Now I don't know about you, but I always find myself gazing longingly at those delicious looking blueberry-oozing muffins sitting behind the counter whilst on a coffee run at Costa. Of course I unwillingly resist these 447 calorie, 21g fat little monsters each and every time, but the craving for moist fruit-packed bakes aren't all that easy to shake off.
I spent the last couple of days googling several "skinny" muffin recipes (there are a lot out there) and with a little bit of tweaking came up with these little beauties!
The slightly sour kick from the fresh raspberries evened out by the smooth rich dark chocolate teamed with banana makes for a flavoursome and incredibly moist muffin. Even better, these muffins only contain around 227 calories and just 4.1g of fat, so there's no need to ruin your diet or feel guilty about indulging in one of these!
Skinny Raspberry & Chocolate Banana Muffins:
Adapted from Sally's Baking Addiction - makes 15 cupcake-size muffins
1 cup plain flour (I use Doves Farm gluten-free)
1 1/2 cup wholemeal plain flour (I use Duchy from Waitrose)
1tsp baking powder
1/4tsp salt
1/2tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 cup honey
1/2 cup light brown sugar, loosely packed
1 cup mashed ripe banana (equal to 2 large bananas)
1/4 cup non-fat greek vanilla yogurt
1 large egg, beaten
3/4 cup almond milk
1/2 cup 90% dark chocolate, roughly chopped
1 cup fresh raspberries
1. Preheat oven to 160C and lightly grease a silicone cupcake pan. Silicone works best. Do not use cases as the muffins will stick.
2. In a large bowl combine all the dry ingredients and put to one side.
3. In a separate bowl, whisk together the light brown sugar and honey. Add the mashed banana, yogurt and beaten egg and whisk until thoroughly combined.
4. Slowly pour the wet mixture into the dry ingredients and fold gently. The mixture will be very thick but that's okay!
5. Little by little add the almond milk. This will help to loosen the mixture slightly, but it should still be a thicker consistency than your typical cake batter.
6. Fold in the chopped chocolate and then fold in the raspberries. This needs to be done so incredibly gently so the raspberries stay as whole as possible. If you want pink muffins then please feel free to mix as vigorously as you wish!
10. Using 2 teaspoons, fill up your cupcake pan. You want to fill them all the way to the top and as evenly as possible. I baked my muffins in batches of 6, so don't worry about leaving the mixture sitting out waiting its turn, it'll be fine.
*Handy tip from Sally: when it comes to baking the last 3, or if you have any unfilled holes, fill the empty ones halfway with water to ensure even baking.
Clever huh!
11. Bake for 18-20 minutes or until the edges just start to turn golden and a cocktail stick comes out clear when inserted.
12. Leave to cool for 5 minutes before turning out onto a cooling rack. Repeat steps 10 onwards if using a 6 hole pan.
Enjoy as a breakfast treat, with your mid morning coffee or whenever you fancy!
Happy baking :)
I'm not sure why I have been wanting to incorporate apricots into my baking so badly over the past couple of weeks. Perhaps it's down to the generous dollop of apricot jam I've been adding to my porridge most mornings, but either way I just had to bake something apricotty this week.
Say hello to my Apricot Crumble Bars!
The perfect accompaniment to a late afternoon's cup of tea, a comforting dessert when served straight out of the oven with a big scoop of vanilla ice cream, or equally as delicious eaten all on their own . If you're a big fruit crumble fan like me, you will love these!
Ingredients: (makes 12)
1 cup of unsalted butter, cold and cubed
2 cups of plain flour
1/3 cup of granulated sugar
1/4 cup light brown sugar
1tsp baking powder
1tsp vanilla extract
1 egg yolk
Pinch of salt
Apricot conserve (I use St Dalfour Rhapsodie de Fruit)
Icing sugar to dust
Method:
Preheat oven to 180C (160C fan assisted) and using a little butter grease a 12 hole cupcake tray. I prefer silicone trays as it makes removing the crumbles once baked a piece of cake - pardon the pun!
In a large bowl combine flour, sugars, baking powder and salt.
Add the butter and using fingertips, rub the butter into the dry ingredients until a crumbly dough-like consistency is formed.
Pour in the vanilla extract and the egg yolk and using a wooden spoon mix until just combined. The dough should look like this..
Transfer 1/4 of the dough into another bowl, cover and pop in the fridge.
With the remaining dough, evenly distribute it into the tin pushing down with your fingers, making sure that the sides are a little higher. You should have an almost jam tart base resemblance.
Add a teaspoon of apricot conserve into the middle and using the refrigerated dough, crumble over the tops.
Place on the middle shelf in the oven and bake for 30-35 minutes, until just golden on the tops.
Leave to cool completely before turning out.
Dust with a little icing sugar and you're ready to indulge in whichever way you wish!
Hello and welcome to my brand new baking blog! For those of you who are regular bloggers you may just recognise my chubby-cheeked face as I used to occasionally ponder my thoughts in a lifestyle and beauty blog called Between Today & Tomorrow. For those of you who have no idea who I am...
Hi. I'm Abby and I love to bake!
BakeAbella is my online baking journal and my New Year's Resolution if you will. Having stopped baking professionally almost two years ago, it became evident that it was a big part of who I am and that I'd developed a rather big cupcake-shaped hole in my life.
In January I made a promise to myself - I would bake at least once a week.
Everything I bake from now on will be featured on this little blog with photos, recipes and how-to's. Many friends and work colleagues often pester me for my recipes, so if you too are a keen baker or just fancy trying out one my creations, now you can!
If you want to find out a bit more about me, or where my love for baking came from, just head over to my About Me page.
I am currently seeking inspiration for my next bake on Thursday and at this moment I'm thinking apricots...
