Lightening Online

Image via WikipediaA couple of you asked me on Monday about how I cook Corned Beef in the Slow Cooker. I don’t really use a recipe per se so I’ll blog what I do throughout the day.

My corned beef usually comes in plastic that you can heat it in. I pierce the bag a half a dozen times and squeeze some of the excess blood out of the packaging (through the holes made by my knife). I’ve also cooked unwrapped corned beef this way so that’s fine too if yours doesn’t come in it’s own heatable bag.

Some people cook their corned beef in the slow cooker without using water to cover it. I’ve tried it this way and didn’t really prefer it. So I cover mine with cold water and turn the slow cooker on.

I tend to use any combination of the following to help flavour the corned beef:

• couple of sprigs of parsley
• bay leaves (1-2 dried leaves, I’ve not tried fresh but there is no reason why fresh wouldn’t work just as well)
• splosh of vinegar (I usually use apple cider vinegar)
• pinch brown sugar
• carrot
• celery (stalk or leaves)
• something from the onion family (today I used a shallot stalk broken up and shoved in because that’s what is growing in the garden right now)

I tend to go with what I have on hand. Particularly anything that I can use from the garden (because that’s essentially free). Today I didn’t use a carrot for flavouring because in my mind they’re too expensive to be used simply for flavouring. Some people actually cook their carrots in with the corned beef and eat them with the meal. I don’t like carrots cooked this way so I don’t do it.

Cooking time varies depending on your slow cooker. I put mine on at around midday. It takes around an hour to get the water up to temperature so it had around 5 hours of cooking time which was about right. However, that’s in my old crockpot which is slower.

One of the things I LOVE about cooking in the slow cooker is that it’s very forgiving when it comes to over-cooking things. I tend to err on the side of cooking LONGER rather than cooking for less time.

If you’re heading out for the day and want to put your meat on in the morning, I suggest you put it into the slow cooker frozen (especially if you have a newer slow cooker which cooks at a higher temperature). I know it’s not “recommended” to cook meat from frozen but I think plenty of slow cooker users use this method to get around the faster cooking times. I’ll leave that up to you whether it’s a risk you feel comfortable taking or not.

Cooking corned beef was something I used to do once in a blue moon in my “pre slow cooker” days. Keeping the water at the right temperature was always a headache on the stove. I’d either have cooked it too fast (and it would be tough) or too slow (and it wouldn’t be cooked on time).

Now we have it more frequently. It’s one of Farmboy’s favourite meals and the kids tend to gobble it up very quickly. With the slow cooker you chuck it all in and forget about it until tea time (just don’t forget to actually turn the slow cooker ON ).

Last time I was near a Lenards (chicken store) I purchased their “5 carcasses for $2″ deal. I’ve been meaning to do this for a while but this is the first time I’ve actually gotten “aroundtoit”.

My plan for the carcasses? A BIG pot of fresh chicken stock. Mmmmmm………

The whole house smelt like roasting chicken as the carcasses simmered in the slow cooker. All I added was water and a few leaves of shallots from the garden.

I then strained the bones and flesh from the fluid, removing any chicken meat still left on the bones (should have enough for a chicken pot pie - yahhhh!!!!!) and chilled the fluid.

Chicken fat needs a reasonably cold temperature in order to solidify. Even though the fluid had cooled by the time I strained it, a reasonable amount of fat still dwelt in liquid form, floating on the top. Once chilled, the fat solidified and I was able to scrape it from the top of the stock.

What I have left is a deliciously THICK chicken stock which I’ll bag up and freeze to use in my pumpkin soup over the winter.

The first batch of pumpkin soup is now in the slow cooker and almost ready to puree.

It smells DELICIOUS!!!!!

There’s NOTHING like homemade pumpkin soup with home grown pumpkins and homemade chicken stock!!!!!

Homemade soup would have to be my FAVOURITE part about winter!

As part of my Smiley Saturday Swap Gift from Ann, I received a packet of pink jelly and a recipe for using that jelly to make a pink cake. At the time I said I would share the recipe with you once I had made one so I could photograph it for the post.

Today is the day I finally get around to making my pink cake.

Doesn’t it look beautiful? You know, I never thought of using jelly crystals to colour (and flavour - cos you can taste the flavour) a cake. I’ve always used plain old boring food colouring.

