Broccoli and Cheese Muffins #MuffinMonday

Cheesy muffins with broccoli make the perfect addition to a brunch menu.  They are equally welcome alongside a bowl of soup for a light lunch or dinner. 

Happy Sunday!  Your eyes are not deceiving you and don't bother to check your calendar thinking you have missed a day.  It is indeed a muffin recipe a day early.  Because this is a special week here at Food Lust People Love.  IT'S CHRISTMAS WEEK!  Which means that I have joined with a group of like-minded bloggers to bring you prizes to win from our generous sponsors and loads of great Christmasy recipes.  We'll have sweet and we'll have savory but we'll all have delicious!  It starts tomorrow so come on back and I hope to see you munching one of these wonderful cheesy broccoli muffins as you sign up for the giveaways!

Ingredients
3 1/2 oz or 100g fresh broccoli florets
Drizzle olive oil
2 cups or 250g flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
Few good grinds of fresh black pepper (about 1/4 teaspoon)
8 1/2 oz or 240g extra sharp cheddar
2 eggs
1/4 cup or 60ml sunflower or canola oil
3/4 cup or 180ml milk
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce (We prefer Lea & Perrins.)

Method
Cut your broccoli florets into tiny florets and chop the stem bits into small pieces.   Pan-fry them in a non-stick pan with a drizzle of olive oil for a just a few minutes.  Set aside to cool.

Preheat your oven to 350°F or 180°C and grease your 12-cup muffin pan liberally with canola, butter or non-stick spray.  I don’t recommend using muffin liners when baking with cheese because the muffins are hard to remove from the paper.

Grate your cheese.  Put aside a large handful of about one ounce or 25g for topping the muffins.  When the broccoli is cool enough to handle, count out 12 small florets for decorating the muffin tops and set aside with the handful of cheese.

Put your flour, baking powder, pepper and salt in a large bowl.  Add in the grated cheese and stir.

Now add the bulk of the cooled broccoli and stir to combine.

In another bowl, whisk together the oil, milk and eggs and Worcestershire sauce.

Pour your wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and fold them together until just mixed.  This is a really stiff batter, almost a dough.  But trust.  When the muffins bake, all that cheese is going to melt and you will end up with lovely tender muffins.

Divide the batter evenly among the muffin cups.

Top each with some reserved cheese and a tiny floret of broccoli.

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

All done!

Cool on a rack for a few minutes and then remove the muffins from the pan to cool completely.  If, despite liberal greasing, your muffins still stick to the pan, just run a knife around the outside of each muffin and they should pop free.

Enjoy!   See you back here tomorrow for the start of Christmas Week!

Dark Chocolate Orange Bundt with Dark Chocolate Orange Glaze #BundtaMonth

Orange and chocolate are a classic combination. Using dark chocolate and whole Mandarin oranges pureed in the batter brings a sweet, yet bitter tartness to this tender crumbed cake Dark Chocolate Orange Bundt with Dark Chocolate Orange Glaze.

For the British, especially, chocolate and orange are a treasured Christmas flavor combination and many would say that a Christmas stocking without a chocolate orange is half empty.  Even if it’s full.  But I must admit that it is not something that I grew up with.  Like all great relationships, it has taken a while to grow and mature.  Rather like my love of marmalade.  And Brussels sprouts, eggplant and cooked cabbage.  And other grownup things.  Such is the British influence here that the stores in Dubai are full of all kinds of candies in chocolate and orange so it was a natural choice for this month’s theme of Holiday December!

Where do you fall on the continuum of Love it (10) and Hate it (0)?  If you are somewhere in the lower half, perhaps this delicious cake will slide your opinion up the scale.

Ingredients
For the cake:
2 mandarin oranges (about  5 1/2 oz or 155g)
1/3 cup or 75g unsalted butter, softened, plus extra for greasing
1 1/2 cups or 300g sugar
3 large eggs
4 tablespoons milk
1 1/3 cups or 170g flour, plus extra for the coating the pan
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 cup or 75g dark cocoa powder

For the glaze:
5 1/4 oz or 150g dark chocolate
2 tablespoons Grand Marnier
3 tablespoons canola oil

To decorate:  chocolate orange candies  and zest of one Mandarin orange

Method
Put the Mandarin oranges in a small pot and cover with water.  Bring to a boil over a medium heat and then simmer for an hour.  Keep checking to make sure the oranges are always covered, adding more water if necessary, and turning them over occasionally.

Meanwhile, butter your Bundt pan and coat it well with flour.

In a medium sized mixing bowl, combine your flour, cocoa, sugar, salt, baking powder and baking soda.  Set aside.

When the hour is up, remove the pot from the heat and leave the oranges in it until they are cool enough to handle.

Remove the oranges to a cutting board and preheat your oven to 350°F or 180 °C.  Use a sharp pointy knife to cut the oranges in half and use the pointy end to dig out all of the seeds

Puree both oranges, peel and all, with a hand blender, add in the milk and set aside.

With electric beaters or in your stand mixer, cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy.  Add in the eggs, one at a time, beating well in between.

