Banoffee Muffins

by Michelle @ A Tipsy Giraffe // February 18, 2015 // 38 Comments

Insanely delicious and moist, these Banoffee Muffins are full of yummy banana and sweet toffee flavour – with perfect high muffin tops

I love smooshing words together to make one new word, which is probably why I say y’all every other sentence even though I’m painfully English! For those of you who don’t know what banoffee is – first of all, I’m sorry, because that means you’ve never had the heavenly experience of banoffee pie! Banoffee is a combination of Banana and Toffee, banoffee pie is a no bake pie with toffee, fresh bananas and whipped cream and it’s to die for. I actually have a recipe for it that I posted last year. This year though I decided banoffee would be an amazing muffin flavour and boy was I right!

It’s no secret that I like to buy bunches of bananas and leave them in the fruit bowl to go brown so I can bake with them – I don’t actually like eating bananas by themselves. So I had 4 bananas getting very, very brown and I had to decide what to do with them, my first thought was chocolate banana ice cream and these muffins. I made the chocolate banana ice cream first and while it was it was delicious I couldn’t stop thinking about this muffin idea! Especially since I had a bag of Heath Toffee Bits that I brought back from America with me that would be perfect for them. So out to buy more bananas I went – supermarkets should really have a section of very ripe bananas so I don’t have to play the waiting game! I mean, they sell still green ones so why not already brown ones?!

These muffins were totally worth the wait though. The little bits of toffee melt into the muffin making them indescribably moist and bursting with sweetness all over. The toffee is perfectly balanced with the amazing banana flavour in every bite, the two flavours really do compliment each other in the best way. And while these muffins are incredibly moist, they’re not too dense or heavy, they have the perfect muffin texture with high, chewy muffins tops. There are also semi sweet chocolate chips dispersed throughout, to cut through the sweetness of the banana and toffee and also because I like my banoffee pie with a tad of chocolate (just the way I like life too!).

And don’t just take my word on how good these muffins are. My mum’s work colleagues are my willing taste testers and one of them referred to these muffins as “stunning and better than sex”, which is a pretty good testimonial in my book! So trust us on this one, make these muffins and everybody who tries them will be your new best friend – got your eye on a promotion at work? Pop a basket of these muffins on your boss’s desk and you’re a shoe-in…. not that I’m advocating bribery (nothing wrong with a little buttering up though, hey?).

The one and only downside to these muffins is you can’t buy Heath Toffee Bits in the UK, so I’m waiting on the best friend to mail me over a few bags so I can make these again. In the mean time though I might try experimenting with toffee products I can get here in the UK, or perhaps I’ll try making my own toffee crunch. If you can’t get Heath Toffee Bits where you live and you decide to experiment with other things (which I highly encourage, even if they don’t come out perfect I’m willing to bet the experiments will still be delicious!) please do let me know how it turned out. And hey, if the makers of Heath Toffee want to send me some Toffee Bits they’d be very warmly received -wink wink-

A muffin isn’t a muffin with a nice high, chewy top so I can’t ever post a recipe for muffins without including how I make sure I always get one – the secret is to fill the muffin cases or holes to the top and baking on a higher temperature for the first ten minutes of baking. Because of all the moistening factors in these muffins I used bicarbonate of soda (baking soda) and vinegar as my leavening agent so they wouldn’t end up too dense, it really gives them a great lift.

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Banoffee Muffins

2015-02-17 22:32:27

Yields 12

Insanely delicious and moist, these banoffee muffins are bursting with sweet toffee and banana flavour.

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Ingredients

220g plain flour (all purpose)
1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda (baking soda)
1 bag of Heath Toffee Bits (8oz/225g)
200g semi-sweet chocolate chips
4 very ripe bananas
125ml Vegetable oil
1 tbsp white vinegar
2 large eggs
100g brown sugar

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 230C/450F. Line a 12 hole muffin tray with papers.
Add the flour, cinnamon and bicarb to a bowl and whisk to combine. Remove 1 tbsp and put in medium bowl. Set both aside.
Mash the bananas in a large bowl (you can also put them in blender if you want them smooth, I like a few small lumps in mine).
Beat in the oil and vinegar until combined.
Add the eggs one at a time and beat to combine.
Add sugar and beat to combine.
Add flour (not reserved 1 tbsp) and gently beat until just combined (do not overmix).
Remove 1-2 tbsp of the toffee bits and set aside, add the remaining toffee bits and chocolate chips to the bowl with the 1tbsp flour mixture and stir to coat (this helps stop them all sinking to the bottom of the muffins)
Gently stir the toffee bits and chocolate chips into the muffin batter by hand until evenly dispersed.
Spoon batter into muffin papers, up to the top. Sprinkle the tops with the reserved 1-2 tbsp of toffee bits.
Bake for 10 minutes at 230C/450F. Without opening the oven door, turn the oven down to 200C/400F and bake for a further 10-15 minutes, until muffins are golden brown and skewer comes out without wet batter.
Cool in tray for 5 minutes, then transfer to wire rack.
Yummy served warm or cooled

