muffins that were not meant to be

So as I mentioned the weekend was very fruitful...not because we were doing anything special but I was baking like no tomorrow. I wanted to make Real Sticky Toffee Pudding (with capital letters) but changed my mind in the last minute and turned them into muffins. Also wanted to make Courgette Cake, that I found in the Good Food Mag., but they also turned out to be muffins...and then the last thing, also did not turn out to be as it meant to be, was the result of my clumsiness.

1. Chocofee Sticky Muffins (prep. 20 mins, cooking 30 mins):

Muffins
200g dried, pitted dates
250 ml tea (black, not too strong)
half tsp bicarbonate of soda
half tsp baking powder
90 g melted butter
180 g plain flour
1 tsp mixed spice (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mixed_spice)
175 g caster sugar
2 eggs
Turn on the over to 180 degrees. 

Cook the pitted dates in the black tea for 3-4 minutes (I used my friend, the microwave) then let it cool. Beat the eggs and the sugar, add the melted butter. Sieve the dates, chop and add to the mixture. Add the spice and the dry ingredients. Stir carefully and then distribute evenly in the muffin holes. Bake in the oven for 30 mins. When ready, let it cool and dip the top in the chocofee. Decorate to taste.


Chocofee:
100g caster sugar
100g butter
145 ml double cream
50g dark chocolate

Put the sugar in the pan, let it caramelize. Add the butter, let it melt and then add the cream. Let it bubble together but stir frequently so it does not burn. Take off the heat and add the chocolate. Let the chocolate melt in the toffee and then ready to use.

2. Courgette Muffins with lime icing (prep. 20 mins, cooking 30 mins):

Muffins:
125 g butter
1 big lemon (juice and zest)
100g caster sugar
2 small eggs
1 medium courgette (150 g peeled, and seeded)
1 tbs poppy seed
1 tbs vanilla sugar
50g plain flour
50g wholemeal flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder

Turn on the over to 180 degrees.
Beat the butter with the caster sugar, vanilla sugar and eggs. Add the juice and the zest of the lemon. Grate in the courgette (we don't need the seeds) and mix evenly. Add the dry ingredients (i.e.:  poppy seed, two types of flour, bic. of soda and baking powder). Spoon into the muffin tray's holes and bake in the over. Decorate with the icing or with the chocofee.

icing:
2 tbs icing sugar
juice of half of a lime

Mix the icing sugar with the juice of the lime. Add the juice gradually so that you can see the consistency of the icing and prevent that it becomes too runny. Decorate the top of the muffins.

3. Banana pralines (prep.5 mins, no cooking involved):

I might be too pompous to call these little aliens pralines but did not find any better word for it...
This idea (it is not a recipe to be honest) was taken from the Doctor of Dr Peppers (DP, csak a puffin) and adapted a little bit.
You can read the original recipe here: http://csakapuffin.blogspot.com/2010/08/schoko-banane-hazilag.html
My changes are the following: 1. grated the biscuits myself  (I mean, I used my machine to grate the biscuits)
2. added some gelatin powder to the banana, sugar mash (was not sure whether gelatin does any good for that or not but I though that it could not hurt)
3. used the star shaped ice-cube silicone form for the freezing (I had this idea of making stars instead of balls but with little success) and shaped the left over to balls only.

Took them in the freezer for 30 mins and then after checking found them too soft so left them there for an extra 20 mins.
After freezing (I assume I could have left them for days if not used/eaten immediately) I tried to dip them into the chocofee to give them a coating but as the photo shows the chocofee covered them partially only. Especially the balls look like meatballs with some brown sauce...  but never judge the book by the cover...Besides the ugly look the chocofee, banana pralines taste good :)