Making Goat Cheese Muffins — Photos

This recipe is another recipe in my muffin collection that has been developed over time — in this case, with the help of chatgpt.com (AI chatbot) to provide my mom with some variety. Interestingly, this recipe started as a goat cheese omelette — which I occasionally make for Mom — but which came about as a result of Mom asking last year “Can you make it less eggy and with more flour?” I still have no idea if she was providing raw, unfiltered, and candid feedback regarding taste and texture, or if she was employing some dry humour to ask me to come up with another kind of muffin using goat cheese. 🙂 Either way, Mom was pleased with the result!

Conveniently, this recipe is also tailored to making six muffins at a time (instead of the customary dozen muffins) and in a countertop convection oven. This avoids turning the making and baking of these tasty muffins into a grand affair by not having to heat up a conventional oven, which might well create a strong temptation to give in to notions of “well, the big oven is heated up … what else should I bake while I’m at it?” (Of course, should you want to make more, or otherwise engage in such a grand affair, all you need to do is scale it up to 12, 18, 24 or more units!)

Note that a small handful of the photos were taken out of order, and that in sorting the photos there are also some minor jumps in my file numbering; all is presented as below for the sake of the narrative.

Making the goat cheese muffins:

All the ingredients were taken out:

Ingredients taken out

I believe that I performed the following slightly later, but now is a good time to turn on the countertop convection oven:

Countertop convection oven turned on

A mixing bowl was taken out:

Mixing bowl taken out

Flour and a measuring cup were taken out:

Flour and measuring cup taken out

Flour was measured out:

Flour measured out

The flour was transferred to the mixing bowl:

Flour transferred to mixing bowl
Flour transferred to mixing bowl
Flour transferred to mixing bowl
Flour transferred to mixing bowl

Baking powder and measuring spoons were taken out:

Baking powder and measuring spoons taken out

Baking powder was measured out:

Baking powder measured out

The baking powder was transferred to the mixing bowl with the flour:

Baking powder transferred to mixing bowl
Baking powder transferred to mixing bowl
Baking powder transferred to mixing bowl

Salt and a measuring spoon were taken out (oh my — yet another surface in the kitchen to clean!):

Salt and measuring spoon taken out

Salt was measured out:

Salt measured out

The salt was transferred to the mixing bowl with the flour and the baking powder:

Salt transferred to mixing bowl
Salt transferred to mixing bowl
Salt transferred to mixing bowl
Salt transferred to mixing bowl

Olive oil and a measuring spoon were taken out:

Olive oil and measuring spoon taken out

The olive oil was measured out:

Olive oil measured out

The olive oil was transferred to the bowl with the flour, the baking powder, and the salt:

Olive oil transferred to bowl
Olive oil transferred to bowl
Olive oil transferred to bowl
Olive oil transferred to bowl
Olive oil transferred to bowl

A bottle of honey, which was starting to crystallize and kept upside down to aid in being able to squeeze it out of the bottle, was taken out, along with a measuring spoon:

Honey and measuring spoon taken out

The honey was measured out:

Honey measured out

The honey was transferred to the mixing bowl with the flour, the baking powder, the salt, and the olive oil:

Honey transferred to bowl
Honey transferred to bowl

(By the time I’d finished measuring out the honey, I decided it best to re-liquify the honey in the microwave oven over several short 15 second heating bursts.)

Next, an egg was taken out:

Egg taken out

The egg was cracked on the side of the mixing bowl:

Egg cracked on edge of bowl

The egg was transferred to the mixing bowl with the flour, the baking powder, the salt, the olive oil, and the honey:

Egg transferred to bowl

Milk and a measuring cup were taken out:

Milk and measuring cup taken out

The milk carton was opened up:

Milk carton opened

Milk was measured out:

Milk measured out

The milk was transferred to the bowl with the flour, the baking powder, the salt, the olive oil, the honey, and the egg:

Milk transferred to bowl
Milk transferred to bowl
Milk transferred to bowl
Milk transferred to bowl

A fork was brought to the bowl in order to mix the ingredients:

Fork brought to bowl for mixing

The ingredients were thoroughly mixed:

Ingredients thoroughly mixed

The mixing bowl with the muffin batter was put aside for a moment.

