Monday Musing: Double Win

The pumpkin chocolate muffies went over extraordinarily well. Nearly all of the two dozen or so had been eaten before I left. I don't think I'd change a thing about the recipe other than having them hot and fresh out of the oven instead of the following morning. However, although I used the smallest chocolate chip at my Publix, I think if I could find smaller chocolate chips I would use them. This makes two weeks in a row of good results. I'm terrified that next week will come out like stones or charcoal briquets.

Also today I received the sideswipe flat beater for the kitchenaid stand mixer. I haven't had a chance to use it but I couldn't resist giving it a dry run and it does what it says it does and makes contact with the mixing bowl. I'm hopeful that it will work and can't wait to try it out.

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffies

I love Panera. I generally eat there once a week. However, I'm not fond of their baked goods. What I've had has generally been very good but I just don't make a habit of buying/eating baked sweets that aren't of my own creation. With that said, my mother was raving about the pumpkin muffie she had on a recent vacation. For those not familiar with muffies, they are panera-speak for muffin tops (no, they're not the top of regular muffins with the rest discarded a la Seinfeld, they're baked in a shallow muffin tin). They also have a consistency somewhere between a cookie and a muffin; hence muffie, clever, huh? I found this recipe for pumpkin chocolate chip muffies and even though the first signs of summer just around the corner and it doesn't fit seasonally, it was just too good to pass up. The recipe calls for dropping rounded spoonfuls onto cookie sheets. I made one batch that way but found they didn't rise well so I made the rest in a muffin top pan, which I highly recommend.

In a related lawyer geek moment, I singed my thumb on a hot tin and as I was icing it down wondered if I qualified for worker's compensation.


Ingredients

• 1 cup canned pumpkin
• 1 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 2 teaspoons cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon milk
• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
• 1 cup mini semi sweet chocolate chips

Directions

1. Combine pumpkin, sugar, milk, and vegetable oil. Stir until combined.
2. In a separate bowl, stir together flour, cinnamon, baking powder, and salt. Add flour mixture to pumpkin mixture and mix well.
3. Add vanilla, chocolate chips and nuts.
4. Drop by spoonful on parchment paper lined cookie sheet or fill muffin top pan to top and bake at 350 degrees for approximately 10 minutes or until lightly brown and firm.

Monday Musing: Win

The reviews are in and the coffee cake muffins were well received. However, after sampling one hot out of the oven, I'd substantially recommend cutting down the flour in the streusel topping. Also, mixing some of the streusel in with the batter gave some very good flavor.

I'm in the process of buying a new camera and hopefully the quality of the photographs will improve. Update to follow.

Coffee Cake Muffins

This recipe is a variation on one I made prior to starting the blog. It calls for jumbo muffin tins but I used regular sized. I also made it in two ways, the first using the strudel only on top of the muffins and the other way with a bit of the streusel mixed into the batter for flavoring. I had extra streusel topping left over so you may want to cut the ingredients in half. I think they came out well, come back tomorrow to find out.



Streusel Ingredients

• 1 cup packed dark-brown sugar
• 1 cup all-purpose flour (spooned and leveled)
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/2 cup (1 stick) chilled unsalted butter, cut into small pieces

Muffins Ingredients

• 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature plus more for pans
• 1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour (spooned and leveled), plus more for pans
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 cup sour cream
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 2 large eggs

Directions

1. Prepare streusel topping: In a medium bowl, stir together brown sugar, flour, and salt. With a pastry blender or two knives, cut in butter until mixture resembles large coarse crumbs; refrigerate until ready to use.
2. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Prepare muffins: grease a 12-cup muffin tin
   
3. In a small bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, and baking soda; set aside.
4. Using an electric mixer on medium speed, beat together butter, sour cream, granulated sugar, and vanilla until light and fluffy. Beat in eggs, one at a time, until well combined. With mixer on low, beat flour mixture into butter mixture until just mixed.
5. Spoon batter into muffin tins and cover with streusel.
   
