A Bake Date

Inspiration struck this morning when I visited dear Peony's blog. As it was pretty early and I hadn't had breakfast, the beautiful and moist chocolate chip muffins were calling out to me. Logging onto gmail, I 'saw' my dear friend C. I guess we were both captivated by said muffins and she had this idea for us to bake together, although 'together' didn't mean literally. She is across the far end of the Causeway, so we baked in our own homes and made variations to the original recipe. I decided to add some banana and walnuts to mine, while she was making hers a nutty version, with the addition of some cranberries.

I have come to the conclusion that I am not into cakes without butter. I have tried a few recipes which use oil, but at the end of the day, it's back to butter. Muffin recipes, on the other hand, works best with oil, just gently mixed in. I believe the difference in texture is that butter = more flaky, soft cake, whereas oil = more starchy? It's just my observation as I am no pro at baking.

Muffins are super easy to do: you do not need to sift the flour (phew), as what you do not want in a muffin is soft, flaky cupcake-like texture. Sifting flour incorporates air (I still remember what I learned in Home Econs class yonks ago!). You do not overmix it, and as Peony says in her recipe, you want lumps in muffins. And best of all, it's done in a very short time. If you are 'hardworking' enough, you can make muffins for breakfast in an instant, but that's not me. :)

I added 2 mashed bananas to the original recipe and it made the muffins more moist. Instead of chocolate chips, I spied a bottle of chocolate rice so I thought to use that, just for a change.

The recipe yielded 22 small cups of 3.3cm each, and the remainder I put them into pretty cups as I had run out of the former. Basing on the same 3.3cm cup measurement, I would have gotten 28 muffins. These are easy, pop in the mouth cups and very adorable. I think I got them from Penang on my last trip there.

It has been a very fun experience baking with a friend. I look forward to more of these. However, lots of hiccups as we kept missing each other but we still managed to finish it off at pretty much the same time.

These muffins are yummy. Try them, I-M, if you are reading this. It's super duper easy and you need not use any apparatus except a mixing bowl and a measuring cup. I simply used a rice spoon to mix all of it together.

Thanks for sharing the recipe, Peony. These are delicious! Check out C's version here.