A bowl was taken out; yes, I seem to have taken the photo at a funny angle.

Bowl taken out

A package of goat cheese and a very sharp knife were taken out, and cut in two in order to have two roughly 56g (2oz) pieces; the other piece was placed in a bag, returned to the fridge, and in fact was used the following morning for a second batch of goat cheese muffins:

Goat cheese and sharp knife taken out, and cheese divided in two

The goat cheese’s packaging was opened in order to allow for the use of the cheese:

Cheese package opened up

The goat cheese was transferred to the bowl:

Goat cheese transferred to bowl

The goat cheese was cut up into small chunks with a knife:

Goat cheese cut up into chunks

The bowl of goat cheese chunks was brought over to the bowl of muffin batter:

Chunks of goat cheese brought to bowl of muffin batter

… and the goat cheese chunks were transferred to the bowl with the muffin batter:

Goat cheese transferred to bowl of muffin batter

The goat cheese was folded into the batter:

Goat cheese folded into muffin batter

The goat cheese muffin batter was again put aside for a moment.

Muffin paper liners and a muffin baking tin were taken out:

Muffin liners and muffin baking tin taken out

Paper muffin liners were placed in the muffin tin wells:

Paper muffin liners placed in muffin tin wells

The bowl of goat cheese muffin batter was brought over to the muffin tin with the muffin liner papers:

Bowl of goat cheese muffin batter brought to the muffin tin with paper muffin liners

Goat cheese muffin batter was picked up with a spoon:

Goat cheese batter scooped up for transfer to muffin baking tin

Goat cheese muffin batter was transferred to one of the paper muffin liners:

Goat cheese muffin batter transferred to muffin liner
Goat cheese muffin batter transferred to muffin liner

The goat cheese muffin batter was divided roughly equally amongst the muffin paper lined wells:

Goat cheese muffin batter transferred to muffin liners

Once the muffin tin wells and paper liners were filled, the goat cheese muffin batter mixing bowl was empty:

Mixing bowl empty

The door to the now-preheated countertop convection oven was opened …

Countertop convection oven door opened

… and the filled muffin baking tin was placed in the countertop convection oven:

Filled baking tin placed in countertop convection oven

The countertop convection oven door was closed, and a timer was set for 17 minutes:

Timer set for 17 minutes

While I was waiting for the muffins to bake, I took out a cooling rack, and placed it on the counter:

Cooling rack taken out

While the muffins were baking, I could see them rising in the countertop convection oven — and a reflection of the cooling rack in the window!

Muffins rising while baking

When the timer ran out …

17 minute timer finished

… the goat cheese muffins were nicely baked!

Goat cheese muffins baked

The baked goat cheese muffins were taken out of the countertop convection oven, and placed on a cutting board on the counter:

Goat cheese muffins taken out of countertop convection oven

While they were still warm to hot, the fresh goat cheese muffins were taken out of the muffin baking tin and placed on the cooling rack:

Goat cheese muffins placed on cooling rack

After a bit of cooling, a fresh muffin was taken from the cooling rack, and the paper muffin liner was removed from the goat cheese muffin:

Paper muffin liner removed from goat cheese muffin

The goat cheese muffin was sliced in half, exposing the chunks of goat cheese inside:

Goat cheese muffin sliced in half, exposing chunks of goat cheese inside

The piece of goat cheese muffin was placed on a plate, and served to Mom:

Goat cheese muffin piece placed on plate for serving

A short while after Mom had eaten the still warm and fresh out of the oven goat cheese muffin piece, she told me that she had been dreaming of having another goat cheese muffin with her supper. High praise indeed!

As for the rest of the muffins — five whole goat cheese muffins and the unserved half goat cheese muffin, their paper liners were removed:

Paper muffin liners removed from goat cheese muffins

At this point, a whole goat cheese muffin was put aside for Mom’s supper; she later told me that she had indeed fully enjoyed the goat cheese muffin during her supper!

A freezer bag was taken out and identified:

Freezer bag taken out and identified

The bag was filled with the remaining four and a half goat cheese muffins:

Goat cheese muffins placed in freezer bag

And finally, the bag of goat cheese muffins was placed in the freezer, by happenstance alongside two other kinds of muffins — bran muffins, and strawberry jam muffins, both made earlier in the week:

Goat cheese muffins placed in the freezer alongside other muffins

And as for the rest of the goat cheese package? Mom got more freshly baked goat cheese muffins the following morning!

