Double Chocolate Muffins

I was sick for the past few days. And boy do I really hate being sick. In fact, whenever I fall sick, it seems to be the same ol' flu bug that just wham bam smack me. It was especially bad on Wednesday night and I couldn't fall asleep because my nose was so blocked that I totally couldn't breathe. You know that feeling I'm describing right? The whole trying to breathe through your mouth motions, which totally sucks big-time cos you're sucking in loads of air, which makes you just want to burp repeatedly, which in turn hurts like mad cos your throat is quite sore. Aaargh.

Anyway. So I've been cooped up at home for the past three days not doing anything much except spam reading manga on my phone, or snooze in the afternoon because of the meds. I did actually managed to do some productive stuff though - like clear a whole ton of mail that was piling up like mad in the room, and also edit enough photos to form a couple few new posts. (Yay!)

When I am sick, it's porridge all the way for meals. Lunch and dinner. So needless to say, looking at all these food photos I edited made me a tad grouchy cos I was craving for them - in which I cannot eat them because I am sick. Bah. Especially these double chocolate muffins...

Double Chocolate Muffins

Blueberry Coconut Lime Brown Butter Muffins

Okay...It's a new year, I'm slowly (but surely) plodding my way through the mountain of backlog I had accumulated. I've at least edited photos for three other posts! See? Baby steps. It seems too soon to start talking about New Year reflections (given that my reflections post for the previous year was like what, a half year ago?), so I'll skip that bit first and jump straight to the goodies.

Blueberry Coconut Lime Brown Butter Muffins

Dark Chocolate Raspberry Coconut Brown Butter Muffins

I've previously made these muffins before, but decided to revisit this recipe again to see if they were as yummy as I remembered.

Dark chocolate, raspberries and toasted coconut

Brown butter blackberry granola muffins

I had bought some blackberries, thinking to eat them with yogurt and granola for breakfast. However, I had forgotten all about them, and by the time I remembered that they were still in the fridge, they were looking a little too ripe. I needed to use them asap.

My muffins stash had ran out at the same time, thus I thought that I could just use them in a new muffin batch.

Brown butter blackberry granola muffins

Brown butter blueberry lemon muffins

My stash of muffins in the freezer were running a little short. I had to bake a new batch to replace the space so that I'll always have ready-to-go muffins for the just in case moments.

Brown butter blueberry lemon muffins

Baked applesauce and healthy muffins

I've made applesauce a few times already. Baked applesauce to be exact. The flavour of it was really delicious and I find myself gravitating towards this recipe always, whenever I require the use of applesauce. I realise I've never actually posted the recipe prior, so I decided to make it again recently.

Baked applesauce

Chocolate banana sour cream muffins

The Sister was making ice cream and she had some leftover sour cream. I hate waste, so I told her I'll use it up for her. Words said, I then had to go hunt for recipes that uses sour cream.

After a quick search, I thought that muffins and quick breads for breakfast are the most likely items to use sour cream, and I chanced upon this recipe, which encompasses one of my favourite combo as a breakfast item - chocolate and banana.

Chocolate banana sour cream muffins

Hazelnut pear brown butter muffins

Fruits such as apples, pears and oranges might seem ordinary at first glance. After all, they are available almost any time of the year, and are readily available in most countries. However, if you dive into the world of fruits into details, there are actually quite a wide range of varieties for every single fruit. Take the humble pear for instance. Before I developed my passion for baking, I only knew of two kinds of pears - the ubiquitous green William pears, and the Asian pear. When my passion grew, I started taking note of fruits in a different light while grocery shopping. Pears come in so many different shapes, sizes and colours! Depending on the season, I might chance upon Anjous (red and green), Bosc, Forelles, Seckels, Korean pears, Bartletts and so on. My, my. I get excited whenever I spot a new variety of fruit in the supermarket aisle.

"Sugar" bowl

Movies and muffins

There's been plenty of good movies lately. Not that I'm complaining.

I've watched three movies in two weeks, two of which were watched on consequent days at one shot. I caught the Swedish film, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, which was awesome kickass. I heard Hollywood's gonna remake the show? I don't think I'll watch the remake. Like the original is always so much better. Like I mean, look at Hollywood's remake of other foreign films such as the Japanese "The Ring" or the Korean "Il Mare" *coughs*). And also, the American actress they've chosen to play the lead character, Lisbeth, just looks so tame in comparison to the Swedish actress, Noomi Rapace, who was totally totally right for the character. She got herself immersed in the role completely. From a non-smoker, she started smoking ciggies like nobody's business, and those piercings? Real. She is like super unrecognisable from her pre-movie photos. Like I said, kickass. The movie is based on a set of trilogy books, so I can't wait to watch the other two movies when they show. Hmmm. Still thinking if I should read the books...

Superb performance by lead actress, Noomi Rapace

Applesauce muffins with walnuts and goji berries

Muffins. Warm muffins straight out of the oven. Mmmmmm. It conjures to mind a country style kitchen, where a red-cheeked cook pulls out a whole tray full of these lovely babies outta the oven with a pair of worn frayed kitchen gloves. In my dictionary, muffins are homely creatures.

