Baking for Morgies

[tcmgpt13]

Happy Birthday to Whrk's husband! Here's his muffins from Nigella's website (I hope others will add easy baked goods recipes for morgies to make). Recipe converter for US bakers is at the bottom of post:

WELCOME TO NIGELLA'S WEBSITE

BANANA AND BUTTERSCOTCH MUFFINS
NIGELLA


INGREDIENTS

3 very ripe bananas
125ml vegetable oil
2 eggs
250g flour
100g caster sugar
1/2 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
150g butterscotch (or chocolate) morsels
Serving Size : Makes 12

METHOD


1. Preheat the oven to 200°C/gas mark 6 and line a 12-bun muffin tin with muffin papers.
2. Mash the bananas and set aside for a moment.
3. Pour the oil into a jug and beat in the eggs.
4. Put the flour, sugar, bicarbonate of soda and baking powder into a large bowl and mix in the beaten-egg-and-oil mixture, followed by the mashed bananas.
5. Fold in the butterscotch morsels, then place equal quantities in the prepared muffin tin – I use an ice cream scoop and a spatula – and bake in the oven for 20 minutes.

ADDITIONAL INFO

White chocolate morsels can be used in place of the butterscotch ones and my children seem to love both with equal fervour, though I’m pretty fond of these with dark chocolate chips, too.
Click here to find out more!

REVIEWS

Sooo easy and they came out lovely. I did substitute the butterscotch for chocolate chips due to what we had in the house. Highly recommended recipe

tweeti

Very easy to make and had very positive comments from the guys at work. Will definitely be making these again.

Katy85

These muffins are delicious, and it's well worth seeking out butterscotch chips for them. Gorgeous.

Recipe Converter site for US cooks:

Convert

[MeToo]

Chocolate Chocolate Chip

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup powdered sugar
1 cup white sugar
2 cups semisweet chocolate chips
6 tablespoons butter, softened
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 eggs

Preheat oven to 350* Combine flour, baking powder and salt and set aside. Melt 1 cup of the chocolate chips on low heat. Cream the butter, vanilla and white sugar and add to the melted chips. Beat in eggs. Add the flour mixture and the rest of the chips. Make small balls, roll in powdered sugar and place on ungreased cookie sheet. Bake for 10-12 minutes.

[janedoe]

what is castor sugar? never heard of it, is it healthy? im looking for alteratives that my dad will actually do when he bakes..dont overwhelm me tho, he hates change. but if i can switch out a better sugar then a better next ingredient..ya know? but i havent heard of the castor sugar.. anybody got a good alternative to salt?

[tcmgpt13]

Here's a website which claims to have a substitute which is a no potassium chloride salt substitute. Unfortunately they do not say what the ingredients are (or maybe I missed that). I have never tried any of this company's products. Potassium chloride (found in store bought salt substitutes) just as sodium chloride can be an issue for some who have either kidney or medication issues. Here's what this site says about that issue:

"Many doctors tell their patients "No salt substitutes", but not always why. It's because most salt substitutes are made of a potassium product and/or potassium chloride. Much of the heart and blood pressure medication today is potassium based. Also, you might be supplementing with a potassium product. If you add potassium chloride from salt substitutes you could throw off the benefits and be getting too much of this potassium which can adversely affect your heart. If the doctor says no salt substitutes it's because of the potassium chloride, as that is what most salt substitutes are made of."

Salt Substitute + Popcorn Seasoning

Many try to use seasonings to make up for the loss of salt use at the table. Mrs. Dash, found in the grocery store spice sections, makes a whole line of substitute for salt seasonings. There's probably others out there too.

Also some folks can tolerate small amounts of unrefined sea salt. Those who sell the Himalayan salts (which is not sea salt but mined salt) claim that their salt not raise blood pressure. Not sure if there is any scientific research to back any of those claims though (for either of these types of salt).

A discussion about Himalayan salt claims here, pro and con:

Yahoo! Canada Answers - Does Himalayan salt raise blood pressure the same as sea salt or table salt? If not, why?

Castor sugar is superfine granulated sugar and is more readily found in UK, but not US stores though evidently some places carry this:

It's also known as superfine sugar. This sugar melts and gets incorporated into things much more quickly because it's so fine. It's esp. useful in things like meringues. I've had success substituting regular sugar by simply grinding up the sugar (e.g. in a coffee grinder) until it's very fine.

By SJ on Mar 17, 2003 04:23PM

re: SJ
But don't mistake it for 10X Superfine, which is also known as powdered sugar. Caster sugar is available in some gourmet grocery stores, but it is usually very expensive. I'm going to try the coffee grinder next time I need it.

By Kirk on Mar 17, 2003 06:01PM

Domino makes a superfine sugar that I find in grocery stores (Stop & Shop, StarMarket) in the Boston area. It's sold in a box that looks a lot like powdered sugar. I use it when I make pitchers of ice tea and lemonade in the summer. It shouldn't be difficult to find.

By raj1 on Mar 18, 2003 10:03AM

What is Caster Sugar? - General Chowhounding Topics - Chowhound

[MeaganM]

I just bought Stevia (sugar substitute) but haven't tried it yet. I don't know where I read it but read that it was better than sugar. Has anyone else tried it or read about it?

[sojii]

MeaganM, I use stevia almost exclusively except for my first cup of coffee in the morning. Curious what brand you bought and how you like it. A lot of them have a bad aftertaste to me, almost as bad as saccharin. Or they have to be refrigerated after opening. Or some pain in the rear thing. I've been using a brand called Stevita lately which is in a nice little squirt bottle and doesn't have to be refrigerated. Uses grapefruit seed extract as a preservative. I really like it; no strange aftertaste.

Yes, tcm; Stevita's paying me to say this.

[janedoe]

ive heard of stevia, is it good? my dad sometimes gets sweet n low for his buddys coffee, that stuff is sacharine.
we have sea salt here, but it makes me hold water like crazy! mrs dash kind of sucks,, haha, oh well, ill keep searching..thanks

[MeToo]

This is from the Mayo Clinic and doesn't really explain how to cook with the substitutes. They may be a little biased because they seem to pass over agave and honey and spend a lot of time on artificial sweeteners. There's a wiki too as well as mention on diabetic sites.

Artificial sweeteners: Understanding these and other sugar substitutes - MayoClinic.com

another one

Sugar Substitutes

doesn't say who is sponsoring it unless I missed it somewhere.

[tcmgpt13]

LOL , that's hilarious. As if I would ever think you were able to get paid by Stevita.

Originally Posted by sojii

MeaganM, I use stevia almost exclusively except for my first cup of coffee in the morning. Curious what brand you bought and how you like it. A lot of them have a bad aftertaste to me, almost as bad as saccharin. Or they have to be refrigerated after opening. Or some pain in the rear thing. I've been using a brand called Stevita lately which is in a nice little squirt bottle and doesn't have to be refrigerated. Uses grapefruit seed extract as a preservative. I really like it; no strange aftertaste.

Yes, tcm; Stevita's paying me to say this.