Blueberry Apricot Muffins

It's raining cats and dogs outside, there's nothing on TV...so what do you do? Well, that's when I start to bake. Mainly because afterwards I will be able to crawl up on the couch underneath my duvet with a cup of hot cocao, a newly baked muffin and continue to read the book I started yesterday. Then the rain outside seems a whole lot more cosy than half an hour ago...especially when I remember the lovely summer's day that I picked the blueberries I used in these muffins!

Today I tried to bake muffins with the wholegrain spelt flour I found this weekend at one of the larger supermarkets down in the village....and the result: DE-LI-CIOUS!!!

Blueberry Apricot Muffins
(makes about 18 muffins)

Ingredients:
125 gr butter
1 dl sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla sugar
1 dl dried apricots, finely chopped
2 tsp baking powder
1,5 dl wholegrain spelt flour
3 dl all-purpose flour
1,5 dl milk
2 dl blueberries (preferably frozen)

1.) Preheat the oven to 200 degrees Celsius.
2.) Mix the butter with the sugar in a medium sized bowl with a handmixer, until light and airy.
3.) Add the eggs one at a time.
4.) Add the vanilla sugar, the apricots, the baking powder and the two types of flour, and stir well.
5.) Add the milk and the blueberries, and stir until it becomes a smooth batter.
6.) Line a muffin pan with paper muffin forms, or put double paper muffins forms unto a baking tray.
7.) Use two spoons to divide the batter over the muffin forms, approximately 1 tbsp of batter per form.
8.) Bake the muffins for 15 to 20 minutes on the middle rack of the oven, until golden brown. Check with a cake needle that the muffins are baked completely.
9.) Transfer the muffins to a rack to cool, after they have cooled down in the muffin pan for 5 minutes first.

Enjoy!

Apricot Chocolate Cake

Ever since I got my iPhone 4, I have been hooked on one specific App. I take a peak at it during lunch break at work, I take a peak at it at the supermarket.... It's an App provided by one of the Norwegian dairy brands - Tine - that has recipes for all types of dishes..... cakes and desserts as well.

So today, during lunch break, I decided to try one of the recipes, as I had most of the ingredients lying around in one of the kitchen cupboards anyway.... Apricot Chocolate Cake was going to be made!

The cake tastes really good and has a great texture as well, but as you can see from the photo above.... all the apricot and chocolate bits sank right to the bottom of the cake. Hmmm....how to solve this problem? Well, according to my colleague who is a professionally trained chef, I could solve this in several ways. Either by dusting the bits with a bit of flour before adding them to the dough, or by not adding them to the dough and just adding them first when the cake tin has been filled halfway. Anyway, here is the recipe:

Apricot Chocolate Cake
(makes one loaf)

Ingredients:
2 eggs, at room temperature
200 gr of flour
1,5 dl of whole milk
125 gr of butter, melted
250 gr of all-purpose flour
1,5 tsp of baking powder
0,5 tsp of vanilla sugar
50 gr of chocolate (70 %)
125 gr of dried apricots

1.) Preheat the oven to 180 degrees Celsius.
2.) Butter and dust with flour a loaf tin of 1,5 liters.
3.) Mix the eggs and the sugar for about 10 minutes in a large-sized bowl, until it becomes a light and airy mixture.
4.) Melt the butter and add the milk to the melted butter.
5.) Mix the baking powder and vanilla sugar into the all-purpose flour.
6.) Add the flour mixture and the butter/milk mixture to the egg/sugar mixture, until it forms a dough.
7.) Chop the apricots and the chocolate into small pieces, and add to the dough.
8.) Fill the loaf tin with the mixture, and bake for 45 minutes on the middle rack of the oven.
9.) Check with a cake needle or a skewer whether the cake is done (no dough should stick to the needle / skewer when you pull it out after sticking it into the cake).
10.) Leave on a rack to cool, first 5 minutes in the loaf tin, after that without.

Enjoy!