Notes

It's important not to over mix the batter, the less you mix it the lighter your crumb will be
I used Heath bits o' brickle toffee bits, but I'm sure the milk chocolate ones would be good too
Store in air tight container for 3-5 days

By Michelle @ Giraffes Can Bake

A Tipsy Giraffe https://www.atipsygiraffe.com/

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King Cake Crepes

by Michelle @ A Tipsy Giraffe // February 15, 2015 // 33 Comments

Crepes with a cinnamon filling, drizzled with cream cheese sauce and lots of sprinkles. Perfect for breakfast or dessert

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This Tuesday, February 17th, is what we in the UK call Pancake Day or Shrove Tuesday – it’s the day before lent and pancakes are eaten to use up all the rich foods in the house ready for fasting. In other parts of the world it’s called Mardi Gras or Fat Tuesday and is marked with parades and celebrations – the same principle applies, it’s about a last hurrah before the lenten season. I knew I wanted to make something to celebrate the day and decided on crepes, a very thin French pancake. When I was deciding to what to put in the crepes I was thinking about Mardi Gras and a big tradition in New Orleans on Mardi Gras is to eat something called King Cake – which is kind of like one big, round cinnamon bun with yellow, green and purple sprinkles. And so these King Cake Crepes were born! King Cake Crepes – try saying that three times fast!

In the UK we traditionally will make pancakes that are similar to crepes, but a bit thicker and with less rich ingredients, then we serve them with lemon juice and caster sugar – it doesn’t sound like much, but it’s honestly so good! I shared British pancakes on the blog last year actually. Crepes are a little trickier to make since they’re so thin, it took me a few goes to get the hang of frying them but once you get into the swing of things it becomes pretty easy – if it’s your first time making crepes, just be prepared for a few practice pancakes first! A good non stick frying pan is key here, because you really don’t want to use a lot of butter when greasing. Since crepes are so thin, you don’t actually need to fry them both sides so if you’re worried about flipping you can skip that – I like to cook them through on one side and then flip and fry the other side for 15 or so seconds to get a bit of colour on both sides.

How fun are these crepes though? I always love taking a type of food and recreating it with something completely different, it’s a lot of fun and you get all the yummy flavours of the food you love, but with different textures and ways of eating it. Now I have never actually eaten a King Cake before, but I’ve eaten more than my fair share of cinnamon buns over the years and I can tell you that these crepes really do do the flavours justice. The sweet cinnamon filling rolled up in the thin pancakes and smothered in sweet, tangy cream cheese sauce is so good, and the soft crepes, thick filling, creamy sauce make for amazing textures, particularly when you add in the crunch of the sprinkles! You’ve probably noticed I’ve used pink sprinkles here, I didn’t have any purple!

Since I was only making these for me, the recipe only makes about 8 crepes (depending on how big you make them), but it’s easily doubled if you have more people to serve. Or halved if you don’t want 8 – although if it’s your first time making crepes I would keep the quantities the same because you’ll probably lose your first few while you get the hang of it!

As I said before, Pancake Day and Mardi Gras are celebrated the day before lenten season starts – traditionally Christians would fast during Lent but these days most people give up a bad habit or certain foods. I don’t tend to observe lent, although some years I do like to use the time to take up something new, kind of like a new years resolution I guess, something to improve my life or mind. I’m not sure yet if I’m going to pick something up this year. What about you? Are you giving up anything for Lent? Or are you planning on taking up a new hobby or practice?

These crepes are going to be super yummy no matter what time of year you make them – take off the sprinkles and you have cinnamon roll crepes, amazing! Whenever you decide you want crepes, you definitely need to try these ones, they’re so good! You need them in your life, trust me!

