Cinnamon Raisin Swirl Peanut Butter Pop-Tarts

by Michelle @ A Tipsy Giraffe // December 8, 2014 // 25 Comments

Do you ever find yourself watching TV shows that you hate, but you can’t turn them off? You just love to hate them! That’s me with Love It or List It, it drives me crazy and I spend most of the show shouting at Hilary – seriously, she’s the worst, she never has a contingency in her budget for any hidden problems, she basically ignores what the home owners want and acts like the fact they don’t have endless amounts of money to throw into her budget (that she’s terrible at managing) is their fault and that they’re crazy for being annoyed with her for messing things up! Who knew I would have such strong feelings about a HGTV show, right? But despite all that, I watch it all the time! I’m get a bit addicted to HGTV when I’m in the US, it’s about the only TV I watch out here, and I miss it a lot when I’m back home. I’m watching HGTV as I write this post, it’s Hawaii Life tonight though and I’m still finding myself moaning at the people on the TV! Maybe this is my guilty pleasure, enjoying being annoyed by strangers on the television!

Okay, on to something that is the opposite of annoying! Cinnamon Raisin Swirl Peanut Butter Pop Tarts (with frosting). The name may be a bit of a mouthful, but the pop tarts aren’t – they’re mini!

When I made this Cinnamon Raisin Swirl Peanut Butter I knew I wanted to bake with it, but what to make? My first thought was to make a spruced up version of my Peanut Butter Stuffed Chocolate Pudding Cookies, but that didn’t feel exciting enough. I don’t know how I ended up on pop tarts, but I’m so glad I did.

Oh my, these mini pop tarts are heavenly. The pastry is a pie crust and it’s so flaky and buttery and the sweet and salty filling is so tasty, especially when paired with the sweet frosting. And look how cute! These went down very well with my mum and her colleagues, they’re definitely a keeper.

The great thing about these is they’re easily changeable to suit your tastes and what you have access to. Just full them with your favourite pop tart filling and you have just improved that sweet breakfast 10 fold. I love store bought pop tarts, I’m not going to pretend like I don’t, but they cannot hold a candle to these homemade ones. It’s great for me too because they’re not a lot of varieties in flavour for pop tarts in the UK, I often bring back a box of the cinnamon brown sugar ones when I’m in the US – but now I can make my own, and I’m definitely going to!

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Bounty Coconut Chocolates

by Michelle @ A Tipsy Giraffe // December 3, 2014 // 57 Comments

Hello from Atlanta! Well, technically Kennesaw these days, but I’m not here to fuss around on technicalities! I love the city, I love cities in general, I’m definitely the kind of person that prefers to be surrounded by tall buildings and lots of people over countryside and nature! But as much as I love the city, I have to admit it is beautiful up here in the ‘burbs. I’m staying at Leah’s mum’s house and it’s gorgeous, it’s a beautiful house in beautiful surroundings – hopefully in my next post I’ll include a few photographs for you, because it is lovely up here. The weather has become much warmer than it has been here too, I’m choosing to believe I brought the warmth with me as the temperature has apparently dropped a lot in the UK since I left on Monday!

I did intend for this post to be out on Wednesday, but I was having a bit of bloggers block and combined with how exhausted travelling had left me (I was travelling for 20 hours, no fun!) it just wasn’t happening. But it’s all worked out in the end, because today is Fiesta Friday which is the best day of the week! It’s even better this week (for me, that is) because I am co-hosting the party for the first time! When Angie asked me if I’d like to co-host, I pretty much tripped over myself to say yes! I can say with all honesty that Fiesta Friday is the best link party out there, and if you haven’t joined yet let today be your first, I guarantee fun! Fiesta Friday is a great way to gain exposure for your blog and posts, lots of bloggers link up every single week who will be coming over to see your wonderful posts – but I think the best thing about Fiesta Friday is how social it is, everybody is so friendly and welcoming whether it’s your first link up or your 45th! We’re not just here for exposure, we’re here to make friends and have fun!

