Blueberry muffins

Blueberry muffins

Made this for breakfast for my son for breakfast instead of the usual fruit cake for Christmas.

Flour                                     - 1/2 cup
Oats(slow cooking)               - 1/2 cup(lightly toasted)
Yogurt(curd)                          - 1/2 cup
Baking powder                      -  1 tsp
Baking soda                           - 1/8 tsp
Agave                                    - 1/4 cup + 1/8 cup
(have put it this way for easier measure for the recipe instead of 0.375 cups)
Butter                                     - 3 and 3/4 tbsps
Unsweetened Cocoa powder - 1/2 tsp
salt                                          - a small pinch
lemon zest                               - 1/2 tsp
Almonds(chopped).               - 1/2 cup
Blueberries(fresh or frozen)    - 1/2 cup *

* I had stored the freshly picked blueberries in summer in the freezer which I used for this recipe.


Melt the butter and mix it with the agave in a vessel. Beat this well with a fork or hand blender until fluffy. Add the yogurt, salt and lemon zest and beat it well. Mix the flour, oats,cocoa powder, baking powder and baking soda in a separate bowl. Slowly add the flour into the butter mix until it all blends together.Finally add the blueberries and akmonds to the mixture and mix it well. The dough will be thick.
Meantime grease the muffin pan and pre-heat the oven to 375F.

Scoop out the dough and fill the muffin pans about 3/4 full. Bake for about 30 minutes or until the top browns and the fork/tester comes out clean.Let it cool on the rack for few minutes. Take the muffins out once cooled down completely.

The baked muffins

Recipe source : http://smittenkitchen.com/blog/2010/08/perfect-blueberry-muffins/
I replaced some of the flour with oats, agave for the sugar and yogurt for the egg.
The recipes from the smittenkitchen blog for muffins and short breads has always come out well for me.

Blueberry Jam using Agave

Blueberry Jam

I tried making blueberry jam with agave instead of sugar this time and tasted good.

 Frozen Blueberries*    - 2 cups

Agave                          - 1/2 cup

Lemon juice                 - 1 1/4 tbsps

* I had stored the freshly picked blueberries in summer in the freezer which I used for this recipe. You can use fresh blueberries too.

Mix all ingredients together and heat on stovetop on medium heat.

Once the blueberry softens and the mixture thickens, keep stirring and mash the blueberries with the spoon.

It would take about 30 minutes to get to the consistency  shown below. If you want it runny and not thick you could switch off the stove in about 20 minutes.

Store in a clean dry glass container once it cools down in the refridgerator.

Vegetable/cheese toast

Home made bread with chopped vegetables  with cheese and seasoned home made cream topping baked at 350 F for breakfast this morning.

Oat cookies

Ingredients:

Old fashioned Oats     - 1 cup

All purpose flour        -  1/2 cup

Brown Sugar              - 1/2 cup

Butter (softened)         - 1/6 cup

Baking soda                - 1/4 tsp

Dried plums(chopped)- 1/2 cup

Salt                              - 1/8 tsp

Yogurt(curd)               - 1/4 cup

Cocoa powder            - 1 tsp

Mix the butter, brown sugar, cocoa powder and yogurt into a smooth batter. Add the flour, baking soda and salt to this butter mixture and mix well. Finally fold in the oats and dried plums to this mixture.

Chill the mixture for an hour or two. Pre-heat the oven to 350 F(175 C).Scoop out the batter onto a baking dish. Place the scoops at least 2 inches apart from each other. Bake for about 15- 20 minutes until they turn light brown. Switch off oven and let them rest on the rack of the hot oven before taking them out.

Recipe source : http://smittenkitchen.com/blog/2009/02/thick-chewy-oatmeal-raisin-cookies/