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Red Velvet Pancakes

by Michelle @ A Tipsy Giraffe // February 13, 2015 // 63 Comments

Happy Galentine’s Day! No, that isn’t a typo! Those of you who are fan’s of the awesome show, Parks & Recreation, know what I’m talking about. Galentine’s Day is celebrated on February 13th and is a day for women to leave significant others behind and hang out with their lady friends and have breakfast (if your S/O is also a lady, you can bring her along too) – ladies celebrating ladies! That’s my kind of holiday – breakfast foods and supportive female friendships! And is there anything more wonderful than female friendships? Or just women supporting other women? Us ladies have got to look out for each other, particularly when a lot of the world is constantly trying to tear us down by telling us we’re too fat or too thin, we wear too much make up or not enough, be attractive but don’t have any self confidence lest you be vain, don’t be a prude but don’t be too sexual either… the list goes on! It can be hard being woman sometimes, so today is about celebrating the unequivocal love and support that empowered women give other women – from genuine compliments given without strings attached, to unwavering emotional support, to dedicated commitment to friendship, and everything in between. Uteruses before duderuses!

“We need to remember what’s important in life: friends, pancakes, work. Or pancakes, friends, work. Doesn’t matter, but work is third.” – Leslie Knope (kind of)

I thought about baking something for Valentine’s Day but I don’t really care for the holiday, but Galentine’s Day I am all over! And what better way to celebrate than with red velvet pancakes? They’re full of love and yummy goodness! I wanted to cut them into heart shapes but my heart cutter seems to have gone walkabouts, so questionable rounds it is! And you can’t have red velvet without cream cheese, so it has a sweet cream cheese topping to really push it over the tasty top.

Breakfast is the most important meal of the day and that doesn’t stop being true on special holidays, these red velvet pancakes will definitely be a winner for your loved one(s) whichever of the two loved filled holidays you’re celebrating – or both! I do encourage you to try celebrating Galentine’s Day though, it doesn’t have to be on February 13th – just any morning you and your lady friends can get together and enjoy breakfast foods and good company – and you’ll totally impress them with these yummy pancakes! I won’t be offended if you choose to make these for Valentine’s Day breakfast though, your S/O will be a very lucky person! Valentine’s Day also happens to be my cat’s birthday, which is it’s own reason to celebrate

And hey, if you’re single this Valentine’s Day and not too happy about it, these bright and delicious pancakes will be sure to cheer up your morning and make the day ahead a lot easier! Although I do feel obliged to tell you that you are awesome and you don’t need another person to validate how awesome you are, so treat yourself this weekend and celebrate you, you deserve it! P.S. It’s totally okay to want somebody to share life with you in a romantic way though, just know you’re wonderful by yourself too!

Now, let’s talk about these pancakes – they’re soooo good. They’re moist and fluffy with a wonderful vanilla flavour and that subtle hint of chocolate – it really is like eating red velvet cake for breakfast, but in a less frowned upon form than a big slice of cake (I fully support cake for breakfast though). And the sweet and tangy cream cheese topping drizzled all over compliments the buttery sweet pancakes perfectly, this really is a mouth watering breakfast or brunch. And the colour is just so fun and festive, they’re sure to make you and your loved ones smile – what a fun, special breakfast for the kids too!

To make these amazing pancakes buttermilk is an absolute must, there’s no way around it I’m afraid – but worry not, it’s easy to make your own, just add 1 tbsp of lemon juice or white vinegar to each 500ml of milk, whisk and let stand for 5-10 minutes, then you’re good to go! The acidity combined with the bicarb/baking soda is what makes these pancakes so fluffy, and it also gives you that unique red velvet taste! These pancakes have red food dye in them to make them a fabulous bright red, but the first hint of redness comes from the acidity of the vinegar reacting with the cocoa powder – you can make red velvet without need for dye at all (it just won’t be very bright!).

I only wish my photos did these pancakes justice, my photography skills were lacking more than usual when trying to take these I don’t know what it was! I bought a tripod and a wire shutter release for my camera and this was my first time using them, I think I just need to get the hang of them a little better maybe. I also need a better staging area, but that’s always been true! I’ll get there eventually, I’m sure. In the mean time, you’ll just have to make these pancakes yourself so you can fully appreciate them in all their glory – see what I did there?!

