Tag Archives: Breakfast

Raspberry-Chocolate Chunk Muffins

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muffinsmuffins2Currently cooking out of Pure Dessert by Alice Medrich.

I hadn’t planned on making these muffins, but every time I flipped through Pure Dessert, I kept stopping on this recipe. Muffins just didn’t seem exotic enough to try. But they have raspberries. And chocolate. Really, it was only a matter of time before I caved.

The batter came together really easily using just a wooden spoon (no mixer required). The recipes calls for all-purpose flour and whole wheat flour. I didn’t have any whole wheat flour, so I used all all-purpose flour. At the end, frozen raspberries and chocolate chips or chunks are stirred into the batter. Keeping the berries frozen means that they don’t turn the batter purple or get squished during mixing.

The muffins smelled divine as they were cooking. They rose well and had nicely rounded tops. The batter itself is pretty neutral and makes a good background for the raspberries and chocolate. Because I like to tinker, I want to try substituting some sour cream or buttermilk for part of the milk to give the muffins a bit more tang. This is a good basic fruit muffin recipe. I’d imagine that just about any fruit would work here, as long as it can stand up to the mixing.

Lemon-Poppyseed Muffins 2.0 Recipe

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spelt_muffinCurrently cooking out of Whole Grains Every Day, Every Way by Lorna Sass.

Remember this post a couple of weeks ago? Well, ever since then, I’ve been beating my head against a wall called Lemon-Poppyseed Muffins. And the wall has been winning.

From the first time I made these muffins, I thought they had promise, but also some problems. I thought the lemon flavor was overpowered by the other ingredients. I though they weren’t sweet enough, that they didn’t have enough rise and that they were too crumbly. So I made batch after batch, trying different combinations of ingredients. I compared recipes from other cookbooks and consulted one of the best scientific baking tomes of late, Bakewise by Shirley  O. Corriher.

In the end, I got the lemon flavor where I wanted it by increasing the lemon juice and brushing the hot muffins with sweetened lemon juice. The leavening problem was solved by drastically reducing the amount of leavening that the original recipe called for, and using all baking soda. Substituting a half of a cup of all-purpose flour for a half of a cup of spelt flour made the muffins lighter and less crumbly.

Because I made so many changes to the recipe, I’ve decided to go ahead and post my version after the jump. Continue reading →

Lemon-Poppy Seed Muffins

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lemon_muffin2Currently cooking out of Whole Grains Every Day, Every Way by Lorna Sass.

Look at those muffin liners! They are called tulip muffin papers, and I love them. I need to open my bakery just so I can bake everything in them. Sadly, those muffin liners were the best part of this recipe.

lemon_muffin1The muffins weren’t bad. They were just kinda tasteless. They had a really nice texture and were dense and moist, but they were sadly lacking in the lemon flavor. And the sugar. My major beef about this recipe is the amount of sugar that is called for. Sass says to use 1/2 to 2/3 c of packed light brown sugar, to taste.

WTF?

To taste? How do I know how they are going to taste if I haven’t baked them yet? And once I bake them, it’s a little late to be adding more sugar. Deciding to error on the less sweet side, I used 1/2 c of sugar, and it wasn’t nearly enough. 

Yet, I liked the texture enough that I’m going to play with this recipe. I’m going to cut down on the buttermilk and increase the amount of lemon juice. I’ll probably increase the sugar to at least 3/4 c. I also think a light lemon glaze would help up the lemonyness.

Stay tuned . . .

Note: I bought the tulip muffin papers from kingarthurflour.com. A simple google search revealed several more places that you can buy them at, including Amazon.


Steel-Cut Oats

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Trista's and Bryan's OatmealCurrently cooking from Whole Grains, Every Day, Every Way by Lorna Sass.

I only have few food dislikes. I hate liver (and am too old to be told it is steak, mom!) and I hate oatmeal. I dislike liver because of the taste. My dislike of oatmeal, however, all comes down to texture. I don’t care how good it tastes, it’s like eating snot – slimy, mucousy, stringy snot!

Sass has several recipes for breakfast oatmeal in her book, but I’m not going to try any of them. Why not? See the above paragraph. Instead, I’m going to tell you how I cook oatmeal. It may be a little strange, but it delivers oatmeal that is snot-free. For you oatmeal purists, you may want to stop reading now.

The first thing I do is use steel-cut oats. They may take a little longer to cook, but they retain their grainness. So, take a big pot and fill it with water (I never measure how much water, but it is probably about 2 or 3 quarts. Bring that water to a boil, add some salt and then add about 2 cups of steel-cut oats. Boil the oats until they are tender, usually about 15-20 minutes. Then (and here’s the strange part), drain the oats and rinse them in hot water until there is no sign of mucous. You should be left with distinct grains that don’t look or feel gummy. Drain well. 

I usually eat these oats reheated and topped with yogurt, fruit and almonds. If I’m not feeling the sweet, I’ll top them with some butter and salt and pepper.

Chocolate Cream Scones 2.0

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Chocolate Cream Scones

Currently baking from The Art & Soul of Baking by Cindy Mushet.

In my follow up attempt at the chocolate cream scones, I tweaked a couple of things. Some on purpose, some not (I blame the 4 hours of sleep I got the night before). I increased the amount of sugar from 2 3/4 oz to 4 oz, and I accidentally added an egg to the mixture (oops) instead of brushing it on top. I also made the scones smaller and taller. The end result? They were tastier, more moist and held together better. The texture was more cakelike, then sconelike, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing. They were still a bit misshapen, but were recognizable as scones, at least.

Next time, I’ll keep the egg in the batter, actually refrigerate the dough before baking and maybe add some nuts.

Also, I got a new camera (YAH!) and will try to start including pictures.

Chocolate Cream Scones

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Currently baking from The Art & Soul of Baking by Cindy Mushet.

I’ve been searching for the perfect scone for several years, now. When I get a new baking cookbook, it’s one of the first recipes that I scrutinize. I’ve found some fairly good ones and some pretty bad ones. But the one thing they all have in common, when I make them, is that they turn out ugly. I have yet to make a scone that rises up, instead of out. The flavor may be fine, but the misshapen blob sitting in front of me just makes me sad. Continue reading →