Blueberry banana muffin

The fiance was back from the US after a 2 week work related trip. I am so very fortunate to have a man who 'listens' when I jabber what would be of absolute irrelevance to him. For instance when I whine about how we have no blueberries growing here and how I wish I had some to bake muffins or any dessert. It was tremendously sweet of him to remember all the whining and get me a pack of dried blueberries (would've been better if it were fresh, but hey what the hell!). So then followed blueberry banana muffins. Why the banana? I figured since the berries weren't fresh, they wouldn't kick in a lot of flavour. And I was right. They were nice but maybe I'd ask him to get fresh ones nicely packed the next time. But for now, I'm just glad I have atleast the dried ones :)

Ingredients:

1 cup flour

1/2 cup sugar

1/4 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp cinnamon powder

3/4 cup mashed banana

1/4 cup curd

1 egg

1/3 cup oil / melted butter

1 tsp vanilla

1/4 cup toasted walnuts

1/2 cup fresh/fozen/dried blueberries

a pinch of salt

Method

Combine the dry ingredients together. In a separate bowl mix in the wet ingredients. Add the dry to wet mix and fold. Do not over-mix else the muffins would turn hard. Now fold in the blueberries and walnuts. Scoop 2 tb sp batter into each muffin mould or fill it up 3/4th of the mould. Bake for 20 mins at 190 C in your pre-heated oven. Let them cool and enjoy with some coffee or serve them warm for breakfast. They're not too sweet or heavy as I'd expected. Quite light and tasty. You get a bit of everything, banana, blueberry, walnut and cinnamon. Real good treat!

Apple pie

Anybody who knows me must know my love for apple pie. It's the comfort food of desserts for me. After a few failed attempts I finally got my way around. Cold night, warm pie. Couldn't get better. Well...with more pie it does get better ;) Let me not ramble on as usual and get on with the recipe.
Ingredients:
Filling:
3 large apples chopped (green, worse comes worse red)
1 tsp cinnamon powder
3 tbsp sugar
juice of half a lemon if red apples is what you use
1/4 cup cashews/almonds/raisins (optional)
Crust:
125 gm margarine frozen and cut into small pieces
250 gm flour
2 tbsp chilled water
1/4 tsp salt
1 tbsp powered sugar
1 tbsp milk powder
Method:
First things first: make the dough for the crust, because it has to sit in the fridge for about 20 min. On your kitchen counter, which I really hope is clean!, place the flour with the salt and milk powder. Tip in the frozen margarine, with the help of a fork mix the margarine into the flour. When the margarine has slowly disintegrated, use your fingers to bring the mixture together along with the chilled water. The water is just to bring it all together and make the dough. Don't knead it! just bring it together. Now wrap this in plastic and chill in the fridge. Meanwhile, get on with the filling.
Now for the filling. If you have green apples (which are the best btw) peel, core and dice them. Mix the other ingredients together with the apples.
Get the crust out of the fridge. Use 3/4th of it and roll it out carefully not breaking it. Roll it enough to fit a 9 inch pie base. Trim the extra dough off the rim of the crust. Fill it with the apple mixture. Roll the rest of the dough out, thinner than the crust. Make stripes of the dough and arrange on top of the pie. Now brush with milk or beaten egg. This is to give the pie a nice golden brown color on top. Let it bake in your pre-heated oven for about 30 minutes or till it turns golden brown. Let it completely cool before you cut. But once you do, don't waste any time. Attack!! ;)

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