Friday, August 17, 2012

Pat-a-Cake, Pat-a-Cake, Baker's Man!

This week I experienced the overwhelming urge to action some baked goods. But with our oven out-of-action, I wasn't sure how I was going to remedy this.  As I pondered my baking basket full of ingredients, I decided it could not wait any longer and I was going to have to made do!

As you know, we're soon to be moving into our new house and have been busy stocking up on furniture and updating our household goods.  As luck would have it, last weekend we stumbled across a great deal on a mini toaster oven and I decided what better way to put it to the test than blueberry muffins!


What a way to christen the new toaster!

We're still pretending to be on this healthy eating bandwagon, so I tried to make them as healthy as possible using a very basic recipe.  A bit of flour, small amount of brown sugar, milk, egg, vanilla extract, a little oil (I substituted coconut oil in place of canola oil) and a handful of blueberries. 

With such a simple recipe and not so perfect cooking conditions, I wasn't expecting too much - but these ended up coming out of the (toaster) oven light, moist and very moreish!


So you'd think with that out of the way, my baking urge would be satisfied right?  Not so.  Now I knew I could bake perfectly acceptable muffins in the toaster oven I just wanted to bake more semi-healthy treats! I had an urge for jammy sugary cinnamony donuts, so I turned to Google (ah, my ever faithful friend) and came across a dead-easy recipe that I could bake. 

I tweaked the recipe a bit, and with the simplest of ingredients I had a bowl full of batter ready to go!

Some flour, a bit of sugar, milk, vanilla extract, unsweetened apple puree in place of an egg, strawberry jam and a little sugar + cinnamon for dusting was all it took! The recipe called for oil again, but it wasn't until I was filling the muffin cases did I realise that my melted coconut oil was still sitting on the edge of the sink...


Despite this oversight, I was thrilled at the little golden bundles that I pulled out of the oven just a short time later! Still moist, with a cakey-donutty casing flavoured by sweet strawberry jam in the middle.

Considering that both these muffin variations took about 20 minutes including prep-time and baking to whip up, I was very happy! Guilt-free jam donuts and blueberry muffins!


Liam was also very happy, as it meant he got little bags full of assorted muffins to munch on all week!  These were the perfect snacks to take to work, as they satisfied the sweet cravings without completely ruining the diet.  I didn't feel quite so guilty as I ate them since I knew all the ingredients that had gone into making them!

I can't wait to get into the new house so I can get my bake on with a proper oven!

Any recipes you can recommend I try next? xx

18 comments:

  1. Yay for baking :-) The jam donut substitutes look divine!

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    1. They definitely helped dull the sweet cravings! :)

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  2. Oooh, the donuts sound good! Can we have the recipe? Pretty please?

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    1. Definitely! I didn't put one up because I really just estimated and threw things into the bowl. But I'll go through it and write one up on the weekend! :)

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  3. Oh baked donuts! I have a bit of a baking bug at the moment too. Unfortunatly timed as I'm trying to lose the last of my European cake weight. I may just ignore it a little longer but now I'm thinking donuts!

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    1. Haha The baking bug is hard to shake once it's there!

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  4. Awww you are like as - no oven I have to go to mums to bake or use our BBQ haha now I wish we had a toaster oven!

    The jam ones look delish!

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    1. Pay a visit to the Good Guys! Our new one cost under $50 and I can tell it's going to be worth the price! :)

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  5. Link to donut muffins kthxbai! LOL

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    1. Yes ma'am. I'll do a post over the weekend with the original recipe, and also my little tweaks!

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  6. Oh my, the donuts look AMAZING!

    We have one of those ovens at work, they are very handy :-)

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    1. How good are they! You won't need to use the one at work for a while though, what with the next 12 months off! :)

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  7. I have just his 3pm at work now and its that time to go and search for something to eat ... I wish I had these! mmmmmmm delicious!

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  8. oh my gosh they look delish!! The donut looks really moist and yummy!!

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  9. Oh my god, these look fantastic! I am massively craving muffins and donuts right now... ok, I definitely need to buy some tomorrow. I'd also love it if you could share your recipes too, this seems like the perfect fix for a cold winter's day! x

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