As promised, here is the recipe so you can make your very own:

PINK CAKE

125g butter, softened

1/2 cup castor sugar

3/4 pack pink jelly crystals (I’m sure you could substitute to make whatever colour you liked)

2 eggs

2 cups self raising flour

1/2 cup milk

Mix together butter, castor sugar and jelly crystals

Add eggs and mix

Stir/Fold in flour and milk

Bake at 180C for 35-45 minutes

PINK FROSTING/ICING

Combine butter, icing sugar, 1-2 tsp jelly crystals and hot water to make icing.

Sprinkle the remaining jelly crystals over the icing.

And now for the most important part, the taste test!!!!

Have a look at that in all it’s PINK glory!!!!

I didn’t even wait for the icing to set before cutting it.

And the verdict???? It’s delicious!!! I’m not a huge cake eater normally (unless it’s chocolate mud cake with cream) but this was so light and tasty. The raspberry jelly crystals have flavoured it but it’s not an overpowering flavour. Mmmmm…..I gotta stop looking at this photo or I’m going to go eat another piece.

I’m wondering….does anyone else have a “pink” recipe that they’d care to share? I’d like to try some other pink delicacies (sweet or savoury) and feature them here.

As requested, here is the recipe for the truffles shown in this image:

You need:

250g package of cream cheese

2-3 packets Oreos, Delta Creams or similar style biscuit (that is chocolate biscuits with a vanilla cream filling between them). I use 2 but the original recipe actually says 3. Of course, the size of the packet might make a difference as well. I like mine to be softer and cheesier. You’ll have to experiment to decide what you like best.

Crush up biscuits and whizz together with cream cheese (I find the food processor easiest to do this with -simply chuck them all in together and whizz).

Roll mixture into balls and refrigerate.

Dip balls into chocolate of your choice. I often do them in white chocolate at Christmas time. Here they are dipped into milk chocolate. You could also do dark or a variety.

It’s soooo easy. The most fiddly bit is dipping them in the chocolate.

In the image above I have them sitting in mini patty-pans that you can usually get from stores that stock chocolate making supplies (I bought these from a craft store).

Happy gift making everybody - try to be restrained enough that the recipient you’re making them for actually GETS some! (or just make a super large batch ).

Oh, I guess you’re wondering how many the mix makes? Well, I only made a half batch this last time and I think that made about 20 decent sized balls.

Here goes with our Zucchini Lovefest! Thank you so much for all your wonderful submissions. We really have a great variety here. I don’t think I’ll have quite enough zucchini to try them all!!!!!

Honestly, if you can’t find something amongst this lot to tickle your fancy, well, I give up.

I hope you enjoy this “carnival of zucchini” the Zucchini Lovefest.

BLOG POST SUBMISSIONS

Kate over at Our Red House has some wonderful recipes for zucchini. She has some fantastic recipes posted from time to time so I knew there’d be some great inspiration from there.

Chocolate Zucchini Bread

I’ve been wanting to try this since Kate posted it but just haven’t really had the time or energy. It’s top of the “to do” list for today. If you’re lucky I might even post a pic later in the day.

And here it is……… 

It’s not all that obvious because I iced them AFTER I’d cut a piece off….but I did do a “Sephy” and sampled a slice before I took the photo.

And the verdict????  YUM!!!!  See, chocolate cake really IS good for you! 

Zucchini Fritters

Cheesey Zucchini Slice

Next we have

Zucchini Cookies submitted by N from Bad Human! Don’t Take Chemicals From Strangers saying “I never thought this recipe would be good because I never thought about sticking zucchini in a cookie but they are amazing.”

Kate from Picklebums has the following recipes

Zucchini Bread

Zucchini Fritters

Lis from Altered Cutlery has

Zucchini Muffins

A savoury muffin option with bacon and cheese - they look good enough to eat!!! Oh, that’s the idea? Very good then.

Altered Cutlery is another great location to visit when you’re in need of recipe inspiration!

Sephy from Sephy’s Platzish has

Zucchini Bread

This one had me in giggles with the photo at the end with this caption “here’s the bread, minus a smallish sample”. That’s what I like to see. Recipes that are tried and tested.

Zucchini Muffins

A great alternative to zucchini bread. This is a sweet muffin recipe and the post comes complete with a physics experiment using the batter.