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Clementine and Pomegranate Muffins

by Michelle @ A Tipsy Giraffe // November 28, 2014 // 51 Comments

These Clementine and Pomegranate Muffins are the perfect way to get your Christmas fix in the mornings, full of festive flavours and totally delicious!

Bye Bye Thanksgving, Hello Christmas! I figured it made sense to start off my Christmas themed recipes with a breakfast recipe! Because what better way to get yourself in the festive spirit than tucking into a yummy muffin full of Christmassy fruits and flavours in the morning? Of course, you can eat these any time of the day, don’t limit yourself to just breakfast time!

(the problem with taking photos with shiny baubles is you can’t avoid including yourself in the photos!)

Pomegranates are such a great Christmas fruit, those red jewels are just so festive and they taste their best in the winter. I can’t really place why clementines are festive, but they are aren’t they? Maybe it’s because it’s customary in many places to include a clementine in Christmas stockings, did you get one in yours? Or will you be popping one in your kids stockings this year? Personally, I prefer a chocolate orange in mine, that’s fruit too right?!

But wherever these traditions come from, you can’t deny the yumminess of the combination of these two and they taste like elves dancing on your tongue – or something less weird sounding! My brain is too fried to think of a better metaphor so I’m afraid you’re stuck with that one! They’re not just festive, they’re beautifully moist with a chewy top, so delicious! Just the way a muffin should be. The trick to getting that classic muffin top is to fill your cases almost to top and bake at a high heat for 10 minutes, before reducing it down to bake all the way through. That way the muffins puff up on the top and retain the moisture throughout.

Getting the pomegranate seeds to evenly disperse is a little trickier. I like to toss them in a little of the flour mixture, which definitely helps, but since the batter is a bit on the thinner side for these muffins a lot of them are still going to sink. But you’ll have a few up at the top and they still taste wonderful, so who cares! There’s no muffin police here!

These muffins are beautifully moist because they’re fully of lovely clementine juice, I also used kefir milk in them because it’s my new favourite thing, but also because they also keep them moist and rich tasting.

If you follow me on Instagram or Twitter, you may already have seen me post about the semi break I am taking from blogging at the moment. It’s not a full break because I enjoy it too much for that, but as I’ve mentioned before I have a few health issues and right now I really need to take care of myself. Those of you who blog know how much effort can go into it, it’s so much more than just writing a few posts, and as much as I do enjoy doing it I need the rest more right now! I’m not going away completely, my next post will be sometime next week (Wednesday at the earliest) and hopefully after then I’ll be back on a regular schedule (or at least most of the time). Over the next week there won’t be much activity on my Twitter or Facebook accounts either – but there will still be a little posting on my Instagram, I’m heading to Atlanta on Monday so come follow me on there if you wanna see what I get up to or just my general ramblings, I’d love to chat with you on there!

I hope this recipe will tide you over for a little while anyway, it is a good one! I’m gonna bring these muffins along to Fiesta Friday, in the hopes they get you all in a nice, festive mood! Come party with us, it’s always a lot of fun and along with our fab host Angie, we have two wonderful co hosts to party with this week – Prudy and Jess. And I’ll be back with a post in time for next week’s FF, I’m never one to miss a good party 😉

Keep safe guys, I hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving if you celebrate it and have fun getting ready for whatever holidays you may celebrate this winter!

Clementine and Pomegranate Muffins

2014-11-27 23:37:56

Yields 10

Moist muffins with clementine and pomegranate and a chewy muffin top!

