Easter Yoghurt Muffins

Basic, classic, elegant. This is one of the most useful recipe, for all occassions. So today, as an Easter Muffins I want to present them - yoghurt muffins with a nice, delicate lemon taste and a raspberry surprise inside. 

I realize that the biggest surprise are the wrrapings, and some of You probably crave for them ;) They come from the website of one of the most known producent in Poland and you can find them and many others here. Have fun and Happy Easter! :)

The base, slightly changed, comes from this website. 

Ingredients (for 24 smaller muffins) all of them need to be room temperatured.

• 250g of natural yoghurt (but not a "0% fat" one)
• 150g of margarine
• 4 eggs
• lemon zest from 2 lemons
• 300g of flour
• 1 teaspoon of baking soda
• a pinch of salt
• 250g of sugar

Filling:

• Raspberry jam

Preparation:

1. Take a pan, melt butter inside. Let it cool down.
2. Start preheating the oven to 170C.
3. Prepare muffin cases and keep handy. 
4. Prepare a big bowl.
5. Put yoghurt inside and mix it with cool melted butter. Add eggs and lemon zest. Beat.
6. Now add sieved flour, soda, salt and sugar. Stir only till all the ingredients mix.
7. Fill the muffin cases with dough till their 3/4 height.
8. Put in the oven and bake for around 25-30 minutes, till you reach a dry toothpick.
9. Take them out and using a syringe with very thin 'needle' like ending and inject the jam inside.
10. Remove the excess of the jam that starts coming out from the muffin.
11. Let the muffins cool down.
12. Prepare the icing, for example from this recipe and decorate the muffins.
13. When done, you can dress up your muffins using this wrapping. Remember to cut it out precisely and laminate, before using :)
14. Bon Appetit! :)

Bajadera Reindeers

Bajadera is always a fantastic, last second idea which always works and always tastes delicious :)

I do recommend them, especially when you have no time and your oven is tired ;) it doesn't require baking ;) I do apologize for the bad quality of the picture, so let me say that the taste and children's smiles will make it up to You :)
Another wonderful use of bajadera, a little bit easier than reindeers, but also Christmas-themed You can find here.

Quite changed recipe comes from this website.

Ingredients:

Base:

• 400g of dried pound cake (preferably lemon or vanilla flavoured)
• 120g of mascarpone cheese
• 80g of nutella
• 350g of milk chocolate
• favourite mincemeat (including for example nuts, almonds; or baking cocoa)

Reindeers:

body parts:

• nose: 1 pack of red small round sprinkles, 
• horns: 1 pack of pretzels, cut into halves, 
• eyes: frosting deco pens
• some small plastic sticks
• ribbons for decoration

Optional ingredients:

• 10-25ml of Rum
• dried fruit - but in very small pieces

Preparation:

1. If your pound cake isn't dried enough, it is a good idea to crumble it into very small pieces and put it in the preheated oven(over 180C) for a couple of minutes.
2. Take a mixer and it's bowl. Put mascarpone cheese and nutella inside. Mix till smooth.
3. Put dried pound cake to the bowl and mix everything till smooth. 
4. Here is the time to add and mix optional ingredients if desired.
5. Cover with foil and cool down in the freezer for 45 minutes.
6. During that time, prepare a rectangular bakewell pan or loaf tin or - something that you can put in your freezer. Put some baking paper on its bottom (if You have a sponge suitable for making cake pops - use it here).
7. Take the dough out from the freezer and start making small balls, put each of them in previously prepared pan/tin.
8. Put back in the freezer for another 15 minutes.
9. During that time, take a pot, put chocolate (in small pieces) inside and melt on a very low heat.
10. Dip 1/3-1/2 of every stick in the melted chocolate and put in the middle of every ball.
11. Put it back in the freezer for another 20-30 minutes.
12. Prepare a sponge (to dig reindeers in it) and elements of decoration around you.
13. Take one ball from the freezer, dip in the chocolate, so that it covers the entire ball, take out, wait till the excess of chocolate falls down.
14. As the ball is very cold, the chocolate will stiffen on it very fast, so as soon as you take it out from the pot, decorate it, starting with horns and dig it in the sponge.
15. Repeat with all the balls.
16. At the end, decorate with ribbons.
17. Store them in the fridge.
18. Bon Appetit! ;)

Bajadera

Bajadera. What is it? Well - that's a fantastic, last second idea which always works, always tastes delicious as it is chocolate sweet, soft and moist. 

I do recommend, especially when you have no time and your oven is tired as it is a non-baking recipe ;)
But - if You have time and enjoy baking, decorating, creating sweet wonders - see also Bajadera Reindeers.

Quite changed recipe comes from this website.