Applesauce muffins with walnuts and goji berries

Granola chocolate chip muffins and a healthier lifestyle.

As always, there comes a time when I get sick of my blog layout, and decide to change it. It seems like the design is going from simple to simple-r. Simplistic is the key. From the multi photos collage designs I made from images I found on the web, to a handful of self-shot baking photos, to now, a single image design. Snorts. What next? ;)

Sigh. I'm still on the prowl for a job. Been sending out resumes and awaiting replies. It's getting hard to just sit by while your friends are all getting jobs. I'm happy for them, but at the same time, thinking, when is it going to be my turn? I don't expect alot from a job. Just that it pays reasonably well, has sufficient annual leave days, has a decent working environment, great learning opportunities and that's good enough. I mean, it's pretty realistic rights? I just got offered a job by a local F and B company. I really would like to accept it, but there are just too many cons to the job (mainly the pay and benefits). I'm in a dilemma but ultimately, I doubt I'll accept it. At the same time, I'm also afraid of not accepting it and no better offers come up. Sigh.

Anyway, have recently joined a Muay Thai class with my girlfriend and we've been attending classes several times a week (it's on every Monday, Wednesday and Friday nights). It's a great way to exercise cos you gotta do cardio, cardio, and more cardio. Burn those calories man. I'm all covered in sweat and the (whatever) muscles I actually have ache like mad after those sessions. I shall think of it as training for the coming 10k Sundown run in May since I havn't had the time to go jogging much, and has neglected exercise till I finished the SL intern.

Talking about a healthier lifestyle, here are some granola and chocolate chip (okay, not so healthy then) muffins I made two months back. I love granola, and what better than to add it into muffins to make it a filling breakfast item?

Granola and chocolate chip muffins

Home made granola

Grapefruit tarts and pumpkin apple muffins

Well, I've been lazy editing photos so I've a huge ton of photos left to do up. So far, I'm only touching on my food pictures cos I feel happy thinking about them. There's still pictures of friends and family to be posted. Perhaps on FB? Less editing to do thank god. (:

Here's some Grapefruit creme brulee tarts that were made when I was experimenting with dough and also, some pumpkin apple muffins that were made near Halloween, where pumpkins were in abundence. (:

Pear banana walnuts muffins

Let me tell you more about these lovely muffins. I think that the pear is an often overlooked fruit for baking muffins. The common choices are banana, chocolate(fine, it's not a fruit but it is a popular choice!), apple, blueberries or raspberries. Yet, the humble pear is a really good fruit to use in baked goods cos they have a subtle light fragrance that heightens the finished product. If you get what I mean. The pears also soften considerably after baking so it doesn't matter if the pears are still not yet fully ripe. Add some chopped walnuts for the crunch factor, well, I think I've found a pretty healthy muffin recipe! (:

Banana blueberry muffins

I'm currently sprouting a muffins addiction (which is a really really bad habit since it's carbs!) but I try my best, substituting plain ol' flour with oats flour (which basically refers to the throwing of rolled oats into the food processor). First up on the muffins list is these blueberry banana muffins. I think they're pretty yums, but wait till you see the next entry - the pear banana walnuts combo. Which are, in my opinion, even better than these blueberry babies.

Cutie pie niece and nephew who came over for a visit when I was i the midst of baking these muffins.

Adorable-y cute. (:

Lost.

Oh my god. It's the end of April. In less than 2 months. I'm going to kiss QUT bye-bye. Graduation. I'm so not looking forward to it. I have so many choices I have no idea which to decide on. One thing I detest at this moment is anyone who ask the fatal question "So what are your plans after graduation?". The million dollar answer to the question is "I don't know, so stop asking me."

Pistachio paste is used for the pistachio buttercream.

Macarons from front to back - Coffee; Grapefruit; Pistachio.

Koko black chocolate is superb. I decided that since I like chocolates, and like muffins, I should just combine the two so I don't eat double the fats. snigger. Rough chunks of these in a muffin? Yummy.

Special two-in-one muffin. Nah. Actually it's leftover batter. (:

Fiona & Claudia's graduations + Ludwig's farewell. I baked green tea muffins and checkerboard cookies and dressed them up in the pretty packaging from where else but my fave store in Singapore...Daiso! (:

I tried my hand at baking other bread besides focaccia. Sweet buns dough, with various fillings.

I like the chocolate ones best. No surprise. ;)

Lemons lemons lemons. I love zesting the lemons and rubbing it in sugar. The smell oh the smell. I wish I could smell like lemon sugar. Someone should bottle the scent of lemon sugar seriously. (:

For Rick, Gerald & Esther's graduation, it's chocolate pie (tasted suspiciously brownie-like) and lemon almond oatmeal lace cookies.

Cravings for double dark chocolate cookies, so made some hugeass ones. A glass of cold milk with these is simply the best.