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Ingredients

220g plain flour (all purpose flour)
170g caster sugar (super fine granulated sugar)
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda (baking soda)
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp salt
2 clementines, peeled
240ml kefir milk*
1 large egg
115g unsalted butter
1 pomegranate - seeds only

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 230C/450F and line a muffin tin with papers
Combine the sugar, flour, baking powder, bicarb, cinnamon and salt in a bowl and set aside.
Put the clementines in a food processor, and blitz until you have a puree. Stir in the kefir milk.
Put the egg and butter in a large bowl and beat.
Stir in the clementine mixture.
Put one tbsp of the flour mixture in a small, and add the remaining to the muffin mixture. Stir to combine.
Put the pomegranate seeds in the bowl with the 1 tbsp flour and stir to coat.
Stir the pomegranate seeds into the muffin mixture gently, until evenly dispersed.
Spoon the mixture into the cases, filling almost to the top. Sprinkle a little caster sugar on top if desired.
Bake at 230C/450F for 10 minutes. Leaving the muffins in the oven, turn the temperature down to 200C/400F and bake for another 10 minutes, or until they're a light golden brown and springy to touch.
Remove from the oven, leave to cool in the pan for 5 minutes and then turn out onto a wire rack to cool completely

Notes

*If you don't have kefir milk, you can use greek yogurt instead.
Will keep in an air tight container for 3 days

By Michelle @ Giraffes Can Bake

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

Find more muffin recipes here

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Quince Madeleines

by Michelle @ A Tipsy Giraffe // November 23, 2014 // 34 Comments

(disclaimer: there are affiliate links included in this post. I also received products free from Kitchen Craft to test out, however no obligation was attached to review or blog about them. All opinions are 100% my own)

Quince is something I’ve never baked with before, or even eaten. But I was in the Asian supermarket near me stocking up on some kefir milk and was having a little browse through their fruit and I saw quince. I vaguely knew what a quince was but wasn’t 100% of the taste or texture. But I thought hey, this kind of looks like an ugly lemon, I’ll buy it and figure out what to do with it later!

That’s actually a pretty good metaphor for how I tackle life actually! I did a bit of research online and it turns out quince needs a bit of preparation before it’s edible, in it’s natural state it’s very hard, woody and astringent, but once you’ve poached it for a bit the sweetness comes out and it has a lovely floral taste. Quince is high in pectin so lends itself well for jam and jelly making, my research actually lead me to discovering that quince is what marmalade was originally made out of!

You do need to take care when prepping the quince because the woody, spongy nature of the fruit makes it quite difficult to cut and you don’t want to lose any fingers! Once it was peeled and sliced and all my fingers were still in tact, I poached it in water and sugar with a cinnamon stick. The internet told me that when it was ripe, it would have an aroma when you hold it up to your nose, so I held it up to my nose and the aroma was similar to that of an apple – so poaching it with cinnamon seemed like a good move! The internet also told me that my quince would turn a vibrant coral pink when it was done, however don’t believe everything the internet tells you! After about 40 minutes of poaching, mine was nice and soft but only had the faintest hints of a pink hue. I decided to use my own judgement and declare it poached. Further research told me the amount of pectin in your quince determines how pink it goes, so I guess mine didn’t have a lot of pectin in it. I drained it, saved the poaching liquid and pureed the quince ready to bake with.

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Winter Morning Anti-Venom Smoothie

by Michelle @ A Tipsy Giraffe // November 21, 2014 // 42 Comments

Gosh, that’s a terrible name for a smoothie isn’t it? I’m not the most creative person when it comes to naming things, I think if I ever had kids I’d probably end up calling them Child 1, Child 2 etc. I’m surprised my cat isn’t just called Cat!

The thought behind this smoothie is a lot better than the name at least! We’re getting deeper and deeper into winter, at least we are in the northern hemisphere anyway, and these cold mornings are getting harder to bear with every temperature job. I made this smoothie as a way to inject a little sunshine into those dark, cold mornings and get you ready to face the day!

It’s full of summery flavours to trick your brain and tongue into thinking summer hasn’t left us out in the cold and it’s full of lots of goodness to keep your body ticking while the winter wages war against your immune system! Blueberries are considered super foods by some due to their antioxidants, but they’re also chock full of Vitamin C to give your immune system a boost! The orange juice helps with that too of course, plus it’s a great source of potassium.

