Blueberry Muffins - Blogging from the Land of Maple Syrup!

Bonjour from Montreal! This is my first post since I've arrived in Canada around two weeks ago. I've started to settle in already - adapting to the colder weather, cooking for myself, getting around the city and - the most tedious parts - cleaning my room and doing the laundry. Nonetheless, I have been really enjoying my time here in this beautiful city (especially the frsh air, green grass and blue skies!) both during frosh week and just going around with friends. Here are some pictures taken around Montreal:

But the best part is that I have an oven in my apartment!! That means I'll get to contin

ue baking here! I was so happy to see it when I moved in. During grocery shopping the other day I finally picked up a few basic ingredients and I whipped up these blueberry muffins to share with my roommates.

In Hong Kong I never really had any good blueberries before because they're really expensive, but here they're considerably cheaper and a lot fresher too. I like eating my berries in a product more than by itself, so blueberry muffins were the perfect thing - easy to make and delicious to eat. I'm glad all my roommates like them (well they were gone by the end of the day) - permanent taste testers for this year!

These muffins are light, just sweet enough to balance the tang of the berries and have a delightfully, slightly crunchy top. I had some trouble figuring out how the oven works, and it seemed like they were not baking. I peeked inside the oven and it turns out that there is no heating element on the top, but somehow the tops browned as well. Can anyone help out here?

I also splurged and got myself a stick blender, so I've been whipping up berry-banana smoothies everyday for breakfast too. It's a real handy tool and I love it to bits! With the freedom to cook and eat whatever I want now, I'm sure I will be trying out many new recipes and dishes - can't wait to share them all with you, successful or not!

Anyway I have a class soon (yes I'm blogging in the library again) so I'll leave you with the link to the recipe from Smitten Kitchen. The only thing different I got was that the recipe made 12 muffins instead of 9 or 10 for me. And they are awesome drizzled with maple syrup :)

Back to Basics

Sometimes the most basic baked goods - in this case, muffins and cookies - are good enough to satisfy cravings for sweet things or satisfy my sudden urge to bake during a busy week.


These muffins are Banana Coffee Muffins, with a sprinkling of oatmeal. The best way to use up spotty, ripe bananas! Initially I was a bit afraid of adding coffee into these (as I don't think coffee goes well with fruit), but I decided to be daring and throw that in. Also because I've been recently obsessed with oatmeal, I added some into the mix and sprinkled some on top - just to pretend that I'm 'health conscious'.


The muffins were delicious piping hot out of the oven with a noticeable, but not overpowering hint of coffee. The oatmeal also added some extra texture - something different from the tender crumb of the muffins.


The Pinwheel Shortbread Cookies were baked for the last day of lessons at school. The recipe is my all time favourite shortbread recipe (see below) that I've used for many many times before with success. They are quite rich and buttery with a slightly crunchy texture. Many of my friends thought they were really cool - some even thought they were store bought!


Banana Coffee Muffins
Adapted from Simply Recipes
Makes 12 muffins

3 ripe bananas, smashed
1/3 cup (75g) melted butter
2/3 cup (120g) sugar
1 egg, beaten
1 teaspoon vanilla
2tbsp instant coffee powder, mixed with 2 tbsp hot water
1 teaspoon baking soda
Pinch of salt
1 1/2 cup (190g) flour
1oz (30g) oatmeal, plus more for sprinkling

1. Preheat the oven to 350°F. With a wooden spoon, mix butter into the mashed bananas in a large mixing bowl.
2. Mix in the sugar, egg, espresso and vanilla.
3.Sprinkle the baking soda and salt over the mixture and mix in.
4. Add the flour, mix until it is just incorporated. Gently mix in the oatmeal.
5. Pour mixture into a prepared muffin tin. Sprinkle more oatmeal on top if desired. Bake for 25-30 minutes. Check for doneness with a toothpick inserted into the center of a muffin. If it comes out clean, it's done. Cool on a rack.

These muffin liners are cute, no?

Pinwheel Shortbread Cookies
Adapted from BBC Good Food

Vanilla Dough
160g plain flour
100g salted butter, cold, cut into 1cm cubes
50g sugar
1tsp vanilla essence
1 large egg yolk

Chocolate Dough
140g plain flour
20g cocoa powder
100g salted butter, cold, cut into 1cm cubes
50g sugar
1 large egg yolk

1. Prepare the vanilla dough. Place flour and butter into mixing bowl, rub together until mixture resembles coarse breadcrumbs and the butter is completely worked into the flour. Add vanilla and egg yolk, mix together gently until a ball of dough forms. If it is too dry, sprinkle in a few drops of water. Alternatively, place all the butter and flour food processor and pulse together until butter disappears, add the rest of the ingredients and pulse until a dough forms. Wrap dough with cling film and chill whilst you prepare the chocolate dough.
2. Prepare the chocolate dough as above, adding the cocoa in with the flour.
3. Unwrap the vanilla dough and place into a large Ziploc bag. Roll out into a square with uniform thickness. Repeat with the chocolate dough.
4. Place the chocolate dough on top of the vanilla dough and roll up tightly, Swiss-roll style, but gently so you don't deform the log. Chill for 1 hour.
5. Preheat oven to 180C. Line a baking tray with parchment.
6. Remove dough from the fridge. Slice into generous 5mm (1/4 inch) slices and place them slightly apart on baking sheet.
7. Bake for 20 minutes until the biscuits are just turning pale golden around the edges, then transfer to a wire rack to cool. The biscuits will keep fresh for up to one week stored in an airtight tin.