Blueberry Muffins, no topping

I am fully aware that there is a Blueberry Muffin recipe already on this blog. But that one has a topping. And while good, it tastes different from this one? Okay, I know that some people think a blueberry muffin is a blueberry muffin, good however it was prepared. But I am one of those people that truly appreciates the nuances of different blueberry muffin recipes. As long as I get to eat a great many blueberry muffins in gaining that appreciation, that is. 


When I was making this recipe I was surprised. The batter had an almost cookie like consistency that literally has to be scooped into the muffin tin. If you overturned the bowl and tried to pour it, you'd probably just end up with a whole bowl's worth of muffin batter on your counter. I didn't know what to expect, because the texture of muffins and the texture of cookies just doesn't really seem the same to me. When I brought these out of the oven, I totally got it. The muffins are dense, but not hockey puckish, and they are so full of blueberries! 

Blueberry Muffins (adapted from Brown Eyed Baker and Cook's Illustrated)

1 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
1 egg
1 cup granulated sugar
4 tablespoons (2 ounces) unsalted butter, melted and cooled slightly
1¼ cups sour cream
1½ cups frozen or fresh blueberries

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Grease a standard 12-cup muffin tin (or line with paper liners) and set aside.

2. Whisk the flour, baking powder and salt in a medium bowl untill combined. Whisk the egg in a separate medium bowl until well-combined and light-colored, about 20 seconds. Add the sugar and whisk vigorously until thick, about 30 seconds. Add the melted butter in 2 or 3 additions, whisking to combine after each addition. Add the sour cream in 2 additions, whisking just to combine.

3. Add the berries to the dry ingredients and gently toss just to combine. Add the sour cream mixture and fold with a rubber spatula until the batter comes together and the berries are evenly distributed, 25 to 30 seconds. Small spots of flour may remain and the batter will be very thick. Do not overmix.

4. Using a large spoon or a cookie scoop sprayed with nonstick cooking spray, divide the batter amount the muffin cups. Bake until the muffins are light golden brown and a toothpick or thin knife inserted into the center of a muffin comes out clean, 25 to 30 minutes, rotating the pan from front to back halfway through the baking time. Immediately remove muffins to a wire rack and cool for at least 5 minutes. Serve immediately or at room temperature. Store leftovers in an airtight container at room temperature.

Fresh Blueberry Muffins

A lot has happened both in the kitchen and out of it since my last post. I again fell into making good things and not taking the time to photograph them. Oops. But this time I have a REAL excuse. This happened:

No, I didn't make that gorgeous cake, but I did get married. We had a beautiful day and are still enjoying married life two weeks later. I was so glad to get to spend time with my friends and family who all traveled up to Wisconsin to share the day with me.

We went up to Door County for our honeymoon and did quite a bit of wine tasting. We also did quite a bit of dining out which ranged from "hmm. I didn't know that was a thing" (a pat of butter as a condiment on a hamburger), to "this is absolutely delicious" and asking the proprietor if everything was made on site (it was- Surprisingly good food at Kitty O'Reilly's Irish Pub ). Then we came back home and jumped right into the thick of things as Dave performed on opening night of Summerfest.

After the dust settled and we got our house back in order and everything from the wedding put away, I could finally get back into the kitchen. An ad for blueberries on sale in the weekly grocery circular sent me craving for some homemade blueberry muffins. The quest began for a delicious looking blueberry muffin recipe. I looked all around, the recipes at cookbooks at home didn't quite pique my fancy, but a recipe I found at Baked Perfection looked simply amazing. The funniest coincidence occurred as well... I actually used the original posting from February 2009 to make these muffins, but when I went back to the website, she had reposted the recipe! They really are that good!

Bakery Style Blueberry Muffins (from Baked Perfection)
Muffins:
2 eggs
1/2 cup white sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 cups sour cream
1 1/2 cups blueberries


Topping:
1/2 cup white sugar
1/3 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 cup butter, cubed
1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C). Grease 12 muffin cups or line with paper muffin liners.

In a medium bowl mix together flour, salt, baking soda, and cinnamon. In a large bowl beat together eggs, white sugar, and brown sugar. Mix in oil, vanilla, and sour cream. Mix dry ingredients into wet mixture (be sure not to over-mix, batter will be lumpy). Gently fold in blueberries. Scoop batter into prepared muffin cups so they are 2/3 of the way full.