Strawberries also have lots of antioxidants and yet more Vitamin C. And mangoes? You guessed it, more Vitamin C. Watch those winter colds try and catch you now! Mangoes are also a good source of Vitamin A which is good for your skin, and let’s face it skin needs all the care it can get in this harsh weather! And then there’s the spinach, full of everything good – iron (to keep your energy levels up) and Vitamin K (for your bones), plus more Vitamin A, C and antioxidants! I won’t lie, I’m not health expert and I’m not sure how much of your daily recommended vitamin intake this smoothie would get you (if anybody knows more about this subject and wants to do the math for me, please do!!) but I think it’s safe to say it’s a good boost to get you going in the morning. You could even double up and give yourself another boost for your afternoon snack!

It’s not just your immune system getting a helping hand with this smoothie, it also contains one of my favourite smoothie ingredients – kefir milk! Kefir milk is full of tummy loving bacteria to keep your digestive system nice and healthy – which is extra good because winter is when Norovirus most likes to strike (aka the winter vomiting bug), mostly because we all stay huddled up close together in winter so it spreads easy. Your tummy needs all the help it can get to avoid catching it (I got it just after celebrating my first thanksgiving last year, it was no fun!). Kefir milk is a great source of protein too.

The best part though is that it tastes yummy and is an easy and filling breakfast! What more could you want!!

I had originally planned to post my first Christmas recipe today, but to be honest with you I’m still not feeling great and I didn’t think I’d be able to muster up enough excitement to get you all in the festive spirit! Besides, I thought maybe writing about vitamins might help me feel a little healthier… stranger things have happened!

I’m going to bring this health-boosting, winter-busting smoothie along to Fiesta Friday this week in the hopes it’ll give the party goers a quick boost to keep them partying throughout the weekend! I’m sure our returning co-hosts, Tracy and Stephanie, could use it too!

I will have some Christmas fun up for you soon, I’m sure! Come hang out with me on social media to get a preview on the festive treats I’ve been baking and see what’s going on in my kitchen in real time, and come chat too! Friends are always welcome! You can find me on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest, Google+ and Bloglovin’

If you’d like my recipes to magically appear in your inbox, just enter your email address into the subscription box in my side bar!

Winter Morning Anti-Venom Smoothie

2014-11-21 00:51:25

Serves 1

An easy, filling breakfast smoothie to get you going on these cold winter mornings and help you fight off the nasty things winter can bring!

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Ingredients

1 packed cup spinach, raw
1 cup kefir milk*
1 cup orange juice*
1 frozen banana
1/2 cup blueberries
2 cups mango
1 cup strawberries

Instructions

Place the spinach, kefir and orange juice in your blender and blitz until spinach is well cut up.
Add remaining ingredients and blitz until smooth.
Drink immediately or keep in fridge overnight ready for breakfast.

Notes

*If you're not able to get kefir milk, substitute with greek yogurt. It won't have the good bacteria in it like kefir, but is still a good source of protein and will give the same taste.
*You can use fresh squeezed orange juice or store bought (use not from concentrate for best health benefits and taste)
To make sure the smoothie is nice and cold, freeze fruits first. Make sure at least the banana is frozen for the best texture

By Michelle @ Giraffes Can Bake

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

Pumpkin Pie Smoothie

Autumn Strawberry and Banana Smoothie

Kale Avocado Banana Smoothie

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Pure Blog Love, Foodie Fridays, Fiesta Friday, Super Saturday, Show Me Saturday, Scraptastic Saturday, Found and Foraged, Sweet and Savoury Sunday, Inspiration Monday, Bewitchin’ Projects, Motivation Monday, Frugal Crafty Home, Time To Sparkle, Hit Me With Your Best Shot, Project Parade, Inspire Me Wednesday, Create It Thursday