Z & J Kitchen Diaries' Strawberry Swirl Muffins

Strawberries - Whether fresh, frozen or canned, they are a favorite of many. I don't mind having strawberries in whatever I consume. However, my husband will always be the bigger strawberry fan between the two of us. Since he is also a huge fan of muffins, I decided to combine his love for strawberries and his love for muffins in one. Thus, my strawberry swirl muffins were born. How did I make them? Here's how.

RECIPE NAME: STRAWBERRY SWIRL MUFFINS

YIELD: 14-16 medium sized muffins

PREP TIME: 10-15 mins
BAKING TIME: 25-30 mins
BAKING TEMPERATURE: 180-200 C

INGREDIENTS:
DRY INGREDIENTS:
2 cups all purpose flour
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp iodized salt

WET INGREDIENTS:
2 whole eggs
1 cup milk (evaporated or fresh)
1/4 cup vegetable or canola oil
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 cup strawberry jam (I used Clara Ole)
1/4 cup blueberry jam (I used Clara Ole)
1/2 cup chopped frozen strawberries (Leave some for topping your muffins before baking)

PROCEDURE:
1. Preheat oven at 180-200 C for 10 minutes.

2. In a bowl, sift flour, sugar, baking powder and iodized salt. Mix until well incorporated.

3. In a different bowl, break eggs & whisk until the yolk is fully beaten with the white. Add milk, oil, jams & chopped frozen strawberries. Mix until well incorporated.

4. Add dry mixture to wet ingredients. Mix until all the dry ingredients are well incorporated to the wet ingredients to form a wet batter. DO NOT OVERMIX as overmixing will make the muffins hard.

5. Prepare muffin tray. If using liner, no need to brush/spray with oil or butter. If not using liner, best to brush/spray with oil or butter to avoid sticking. Scoop batter evenly on each cavity. Top with frozen strawberries. Make sure to add the syrup on top before using a toothpick to swirl the syrup on top of the batter to get the reddish swirl effect.

6. Bake for 25-30 minutes or until inserted toothpick comes clean.

NOTE: Fresh strawberries can be used in this recipe but you will not be able to get the same reddish swirl result. If using fresh strawberries, use strawberry jam as a topping to get your desired swirl effect.

Z & J Kitchen Diaries' Simply Banana Muffins

Baking was never my forte. Although I did like eating sweets, I have never been a successful baker. My mother and my aunt both enjoy baking and are both good at it. Although my mother no longer bakes these days, I am glad that she used to bake for us because she inspired me to learn how to bake as well.

I am not a muffin fan. Honestly, I am more of a cupcake fan. Unfortunately, I have eaten enough cupcakes to make me feel intimidated to make my own. That's why I had to try making my own muffins. My journey to muffin making was not easy. I have failed so many times before. The greatest challenge was to get them to rise. Practice makes perfect. Although I tried so many special tricks to make them rise, none of them worked. I knew I had to just keep things simple, stick to the proper measurements, proper procedure as well as the right oven temperature and baking time. Perhaps I used to over mix my batter which resulted to tougher muffins but now, no more.

I liked bananas. I have always been fascinated how they can be used for baked goods and because I wanted to try making something baked out of them, I decided to try making my own banana muffins. It was then I realized how easy it was to make banana muffins and how healthy and yummy they end up. So, here's my tried and tested recipe of my Simply Banana Muffins which I hope you will also enjoy making and of course, eating or even sharing.

Love,
Zen

P.S. 

I may not be an actual baker but baking has become a hobby of mine so I try my best to create simply yummy baked goodies my way. 

RECIPE NAME: SIMPLY BANANA MUFFINS

YIELD: 12-14 medium sized muffins

PREP TIME: 10-15 mins

BAKING TIME: 20-25 mins

BAKING TEMPERATURE: 180-200 C

INGREDIENTS:

DRY INGREDIENTS:

2 cups all purpose flour

1 cup brown sugar

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp iodized salt

1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

1/4 tsp ground nutmeg

WET INGREDIENTS:

2 whole eggs

1 cup milk (evaporated or fresh)

1/4 cup vegetable or canola oil

1 tsp vanilla 

1 tsp banana essence

3-4 bananas (ripe or overly ripe are both fine)

PROCEDURE:
1. Preheat oven at 180-200 C for 10 minutes.

2. In a bowl, sift flour, sugar, baking powder and iodized salt. Add ground cinnamon and nutmeg. Mix until well incorporated.

3. In a different bowl, break eggs & whisk until the yolk is fully beaten with the white. Add milk, oil, vanilla and banana essence. Mash bananas before adding to the bowl. Mix until well incorporated.

4. Add dry mixture to wet ingredients. Mix until all the dry ingredients are well incorporated to the wet ingredients to form a wet batter. DO NOT OVERMIX as overmixing will make the muffins hard.

5. Prepare muffin tray. If using liner, no need to brush/spray with oil or butter. If not using liner, best to brush/spray with oil or butter to avoid sticking. Scoop batter evenly on each cavity. Bake for 20-25 minutes or until inserted toothpick comes clean.

