Baking Adventures - Mini Chocolate Chip Muffins

Baking is not one of my strengths. I remember days of baking muffins with my then 15 year old younger brother. We used the same recipe, did the same steps side by side but my muffins came out as rocks while his are fluffy and yummy. During home econs lessons, I passed by sticking to my best friend who cooks better than the teacher. Thus, for me to try baking again took a lot of nudging from my baking friends and my love for my kids.

The primary school schedule is really not ideal for any kid. #1 wakes at 6:20am, refuses breakfast, in school by 7am and has his first break for food at 8:50am.  He has 30mins to get to the canteen, queue for food, find a seat, eat, get back to the meeting point with the rest of this classmates. There never seem to be enough tables and chairs and some kids just stand and eat. Thereafter, it's lesson time til 11:50am where they get a 5-10min break for snacks, at their desks, seated. By the time school ends and #1 is home for lunch, it is 2:30pm. And he is lucky compared to his cousins who get home at 3:30pm. I don't even want to call it lunch cos it is tea break time for some working folks. This schedule is crazy.

Since we can't change the education system, we manage it. One of the ways is to fill up #1 with quick yummy food during the 5-10min snack break. So far we have done
1) French Toasts
2) Pancakes
3) Biscuits
4) Cereal
5) Bananas
6) Sandwiches
7) Muffins

By far the most requested item is Muffins. I started making them in Jan (See the post in Jan, same rant haha). It's July now and I finally nailed down the recipe. Yes, it took me that long to figure how to to work it. #1 has been so forgiving, telling me he loved them even when they are far from ideal. #2 not so, she is picky and will not attempt to please anyone.

For #1, here is the recipe for the muffin he loves so much.

Mini Chocolate Chip Muffins
Makes 22 mini muffins

Wet Ingredients
1 60g egg (including shell)
1/4 teaspoon vanilla essence
2 tablespoon of Dutch Lady Milky, Full Cream flavour
15ml olive oil for baking
60ml SCS salted butter - melted in the microwave in 10secs interval

Dry Ingredients
75g Prima cake flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
55g caster sugar
pinch of salt

Toppings
Hershey mini chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 220 degrees.
Sieve all the dry ingredients into a mixing bowl. Mix all the wet ingredients in another bowl. Add wet ingredients to dry ingredients and mix with a spatula. The mixture should be a little lumpy.

Place muffin liners into each cup. Scope 3/4 tablespoon of batter into each cup. Top it with mini chocolate chip. Use a toothpick to mix in the chocolate chips by drawing an "O". Hold the tin an inch from the table and drop onto the table twice to release any trapped air.

Put the muffins into the over and bake for 3-4mins. Lower the temperature to 200 degrees and continue baking for 7 to 8mins.

Cool the muffins on the cooling rack. Keeps well in a Lock and Lock container for up to 3 days.

One Pot Creamy Spaghetti for #1

This recipe uses milk and cooks all ingredients in one pot.

One Pot Creamy Spaghetti for #1 
Feeds 2 kids and one adult.

250g organic spaghetti
2 packets of 240ml organic chicken stock
240ml fresh milk
approximately 240ml water
2 tablespoon of butter
2 tablespoon grated parmesan cheese
3 cloves of garlic minced
olive oil for frying the garlic
sale and pepper to taste

Use a big pot or saucepan. Saute garlic in olive oil til it is fragrant. Add stock, milk, water, spaghetti, salt and pepper. Bring to a boil, then turn down to simmer til spaghetti is cooked. Do stir it once in awhile and add milk if it is too dry.  Mix in parmesan cheese and serve.

We usually add sausages which would add flavor and salt to the dish. Yumm!