Making (Braised) Pulled Pork — Photos

Following having enjoyed a friend’s pulled pork a few times at church functions over the years, I asked her for her recipe in late 2023 / early 2024. I successfully made her pulled pork … and shelved the idea, because her recipe featured star anise — meaning, there was what I considered a weird black licorice taste to the otherwise tasty pulled pork. Also, I asked my friend “what do you do with the braising liquid afterwards?” to which she responded “Oh keep it in the freezer for the next time, or add corn starch to some of it to add to the pork.” These responses didn’t sit well with me either. I resigned myself to enjoying pulled pork whenever my culinary adventures happened to meet with it at restaurants and the like.

In early 2026, I saw pork shoulder on sale, and decided to buy some “so that one day I can try again to make pulled pork.” A couple of months later, I looked up pulled pork recipes on the internet, did my own experimentation on the spot, and decided upon keeping my friend’s basic method; but instead using a 2:1 mix of commercial BBQ sauce (I settled on Kraft) and molasses for the flavour base to the braising liquid, to which I have kept ever since. Once exception was to have found a generic taste-alike recipe for Kraft BBQ sauce on the internet, which I integrated into the recipe, and which I used to partly make up the BBQ sauce portion in this session. (As a side note, I did *not* show extra photos for this makeup, in keeping with the spirit of the recipe that intentionally simply calls for “barbecue sauce” — meaning, you should use your favourite barbecue sauce.) And, as shown below, I reduce the braising liquid down to a sauce to mix in with the pulled pork. 🙂

Extra note: In a few instances, my photos from the session have shown some kitchen surfaces that were in need of some cleaning, and the aluminum foil lining at the bottom of my countertop convection oven needing changing. All the “extra cleaning” and foil replacement were performed after the cooking session, and during the course of mounting this post. I think I’m going to claim “Welcome to real life!”

Extra note #2: “A photo or two” may have been slightly presented out of order compared to their having been taken, and at least one make-up photo was staged after the cooking session, both for the sake of the narrative.

Making the pulled pork:

First, some frozen pork was taken out — in this case, some pork loin (instead of pork shoulder, which I concede is still more appropriate for the job — but pork loin does well too) — because I had bought a lot of pork loin a few months ago at a not-as-great-as-I-thought-but-still-good sale price given how thick the fat layers were in some cases:

Frozen pork taken out

The pork was placed in my microwave oven using the “defrost” function, entering the pork weight that I had marked on the plastic wrap before freezing:

Frozen pork placed in microwave oven for defrosting

The time for defrosting was automatically set based on the weight I’d entered:

Defrosting time automatically set based on weight

In the meantime, an oven-proof cast iron pot with a lid was taken out:

Oven proof pot taken out

Critically, the use of an oven-proof pot that can be covered, be it with a lid, or aluminum foil, is important — in my case, I use a cast iron pot with a lid that happens to fit in my countertop convection oven, and which allows for pre-heating on the stove.

An onion and a kitchen knife were taken out:

Onion and kitchen knife taken out

The onion was trimmed:

Onion trimmed

The onion was cut into rounds:

Onion cut into rounds

The onion rounds were then chopped coarsly:

Onion chopped coarsely

The chopped onion was transferred to the pot:

Chopped onion placed in pot

Olive oil was taken out and added to the pot:

Olive oil taken out and added to pot

Once the pork had defrosted, I started trimming off excess fat with a particularly sharp knife:

Fat layer trimmed off of pork
Fat layer trimmed off of pork

The pieces of fat trimmed off the pork were put into a bucket for disposal through the municipal curbside composting programme.

