Mia Bakes: Healthy Date Muffins

 Hey lovely readers, it has been a while since my last post! Been bogged down by work and also overseeing renovation works of my new BTO. Hopefully there will be more baking (& cooking?!) recipes up here once I've settled down into my new house!

Anyway, here's a super quick and easy recipe for a healthy, dates muffin! Well, initially I wanted to make some sticky date pudding because there's 3 boxes of deglet noor dates in the house. But after preparing the "cake" portion, I got lazy to follow up with the caramel sauce and so.... a healthy date muffin it shall be! 

So let's get over with the ingredients, so we can get started!

To get 12 muffins, you'll need:

250g pitted dates

1 tsp baking soda

250ml boiling water

40g unsalted butter

40g unsweeten applesauce

185g plain flour

30g brown sugar

30g white sugar (I used stevia)

2 eggs

1.5 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

60g pumpkin seeds + roughly chopped walnuts

(or whatever seeds/nuts you fancy)

*60g of sugar makes a rather mild-tasting (not sweet AT ALL) muffin, do add more sugar if a sweeter tasting muffin is desired

In a clean bowl, add in your pitted (and roughly chopped) dates, baking soda and boiling water. Leave to soak for 20 to 30 minutes, until it has cooled down. 

In another bowl, add your butter, sugar and applesauce. Whisk until well combined. Crack in the eggs, one at a time, whisking until each egg is well combined before adding the next. Then, fold in the dry ingredients (flour, salt and baking powder) with a spatula until there's only a few stray pockets of flour left before folding in the dates mixture. Fold until nearly combined before folding in the pumpkin seeds until just combined; do not overmix! 

Spoon the batter into 12 muffin cups and bake in the oven that's pre-heated to 180 degrees Celsius for around 20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean. 

As mentioned earlier, these muffins are not-sweet-at-all (in spite of all those dates) with a bouncy, chewy texture, and make quite a decent (healthy) breakfast muffin! 

I've actually eaten mine with some peanut butter for breakfast, YUMS!

Till then,

Mia Foo

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Mia Bakes: Cream Scones (Butterless & Eggless)

 I've previously baked a version of a cream scone, but that contains the addition of butter (and egg), which then actually made it not nearly as creamy as it should have been. 

So now, let's try out a true blue CREAM (only) scone, shall we? 

For 8 scones, you'll need:

120g all purpose flour

20g sugar 

(or equivalent amount of sugar replacement, I used a mixture of stevia and low GI brown sugar)

100 - 115g of heavy cream

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

a heaping 1/4 tsp salt (perhaps around 1/3 tsp)

your choice of filling (I used mixed fruits, and chocolate chips)

more heavy cream (about 1 tbsp) for brushing on scones

This is also pretty much a one-bowl, quick and easy recipe! So in a clean, large bowl, add in all your dry ingredients (including your fillings!) and give everything a quick whisk to combine. 

Then, pour in your heavy cream (start with 100g first) and mix (best using your clean hands instead of a spatula) until everything comes together to form a dough ball. 

If the mixture is too dry (depending on different hydration level of flour), add in more heavy cream, bit by bit, until the mixture is just hydrated enough to form a soft pliable dough ball that will still kind of stick to your hands, but firm enough to holds its shape. 

Wrap the dough in clingwrap and set it in the fridge to rest for at least 2 to 4 hours, or best overnight. I highly suggest that you roll the dough out (or simply press it out with your hands) into the disc (if you want scone wedges) /rectangular shape (if you want scone squares) of about 1.5 inch thickness at this stage before chilling, so that everything will be easier to manage before baking. 

It'll be easier to go for square scones; simply fold the clingwrap around the heap of dough in a rectangle, and roll the dough out with a rolling pin (or simply just press the dough around with your hands) such that it filled up the clingwrap. Super easy, and no mess! You need not even wash your rolling pin after using it! HAHA! 

When the dough has rested, simply cut the dough into 8 equal pieces (squares or wedges), and set them (close together but not fully touching one another, about 1" or so) on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. 

Brush the top evenly with some more heavy whipping cream, and you may sprinkle some coarse sugar on top as well, if you fancy. 

Bake the scones at an oven that's pre-heated to 210 degrees Celsius for 10 minutes (high temperature first for them to rise) before turning the temperature down to 190 degree Celsius and bake for another 10 minutes or so, or until the scones are evenly browned. 

My mixed fruit (sultanas, yellow raisins and chopped red cherries) cream scones.

And chocolate chip cream scones, YUM!

In comparison to butter scones, the cream scones are definitely lacking the buttery fragrance, which is nothing a 1/2 tsp of vanilla extract can't help with. The scones also tend to have a more tender, finer  crumb texture as compared to their butter cousins. 

In any case, when in doubt (of flavour), just go big with all your fillings. You won't miss the butter then. HAHA!

Till then,

Mia Foo

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