nutella

Nutella Cinnamon Buns

- Michael 1 Comment

Nutella Cinnamon Rolls

How do you make an early morning trip to IKEA better? You leave cinnamon buns proving overnight in the fridge and wake up early to bake them, then pour some frosting over them and stuff them into your face. We even managed to get to IKEA for it opening and were the first customers through the check out. The story of assembling the items is a whole other problem though, but at least I’ve not got somewhere to hang my clothes. Back to nutella cinnamon buns though, as they’re far better than furniture. Read more

Pumpkin & Nutella Pie

- Michael Leave a comment

Pumpkin & Nutella Pie

Confession: I have never made pumpkin pie before. In fact, I’ve never even eaten pumpkin pie before. I always mean to, but it’s just not something (until lately) that’s been that common to buy in the UK. I also feel a bit like I’ve been neglecting my love for nut butter. If anyone has been following me since the early days you’ll know that I used to struggle to go a month without a recipe containing peanut butter (mainly) or nutella. So when I came across a list of “pumpkin pie recipes you must try” the one with the nutella mixed in sort of… jumped out at me. It’s halloween on Saturday and I was going to post a pumpkin pancake recipe especially, but after I made this I decided this trumped it.

Pumpkin & Nutella Pie
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Nutella Filled Cinnamon Sugar Muffins

- Michael Leave a comment

Christmas is in 9 days. I repeat, Christmas is in 9 days. Where the hell has the time gone? I am running out! With a trip to Scotland booked in from December 21st to December 27th, I am very limited with the time I have left, to shop, bake, see the Hobbit and generally exist along the way. However, it’s time for my second Festive Baking recipe. And you guessed it, it involves cinnamon. Although what you may not have  expected was Nutella. And what you may also not have expected, with it being festive, is that they are muffins. Cinnamon topped and Nutella stuffed Muffins, yum. What makes these different as well is that they use a slightly different flour to the usual plain white. I used a plain wholemeal, which made them slightly heavier but also works great on a cold night and compliments the Nutella and Cinnamon really well.

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The recipe only makes a few, 9 to be exact, but can be very easily doubled (and will be later this week when I am baking for a party). Speaking of the party, I’m also baking a couple of my Cranberry and Orange loaves, as well as some Reindeer pretzel cookies! It is the day I finish work for Christmas, so it’s safe to say that I’ll undoubtedly be a little worse for wear before it’s done. I’m also starting to plan in bakes for when I’m up at my parent’s cottage on Mull next week.

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Nutella Filled Cinnamon Sugar Muffins
 
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Serves: 9
Ingredients
  • 5 Tablespoons or 75g unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
  • 100g granulated sugar
  • 1 large egg
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 120ml milk
  • 190g plain wholemeal flour
  • 1 and ½ teaspoons baking powder
  • ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
  • ¼ teaspoon ground nutmeg
  • ½ teaspoon salt
  • 8 teaspoons Nutella
  • Cinnamon-Sugar Topping
  • 50g granulated sugar
  • 2 teaspoons cinnamon
  • 45g unsalted butter
Instructions
  1. Preheat the oven to 220°C(200°C fan) and grease a muffin tin (I used butter but a spray will work just as well).
  2. Cream together the sugar and the butter, on a medium speed.
  3. Mix in the egg, beating well, before mixing in the vanilla and the milk.
  4. Gently mix in the flour, baking powder, cinnamon, nutmeg and salt. When mixing these together be careful not to over-mix them. Do it until only just combined to avoid a heavy mixture.
  5. Divide up the batter into the muffin tins. Do this by putting one heaped tablespoon in to each hole. On top of each of these, place a dollop of Nutella. Cover with the remaining batter.
  6. Bake at 220°C for 5 minutes, then reduce the temperature to 175°C(155°C fan) and bake for a further 13-17 minutes
  7. Allow the muffins to cool for about 5 minutes.
  8. While they are cooling, mix together the sugar and cinnamon. Melt the butter (either in a microwave or a pan).
  9. Take a muffin, dip the top in to the butter and then dip it in to the sugar mix to top it.
  10. Place upright on a cooling rack until they are cooled properly.

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Nutella Stuffed Chocolate Cupcakes with Peanut Butter Frosting

- Michael 1 Comment

What can I say? Life has well and truly gotten on top of me. It’s been several weeks since my last update, but that does not mean I haven’t been baking. I’ve just not had the time to spend to sit down and put everything together. My time has been otherwise engaged with a young lady, and I couldn’t be happier to have her taking up my time. She gets first dibs on trying everything that I bake these days though, and everything is coming up with the Kirsty seal of approval.

But enough of that, time to move on to the reason you people are here <s>my beard</s> food! First up of a run of updates will be Nutella stuffed chocolate cupcakes with Peanut Butter Cream Cheese frosting. These were a bit of an experiment to see if I could combine a couple of recipes that I’ve used in the past. They ended up being a gooey mess. One is most certainly enough but I wouldn’t let that put you off. The cupcake recipe is one I’ve used before and is here. They make very moist cupcakes which make the gooey center fairly stodgy. I’d save these for a dessert.

The key with the frosting would be to get a more expensive peanut butter, this means it’ll be less oily and will make a much better frosting. Alas, I hadn’t thought this through so ended up with a shiny and hard to use (if still tasty) frosting.

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Nutella Stuffed Chocolate Cupcakes with Peanut Butter Frosting
 
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Ingredients
  • For the cupcakes:
  • 130g all-purpose flour
  • 200g granulated sugar
  • 65g cocoa powder
  • 1 teaspoon baking powder
  • ½ teaspoon baking soda
  • ½ teaspoon salt
  • 120 ml milk
  • 60 ml vegetable oil
  • 1 egg
  • ½ teaspoon vanilla
  • 120 boiling water
  • For the filling:
  • 170g Cream Cheese
  • 170g Nutella
  • For the frosting:
  • 200g Cream Cheese
  • 120g Peanut Butter (better quality the better)
  • 700g Icing Sugar
  • 2 Tbsp Milk or Cream
Instructions
  1. Preheat the oven to 150°C and line your cake tray with cases.
  2. Mix together the flour, sugar, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a large bowl. Whisk until it’s well mixed.
  3. Combine the Nutella and Cream Cheese separately.
  4. Add the “wet” ingredients, apart from the boiling water, and mix on a medium speed until well combined.
  5. Reduce the speed and very carefully add the boiling water. Slowly up the speed until it’s on high and allow to mix for around 1 minute. This will get a good amount of air into the mix.
  6. Distribute the batter evenly into the cases. Fill to around ¾ of the case. Depending on the size of the case you’ll get between 12 and 18 cakes, but always fill to about ¾. Drop a dollop of the nutella mix into the middle of each one.
  7. Bake for 12-25 minutes. The cakes will be done when a tooth pick inserted into the center comes out clean.
  8. Remove from the oven and allow to cool slightly in the tray before transferring to a rack.
  9. While they are cooling, prepare the frosting.
  10. Beat the cream cheese until soft. Mix in the Peanut butter. Beat until well combined.
  11. Mix in the Icing sugar and finally the milk or cream. Beat until it makes a stiff frosting.
  12. Pipe onto the cakes.

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