The pork was cut into three pieces, which would fit into my pot:

Pork cut into pieces to fit in pot

The pieces of pork were placed in the pot with the chopped onion and olive oil:

Pork pieces placed in pot with onion and olive oil

The stove burner was turned on — and oh my, it’s a bit dirty:

Stove burner turned on

I also turned on my countertop convection oven:

Countertop convection oven turned on

The oven rack was placed on the bottom level of the oven — and oh my! again, a bit of cleaning is needed, including replacing the aluminum foil at the bottom of the oven:

Countertop oven turned on

Back to the pork on the stove, the pork was turned over:

Pork turned over

Molasses was taken out and measured out:

Molasses measured out

The molasses was transferred to the pot with the pork and chopped onion:

Molasses transferred to pot with pork and onion

Some barbecue sauce as well as some ketchup to help make up the volume were measured out:

BBQ sauce and ketchup measured out

The barbecue sauce was added to the pot with the pork, onions, and molasses:

Barbecue sauce added to pot

Just a reminder here: Since my recipe for pulled pork and this post are predicated on the notion of “use the barbecue sauce you want to use”, although the ingredients for a taste-alike replacement of Kraft BBQ sauce are in my recipe for pulled pork, showing the makeup ingredients won’t be done here. Also to note, the apparent measure above takes into account the following steps, which washed out the rest of the barbecue sauce and ketchup clinging to the insides of the bottles used.

Water was added to the pot with the other ingredients, enough to cover the pork pieces:

Water added to pot with the other ingredients
Water added to pot with the other ingredients

At this point, the stove burner was turned up to maximum:

Stove burner turned to maximum

The pot was brought to a boil:

Pot brought to a boil

The lid was placed on the pot:

Lid placed on pot

The pot was placed into the countertop convection oven — the pot just fits!

Pot placed in countertop convection oven

The door to my countertop convection oven was closed — and again I noticed something that needed a cleaning!

Oven door closed

After about an hour, the pot was taken out and checked, and the liquid was indeed just bubbling:

Liquid in pot just at the point of bubbling

A timer was set to an hour and a half:

Timer set to an hour and a half

While the pot with the pork and braising liquid was returned to the countertop convection oven:

Pot returned to oven

Shortly before the timer was to run out, a heatproof container was taken out:

Heatproof container taken out

And at less than a minute before the timer ran out …

Timer running out at 40 seconds left

The pot was taken out and placed on the stove beside the counter:

Pot taken out of oven

The lid was taken off the pot:

Lid taken off pot

A piece of pork was taken out of the pot with a slotted spoon, and its tenderness was tested: The pork definitely pulled apart easily with a fork!

Pork taken out and tested with a fork

So I continued “pulling” — shredding if you prefer — the pork with some forks:

Pork shredded with forks
Pork shredded with forks

The shredded pork was transferred to the heat proof container, and another piece of pork was removed from the pot and braising liquid using a slotted spoon:

Another piece of pork removed from pot

The piece of pork taken out, as well as the other piece of pork, were both shredded with the forks, and transferred to the heatproof container:

Pulled pork transferred to heatproof container

Throughout the pulling / shredding of the pork, bits of fat and grissol were separated out and put aside, to be put into a bucket for disposal through the municipal curbside composting programme:

Fat and grissol separated for disposal in composting programme

In the braising pot, a layer of rendered fat had risen to the surface:

Braising liquid with layer of rendered fat on top

A soup ladle was taken out to skim off the rendered fat:

Ladle taken out

The rendered fat was skimmed off the top of the braising liquid:

Rendered fat skimmed off top of braising liquid

The skimmed rendered fat was transferred to a fat separator with a slotted top:

Skimmed fat transferred to fat separator
Rendered fat in fat separator

The braising liquid at the bottom of the fat separator was poured off:

Braising liquid poured off

The ladle was then used again, this time to transfer some of the braising liquid from the cast iron pot …

Braising liquid transferred from pot

… to a frypan, in order to help reduce / thicken the liquid more quickly than all at once just in the pot:

Braising liquid transferred to pan for reducing / thickening

Two stove burners were turned on to maximum:

Stove burners turned on to maximum
Stove burners turned on to maximum under frypan and pot

The frypan and pot were brought to a boil to reduce the volume and concentrate the ingredients, by evaporating off excess water:

Frypan and pot brought to a boil
Boiling braising liquid to reduce the volume and concentrate the ingredients

After a time, as can especially be seen in the pan on the left, the reduced liquid with become what I will characterize as “gloopy”, and the bubbling will be more audible:

Braising liquid especially on the left thickened
Thickened braising liquid becoming a sauce

The now thickened sauce in the pan was transferred to the pork in the heatproof container:

Sauce transferred to pork

Of course, the pan was scraped to get all of that goodness to put on the pulled / shredded pork!