6. Bake 20 to 25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in center of a muffin comes out clean. Cool in pan 5 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

Monday Musing: On My New Mixer

Last night's recipe failed. Part of it was my fault. The recipe calls for a 15"x10" pan. As far as I can tell, no such pan exists or has ever existed. I used a 13"x9" quarter sheet cake pan and because I didn't reduce the proportions, that's where things went awry. The crust layer was too thick, the middle cream cheese layer didn't set properly and the top lemon filling layer didn't set at all. It ended up tasting great but it wouldnt' win a beauty pageant. Instead of a lemon bar, it was more like a lemon dessert, to be eaten on a plate with a fork.

But with that said, the mixer didn't work exactly as I planned either. The cream cheese layer was supposed to be mixed until creamy but there were still small chunks of cream cheese. I think this could be solved with my latest purchase, the Side Swipe (pictured below). It's a replacement for the flat beater that scrapes the side of the bowl down with silicon fins as it mixes. Because it's constantly in contact with the bowl I'm hopeful that it will do a better job mixing. Unfortunately, it's back-ordered with an estimated shipping date of March 23 for the attachment that fits my mixer, so we'll have to wait until then to test it out.


With that said, I'm not sure the role I see for the mixer in my kitchen. I generally prefer hand mixing things. I like the control and being able to feel when a recipe is coming together, which you don't get with a mixer. However, I'm reserving judgment until I make bread dough with the mixer. The weather is just getting to be the right mixture of heat and humidity for proper rising and I'm hoping the cold front we're forecast to get on Wednesday doesn't ruin this.

Lemon Cream Cheese Bars

This week's recipe is really just an excuse to use my new Kitchenaid Stand Mixer. The recipe comes from the included recipe book. Honestly, the mixer was a bit of an impulse buy. I had a 30% off coupon for their website, which miraculously included the refurbished outlet store. So I only paid $139.00 for what once was sold for $400 when new. Until today I had managed to live without even a hand-held electric, so I'm still trying to figure out where the stand mixer fits in my life, other sitting pretentiously on my counter in gleaming chrome metalic. After making this recipe, I'm starting to see how it can be useful. I'm hoping to make bread sometime this week now that we've got pretty good baking weather. Unfortunatly, preparing everything in a stand mixer makes taking pictures a bit difficult. Thoughts and reactions on this recipe tomorrow.



Ingredients

Crust

• 2 cups flour
• 1/2 cup powdered sugar
• 2 sticks butter, chilled and cut into chunks

Cream Cheese Filling

• 1 8oz package light cream cheese
• 1/2 cup powdered sugar
• 2 tablespoons flour
• 2 eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Lemon Filling

• 4 eggs
• 2 cups sugar
• 1/4 cup flour
• Zest of one lemon
• 1/4 cup fresh lemon juice (about 1 large lemons)

Directions

Crust
Place all ingredients in mixer bowl and STIR with flat beater 1 minute or until mixture starts sticking together. Press into ungreased 13x9 pan and bake at 350 for 14 to 16 minutes

Cream Cheese Filling
Place ingredients in mixer bowl and STIR with flat beater for 30 seconds. Turn to speed 4 and beat 2 minutes or until smooth and creamy. Pour over partially baked crust and bake for 6 to 7 minutes at 350 or until slightly set

Lemon Filling
Place all ingredients, except lemon juice, in mixer bowl and STIR with flat beater for 30 seconds. Turn to speed 2 and gradually add lemon juice. Mix about 30 second or until well blended. Pour over cream cheese filing and bake for 18 to 20 minutes at 350 or until filling is set. Cook completely in pan. Sprinkle with powdered sugar if desired.

Monday Musing: On Small Kitchen Appliances

I own too many small kitchen appliances. Today I took delivery of a Kitchenaid 5 Quart Heavy Duty / Professional Series Bowl Lift Stand Mixer (in Chrome Metallic if you must know). It will not be lonely in my kitchen. There are many other small kitchen appliances to keep it company. Here is a brief summary:

Multispeed Blender - This is primarily used for cocktails as my other blender is too obscenely powerful and can't crush ice without completely liquifying it.

