda and baking powder.

Mash your ripe bananas with a fork.

Add in the eggs, vanilla extract and milk and whisk with the fork.

Pour in the cooled browned butter and pecans and whisk again.  I kept using the fork for this because a normal whisk didn’t work so well with the pecans.

Pour your wet ingredients into your dry ones and stir a couple of times.

Divide the batter between the muffin cups.

Top with the reserved buttery pecan halves.

Bake in your preheated oven for about 25-30 minutes or until the muffins are golden and a toothpick inserted comes out clean.

Allow the muffins to cool for a few minutes in the pan then remove them to a wire rack to cool completely.

Enjoy!

Pin these Browned Butter Pecan Banana Muffins! 

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