To make the topping: mix together 1/2 cup sugar, 1/3 cup flour, 1/4 cup butter, and 1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon. Mix with fork, and sprinkle over muffins before baking. 

Bake in preheated oven for 20 minutes. 

Pop-tarts

On one of our new (salad size) plates, thanks Aunt Vicki!

Pop-tarts are one of those things that I used to eat as a kid that, for whatever reason, my mother didn't let my younger brothers eat because they "aren't good for you". I am not about to argue with that statement, I stopped eating them myself after reading the nutritional info on a package once. I suspect she didn't let them eat poptarts because they always chose the chocolatey- s'more flavored ones, or anything that didn't even hint at fruit fillings. When I saw a recipe for homemade pop-tarts I got really excited, these have to be at least healthier due to the lack of preservatives and the fact that I get to choose what gets put inside, right? 

Making these was fairly easy, it is a nice cool day (read: rainy and chilly, ugh April in Wisconsin) so the dough was really easy to work with. The biggest issue I had was moving the tarts from the counter, where I had rolled them out, filled and topped them, to the baking sheet. If you push down on those edges hard, you end up sticking the tart to the counter even more. I was also a little surprised at the small size of these. I am not a pro at cutting things perfectly evenly, so I had some that came out fairly regularly sized, and some that were tiny. But none of them were comparable in size to the pop-tarts you buy in the store. Not a problem, just not what I was expecting. 

This was also one of my biggest forays into the kitchen since I've started working full (and then some) time again. It was good to start with something so simple and easy, I didn't have to re-check the recipe a million times, and once I got started it was nice to just let my instincts take over. Additionally, I got to break out a bunch of new cooking tools. Dave's mom threw me a bridal shower last weekend and we got so many nice things! It was nice to use a substantial mixing bowl (rather than the plastic ones I've been using up to now.) We are also loving our new dishes! We are so lucky to have such wonderful and loving people in our lives.

Homemade Pop-tarts (from King Arthur Flour/Smitten Kitchen)

Ingredients (pastry)

2 cups all-purpose flour

1 tablespoon sugar

1 teaspoon salt

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, cut into pats

1 large egg

2 tablespoons milk

1 additional large egg (to brush on pastry)

Fillings: you can use anything for a filling, we did the cinnamon-sugar filling

Cinnamon Sugar Filling

1/2 cup brown sugar

1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon (or less if you wish)

4 teaspoons all-purpose flour

Jam filling 

3/4 cup jam

1 tablespoon cornstarch mixed with tablespoon cold water

Other good ideas (that my mother most definitely would NOT APPROVE of) include Nutella and chocolate chips

Using my new mixing bowls. Thanks Aunt Lisa!

1. Whisk together the flour, sugar and salt. Work in the butter with your fingers, pastry blender or food processor until pea-sized lumps of butter are still visible and the mixture holds together when you squeeze it.

2. Whisk the first egg and milk together and stir them into the dough, mixing until everything is cohesive, kneading briefly if needed.

3. Divide the dough in half, shape into a smooth rectangle, about 3/5 inches. If you'd like to wait to finish the recipe, these dough rectangles can be wrapped in plastic and refrigerated for 2 days.

4. Place one piece of the dough onto a lightly floured workspace and roll it into a rectangle about 1/8 inch thick, large enough that you can trim it to an even 9x12. Repeat with the second piece of dough. Set trimmings aside.

5. Cut each piece of dough into thirds horizontally and vertically (forming 9 rectangles).

6. Beat the additional egg and brush it over the surface of the first dough. Place a heaping tablespoon of filling into the center of each rectangle, keeping the edges clear (so you can seal them). Place a second rectangle over the first, pressing firmly along the edge of the rectangle. Repeat with the rest of the dough/filling. Press the tines of a fork along the edges of the rectangles. 

You can't tell, but these are on my brand new HUGE baking sheet, again, thanks go to Aunt Lisa!

7. Place the tarts on a parchment lined baking sheet. Prick the top of each pop-tart with a fork or toothpick so steam can escape while baking. 

8. Refrigerate the baking pan of tarts for 30 minutes while the oven is preheating to 350 F. 

9. Bake the pop tarts for 20 to 25 minutes, until they're a light golden brown. Cool in pan on rack. Store in an airtight container for up to a week.