The rest of the braising liquid was reduced to the desired thickness and transferred to the container with the pulled / shredded pork:

All sauce transferred to container of shredded pork

The (now cleaned) slotted spoon was taken out to distribute the sauce throughout all the pulled pork:

Slotted spoon taken out to redistribute the sauce in the container
Pulled pork fully “sauced”

Plastic containers of a one-cup capacity were taken out (this is the recreated photo):

Plastic containers taken out

The pulled pork was transferred to the plastic containers:

Pulled pork transferred to containers

And lids were placed on the containers:

Lids placed on containers

The containers were placed in the freezer for my future enjoyment:

Fortunately, there was a taste, albeit small, of pulled pork left in the container:

A tasty bit of pulled pork left over

The tasty leftover bits were served on a plate, ready to eat:

A taste of pulled pork — enjoyed!

Yummy!

And as an extra note … I have been asked to bring my pulled pork again to the next church pot luck meal, along with one of my tiramisu cakes!

WordPress updated again, more recipes added, and recipe updates

Yet another note to underline that WordPress on www.malak.ca has been updated, this time to version 6.9.4. And, when I was checking, I deleted 3,344 pending comments — I have long since stopped inspecting them 100 at a time for the possibility of a legitimate post; though I did notice that this time around, about 1,400 (presumably) spammy comments were lined up for my post on making Sour Cream Muffins! 🙂

New recipes:

  • Savoury Pork Custard: A recipe developed with — actually initially proposed by — ChatGPT to create a pork based dish that is very soft.
  • A Tiramisu-inspired Layer Cake: A recipe based off a “quick tiramisu” seen on a “30 minute meals” show, and reworked again with the help of ChatGPT. Tasty! (Optionally) Uses the loaf cake version of my Plain Cake. At this moment, the recipe is still an early draught along the lines of a “Release early, release often” model (here’s my archive).
  • Pulled Beef: Basically, beef cooked in the kitchen braising or stewed beef method. The first time I made it, it was a spot on recreation of what one would expect! (Adapted from my pulled pork recipe for beef, with … the help of ChatGPT.)

Updated recipes:

  • Pulled Pork: A recent addition, but listed as “updated” because I had already transferred this recipe to malak.ca/food several weeks ago. Pulled pork cooked in the kitchen braising method. This has become a recent favourite! The second time I brought it to a church dinner, it was sufficiently popular for it to be characterized as “Don’s Famous Pulled Pork” — much to my amusement, given that in those circles it is more my vegetable soup that would be characterized as “famous” when associated with me, while another parishioner’s pulled pork would best characterized as the “famous pulled pork” in those circles. 🙂
  • Vegetable Soup: Updated a couple of months ago; I don’t recall the latest updates.
  • Bacon Wrapped Chicken Pieces: Updated to suggest pairing their preparation with my turkey stuffing / dressing should the latter be prepared for its own sake sans turkey.
  • Turkey Stuffing / Dressing: Updated to include a cooking section, including to suggest pairing with the bacon wrapped chicken pieces if cooked for its own sake sans turkey.
  • Barbecups: General updating, the specifics of which I no longer remember, after making them a few weeks ago.

Enjoy!

Making Plain and Easy Sour Cream Muffins — Photos

I started making these tasty and easy to make muffins as a result of trying to make another kind of muffin (here’s my archive) for my mom, to add a bit more variety to the muffins I make for her. The story to the recipe, for me, had an alluring appeal that seemed to fit the bill. They turned out mostly nicely; however, the experience unfortunately taught me that when a recipe calls for unsalted butter — such as for the topping, especially since it also calls for a “pinch of kosher salt” — one should use unsalted butter. The resulting topping had just enough saltiness, however mild that it was, such that while of course the muffins were really nice, the slight saltiness was a distraction that did not appeal to my mom. (I enjoyed the rest of the muffins, but I agreed with her regarding the distraction.) In the process, I decided that the amount of effort required to execute the recipe was a bit more than I cared for.

