CarlyZ Muffins

Once, I went into the kitchen and realized that my milk had expired. I had a taste of it and though not fresh, still not spoiled as well. I quickly prepared my crazy muffin baking session again. Only this time, I did not have all the necessary ingredients. What to do? IMPROVISE.

MY RECIPE:

Difficulty Level: 20% (12 servings)
Preparation time: 15 minutes for mixing/20 minutes for baking
Ingredients:

• 250g flour
• 2 teaspoons of baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon of baking soda (bicarbonate soda)
• 4 tablespoons of chocolate Horlicks
• 150g caster sugar
• 250ml milk
• 90ml vegetable oil
• 1 egg
• chocolate chips
• fudge chunks

Steps:

1. Measure the flour and caster sugar. Put both of these in a mixing bowl. Then, add in the baking powder, baking soda and Horlicks.
2. In another bowl, beat the egg and add in the milk. Lastly, add in the vegetable oil.
3. Pour into the flour and stir the batter. Throw in some fudge chunks and chocolate chips.
4. The batter should be watery and runny. Pour into muffin cups or muffin tray. This recipe should have 12 serves.
   
5. Add some chocolate chips on the top of the muffins before putting them into the oven.
6. Remember to first preheat the oven. You should heat up the oven before mixing the batter. Preheat at 200°C and continue to bake at the same temperature for 20 minutes.

The muffins should rise and the inside will be spongy. Always feel free to replace the 4 tablespoons of Horlicks powder with 2 tablespoons of cocoa powder. That is the correct recipe while mine was... an improvisation.

Diary of A Grocery Shopper

All in a day's shopping. Let me rephrase: All in a day's GROCERY shopping. I was not a big fan of grocery shopping back in Malaysia. I had always thought the supermarket is too boring and I just go there to get junk food. Market is a definite no-no while wet market... don't even mention that place to me. I had the luxury of placing orders for my home cooked lunch/dinner. I'm also a big fan of eating out at restaurants. Got criticized a lot for doing so. However, that is DEFINITELY not the case when you study abroad (especially in UK when you tend to convert every single pence that you spend!).

Tempted by the label: Made From British Blackcurrants.

The colour is less dense than Malaysia's. Definitely lower amount of sugar too!

I set the interval for my food stock to be around 3-4 weeks because the supermarket is simply too far. My grocery shopping route:

Worsley Building in University -> Free city bus to market -> Walk to Chinese supermarket -> Walk to Morrisons (local supermarket).

Sometimes when the grocery from market are too heavy, we'd take the free city bus straight to Morrisons and then some would walk to the Chinese supermarket from there. The time spent on the whole trip is usually, 3 hours.

Call me the crazy grocery shopper. (2 persons share)

Afterward, we would call for a cab. The cab driver, 70% of the time will be awed by what we bought. Indeed.