I’m going to bring these delicious pancakes along to Fiesta Friday today to celebrate Galentine’s Day with all those wonderful people (if you’re not a lady, you can have some of these pancakes as a Valentine’s treat instead!) So happy Galentine’s Day y’all and happy Valentine’s Day for tomorrow. An extra special Galentine’s greeting to our wonderful host Angie and co-hosts this week – Suzanne and Sue 😀

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Red Velvet Pancakes with Cream Cheese Topping

2015-02-11 23:06:47

Yields 12

Delicious moist and fluffy red velvet pancakes with a sweet and tangy cream cheese topping

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For the pancakes

250g plain flour (all purpose)
40g cocoa powder, sifted
70g caster sugar
1 1/4 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda (baking soda)
1/4 tsp salt
2 large eggs
280ml buttermilk
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp white vinegar
100 unsalted butter, melted and slightly cooled (plus extra for greasing griddle)
Red food colouring, approx 1tsp gel

For cream cheese topping

100g cream cheese
100g icing sugar (powdered/confectioners)
1 tbsp milk

Instructions

Put the flour, cocoa, sugar, baking powder, bicarb and salt on a bowl and whisk to combine. Set aside.
In another bowl, whisk together the eggs, buttermilk, vanilla and vinegar. Add butter (it can be warm, but not hot) and whisk again to combine.
Pour the egg mixture into the dry ingredients and whisk to combine well. Add the food colouring, how much you add depends on what type you use and how bright you want it, add a little at a time until you get your desired colour. The colour of the pancakes will turn out pretty much the same colour as the batter, so it's a good indicator.
Heat griddle/pan on a medium heat/flame and grease with a little butter. Pour batter on griddle, use about 1/4 cup batter per pancake, and cook for about 1 and a half minutes, when the edges are bubbly and starting to look dull, flip and cook for another 1 and a half minutes.
Keep pancakes in warm oven while cooking rest.
To make the topping, put all ingredients in a bowl and whisk to combine. Pour generously over stack and serve

Notes

Pancakes will keep well wrapped in the freezer for up to 2 months

By Michelle @ Giraffes Can Bake

A Tipsy Giraffe https://www.atipsygiraffe.com/

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Raspberry Buttermilk Waffles

by Michelle @ A Tipsy Giraffe // February 6, 2015 // 56 Comments

Ah, waffles! Crispy on the outside, fluffy on the inside – a delicious, sweet breakfast! Waffles are definitely more of an American thing (and a Belgian thing, I guess!), that’s not to say us Brits don’t enjoy a good waffle you just don’t see them as much here. America has their pancakes and waffles, we have bacon and baked beans! I’m not really a big breakfast person in general, I love breakfast foods I just tend to eat them later in the day (I know, I know I should eat breakfast everyday but I don’t) – I’m a big fan of Brinner personally and these waffles definitely fit that bill!

I haven’t made a lot of waffles in my time and that’s mostly because I didn’t own a waffle iron or maker. The wonderful people at Kitchen Craft recently sent me a couple of their products to try out and this Non Stick Waffle Maker was one of them, needless to say I was very excited to try it out! The first thing I made was Cinnamon Raisin Peanut Butter Waffles, but me being the numpty that I am I lost the notes for that recipe, they were super yummy though so I will try them again soon and write down the recipe for y’all. Next up was these waffles though, and luckily I still have that recipe! This waffle maker is great, it’s not your more standard waffle iron that you plug in, this one you heat on the stove top. I imagine this waffle maker takes a little longer than a waffle iron (I’ve not used a regular waffle iron so I can’t say for sure) but it does a wonderful job and it gives you crispy, fluffy waffles that don’t stick to the maker! One of the biggest advantages to this maker over an iron is it takes up way less room, the handles are removable and then it’s approx 8″ – 5″ in size – easily put away somewhere, out of the way and ready to use again soon! I have a gas stove top, but the instructions say it works on every type of top other than induction. All in all, I would have been very happy to pay for this – particularly because I have a very small kitchen with very limited storage.

These waffles are made with buttermilk which is essential in getting that fluffy texture inside, if you can’t get your hands on buttermilk it’s easy to make your own – just add 1 tbsp of white vinegar or lemon juice to each 250ml regular milk and leave to stand for 5 minutes. I used raspberry puree in the batter, however you could also use raspberry preserves or jam and I think it would be really yummy – particularly while we’re out of berry season if you didn’t freeze a bunch during the summer. And I served these with raspberry syrup for that added kick of raspberry flavour, they’re really good with maple syrup too though!