As a result though, I had some sour cream for which I had no further use, since I don’t have a taste for sour cream by itself, nor does my mom ask for it for other dishes. And, I was still in the position of needing another muffin recipe to add a bit of variety for Mom. I looked up “sour cream muffins” or somesuch on the internet, and I landed on a recipe here (here’s my archive), which I adjusted down to a half-batch of six muffins that can be easily and quickly made in a countertop convection oven, and which of course scales up to a dozen or more muffins at a time.

Note: Some of the photos were taken somewhat or a bit more out of order, or were outright recreations — albeit all during the preparation of, or immediately after baking, the same batch of muffins, including separately preparing the wet and dry ingredients the night before baking them fresh the morning of for breakfast for Mom — but are presented here in the order presented below for the sake of the narrative.

Making the muffins:

The countertop convection oven was preheated to 350F:

Countertop convection oven turned on
Countertop convection oven set to 350F

A baking tin and paper muffin liners were taken out:

Baking tin and paper muffin liners taken out

Paper muffin liners were placed in the wells:

Paper muffin liner placed in baking tin well
Paper muffin liners placed in baking tin wells

Flour and a measuring cup were taken out:

Flour and measuring cup taken out

Flour was measured out:

Flour measured out

The flour was transferred to a mixing bowl:

Flour transferred to mixing bowl
Flour transferred to mixing bowl
Flour transferred to mixing bowl
Flour transferred to mixing bowl

Sugar and a measuring cup were taken out, and sugar was measured out::

Sugar taken out and measured out

The sugar was transferred to the mixing bowl with the flour:

Sugar transferred to mixing bowl with flour
Sugar transferred to mixing bowl with flour

Baking soda and measuring spoons were taken out:

Baking soda and measuring spoons taken out

Baking soda was measured out:

Baking soda measured out

The baking soda was transferred to the mixing bowl with the flour and sugar:

Baking soda transferred to bowl with flour and sugar

Salt and measuring spoons were taken out:

Salt and measuring spoons taken out:

Salt was measured out:

Salt measured out

The salt was transferred to the bowl with the flour, sugar, and baking soda:

Salt transferred to bowl with flour, sugar, and baking soda

Nutmeg was taken out:

Nutmeg taken out

Nutmeg was measured out:

Nutmeg measured out

Nutmeg was transferred to the bowl with the flour, sugar, baking soda, and salt:

Nutmeg added to bowl with flour, sugar, baking soda, and salt
Nutmeg added to bowl with flour, sugar, baking soda, and salt

A fork was taken out:

Fork taken out

The dry ingredients were mixed with the fork:

Dry ingredients mixed with fork
Dry ingredients mixed with fork

Sour cream and a measuring cup were taken out:

Sour cream and measuring cup taken out

The sour cream was measured out, and since I was missing a very small amount, I topped it up with a bit of milk:

Sour cream measured out and slightly topped up with milk

The sour cream was transferred back to the plastic container:

Sour cream transferred back to plastic container

Vegetable oil and a measuring cup were taken out, and the oil was measured out:

Vegetable oil and measuring cup taken out, and oil measured out

The vegetable oil was transferred to the container with the sour cream:

Oil transferred to container with sour cream
Oil transferred to container with sour cream
Oil transferred to container with sour cream

Eggs were taken out:

Eggs taken out
Egg taken out

The egg was cracked with a spoon:

Egg cracked

The egg was transferred to the container with the sour cream and vegetable oil

Egg transferred to container with sour cream and oil

Vanilla extract and measuring spoons were taken out:

Vanilla extract and measuring spoons taken out

The vanilla extract was measured out:

Vanilla extract measured out

The vanilla extract was transferred to the container with the sour cream, vegetable oil, and egg:

Vanilla extract added to container with sour cream, vegetable oil, and egg

The wet ingredients were mixed together:

Wet ingredients thoroughly mixed

(As mentioned earlier, at this point, the container had been sealed and placed in the refrigerator overnight, and the dry ingredients had been sealed and kept on the counter overnight; as well, immediately prior to the next step listed below is when the countertop convection oven had actually been turned on and preheated.)