Tracy from Beyond My Picket Fence has Roasted Vegetable Salad

DIRECT RECIPE SUBMISSIONS

River has passed on this great recipe:

In olive oil stir fry finely sliced onion and shredded carrot until soft. Toss in finely shredded cabbage and chopped parsley, stir. Add small amount of water, put on a close fitting lid and let steam just until cabbage wilts. Toss in grated (shredded) zucchini, turn off the heat, let stand for a minute. The heat from the mix will cook the zucchini without turning it to mush. Great alongside sausages or chops. We’ve even had it with roast beef. Ingredient amounts are to suit your family.

LS writes:

One off the cuff which I use especially with those large zucchini’s (which my dad thinks are meant to be picked like that so I am used to them now)…. is a quick recipe that makes a nice saucey type addition to snags, snitzels, or just heated up like chunky soup. It also makes a nice type of stuffing if placed in a casserole dish , baked then covered with breadcrumbs. Yummo. My tastebuds are watering.

I cut the washed zucchini into rings about 1.5 cm wide (maybe cut in half if diameter is huge) , roughly dice onion and tomatoes (good for those ones nearly past due date or patchy skins) and place with a little oil and water in a saucepan along with some pepper, salt, and some mixed herbs or similar. Cover and simmer till soft or just cooked. Can thicken with cornflour or simply serve as is. I have also used this to add to spag bolog, and a pasta bake I make from basics. Noone ever notices.

You can always freeze this and use later… it last ages and is handy come casserole time in winter. You may need to add more spices though as it can go watery.

My mum makes a zucchini and pasta relish which is very tasty if one can handle the colour!

Katy sent in:

We love vegetable pie! The children especially. Grate 2 carrots, 2 zucchini, 1 cup cheese, 5 eggs, 1 cup flour, S&P, bacon or chicken if you’d like. Mix it all up in a big bowl, and cook on 180 for about 45 minutes. Yummy!

And here is tonight’s attempt at this recipe:

I didn’t get a chance to take a photo before I served the kids.  This is 1/4.  And it was pretty much a hit.  The kids were a bit dubious at first which is pretty normal.  But they each ate it all.  I think it’ll become an addition to our regular menu.

Cat from Fitcat says:

Grate zucchini, carrot, potato and unpeeled sweet potato. Add to a bowl of mince. Add a raw egg. Mush, mush, mush. Shallow fry in vegetable oil. Yummy!

Erin from Rantings From the Walking Dictionary writes:

We being non wheat/gluten eating as a family, dont often get nice things like gravy (i have gluten free gravy packet for DS but I cant stand it), however I found by accident that putting sliced zucchini in to cook in the meat juices after the steak had browned, resulted in my meat juices thickening up into a slightly runny gravy, that was totally wheat/gluten free (meat juices, zuchinni starch and a hint of salt) as well as being homemade (and the zuchinni homegrown too). So I had a bonus to my meal, gravy flavoured zuchinni slices, and actual gravy to go on the meat.

We also like dicing it up with some onion, tomato, pumpkin etc and sauteeing it (lol sounds fancy and hard work but its all just chucked in the frying pan and simmered in its own juices til soft and delicious lol) and then serving on top of rice with whatever meat/chicken etc we are eating.

Works well in savoury mince and in meat patties as well.

A FEW TIPS

• Apparently the best zucchini’s are those under 12cm (5 inches). They are the most tender. (ooops…..the big ones are GREAT for grating up in cooking though )
• When selecting look for those that don’t have withered ends….or better yet, pick your own and use straight from the garden.
• You don’t need to peel them. The skin is edible. If you want to hide them from your kids though….be warned, the tiniest of skin will alert the little critters. Grating without skin will ensure the entire zucchini is dissolved into whatever you are cooking….never to be revealled.
• Tiny zucchini’s are apparently nice raw (who’d have thought???)

TRAWLING THE WWW

If that aint already enough for you, here are some links I found on the net.

There are a massive number of recipes using zucchini on Basic Recipe. Everything from zucchini soup to zucchini cake to zucchini fries (???).

Zucchini recipes on About.com

This one looks totally good enough to eat!!! Zucchini Slice . I really love a good recipe with TOP photos!

If you’d like something a little bit different (including some recipe titles in languages other than English) you could try Recipe Zaar’s zucchini recipe list or perhaps some with an Italian flavour.

Just to finish off I had to add Chocolate and Zucchini. I’m yet to find any zucchini recipes on there but I couldn’t resist the title!!!!

