Banana & Blueberry muffins

I'm one of those people that buys a big bag of bananas with the intention of eating them all during the week to be good as part of my '5 a day'. Of course come Friday and there's always a couple lying on my desk looking a bit sorry for themselves. I really don't like over ripe bananas and I either give them away or try and bake with them.

On this occasion I decided I was overdue some baking. I usually opt for a banana cake smothered with lots of chocolate butter-cream icing, but this time I actually went down the 'healthier' route.

Now when I say healthy, I mean they are low in fat*, but of course they still contain lovely sugar!

A simple Google search later and I found a great banana & blueberry muffin recipe by Jane Hornby on the BBC Good Food website.

I didn't have any muscovado sugar, so just used light soft brown sugar and I also only had a mild olive oil, but they turned out perfect. I had to bake them for a total of 27 minutes a little longer than the recipe said.

The boyfriend enjoys them, so again it's a winning recipe and I'll be making these often! Enjoy!

*Per serving
202 kcalories, protein 5g, carbohydrate 36g, fat 5 g, saturated fat 0.8g, fibre 2g, sugar 14g, salt 0.59 g

Sunday baking - Savoury pinwheel scones

It's a gorgeous Sunday afternoon in London. I'm on call for work, so I can't stray far from home...this means I'm a bit bored, and hungry! Time for some baking!

When I was a kid, I used to make pinwheel scones. Most of the time these were cinnamon based ones, so very sweet and sticky. When I got sick of cinnamon, I changed the recipe slightly, taking out the sweet and swapping it for something savoury.

After searching online for a simple pinwheel scone recipe and found one from New Zealand Women's Weekly, a magazine that my mum always bought and apart from the celeb gossip, there were always yummy recipes in the back.

I've adapted this one a teeny bit and made them today. I'm VERY happy with the result and will be baking these again.

Savoury pinwheel scones

What you'll need:

 3 cups self-raising flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
Pinch cayenne pepper
1/3 cup grated cheese
1 1/4 cups milk
Extra milk, to glaze

Filling
3/4 cup tomato relish (approx) - I used a slightly spicy red pepper based one
1 cup grated cheddar cheese (approx)

How to make them:

1.  Heat oven to 210 degrees C. Grease a baking tray. Sift dry ingredients into a bowl, then stir in grated cheese and make a well in the centre. Add milk to the well and mix just enough to form a slightly sticky dough.

2.  Turn the dough on to a lightly floured work surface. Knead lightly, just to bring together. Roll dough out into a large rectangle about 5mm thick.

3.  Spread the surface of the rectangle with tomato relish and scatter with grated cheese. Roll up to form a long log.

4. Cut log into equal pieces (just under an inch wide) and arrange these, spiral side up  on the prepared baking tray. Brush the surface of each scone with a little milk. Bake for 20 minutes or until firm and golden brown.

The end result! YUM!

Domestic bliss = Peanut butter cookies!

More baking this weekend. This time for a little house warming gift for a friend.

I found a very simple recipe via the BBC Food website. I doubled the recipe (to make sure we had enough to 'sample' of course) and drizzled dark chocolate over half  of them and just a sprinkling of icing sugar on the rest.

The end result...yummy buttery cookies! 

These have a shortbread like texture, so quite crumbly and dry. They are especially nice with the chocolate drizzle. For the next batch I make I'll be half covering the cookies with chocolate. Can't wait for that experiment!