Still Plums - Plum Jam and Plum Muffins

Faithfully I keep on using those plums and ... keeping you posted about what you could do. I also checked my cookbooks on what possibilities where available. Well, In fact I only have five books available. All the others are in boxes waiting for a new place to be put.
So, what cookbooks would you keep, if you only could keep five?
To be honest, I just selected four, the fifth one (Tasting India by Christine Manfield) was buried somewhere on my desk and I didn't notice. 
Which four books did I choose then? Cook with Jamie by Jamie Oliver, Bills Sydney Food by Bill Granger, The Little Paris Kitchen by Rachel Khoo and Secrets of Scandinavian Cooking ... Scandilicious by Signe Johansen.
Did they have anything with plums on offer for me?

Too Many Secrets ... Cappuccino Muffins Covered with Dulce de Leche

What do you make of this?

Any clue? What about this?

Is that already better? Do you know any movies, in which Robert Redford, Dan Aykroyd, River Phoenix and Ben Kingsley played a role?
If so, that might take you to one of my favourite films. It was released in 1992. Got it? Yes, the film is called "Sneakers". It has a bit to do with hacking into computer systems. There are not too many effects and bloodshed, but rather cleverly made.
What, though, does it have to do with us and cooking and this blog?
No, I'm not a hacker, although ...
Well, simply move on with another picture ...

Lovely Manu from Cooking Manu came up with a brilliant idea for this month: "L'ingrediente Segreto/The Secret Ingredient". That's were we get to the 'secret'. Two participants were kind of randomly assigned to each other to send over a secret ingredient to prepare something with.
Therefore ... 'no more secrets' ... the ingredient I received was: Latte intero concentrato zuccherato ... that is: sweetened condensed milk. 
What to do with it?
I had only one answer: Dulce de Leche. How to do this without blowing up your kitchen or making a real mess, you get some instructions here.
Whatsoever, simply doing this wouldn't suffice ...
... so I combined it with some Cappuccino Muffins.

Let's have a look on how to do that.

Cappucino Muffins with Dulce de Leche

Ingredients:
50 g chopped hazelnuts
100 g sugar
200 g flour (I used wholegrain wheat flour)
2 tsp baking powder
2 tbs instant cappuccino powder
Pinch of salt
2 tsp vanilla extract (or one vanilla pod)
200 ml milk
50 ml oil
1 egg
180 ml dulce de leche
Some chocolate sprinkles, if you care

Method:
We assume that you have your dulce de leche ready. I had just prepared mine in 90 minutes.
Right then, combine the dry ingredients, that is the hazelnuts, sugar, flour, baking powder, cappuccino powder, and salt. Shuffle it through.
Then to the liquidish ingredients in another bowl: the vanilla extract, milk, oil, and egg. Combine it as well, give it a good whisk.
Afterwards, join the dry and the liquidish in one of the bowls and make the muffin batter.
Preheat your oven to 180°C.
Divide your batter for the muffins between 12 muffin 'molds' - whatever you favour to use.
Bake it for about 25 minutes - you know when they are ready.
Allow the muffins to cool down a bit after you removed them from the oven and before you spread on them the dulce de leche.
Finish them with some chocolate sprinkles, if you care.

That's it! No more secrets! I don't know what else you expected in this post ..., whatever secrets to be revealed. Well, honestly? It's not going to happen. It's not the time to reveal any further secrets ... not yet, not yet!