If I’ve forgotten to include your link or idea, please let me know and I will add it in.

Just as the title suggests - this is a nice and EASY quiche recipe.  My in laws gave me this great recipe book from the Huon Valley in Tasmania (any Tasmanians reading this?  Big wave to you!).  It has a lot of FOOD recipes in it - as opposed to all that fancy stuff that no-one in our family will eat.  The page on which the quiche recipe is printed is covered in splatters and half falling out.  So it’s obvious it’s a well used page! 

EASY QUICHE

4 eggs

1 cup diced bacon

1/2 cup grated cheese

1/2 cup SR flour

1 cup onion

1 cup evaporated milk

1 cup fresh milk

salt & pepper

Mix together, bake in moderate oven until set (about 45 minutes).

Lightening’s Variations and Comments:

* I usually make a double mix of this.  That works great in a larger size dish or 2 pie dishes.

* Add whatever vegies you enjoy in quiche

* This is one of those pastry-less quiches where it forms it’s own thicker base on the bottom of the quiche

* Instead of evaporated milk I use 1.5 cups full cream milk powder with 4 cups water in a DOUBLE mix (halve this for a single mix).  Works out cheaper and more convenient than keeping evaporated milk on hand.

Source: The Australian Huon Valley Recipe Book prepared by Cheryl Robertson, published by Southern Holdings Pty Ltd

This morning I made up Lisa’s fudge .  We had a storm and the power went out.  Trust that to happen to me on the only day I actually wanted to use the stove!!!!  LOL.  So, there I was stirring a pot over our camping stove (which I’m very thankful for ).  Of course, now I’m wishing I had a gas stove.  It heats up so QUICK compared to electric.  DH tells me it’s too much hassle (we’d have to have bottled gas etc).  Plus mine is only 3 years old.  *sigh*  Never mind.  We can’t everything in life that we want.  Thankfully I’d also written the recipe down (sort of) as I had no internet access without power either.

I was hoping it would be so rich that I wouldn’t eat too much of it.  WRONG!!!!  I’ve just cut it up and tiny pieces keep ending up in my mouth.  Somehow…..without any help from me whatsoever……  I think the walnuts I added have toned it down a little.  And my cooking chocolate was a dark chocolate (is dark what you’re supposed to use for that bit Lisa?).

Of course, in my usual fashion, I decided to have a play with the recipe.

Instead of using a can of condensed milk, I made up the homemade version (as I always do when a recipe calls for condensed milk).  I have no idea if 400g (as per recipe) is a can but I just used the quantity in my recipe and it seems to have turned out fine.

I wanted to make a sort of white chocolate/caramel version of the fudge.  So instead of using white sugar for the condensed milk recipe, I substituted in brown.

So make up condensed milk as follows (the easiest thing to do is make it directly into the saucepan you want to use for your fudge.:

1 cup dry milk powder

2/3 cup brown sugar

1/3 cup boiling water

3 Tbsp margarine

Mix together until smooth.

To this condensed milk mixture add:

500g white chocolate (or thereabouts.  I used what I had left which wasn’t *quite* 500g but it’ll do)

65g butter

tsp vanilla

Melt over slow-ish heat, stirring until all smooth and melted then pour into a 20cm square tin that you’ve lined with baking powder.

Mine isn’t quite set yet but I just pinched a bit and tasted it and this one really IS rich and very sweet.  If you’re not a lover of sweet stuff and white chocolate you probably won’t like it.  Hopefully my BIL’s do as they’re getting some of it for Christmas.

…or should that be making?????  Cos the oven certainly isn’t on today.  It’s warm and rather steamy here today with more rain expected tomorrow (making it even stickier!).  So I’m rather glad that my Christmas “baking” mostly goes in the fridge, rather than the oven.    I’m glad I’ve already finished with baking shortbread as that does need to go in the oven.

I’ve been given the job of “homemade treats” for Christmas Day this year.  My in laws know me well!  It’s great because I’m making a heap of treats for gifts anyway.

Naturally I had to start with the old Christmas faithful - Rocky Road!  Over a few days I’m working my way through whatever I get to….starting with the ones I REALLY want to get made and adding to those if I get enough time and energy.  So, here are my “recipes” I’ve made so far (not everything has a recipe so I’ll do my best to explain what I do).