Combination Juice Extractor / Blender / Coffee Grinder / Single Serving Blender - I picked up the Mustang Mixer online for around 30 bucks. It is basically a huge 1 hp electric motor which has a full size blender attachment, a juice extractor attachment, a single serving bullet type blender and a coffee grinder (which I have never used). As above, it's ludicrously powerful and generally makes an absolute hash of blending tasks but for 30 bucks it's cheaper than a juice extractor, which is why I kept it. It's actually pretty decent at extracting juice.

Citrus Juicer - I've used this twice in four years but for reasons unknown can't bear to part with it.

Deep Fat Fryer - This was a Christmas present to myself. I experimented with it for a month or two making French Fries, Deep Fried Mars Bars and other deliciously cholesterol-laden delights until good sense and rising blood pressure got the best of me and it's been sitting idle in the pantry since.

Rice cooker - I use this occasionally and whenever I need to cook rice. It really is the best way to cook rice. Unfortunately it's pretty useless otherwise.

Cuisinart Food Processor - I consider the Cuisinart Classic Food Processor (the one with two speed - on and pulse) to be an indispensable part of any kitchen. It can chop, slice, grate and knead dough. If you have to buy one small kitchen appliance, this is the one.

Electric skillet - This was a gift and the only reason it's out of the box is because it takes up less space out of the box than in. I have never used it but I guess it would be useful if I had to cook somewhere with electricity but without a kitchen. In four years, I have not been called to cook in such a place but when I am, I'll be ready.

Hand operated electric mixer - I went through two or three of these and invariably they burn out or the attachments break. After the last one broke I gave up and, for a year or two, used either a large whisk or a hand operated egg beater for my mixing needs. Needless to say, I'm excited by the prospects of the new stand mixer.

Sandwich maker - I used this one or twice to make an approximation of Taiyaki (a Japanese pastry filled with red bean curd) and haven't used it since. If I want to have a hot sandwich, 10 times out of 10 I'll put it in a pan. Pans are easier to clean.

Crockpot - I used to use the Crockpot a lot more but recently I haven't had the forethought to gather the ingredients the night before I want to eat something, let alone in the morning as I'm rushing to the office. I do like the idea and am not knocking it.

Vegetable Steamer - I found this deep in a cabinet and believe it to have come with the place. It will pass on to the next tenant in the same condition I found it.

As you can see, I've got way too many small kitchen appliances, all to do tasks that can be done with pots, pans and elbow grease. To see them all listed out is kind of embarrassing, but not as embarrasing as to think about how rarely I use each one (cuisinart and blenders excluded).

By way of an update, as I said in my post last night, I forgot to put the butter in the muffins, which gave them a bready/doughy consistency. They would likely be much better with butter and I'm kicking myself for such a silly error. Additionally, I'm only now feeling a bit better after being sick all weekend. Taking testimony for four or so hours today probably didn't help things.

What about you? What small kitchen appliances do you own/not use?

Strawberry Banana Muffins

About five minutes after I stepped out of the office door to leave on Friday evening, I started to get sick. I spent Saturday and most of Sunday in bed and between being sick and daylight savings time, feel like I've had my weekend pretty much stolen. I chose this recipe because I had everything on hand but the bananas, which I ran up to the corner store for. Apparently I'm still sicker than I thought because when I prepared the muffins this evening I left the melted butter in the microwave. So while I think this recipe has a lot of potential, what I'm bringing to the office tomorrow will be...hardy. In case you're wondering, I'm chilling the melted butter in the ramekin, hoping it will come back to a usable consistency.



Ingredients
1/2 cup unsalted butter, melted -- and not forgotten in the microwave!
3/4 cup light brown sugar
2 large eggs, lightly beaten
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
2 large ripe bananas, mashed (about 1 cup)
1 cup fresh or frozen strawberries (cut into small pieces)
2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (177 degrees C). Position rack in center of oven. Line the muffin pan with paper liners or grease with butter or a vegetable spray. Set aside.
2. Melt the butter. Set aside and don't forget!
3. In a medium sized bowl whisk together the brown sugar, eggs, vanilla extract and mashed banana. Add the melted butter to the brown sugar mixture and stir to combine.
4. In another large bowl combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt. Gently fold in the strawberries, making sure they are coated with flour. This helps to prevent the strawberries from sinking during baking. Do not over mix or the strawberries will end up coloring the batter red. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and stir only until the ingredients are just combined. Do not over mix the batter or tough muffins will result.
5. Fill each muffin cup about two thirds full of batter. Fill any unused muffin cups halfway with water to prevent warping of the pan and/or over browning of the muffins. Place in the oven and bake until a tester inserted in the center of a muffin comes out clean, 20 to 25 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack to cool.

