Debut Post : Lemon Pistachio Double Chocolate Chip Buns

the Lemon Pistachio Double Chocolate Chip bun.

 

 

Welcome to the first blog post. After hours and hours in the kitchen, and with my increasing love for food and everything edible, the desire and joy of sharing one of the best things life has to offer has led me to overcome the many obstacles in creating a Food blog.

If you're wondering,

This blog won't be a blog that

1: Shows you reviews of the different Cafes/Restaurants in Singapore

2: Shows pics of delicious food at Restaurants most people can't afford (including myself)

3. Difficult, Complicated or Mainstream Recipes

This blog will share about

1. My tried and human-tested Gastronomical Favourites , Baked / Cooked, for you to try at home

2. Selected Food Places in Singapore that presents VALUE

3. Interesting Cooking Techniques, Trivia that are fun to read

 

Came across this recipe in Annie Bell's Baking Bible, tried it, and absolutely loved it. The marriage of chocolate and pistachios is hardly raved about but turns out to be an absolute screamer. 

It deviates from the conventional way of making a muffin (of simply folding dry in to wet ingredients), neither does it look like a cupcake, so Annie just calls it a bun. The fluffy light texture is accrued to an extra step in folding egg whites which were beated in to firm peaks in to the final mixture.

Made some adjustments to the original recipe which called for Orange instead of Lemon. In addition, I used both white and dark chocolate chips for that extra sweetness. Top it off with an apricot glaze made from simply heating up some apricot jam w a splash of water. (a lil cheat I always use).

And then there was one day I had nothing better to do, so I made around 200 muffins and sold them in school for Valentines. Kudos to my hot chick friend who packaged everything :)


Here's my version of the Recipe (Adapted from Annie Bell)

115 g Golden Caster Sugar
115 g Unsalted Butter at Room Temperature
140 g Plain All Purpose Flour
25 g Coarsely Grounded Pistachios (shelled) + 1 tbspn finely grounded for dusting (optional)
20 g Dark Chocolate Chips
20 g White Chocolate Chips
35 g Apricot Jam (any brand would do)
1/4 tsp Sea Salt
75 ml Full fat milk
1 tsp Baking Powder
2 Eggs, divided at Room Temperature
Finely grated zest of 1 lemon

1. Preheat Oven to 170C fan/190C Electric and arrange Paper cases in muffin trays.
2. Cream the butter and sugar with an Electric Whisk on Speed 3 for about 8-10 mins till the mixture is creamy and almost white
3. Incorporate Lemon Zest and egg yolks, one at a time, and then add the milk, till homogenised
4. In a separate bowl, sift the flour and baking powder twice.
5. Fold the flour mixture in to the butter mixture, half at a time. do not over mix.
6. Add the salt, Pistachios and chocolate chips and fold in lightly.
7. Whisk the Egg whites with an electric whisk in a separate bowl till still peaks form.
8. Fold them in to the mixture as LIGHTLY as possible in the fewest number of strokes.
9. Spoon batter in to muffin trays and bake for 15-17 mins ( depending on your oven) 
10. Skewer test should come out clean.
11. Allow muffins to cool and glaze them with apricot glaze ( heating the jam in a small pot, with 1 table spoon of water) 
12. Sprinkle with finely ground Pistachio (optional)

Happy baking :)