The wet ingredients were brought over to the dry ingredients, and a clean fork and spoon were taken out:

Wet ingredients brought to the dry ingredients

The wet ingredients were transferred to the bowl with the dry ingredients:

Wet ingredients transferred to bowl with dry ingredients
Wet ingredients transferred to bowl with dry ingredients

The last bits of the wet ingredients were scraped into the bowl using a spoon:

Wet ingredients transferred to bowl with dry ingredients, and last bits scraped into bowl using spoon

A fork was taken out to start mixing the wet and dry ingredients:

Fork taken out to mix wet and dry ingredients

The wet and dry ingredients were mixed together with the fork:

Wet and dry ingredients mixed with fork
Wet and dry ingredients mixed with fork

The baking tin with the paper muffin liners was brought over to the bowl with the mixed ingredients:

Baking tin with paper muffin liners taken out

The muffin dough was transferred to the paper muffin liners in the baking tin:

Muffin dough transferred to paper muffin liners
Muffin dough transferred to paper muffin liners

The muffin tin filled with muffin dough was placed in the preheated countertop convection oven …

Muffin tin placed in preheated countertop convection oven

… and a timer was set to 22 minutes:

Timer set to 22 minutes

While the muffins were baking, a cooling rack was taken out:

Cooling rack taken out

At about half-way (after about 11 minutes), the baking tin was rotated in the countertop convection oven, to help ensure even baking:

Almost 11 minutes passing, the rough halfway point during baking

… and at this point, the muffins had clearly begun to rise:

Muffins rising at roughly halfway point in baking

At the end of the baking period, here are the fully baked muffins, which had begun to brown:

Fully baked muffins while still in the countertop convection oven — note the light browning

The muffin tin was taken out of the countertop convection oven and placed on a board, ready for the muffins to be removed from the baking tin, and placed on the cooling rack:

Fully baked muffins taken out of countertop convection oven

The muffins were immediately — hot! hot! hot! — removed from the muffin baking tin …

Hot muffin removed from muffin tin

… and placed on the cooling rack:

Hot muffin placed on cooling rack

… which was continued until all the muffins …

All muffins removed from baking tin

… had been transferred to the cooling rack:

All muffins transferred to cooling rack

Here’s the bottom of a muffin that had sufficiently cooled in order to safely handle it:

Browning on bottom of cooled muffin

A still warm and definitely fresh! muffin was placed on a plate, and the paper liner was carefully removed (so as to not tear off pieces from the muffin):

Muffin paper liner removed from fresh muffin

… and the muffin was ready to serve to Mom, along with a cup of coffee:

Fresh, still warm muffin ready to be served

Of course, Mom said that the muffin was tasty!

After the muffins had completely cooled, a plastic freezer bag that was previously used for freezing sour cream muffins was taken out:

Freezer bag taken out and identified

The bag was opened, and a cooled muffin was placed inside the bag:

Cooled muffin placed in identified freezer bag

… and the rest of the cooled muffins were placed inside the bag:

Cooled muffins placed in freezer bag

The freezer bag was sealed, and placed in the freezer, for future enjoying by Mom!

Bag of cooled muffins placed in freezer

Making Strawberry Jam Muffins — Photos

As an effort to diversify my offerings of muffins for my mom, I learned how to make these delicious muffins containing strawberry jam, cinnamon, and nutmeg. Mom likes them so much that she declared that she likes them a lot better than both the bran muffins and the yoghurt muffins I make for her!

Note that while this recipe can be easily multiplied several times to make more muffins at once, this recipe is intentionally tailored to a half dozen muffins instead of the usual custom of a dozen muffins, since the original recipe on which it was based allows it to be halved and therefore be baked in a countertop convection oven.

In addition to this recipe, the following recipes can (usually, depending on oven size and specific dimensions) be made directly without adjustment in a countertop convection oven:

As well, here are a number of my other recipes which allow for adjusting by half to be made, or can otherwise easily be made (sometimes in shifts), in a countertop convection oven:

Making the muffins:

First, my countertop convection oven was turned on and set to 350F (yes, the photo says 86F, it’s preheating!):

Countertop convection oven turned on to be preheated
Countertop convection oven turned on to be preheated

A muffin baking tin and some paper muffin liners were taken out:

Muffin baking tin and paper muffin liners taken out

Paper muffin liners were placed in each of the wells of the muffin baking tin:

Paper muffin liners placed in muffin baking tin wells

A mixing bowl, a fork, and a spoon were taken out:

Mixing bowl, fork, and spoon taken out

Flour and a measuring cup were taken out, and some flour was measured out:

Flour taken out and measured out

The flour was transferred to the mixing bowl:

Flour transferred to mixing bowl
Flour transferred to mixing bowl
Flour transferred to mixing bowl
Flour transferred to mixing bowl

Sugar and a measuring cup were taken out, and some sugar was measured out:

Sugar taken out and measured out

The sugar was transferred to the mixing bowl with the flour:

Sugar transferred to mixing bowl
Sugar transferred to mixing bowl
Sugar transferred to mixing bowl

Baking soda and a measuring spoon were taken out, and some baking soda was measured out:

Baking soda taken out and measured out

The baking soda was transferred to the mixing bowl with the flour and the sugar:

Baking soda transferred to mixing bowl
Baking soda transferred to mixing bowl
Baking soda transferred to mixing bowl

Cinnamon and a measuring spoon were taken out, and some cinnamon was measured out:

Cinnamon taken out and measured out

The cinnamon was transferred to the bowl with the flour, sugar, and baking soda:

Cinnamon transferred to mixing bowl
Cinnamon transferred to mixing bowl

Nutmeg and a measuring spoon were taken out, and some nutmeg was measured out:

Nutmeg taken out and measured out

The nutmeg was transferred to the mixing bowl with the flour, sugar, baking soda, and cinnamon:

Nutmeg transferred to mixing bowl
Nutmeg transferred to mixing bowl

Salt and a measuring spoon were taken out, and some salt was measured out:

Salt taken out and measured out

The salt was transferred to the mixing bowl with the flour, sugar, baking soda, cinnamon, and nutmeg:

Salt transferred to mixing bowl
Salt transferred to mixing bowl

A fork was taken out and used to mix the dry ingredients:

Dry ingredients mixed with a fork
Dry ingredients mixed with a fork

A box of eggs was taken out:

Eggs taken out

An egg was taken out of the box of eggs:

Egg taken out

The egg was cracked on the edge of the mixing bowl with the dry ingredients:

Egg cracked into mixing bowl
Egg cracked into mixing bowl

Milk and a measuring cup were taken out, and some milk was measured out, but the milk was not yet transferred to the mixing bowl:

Milk taken out and measured out but not yet transferred to mixing bowl

Vegetable oil was taken out, and some oil was measured out in the measuring cup while the milk was still in it, but the milk and oil were not yet transferred to the mixing bowl:

Oil taken out and measured out but not yet transferred to mixing bowl

Strawberry jam was taken out, and some strawberry jam was measured out into the measuring cup with the milk and vegetable oil:

Strawberry jam taken out and measured out
Strawberry jam measured out

The milk, vegetable oil, and the strawberry jam were transferred to the mixing bowl with the dry ingredients and the egg:

Milk, oil, and strawberry jam transferred to mixing bowl
Milk, oil, and strawberry jam transferred to mixing bowl
Milk, oil, and strawberry jam transferred to mixing bowl
Milk, oil, and strawberry jam transferred to mixing bowl

The ingredients were mixed together with the fork:

Ingredients mixed with a fork

The batter was transferred to the paper liners in the muffin baking tin, using a spoon:

Batter transferred to paper liners in muffin baking tin
Batter transferred to paper liners in muffin baking tin

The filled muffin baking tin was transferred to the pre-heated countertop convection oven:

Muffin baking tin with batter placed in countertop convection oven

A timer was set to 23 minutes:

Timer set to 23 minutes

While the muffins were baking, a cooling rack was taken out:

Cooling rack taken out

Here’s a picture of the muffins rising while baking:

Muffins rising while baking

At the end of the 23 minutes when the muffins were baked, the muffin baking tin with the muffins were taken out of the countertop convection oven:

Muffins taken out of countertop convection oven

The muffins were taken out of the muffin baking tin and placed on the cooling rack:

Muffins placed on cooling rack

A muffin (in the case of this photo, from a subsequent batch) was taken out to serve to mom:

A delicious muffin is served!

Mom loves these delicious muffins a lot these days!

… and I froze the rest of muffins in a freezer bag, as I did with muffins from a subsequent batch:

Extra muffins placed in freezer bag for freezing

Mom now says that these are her favourites!