Ingredients:

• 400g of dried pound cake (preferably lemon or vanilla flavoured)
• 120g of mascarpone cheese
• 80g of nutella
• 350g of milk chocolate
• favourite mincemeat (including for example nuts, almonds; or  baking cocoa)
• some plastic small sticks
• sprinkles for decoratation

Optional ingredients:

• 10-25ml of Rum
• dried fruit - but in very small pieces

Preparation:

1. If your pound cake isn't dried enough, it is a good idea to crumble it into very small pieces and put it in the preheated oven(over 180C) for a couple of minutes.
2. Take a mixer and it's bowl. Put mascarpone cheese and nutella inside. Mix till smooth.
3. Put dried pound cake to the bowl and mix everything till smooth. 
4. Here is the time to add and mix optional ingredients if desired.
5. Cover with foil and cool down in the freezer for 45 minutes.
6. During that time, prepare a rectangular bakewell pan or loaf tin or - something that you can put in your freezer. Put some baking paper on its bottom.
7. Take the dough out from the freezer and start making small balls, put each of them in previously prepared pan/tin.
8. Put back in the freezer for another 30 minutes.
9. During that time prepare small paper muffin cases and sprinkles around you.
10. Also, take a pot, put chocolate (in small pieces) inside and melt on a very low heat.
11. Take one ball from the freezer, dip 1/3 of a stick inside a ball and dip in the chocolate, so that it covers the entire ball, take out from the chocolate, wait till the excess of chocolate falls down.
12. As the ball is very cold, the chocolate will stiffen on it very fast, so as soon as you take it out from the chocolate pot, take out the stick, put it on a muffin case and decorate.
13. Store finished bajaderas in the fridge.
14. Bon Appetit! ;)

Christmas Trees

Ahhh, my favourite muffin dough in one of its creations... :) I bake them only once a year, for Christmas cause of that smell and taste... mmmm! :) entire house smells of cinammon while baking them :) that increases the Christmas atmosphere ;) So - this time - Christmas trees :) They're perfect once baked, wonderful while still hot/warm and still perfect after a day or two ;) Soft, quite wet, mouth-watering :) match a lot of additional ingredients :) Must try ;)

Recipe for the dough comes from this website.

Recipe for the butter-cream comes from this website.

Ingredients (all of them have to be in a room teperature):

• 3 glasses of flour
• 1 tablespoon of baking powder
• 1 tablespoon of ground cinnamon
• a pinch of salt
• 230g of butter or margarine
• 1,5 glass of white sugar
• 4 big eggs
• 2 teaspoons of vanilla extract
• 1 and 1/4 glass of milk (3,2%)

Buttercream:

• 4 egg whites
• 1 glass of white sugar
• a pinch of salt
• 300g of butter, in a room temperature, chopped into small cubes
• vanilla extract
• green food colouring (in a gel or powder, not in a liquid)

Additionals:

• Sprinkles

Preparing muffins:

1. Prepare muffin tins, or any other desired tin (but if it is a metal tin, where you can't put paper muffin cases, it needs to be greased)
2. Take a bowl, put flour, baking powder, cinammon and salt inside.
3. Take a mixer and its bowl, put butter and sugar inside, start mixing to get a fluffy, bright mixture.
4. Add eggs, one after another, mixing after every single egg.
5. Add vanilla extract and mix again.
6. By turns: add some 'dry' ingredients (flour with baking powder, salt and cinnamon), mix, add some milk, mix and again, dry ingredients, milk... till all of them are mixed in a bowl.
7. Put in previously prepared tins (not full, 1/2-3/4 of its height).
8. Put in the oven and bake in 180C for around 20 minutes (check, by using a toothpick).
9. Cool down (at least before putting the cream ;) )

Preparing buttercream:

1. Take egg whites, mix with sugar. Prepare a 'bath' for them.* Keep stiring and heating the mixture over boiling water till the sugar completely melts.
2. Cool down the mixture if it got hot. 
3. Put in the mixer's bowl and beat, around 10 minutes to get white, shiny, stiff a meringue.
4. Start adding the butter, one piece after another, mixing after adding every piece. While adding it may look like it is curdled, but don't panic, it's perfectly fine :) (although I did panic, so you are justified if you did panic as well ;)
5. When the mixture is stiff and all the butter is mixed, add vanilla extract and food colouring, mix.

Preparing Christmas Trees:

1. Take a pastry bag with a star-like tin nozzle, put the buttercream inside and start distributing on the muffin.
2. Start from the middle of the muffin and making circles go it its edge.
3. Decorate with additionals.
4. Bon Appetit! ;)

*A bath is simply boiling the ingredients, but not boiling them in a water, but keeping them in a bowl over a steam.