Banana Cornflake Crumble Breakfast Muffins FOODBUZZ #5

Our Crown muffin mould makes large American jumbo sized muffins. The silicone mould has a special rebated head so you can create those great big mushroom like tops that you find in all the well known cafes / coffee shops. It's almost impossible to recreate muffins like these at home without a special mould. If you've tried, you have no doubt experienced muffin mix overflowing the top of normal bakeware / moulds and a very messy end result.

The topping is optional. If used, the muffins are best eaten same day. They make large MAN FOOD sized muffins. Each is the same as two normal muffins (excluding topping) - so either hide in a corner whilst consuming or cut in half and share ! The picture in the foreground is one of these on a side plate. The 3 in the background are on a dinner plate (to give an idea of scale)

This recipe creates a lovely moist muffin. They seem to stay fresh in the fridge for a good 3 days (without topping). The cornflake crumble topping has a lovely crunchy texture.

300g plain (cake) flour

1.1/2tsp baking powder

1 tsp bicarbonate of soda

1/2 tsp salt

2 tsp cinnamon

100g of white chocolate chips (optional)

400g of mashed bananas

1 beaten egg

100ml milk

100ml vegetable oil

Prepare the crown muffin mould by greasing the inside of the rims at the top and dusting with flour. Tap out any excess. Don't bother this to the lower section of the mould unless you are not using paper liners.

The papers are designed only to stop where the rebated head starts.

Preheat oven to 180deg C fan / 200 deg C electric

Sift dry ingredients together. Add all wet ingredients and mix to combine. Do be careful not to overmix. Don't panic - it's going to be really lumpy, especially with the mashed banana. 

Spoon mix into the cells in your mould. It will overflow the paper cases and partially into the rebated head area.

For the topping

50g salted butter

60g plain flour

50g granulated sugar

25g cornflakes

Rub the butter with your fingers into the flour and sugar. Lightly crush the cornflakes in your hand and add to the mix. 

The mix should just hold together when clamped in your hand. If it is too crumbly, add a little more butter. You don't want a fine crumble. You want to clamp some in your hand and roughly crumble it in lumps over the muffin batter.

Bake for approx 25 mins until a cocktail stick comes out clean. The muffins should be well risen and golden.

My little cake tester approves ! This bit went missing whilst I was still taking the photos....

Sarah-Jane Nash, November 2011 - The joys of baking with Oliver !

Crown Muffin Moulds are HERE and now available - so exciting !

At last - we've had mountains and mountains of new style silicone moulds arrive .... many of which are my own designs. There are more boxes of them than I could possibly have believed and the store is full to bursting ! It will be a little while before we can get them all unpacked - so do bare with me. I'll introduce you to most of the new stuff as soon as I can.

Many of you will remember my earlier blog post about THE SECRET TO MAKING CAFE STYLE MUFFINS

Well - our specialist silicone bakeware mould to make crown ovens in a normal sized oven (non commercial) is now available and can be found IN OUR ONLINE SHOP HERE at an incredible price of £5.99 each. These would make an awesome Christmas gift for any keen baker.

We also ship worldwide for anyone interesed outside of the UK... but last date for overseas orders for delivery by Christmas is today.

Basically - the mould has a special recess head. You put your paper case in and fill the case right to the brim. As the cake mixture rises in the pan, it fills the recess and creates the big mushroom head.

Bingo - you've got massive muffins like those in the big chain coffee houses :-)

A mix for 12 normal muffins makes 6 of these Crown American Jumbo muffins - so take care not to eat too many or you will get very very fat !!!

Have  fun and enjoy....

Sarah-Jane, http://www.siliconemoulds.com/     December 2010

Crown Muffins - The Secret to Making BIG Cafe Style Muffins !

The best bit of a muffin is the crown - a big mushroomy type top which overhangs the stump. All too often the stump part can be a bit boring ... but I'll forgive this for a good crown.

For years I tried to make muffins with the big puffy crown and despite every attempt - they ended up a mess. I thought that you needed to put in just enough mixture into the silicone mould or traditional bakeware tin to fill it to the top. My expectation was for the mix to over-run a little and give the big mushroom top.

Despite trying many different mixes, the batter would volcano over the top and the crowns of my muffins would run and stick together. If I was REALLY lucky, I might get one or two out whole - but more often than not, I'd lose great chunks of the crown.

So - HOW DO THEY DO IT ? I wanted to be able to make those cafe style muffins like you get in Starbucks and Costas but simply could not achieve it at home.

Earlier this year, I finally had a lighbulb moment.

The secret is in the tin !

A bit more digging clarified just that. The big commercial bakeries use a tin with a rebated head. You pop in a paper muffin cake case / liner and fill it to just over the top with the batter. As the mix rises, it flows into the rebated head section of the tin and then rises some more to create the dome.

That bit established - you try finding a crown muffin tin. I've only managed to find one place on the net that stocks ones that will fit in a domestic oven. Those used for the likes of Starbucks and big bakeries are a commercial size that we "normal" people simply cannot use in our kitchens.

Until now that is. Over the last couple of months I have been developing my own. These will be available from 1st December 2010 at http://www.siliconemoulds.com/. Don't forget - you'll find them here first in silicone as I designed them !!!!!

AMERICAN JUMBO CROWN MUFFIN SILICONE BAKEWARE MOULDS

These are large, 6 cell silicone moulds. They take American Jumbo Muffin paper liners which have a BASE diameter of 60mm - a good bit bigger than the standard 50mm base size muffin cases generally available in stores and online. We have had a good selection of the paper cases in various patterns and colours produced too with these moulds. A lot of effort has been put in to keeping these liners / cake cases as low cost as possible..

As cafe style muffins look rather "naked" without their wrappers, we will be including a starter pack of paper cases with every one of our American Jumbo Crown Muffin Moulds.

I decided to opt for a slightly larger than standard stump part of the muffin with our own Crown muffin cake pans / moulds as tests showed that by making the stump a little bigger in diameter, the cake in this part of the form says much more moist and does not tend to have the drier nature that many of the ones from commercial bakeries do.

Being silicone, you do not have to use paper liners at all. You can choose to lightly grease with butter and then flour - tapping out any excess before filling with your desired mix. This will ensure perfect release every time. If using paper cases, it's still worth greasing and flouring the rebated head part of the mould only - or use a tiny dot of Wilton's Cake Release to run round them with the tip of your finger. If your cake mix has a higher sugar content than fat content (as is ofter the case) failure to so this in a non stick tin of any kind generally leads to sticking Cake mixes are renowned for it. This is why you grease and line or grease and flour even non stick traditional tins for cakes. Silicone is no different ! Low sugar content versus high fat content in cakes or bread generally will never stick at all and this step is not required.

These are pretty big muffins - the size and shape (but with a bigger diameter stump) of the ones you will find in the big coffee chain shops. Each mould has 6 cells. To fill all 6 cells, you require the same amount of mix as you would to fill 12 normal muffins or cupcakes. The 6 cell Crown muffin mould is almost the same footprint size as a 12 muffin mould or traditional bakeware tin - though it is about 25% taller. This is because the rebated head section takes up a lot of room !

oops - these are orange and poppy seed muffins pictured that I made tonight. Recipe will follow tomorrow hopefully as it's time for bed now...

AVAILABLE FROM 1ST DECEMBER - order from http://www.siliconemoulds.com/ (international shipping available) or by phone on 01953 452525

Sarah-Jane Nash - SiliconeMoulds.com

Silicone bakeware - specialists in cake pans, soap moulds and chocolate molds. Shipping worldwide.