Hv NOT Been Cooking Thus A Remedy Needed

I got a HUGE excuse for not cooking/baking. Work ruled out EVERYTHING! Can you believe it...?!! Well, I do... at least for the last couple of weeks. The effect was horrendous. Alrite, mayhaps I exagerated there... But still, it was a bad, bad couple of weeks. Yeah, I'm whining. So be it...! Poor "B" had to take the toll of it all. No lunchies packed, packet dinners or worst NO dinner. Boohoohoo! When things went awry, I'd cursed life to be sooo horrid! Hmph...!

I got myself together yesternight to compensate for the loss. Onward remedy to my uber favourite comfort food. CHOCOLATES...! Yeah, Baby yeah...! Still... the fatigue and mind boggling events have yet to leave me thus I couldn't do much. Guess, some chockful chocolate chip filled muffins won't do much harm. Could they...? Haiz... wished I had added the whole packet of Hershey bits. That'll give an extra ooomph aites! Not that I didn't want to but becoz I didn't had a whole packet. Better than none at all. To justify the chocolate cravings, I added in 1/4 cup of Van Houten cocoa to the mixture. Yup, a little chocolate kick starting up.

Thank God, the muffins were easy to make. With what little energy I had left, I mustered them all up and baked. Oooh, I added various toppings to erm... make them all look a little ncer and appertising. Of course they turnedout delish. After the fish curry dinner, we had these babies with a dollop of vanilla ice-cream each. It'll be perfect if the vanilla ice-cream wasn't, errr... BLueeek! However, "B" didn't seemed to mind (as always). Well... that's my "B". "Fussy" is just NOT in his dictionary. I sooo HeArT u...! Oh, oh... I almost forgot. Silly me. To top it ALL up, I made Raisin Bread. Awesomeliciously good... Alrite, these treats aka "remedies" should cover up for my long absence for a bit. winks*

Ingredients for Almond & Chocolate Muffins
160g unsalted butter - melted
1/2 cup chopped almonds
OR
1/2 cup Hershey Chocolate Chips
1/3 cup AP flour
1/4 cup Van Houten cocoa
1 1/3 cups icing sugar

5 egg whites
White Choc Chips (topping)
Choped Almonds (topping)
Strawberry jam (topping)
Method
Preheat oven @ 180'C.
In a bowl, sift flour and icing sugar. Then add in cocoa. Place egg whites in another bowl and whisk with a fork until combined. Add melted butter into flour mixture together with the egg whites. Mix gently until all ingredients are combined. Pour them into two different bowls and add in Hershey Choc Chips in one and chopped almonds in another. Fill the muffin cups till 3/4 full. Sprinkle white choc chips or chopped almonds. Bake for 20-25 minutes till skewer comes out clean when inserted. Leave them on a rack to cool before you gorge yourself silly into them!

Ingredients for Raisin Bread
2x7g sachets instant yeast
3/4 cup water
4 cups bread flour - sifted
2 tbsp caster sugar
1 tsp cinnamon powder
1/2 tsp nutmeg powder
40g cold butter - cubed
1 1/2 cups sultanas
milk (glaze)
raisins (topping)
Method
In a bowl, put bread flour, instant yeast and caster sugar and rub in butter with your fingertips. Stir in the sultanas. Add in water (bit-by-bit) and mix with hands until dough does not stick onto bowl. Take out dough and place on lightly dusted surface and knead for 5 minutes or until smooth. Adding more flour if necessary to prevent sticking. Place dough in a large floured bowl, covered with a damp towel and leave in a warm area to rise until double its size. Preheat oven to 200'C. Take out dough onto floured surface and knead gently to deflate. Put into a baking tin and sprinkle raisins. Bake @ 200'C for 30 minutes. In the midst of baking, brush milk for a shiny darker brown top. Leave on rack to cool before cutting. Great to have this bread with marmalade (me fav), butter, jam, peanut butter or anything you fancy!