 Remember those trimmings you saved? You can sprinkle those with some more of the cinnamon-sugar filling and bake them for 13-15 minutes and have a nice little bite sized snack!

Crepe-stravaganza!

I know I told myself no Julia recipes on here, but crepes are just so fun (and seem so foreboding) that I had to post this.

Quick sidebar- the first gift from our registry has been bought and it is- TA DA! the KitchenAid!!! Now, before you go thinking I'm trolling our registry lists trying to keep tabs on what people buy us, my mom called to tell me to check on what color I wanted because Bed, Bath and Beyond had sent her a coupon, plus they were offering some kind of rebate and a year's subscription to Martha Stewart's Everyday Food. So it wasn't cheating.... she told me she was buying it, so I had to go on there to see the validation, really, that's why...

So back to the crepes. When I went to France in college I had my first Crepe. It was divine and glorious and I immediately wanted to make them when I got home. My mom said it couldn't be done. My mom doesn't really like to bake or do crazy stuff in the kitchen, so I don't really know why I believed her when she said this.

I didn't have too hard of a time with them, just followed Julia's instructions to the letter. Generally, I think if you can figure out what she means exactly (some times she is really specific, to the point of including illustrations- and then at times she is frustratingly obtuse) following her instructions to the letter is a guarantee of things turning out perfectly.

We just put some strawberries on our crepes and rolled them, but Dave tried them with some pear & pumpkin butter this morning and said that was good too. They are also good with just a little powdered sugar dusted on top.

Sweet Crepe batter (for stuffed crepes)
3/4 cup milk
3/4 cup cold water
3 egg yolks
1 tablespoon sugar
3 tablespoons orange liqueur (I left this out- could have sworn we had some in the house, but we didn't)
1 cup flour
5 tablespoons melted butter

1. Place ingredients in blender in the order they are listed. Cover and blend at top speed for one minute.

2. If bits of flour adhere to the sides of blender, dislodge with spatula and blend 3 seconds more.

3. Cover and refrigerate 2 hours or overnight.

4. Just before you wish to make the crepes, beat 3 egg whites and a pinch of salt until stiff. Fold half into the batter, fold in the other half, then make the crepes.

The Julia method for crepe-making (word for word more or less, just to preserve her fantastic writing voice)

The first crepe is a trial one to test out the consistency of the batter, the exact amount you need for the pan and the heat.

1. Rub an iron skillet or a crepe pan with a 6 1/2 inch to 7 inch diameter with a piece of fat bacon, pork rind, or a pastry brush dipped lightly in oil. Set over moderately high heat until the pan is just beginning to smoke.

2. Immediately remove pan from heat and, holding the handle of pan in your right hand, pour with your left hand a scant 1/4 cup of batter into the middle of the pan. Quickly tilt the pan in all directions to run the batter all over the bottom of the pan in a thin film. (Pour any batter that does not adhere to the pan back into your bowl; judge the amount for your next crepe accordingly.) This whole operation takes but 2 or 3 seconds.

3. Return the pan to heat for 60-80 seconds. Then jerk and toss pan sharply back and forth and up and down to loosen the crepe. Lift its edges with a spatula and if the under side is a nice light brown, the crepe is ready for turning.

4. Turn the crepe by using 2 spatulas, or grasp the edges nearest you in your fingers and sweep it up toward you and over again into the pan in a reverse circle; or toss it over by a flip of the pan. (I found it much easier to do this by hand than with the spatulas, and couldn't get it to flip- probably because of the pan I was using.)

This one needed more batter, but still tasted great!

5. Brown lightly for about 1/2 minute on the other side. This second side is rarely more than a spotty brown and is always kept as the underneath or nonpublic aspect of the crepe. As they are done, slide the crepes onto a rack and let cool several minutes before stacking on a plate.

6. Grease the skillet again, heat to just smoking, and proceed with the rest of the crepes. Crepes may be kept warm by covering them with a dish and setting them over simmering water or in a slow oven. Or they may be made several hours in advance and reheated when needed. (Crepes freeze perfectly.) As soon as you are used to the procedure, you can keep 2 pans going at once, and make 24 crepes in less than half an hour.