ROCKY ROAD

1 packet chocolate melts (mine are 375g)

about 1/4 packet of copha (250g or 1/2 pound size pack)

1/2 - 1 packet marshmallows

red jube lollies (I didn’t have any this time so just picked out red, white and green jelly beans)

salted peanuts (you can use unsalted but I like the taste of salt and chocolate together, you can also leave these out)

Melt chocolate melts and copha using a medium heat in the microwave - 1 minute at a time.  Stir between minutes and continue until melted.  Add marshmallows, jubes and salted peanuts.  I add some of each until the chocolate looks to be “chock full” of stuff.  Pour into a tray lined with baking paper and set in fridge.  Cut into bite size pieces or whatever size you prefer.

Alternative suggestions: some people like coconut in their rocky road (I don’t).  You could also add something like rice bubbles instead of peanuts to make these a little more “kid friendly”.

HOMEMADE CHOCOLATE

My mum had the most awesome recipe for this that I can’t seem to lay my hands on.     Here’s the closest recipe I was able to find.

125g copha

125g icing sugar

6 Tbsp cocoa

4 Tbsp milk powder

pinch salt

Sift dry ingredients.  Melt copha and mix into dry mixture.  You need to work fast.  Pour into mini patty pans or into a thin layer in a baking tray.  Refrigerate.  If you make it in a slab, break into pieces when set.  You could also drop spoonfuls onto a tray lined with baking paper.

I made up a double mixture as that used a full package of copha.  About 1/3 was mixed with rice bubbles and the rest had salted peanuts added to it.  I was able to get some Christmas mini patty pans from Spotlight this year and used those.  This double mix made around 90 chocolates.

It’s quite a strong tasting recipe so you don’t want to overdo the cocoa, unless you prefer it that way! 

CHOCOLATE CHEESECAKE BALLS

1 packet cream cheese

2 packets of chocolate biscuits filled with vanilla cream (eg oreos, delta creams….)

Blend in food processor, roll into balls and set in fridge.  Dip into white, milk or dark chocolate.

APRICOT COCONUT BALLS

1 tin/can consensed milk (or 1 quantity homemade condensed milk)

2 cups dried apricots (chopped/diced)

3 cups coconut

extra coconut for rolling in

Combine ingredients together, roll into balls then roll in coconut.  Set in fridge.  Makes approximately 60 balls.

This is as far as I have gotten so far.  I’ll be back to add some more if and when I get to them.

Yesterday I mentioned I made shortbread for our children’s teachers as end of year/Christmas gifts.  It’s a bit of a tradition in this household that each year I make a large batch of shortbread to use for gifts and also as part of our Christmas yummies for ourselves (and whoever we’re sharing Christmas with).

It can actually be a bit of a trial some years finding a day that’s not too hot (we’re in summer here in Australia) in order to crank the oven up.  But it’s worth it.  What surprised me when I first started making these was how cheap they work out to make in comparison to how expensive shortbread is to buy.

 So, if you’re looking for a frugal gift for someone that’s sure to “wow”, considering making something like this.

LIGHTENING’S SHORTBREAD

250g butter (real butter not margarine)

125g castor sugar

300g plain flour

175g arrowroot

pinch salt

Allow butter to soften to room temperature.  Cream butter and sugar together (try not to eat too much of the yummy sweet buttery mixture).  Sift in arrowroot.  Add salt.  Slowly mix together and add enough plain flour for the mixture to form a firmish dough.  You may not need ALL of the flour and in some instances you may need a little more.  Flour can vary in how dry it is - older flours need more moisture.  Form into a ball and place in a covered bowl in the fridge (or wrap in plastic wrap).  Make sure you disguise your dough or your husband will keep pilfering bits of it until there is none left to cook!!!!

When mixture has become firm, roll out and cut into desired shapes with a cookie cutter.  I have a small star cookie cutter which is just perfect for these (I find a small cookie gives them a more decadent look).  The easiest way I find to roll out the dough is using a sheet of baking paper on top of the dough which prevents the roller from sticking to the dough (saves you having to shake flour all over the roller every 5 seconds too).

Bake slowly in a moderately slow oven (around 160C) for around 20 minutes or until the shortbread turns a pale golden colour.  While still warm, drop shapes into a bowl of castor sugar, turning so that they coat on all sides.  Cool on a rack.

