Burger night

So Friday night has become unofficial burger night in our house. We all chip in (and by "we all" I mean, Mr Everyday Baker and I - the lads' just demolish the end result) to create a spectacular home made feast. And it really is home made, from the chips right through to the burger bun and I promise it's not as much work as it sounds (especially when you have a helper).
So this recipe was inspired by my new favourite food magazine, SBS Feast and it's latest burger-fuelled edition. It is, however, responsible for my subsequent hankering for burgers but hey, it resulted in a family cook-up rather than a trip to the drive-through so that's got to be a good thing.

First things first, the buns...

Burger Buns

Ingredients
1 cup warm water
1 tablespoon yeast
3 1/2 cups plain flour
1 tablespoon sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1 egg
2 tablespoons melted butter

Method
Mix all ingredients in the Kitchenaid using a dough hook until combined and you have a nice smooth dough (or use your hands, whatever). Cover dough and let it rise for an hour or so, until it's almost doubled in size.
Deflate the dough (give a quick punch) and divide into eight pieces, or however many pieces depending on how big you like your buns. Shape into round balls and flatten with your palm. 
Place on tray lined with baking paper and cover, leaving to rise for about an hour.
Brush with some butter and bake @ 190 degrees Celsius for about 15 minutes or until golden. Brush with more butter and leave to cool. 

Next stop... the patties

The naughty muffins

So you've probably already read about the Pretty Darn Good Muffins that I shared earlier, which are great and pretty healthy too. Let's face it though, sometimes you just feel like eating something a little naughty. That's when this muffin recipe comes into play, it's like the healthy muffins' naughty cousin and they taste aaahhhh-mazing.
The original recipe uses a lot of vegetable oil, which freaks me out a little. Vegetable oil is creepy - mainly because it gives no indication on the bottle from which vegetables the oil is derived. It's an artificial product apparently, along the same lines of margarine (the devil in my opinion). So in my version, I use half butter, half sunflower oil. In future I plan to try olive oil (thinking it may be a bit strong in flavour) or full butter.

These puppies are a real treat (for bigs and littles), so enjoy!

Raspberry and White Chocolate Muffins (the naughty kind)

Ingredients

440g plain flour

1 tablespoon baking powder

250g caster sugar

1/2 cup sunflower oil

1/2 cup melted butter

1 1/2 cups milk

2 eggs, lightly beaten

200g white chocolate, roughly chopped 

200g fresh or frozen raspberries

Method

Pre-heat oven to 180 degrees Celsius. Line a muffin tin with paper cases.

Sift flour and baking powder into a large bowl, add sugar and stir to combine. Make a well in the centre and add oil, milk and beaten eggs. Mix gently until just combined and fold in chocolate and most of the raspberries.

Spoon mixture into tins and garnish with remaining berries. Bake for 30-35 minutes or until golden brown.