Mix in half of the flour/cocoa and beat until combined.

Pour in half of the orange/milk and beat until combined.

Look at the gorgeous color of that orange puree! 

Repeat with the rest of the flour/cocoa and then the orange/milk.

Pour your batter into the prepared Bundt pan and bake for 50-60 minutes or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.

Let cool in the pan for about 10 minutes then turn out on a wire rack and allow to cool completely.

Meanwhile, to make the glaze, melt the chocolate in a microwaveable bowl and add in the Grand Marnier and canola oil and stir well.  The liqueur makes the chocolate thicken up and the oil helps it become pourable again.  If you would prefer not to add alcohol to the chocolate, you can skip the oil as well and drizzle on straight melted chocolate.

Once the cake is completely cool, use a piping bag to drizzle the glaze all over the cake.  Or put it in a plastic baggie and cut a small corner off to do the same.   Add the chocolate orange slices and orange zest, if desired.

Enjoy!

I hope you have all enjoyed the past year of Bundts from our BundtaMonth group.  Our fearless leaders, Anuradha from Baker Street and Lora from Cake Duchess have decided to disband.  I’d like to thank them for their support and hard work.

Meanwhile, I’ve got one last BundtaMonth list of cakes to share!

• Candy Cane Bundt Cake from Felice at All That’s Left Are the Crumbs
• Cranberry Walnut and Ginger Holiday Bundt from Deepti at Baking Yummies
• Double Chocolate Glazed Peppermint Bundt Cake from Laura at A Spiced Life
• Gingerbread Spice Bundt Cake from Jill at  Made with Love
• Red and White Marbled Bundt from Holly A Baker’s House
• Peppermint Pound Cake from Kate at Food Babbles

Date Syrup Raisin Muffins #UAENationalDay #MuffinMonday

Date syrup or honey, called dibs in the UAE, is ubiquitous in the Middle East and north Africa, the land of dates.  Date syrup makes a great addition to baked sweet treats, adding a depth of flavor reminiscent of molasses.  It is made from the actual dates.  The sap that is tapped from certain date palms becomes palm sugar from a completely different process.

We first arrived in the UAE in the fall of 1987.  Abu Dhabi was a small city with green esplanades and manicured gardens, and a beautiful seaside promenade called the Corniche, surrounded by sandy desert inland as far as the eye could see.  The road between Abu Dhabi and Dubai was a small highway with roundabouts and wild camels that regularly ambled across, so caution was essential.  We would drive into the bigger, flashier city of Dubai for occasional shopping trips, passing by the newly emerging Emirates Golf Club right out in the middle of the desert.  The only green visible was the greens themselves, with their brave little flags marking the holes.  The fairways and bunkers were still all sand.  I can’t even imagine how challenging that course was to play!

Now verdant Emirates Golf Club is in the middle of the city, with Dubai grown out all around it and the highway between the cities boasts four lanes on each side and fences to restrain the camels.  Abu Dhabi too has grown and the Corniche of old has been relocated onto reclaimed land, extending Abu Dhabi island farther into the sea.  When we moved back here again last year, 23 years after we moved away, it was like straining to see through a very foggy window to a place where things looked familiar and yet, so very different.  New buildings, new roads, new beaches, all mixed up with sites that jog my memory.  I’ve spent the last year getting so very lost, even in old Dubai.  Every time I venture beyond my neighborhood it's an adventure!  But, fortunately, I like adventure.

Today the UAE celebrates its 42nd National Day and all weekend long there have been parties, decorated car parades and fireworks.  We are also celebrating the recent announcement that Expo 2020 will be held in Dubai, a real coup for the city and all of the Emirates.  So, for this Muffin Monday, I’ve baked a muffin with a bit of a local flavor, using date syrup, cardamom and raisins.

Happy birthday, UAE! 

Ingredients
1/2 cup or 110g sugar
2 cups or 250g flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground cardamom
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 cup or 120ml date syrup (molasses can be substituted)
1/2 cup or 120ml milk
2 large eggs at room temperature
1/2 cup or 120g butter, melted and cooled
1/2 cup or 70g raisins

Method
Preheat your oven to 350°F or 180°C.   Put liners in muffin cups or grease well with butter or non-stick spray.  Don’t you love my UAE liners?  I was so pleased to find them at a nearby store.

In a large mixing bowl, whisk together sugar, flour, baking powder, cinnamon, cardamom and salt.

I used fresh cardamom, cracking the little pods and then grinding the tiny seeds.
The scent is fabulous.  Doesn't it look like pepper?! 

In a medium-sized bowl, whisk together your date syrup, melted butter, milk, and eggs.

Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and fold to combine.

Reserve a small handful of the raisins for popping on the top of each muffin and gently fold the rest into the batter.

Divide batter evenly among the muffin cups.

Decorate with the reserved raisins.

Bake until golden brown and a toothpick inserted into center of a muffin comes out clean, about 20 to 25 minutes.

Remove and cool further on a wire rack.

Enjoy!

If you are fortunate enough to be in the UAE today, here's a link to a great article outlining the celebrations, where to go and what to do.  From The Gulf News.