It’s been a long week and I’ve had pretty much no time to bake or blog, here’s hoping next week is a little less hectic so I can spend more time in the kitchen and more time on here with you guys! Of course, last week was the second part of the big Fiesta Friday Anniversary Party and what a party it was! I hope you all had fun and aren’t too tired out from the festivities to party again this week! I come baring these yummy waffles, perhaps they’ll serve as a bit of a hangover cure for some of you (you know who you are!). Click here to join in the party, all are welcome!As well as the lovely Angie, we have awesome co hosts too – Sonal and Josette

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[This recipe was created using items I received for free, however all opinions and words are my own. This blog post may contain affiliate links]

Raspberry Buttermilk Waffles

2015-02-05 18:13:18

Yields 12

Crispy on the outside, fluffy on the inside - delicious raspberry waffles

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Ingredients

200g raspberries, fresh or frozen
230g plain flour (all purpose)
1.5 tsp baking powder
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda (baking soda)
1/4 tsp salt
3 large eggs, separated
115g unsalted butter, melted
75g caster sugar (super fine granulated sugar)
230ml buttermilk
1tsp vanilla extract
Syrup for serving

Instructions

Preheat your waffle maker on a medium high flame (or equivalent setting on waffle iron)
Put 150g of your raspberries in a blender or food processor and blend until smooth. Roughly chop the remaining 50g raspberries and stir into the puree. Set aside.
Mix the flour, baking powder, bicarb and salt in a large bowl and set aside.
In another bowl, whisk the egg yolks, butter, sugar, buttermilk and vanilla together.
Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and very gently whisk together until smooth.
Whisk the egg whites until you have stiff peaks (the whites will hold peaks and not flop over when whisk is lifted out). Fold the egg whites into the batter mix until combined. Gently fold in the raspberries until well dispersed.
Use about 1/3 cup of batter per waffle (dependent on the size of your waffle maker) and cook each side until a deep golden brown - about 3 minutes on each side.
Serve immediately with butter, syrup and more raspberries

By Michelle @ Giraffes Can Bake

A Tipsy Giraffe https://www.atipsygiraffe.com/

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Chocolate Banana Muffins

by Michelle @ A Tipsy Giraffe // January 1, 2015 // 40 Comments

Happy New Year everybody! I hope you all had a wonderful holiday season and 2015 is full of non stop awesome for you! I’m not big on New Year’s resolutions, especially diet related ones! I’m a baker and I’m very attached to my butter and sugar, dieting just isn’t for me even if I would like to lose a couple pounds. With that said, the first recipe I’m posting in 2015 is pretty healthy! I’m not a calorie or nutrition counter so I don’t know how healthy these are but they have no butter, the majority of the sweetness comes from the bananas with only a small amount of brown sugar supplementing it. They’re also made with wholemeal (whole wheat) flour – they’re practically a health food! These will also be dairy free if you use chocolate chips that don’t contain dairy (I use semi-sweet chips, which do contain traces of milk I believe). You could also potentially make them vegan with a little fiddling, replacing the eggs with applesauce would probably work but I haven’t tested that, so I can’t say for sure.

These chocolate banana muffins are also delicious, way more delicious than they are healthy which is my kind of muffin! They’re a nice dense, moist muffin, I hate those muffins that are like biting into air, I want some substance in my muffins – leave the light and airy for the cupcakes! They’re equally chocolatey and banana-ry, with a hint of cinnamon to give them a nice flavour depth. The chocolate chips are definitely a must too, they add little chunks of chocolatey goodness and a little extra sweetness,

These muffins came about because I had a few way too ripe bananas – my first idea was, naturally, banana bread, but I only had three bananas so it would have been a very small loaf! Muffins seemed like a great idea and they really were! Over ripened bananas are so great for baking, never ever throw away those brown bananas okay! They look pretty nasty and aren’t fun to eat, but the riper they get the sweeter they are, so when they’re all brown and mushy, there’s so much natural sweetness in them that’s perfect for baking, you can even cut down on your sugar usage because of all the natural sweetness. Next time you have some bananas getting a bit too comfy in your kitchen, you should definitely turn them into these muffins, you’ll love them! They’re worth buying bananas especially to make these muffins, you’ll have some waiting time but they’re so yummy it’s worth the wait.

Because of all the natural sweetness, you really can have them at any time. Grab one for a quick and tasty breakfast in the morning, pack one in the kid’s lunchbox for a snack or treat, or even pass them out as dessert after dinner – everybody will love them any time of the day. They have those wonderful domed and chewy muffins tops that are essential for a good muffin! The best way, I find, to get a good muffin top is to fill the paper cases up until they’re almost full and then bake on a high temperature for 10 minutes before lowering it to bake throughout – I never fail to get a great muffin top with that method!

So, 2015 is finally upon us! The year of my golden birthday, the rugby world cup, the year of general elections in the UK and, assuming she’s still reigning towards the end of the year, Queen Elizabeth II will be our longest reigning queen, beating Queen Victoria! And lots more yet to be determined I’m sure. I haven’t made any proper resolutions but I do plan on a few changes this year to help make it a good year – and of course, there will be lots of baking! Do you guys have any big plans for 2015? Have you made any resolutions?

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