Some more notes:

* arrowroot is a fine flour.  If you can’t get hold of this you could try substituting with an alternative fine flour.  I used half arrowroot and half cornflour yesterday (wanted a double batch and couldn’t find the rest of my arrowroot) and they taste no different to me.

* I usually make a double mix and use a single 500g packet of butter (that would be equivalent to a pound for those of you overseas).

* salt is the magic ingredient so DON’T leave it out. 

* if you don’t have time for all the rolling, cutting and dipping in castor sugar, you can make this mix up in one or two circle dishes, bake and then cut into wedges while still warm.

Conversions and explanations for those not in Australia:

* plain flour is simply flour with no raising agents in it (we have plain flour and self raising flour as our most common baking flours here)

* castor sugar is more finely ground than regular sugar (still granular - not a powder - but the granules are much smaller)

* 175g is approximately 6.2 ounces or 0.38 pounds

* 300g is approximately 10.5 ounces or 0.66 pounds

* 250g is 0.5 pounds (therefore doubling to use 500g is approximately 1 pound)

* 160C is 320F

Conversions were made using online conversion.

ENJOY!   (I need a smiley with a little santa hat on!)

Acknowledgement: This recipe was originally a Tonia Todman recipe that I’ve tweeked to make it how I like it.  I *think* I’ve made enough changes to the original that I can now claim it as my own.  Feel free to pass it around….. recipes are made for sharing!   Of course, a link back here is always appreciated.

I made this recipe the other day. It never fails to be a hit in this house or anywhere we go. Personally, I’m not that big a muffin fan. Unfortunately I quite like these (unfortunately because then I eat more than I should). I had planned to take a photo to post but got lazy I’m afraid.

Anyway, here is the recipe. It’s a Tupperware one and I think being given a magnet with the recipe on it is once of the most useful freebies Tupperware have ever given me!!!! I always know where to find the recipe - stuck to the side of the filing cabinet. LOL. It certainly looks well used these days (the magnet that is, not the filing cabinet - you can’t tell how well used that looks as it’s covered in all kinds of crap).

Now, where was I? Oh yeah, the recipe:

TRIPLE CHOCOLATE MUFFINS

3 cups plain flour
1 Tbsp baking powder
1 1/4 cups milk
3 Tbsp cocoa
1 1/2 cups brown sugar
2/3 cup dark choc bits
2/3 cup white choc bits
120g butter, melted
2 x 60g eggs, beaten

Preheat oven to 160C. Grease 5cm muffin pan. Sift flour, cocoa and baking powder into bowl (they suggest “mix-n-pour” as all tupperware recipes are designed for making in their products - as you would expect). Add brown sugar & choc chips. Mix. Add butter, milk and eggs. Mix. 3/4 fill each of the muffin moulds, bake 20 minutes. Cool 10 minutes in the tin before turning out.

Some notes from me:

* This is a rather large mix. Yesterday I made up a double mix and it was too much for my largest mixing bowl (which is a largish stainless steel one). Well, it just fitted but I spilt a bit as I was trying to mix it.

* One of the benefits of using the mix-n-pour if you have one is that you can see if all the flour is mixed in. Muffins should only be mixed until just mixed (not continually stirred or beaten) but it’s no fun to get half way through scooping the mix into muffin tins to find that the bottom half hasn’t mixed properly.

* The Tupperware “mix-n-pour” is a jug that has a lid with a hole in the middle (it has a separate lid). This recipe fits just nicely into that jug - unless you double it like I did then you’ll have no hope. LOL. It’s okay, I didn’t try to fit a double mix in the jug.

* If you’re feeling lazy you can substitute plain flour for SR flour and skip the baking powder. No idea on the exact difference it makes as mine are never the same twice regardless. But I do know it works fine (that’s what I did yesterday).

* I very RARELY bother sifting flours and I don’t think I EVER have for this recipe. I’m a lazy cook.

* They taste good without the while choc chips (okay, maybe not JUST as good, but still pretty good). I just add a whole packet of generic choc chips instead. Having said that, when I made them yesterday I made them “according to the recipe” as I happened to have white choc chips in the cupboard.

* If you leave out the cocoa and choc chips and add cinnamon and cut up apple - they taste really yummy!!!! I’ve also made them with jam but the jam does make them a little heavier - would be better I think to add a dob of jam to the top of each muffin before cooking, rather than mix it through. Some jams would work okay with cocoa in the mix and some better leaving the cocoa out.