Friday 4 May 2007

Little Foodies Marzipan Muffins

















Marzipan Muffins
(makes 12 large muffins)
From mummy's Little Foodies. We adapted a plain muffin recipe from an old Aga recipe sheet that Mummy had. (We don't have an Aga but when we bought this house just over a year ago Mummy kept asking Daddy if we could have one!)

450g (16oz/1lb) plain flour
4 teaspoons baking powder
115g (4oz) caster sugar (we only had cinammon sugar which we made at Christmas)
300ml (1/2 pint) milk
2 large eggs (beaten)
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
55g (2oz) melted butter
225g (8oz) marzipan (We used Mediterranean almond marzipan as it has a better flavour)

Turn the oven to 170C, 325F or Gas Mark 3.
Sift the flour, baking powder and sugar into a bowl and mix together.
Cut the marzipan into 12 equal pieces then roll each one into a ball.
Measure the milk, add the eggs, vanilla and melted butter, mix it all up with a fork.
Add the wet mix to the dry mix and stir it quite lightly. It will be gooey and lumpy. Avoid over mixing or it can give the muffin a tough texture when eating.
Spoon into muffin cases then pop a ball of marzipan on the top and push into the middle with your finger then gently push the muffin mix over to cover the hole where it's gone in.
Bake in the oven for 20-25mins. Leave to cool a little before trying!
We definitely think that they would be better with the marzipan chopped up into smaller pieces and mixed into the muffin mix just before putting in the cases to bake. They were still very tasty though.

6 comments:

Trig said...

I think you were right about adding the marzipan later on, although personally I don't like marzipan very much anyway. But your muffins look great. Keep up the good work boys and maybe one day you will be as famous as Gordon Ramsay, but without the swearing.

Amanda at Little Foodies said...

Had to laugh. My eldest's response to your comment "Who's Gordon Ramsay and what's swearing...? I'm going to tell everyone at school that Aidan Brooks left a comment on our blog."
Looks like you've made it. In our village at the very least...
Thanks for making his day.
Amanda

Trig said...

Well, I think the first thing you boys need to do is to stop your mummy interfering so much on your blog. I mean, how are you going to learn to read and write properly if mummy doesn't let you do your own posts?

My next piece of advice to you was going to be "don't just bake puddings and muffins", but then I saw that you had posted recipes for salad, noodles and lamb burgers. That's what people call "balanced eating" and it's very good for you.

One of the biggest problems in the world right now is that while many people in Africa don't have enough food, many young people in countries like yours and mine are growing up to be very fat because they eat too much, especially puddings and other sweet and fatty foods. And that is very bad for your health as well as not making you feel very nice.

So I'm very pleased to see you cook lots of different foods. Ask mummy and she will tell you about something in food called "carbohydrates" and how we need these for energy but we must be careful not to eat too much of them, especially the wrong sort.

What pleases me most of all is that you enjoy your food. I'm a trainee chef and some of the young people I work with cook in college but don't enjoy cooking for themselves at home. I think that's spooky. I think that to become a really good cook you need to enjoy eating as well as doing lots of cooking.

I've done something called "linking" to your blog, so I can see every time you post a new story about something you have cooked. I shall be keeping a close eye on you guys to see how you are getting on.

Good luck and happy cooking.

Trig

Amanda at Little Foodies said...

I tried, honestly I tried, it's been hours, but they were in bed and I couldn't help but reply... The young of the house will respond fully in the morning... Amanda

Amanda at Little Foodies said...

My oldest boy is quite articulate vocally, but he's nearly 6 and not that great at spelling yet. He had so much to say that he'd have been at the computer forever so I'll just write what he said.
WOW! Aidan Brooks linked to our blog. That's really cool. My friends are going to love that. Can you tell him all the things that we eat... listed several million things.
Huh? Chefs that don't like cooking at home? Is that right? Why do they not like cooking?
When we go to Spain next can we go to the hotel that he'll work at and eat there?
He went on and on and on. You have quite a fan there.
Amanda

Trig said...

Thanks boys. You will all be very welcome at my restaurant in Spain and I promise that if you give me some notice I will cook something special for you and do my best to get chef's permission to come and join you at your table.