Makes 12 regular sized muffins.

Monday Musing: What the Recipe Doesn't Say

Initially I would note that the muffins turned out excellent. Everyone seemed to enjoy them and there were only two left at the end of the day. I think they would be best served warm with a pat of butter. They make quite a hardy muffin, perfect for the unseasonably cold weather we've been having recently.

For this week's musing I'm turning my attention to some of the tricks I've learned that either aren't included in the recipe, or are easily overlooked. The first thing most people ignore is how imperative it is to let butter soften properly before it is creamed. If the butter isn't soft, it won't beat properly and the sugar won't incorporate properly, you'll have lumps of butter in the batter and the finished product will suffer.

Next, I cannot reiterate how important it is to use two (or more) separate bowls for ingredients. Mixing the dry ingredients in one bowl and the wet ingredients in another is very important. I know that it's a pain but hear me out. Mixing the dry ingredients makes sure that the baking powder/soda, sugar and salt are incorporated throughout the flour. Otherwise you might end up with a pocket of baking soda or salt. It also allows the egg to be beaten with the other liquids and separate from the dry ingredient, which prevents the overbeating described more fully below.

It's also very important to use two bowls because when you add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients you only want to mix them enough to combine them. This is extremely important. Muffin batter should be lumpy, not smooth. Overbeating batter will prevent the muffins from rising. Mix the batter just enough so that there aren't lumps of flour but not so much that it has a smooth consistency.

Another trick to get muffins to rise higher, admittedly one I don't use often and don't claim to understand, is to fill one of the cups of the muffin tin with a little bit of water. Through some voodoo this apparently helps the muffins to rise. Your mileage may vary.

If your baking powder or soda is old, throw it out. Like yeast, baking powder and soda do not have an unlimited shelf life. Don't go crazy but I'd say every 6 months or a year spend 75 cents or a buck and replace your baking powder/soda.

Bacon Cheddar Corn Muffins

I have an unhealthy obsession with bacon. In fact, I love bacon so much that I'm kind of surprised that I waited until now to make something with bacon. In briefly reviewing the bacon muffin recipes available on the internet, they basically came down to two recipes. The first recipe entails corn muffins made from a boxed mix and then cheddar and bacon are added before baking. I find this to be lazy and not very inventive (I'm looking at you Rachel Ray). Ironically, the second recipe for Bacon Cheddar Muffins was published in Cooking Light in 2007. I can assure you there is nothing light about this recipe. In fact, I followed a variation on that recipe which calls for more bacon and more cheese. I'm not exactly sure why it calls for curdled milk but the lemon juice and milks makes for quite a chunky combination. Overall the recipe yields a nicely flavored corn muffin with hints of bacon greatness.


Ingredients
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup yellow cornmeal
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup milk
2 tablespoons lemon juice
2 tablespoons butter, melted
1 large egg
3 ounces shredded extra sharp cheddar cheese
5 bacon slices, cooked and crumbled


Directions

1. Preheat oven to 400
2. In a large mixing bowl, whisk together flour, cornmeal, baking powder, baking soda, sugar and salt.
3. In a medium bowl, stir together milk and juice - let sit for 2 minutes to curdle. Stir in melted butter and the egg until well combined. Pour into the dry ingredients and stir just until combined. Fold in the cheese and bacon.
4. Evenly divide the batter between the wells of a 12 cup muffin tin lightly coated with nonstick spray. Bake until muffins spring back when touched lightly in center, about 15-18 minutes. Remove from the oven and carefully take the muffins out of the baking pan and cool on a wire rack.