NOTE: I used the same recipe for my BANANA RAISIN MUFFINS. I just add 1/4-1/2 cup of raisins to the batter (depending on how raisin-y you want your muffins to be). Happy Baking!

How Our Kitchen Journey Began

The kitchen wasn't always a place where we stayed in for a long time. We knew working in the kitchen is a lot of hard work. We just never thought it would be that hard. We both grew up with food around us. Both our mothers used to cook and bake. Although we were not taught strictly, at least, we were able to get a glimpse of how food is prepared, how much fun it was to prepare them and even, how delicious food can become when you put your heart into making them. In my late high school years, I was able to get exposed to actually making food in the kitchen. I enjoyed the whole experience and I believe that made me realize that cooking and baking are both nice hobbies to have. Unfortunately, I was not able to follow up on those so I lost track of my love for them and was only able to rediscover them when I was already working. I had fun in the kitchen after that and continued cooking home-cooked meals. As for my husband, he is more new to the kitchen compared to me. Although he was hesitant at first to actually make food, he slowly realized, after he continued to make food that he loved it. Now, we are on a journey to making simply good food.

After the death of our little one, we have decided to change our career paths and look for a more hands on career in the food industry. Although we are already done with what we have studied, we feel like we still get to learn more new things every day and we should never grow tired of learning no matter how old we are. We do not consider ourselves as chefs, just cooks. Although we did study a short course in cookery, we still cannot consider ourselves something which we are not. We dislike it when people ask us if we are chefs because we realized that what a chef is varies depending on who you are talking to. These days, being a chef means you are just like the celebrity chefs out there. You can cut vegetables fast enough without looking, you can cook and bake dishes in a jiffy and most of all, you know everything. But what people fail to realize is that the journey to culinary greatness is no easy path to take and that to make good food, you need a lot more than what they see on TV. We know we are still that inexperienced in the kitchen however, we do not claim to be professionals. All we know is that we love working in the kitchen, despite the fact that we have to go through a lot of overwhelming, dangerous and stressful situations often, and that we enjoy eating good food, which is why we are now continuing what we have started. Join us on our journey to making more and more yummy creations each day.

Regards,
Jeff & Zen

 We started working as a team last 2013 during special events at home and we have been at it together ever since. 

 Plating dishes has always been an interesting thing for me and here's a glimpse of how I used to practice doing it at home. 

You might think I was actually doing it for some very special people when in all honesty I was merely practicing my plating skills on what we were going to have for lunch.

Voila! Braised Beef Served With Rice. Yup, I still need a lot of practice in both food photography and food designing but at least, I tried.

Presenting another dish I made. This one on the healthy side. A Buttered Fish with some Garlic Mayo on top and some pureed veggies under it. 

This healthy dish can be eaten with or without rice. 

I was never a knife enthusiast. I never really enjoyed slicing or cutting food. However, my husband does not seem to mind it. In fact, he loves our knives so much that he sharpens them as often as he can. I even bought him a ceramic honing rod and now, he has his very first Japanese knife, a Global one, from his cousin and his aunt who are both based in Japan. 

Food carving used to be so difficult. Now, we enjoy it. But that doesn't mean we are already professionals at it and that doesn't mean that it is no longer difficult, it just lessened a bit. Here are some of mine. Food carving is fun but you need to invest a lot of time and patience to get them done right. 

The first time I started baking again, I decided to make brownies from scratch. This is one of the batches of brownies I made. Although this one ended lacking in the fudgy department, it really tasted delicious and I was glad I was able to make my very brownies from scratch. Definitely a proud moment for a non-baker like me. 

Eventually, we thought I could sell brownies at work but at that time I just lacked confidence in my baked goods even if some people who have tasted them were already asking me when I was going to sell them. Thus, I ended up baking brownies just to share them for free on special events. 

My husband and I enjoy eating pizzas but before he was able to make some really good pizza dough, he had a lot of failures. Now, he can make our own pizzas at home. Here's a photo of a mini pizza that he made. Half of it with vegetables while the other half with ham and bacon. Oh yeah, and a whole lot of Mozzarella on top. Yum!

Although my husband has Chinese blood coursing through his veins, we believe the percentage of it is almost nil however, he still enjoys eating Chinese food and so now that he can cook, he is trying his best to make his own from scratch. Here's a photo of his first and only attempt of making steamed dumplings. Although I have to admit that he still needs to improve on the wrapper itself, everything else tasted really good. If only he would be brave enough to make some more again soon...

This would have to be the greatest dish my husband has done so far. It was an accidental discovery, a creation based from our pizza craving. We ended up making these together as a snack at home and eventually even selling them. Unfortunately, we have stopped making them at the moment due to more recipe improvement and time constraints. But since there are people looking for them then we just might make them again soon.

Life in the kitchen is never easy. As husband and wife working in the kitchen, we try to work harmoniously each time. Unfortunately, we sometimes end up bickering as we continue to work under pressure in order to achieve what we should. In the kitchen, we cannot just be husband and wife, we have to be a team, a cooking and baking team to be able to compliment each other's misgivings and to magnify each other's strengths. That's how we work. Now, our kitchen journey continues to unfold each day.