"Everything Nice" Muffins

Om...

... nom...

...nom.

When I started baking, it was out of necessity. It was the winter of 2005, just after Christmas, and I was battling terrible insomnia and slight depression. It was awful. I would spend hours sitting, staring at my computer, updating Facebook, lying on my carpet wishing that I could sleep. One night, I wandered down to the still-set-up Christmas tree and started sifting through the gifts that I'd received. One of those gifts was Mollie Katzen's Sunlight Cafe, still one of my favorite cookbooks today. After everyone else was asleep, I would sneak downstairs and, as quietly as possible, bake the easiest things from the cookbook with whatever happened to be around in the kitchen. Invariably, after each recipe was finished, I would crash immediately upon my bed, or the couch, or the rug in our kitchen... whatever happened to be easiest. A love of baking was born, alongside a coping mechanism.

To this day, I can tell when I'm verging upon emotional instability when I start itching to break out my pans. It's not only something to do to pass the time; it's also one of the few times when I don't let the opinions of others dictate my actions, when I have overwhelming self-confidence and a can-do attitude, and when, even in the midst of emotional quicksand, I can dance around the kitchen, singing into a whisk and everything is right in my life. The process takes as long as it takes; I can't speed it up or slow it down, even if I wanted to. And, best of all, my friends love me for it. When these muffins came out of the oven, my roommate Beth came into the kitchen and said, point blank, "I could kiss you right now. But I think you'd be weirded out."

Sugar and Spice ("Everything Nice") Muffins

Adapted from Gourmet

Ingredients:

• 1 c flour
• 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp pumpkin pie spice
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/3 c sugar
• 1/4 c butter
• 1 egg
• 1/3 c milk
• 1/4 c brown sugar
• 1 1/2 tsp cinnamon

To Make:

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Line 6 muffin cups with liners.
2. Sift together flour, baking powder, pumpkin pie spice, and salt. In another bowl, cream together sugar and butter. Beat in egg. Add dry ingredients to wet ones and beat until combined. Add milk and stir until just combined.
3. Combine brown sugar and cinnamon in small bowl.
4. Spoon batter into cups half full. Sprinkle some of the brown sugar and cinnamon on top of batter. Spoon more batter into cups (until 5/6 full) and top with remaining brown sugar/cinnamon mixture.
5. Bake for 20-25 minutes.

Some Notes:

• Next time, I will sub brown sugar for the white sugar in the batter.
• Also, next time, I'm going to make extra sugar/cinnamon mixture and put more inside the muffins.
• These muffins are not overwhelmingly sweet, but I like them that way.

Avocado and Pistachio Muffins with Lime Glaze

See!? I told you I was going to be better at updating! Honestly, I was planning on updating yesterday when I made the Black and White Brownies from the Moosewood Dessert Cookbook but... they were terrible. God awful. I was so disappointed! I have never made a dud recipe from Moosewood before, but these brownies were sweet without being rich, and more than a bit chalky. The best part of them was the chocolate glaze: melt 1/3 c. semi sweet chips in a double boiler with 1/4 c. heavy cream... aaaaand there you go.

Anyway, BIG NEWS! I made up a recipe! And it isn't terrible! It needs tweaking, definitely, but I could probably fix the problems without even remaking the recipe to test... Here's the backstory: I love guacamole, but I have been making it so often that it's becoming mundane to me. There was one avocado left over, and about to turn, so I decided to google search "avocado bread" thinking that there might be something useful... no luck. I am not a huge fan of zucchini or banana breads, and that's about all I came up with (aka lots of spices that completely mask the true flavor of the produce). So then I searched avocado cake. Still, not much luck because I didn't have any buttermilk! Apparently, buttermilk is a staple in recipes where you bake with avocados... who knew!? So I decided to make my own recipe. I kid you not when I say that this was one of the most nerve-wrecking experiences of my life... There was a great possibility of my crashing and burning (literally). I decided to make the batter into muffins, because I only had one avocado.

The result? 4 mint-green (thank you camera phone for completely destroying the integrity of my muffin-color), medium-sized muffins that were good with the potential of being great. I have listed the recipe as I made it today, below. To see what I would definitely change about my recipe next time, see the notes section! Remember, this recipe only yields 4 muffins.

Audrey's Avocado and Pistachio Muffins with Lime Glaze

...aka SUPERGREEN MUFFINS

Ingredients:

• 1/2 c. granulated sugar
• 3 tbsp. unsalted butter, salted
• 1 medium sized avocado, mashed
• 1 egg
• 1/2 tsp. baking soda
• pinch of salt
• 1/2 c. flour
• 1/2 c. salted pistachios, chopped coarsely
• juice of 1/2 lime
• 1/4 c. powdered sugar

To Make:

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
• Cream together butter and sugar. Add mashed avocado and beat until smooth. Add egg, then dry ingredients and stir until well combined. Fold in pistachios.
• Bake in ungreased and unlined muffin cups, filled 3/4 of the way full, until peaks are browned (about 20 minutes). Let cool on cooling rack.
• Meanwhile, beat together lime juice, powdered sugar, and water as needed to make a glaze of medium thickness. Apply using a pastry crush to the cooled muffins.

Some Notes:

• Next time, I am going to add 1 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract to the batter. The muffins lacked dimension, and although the lime and pistachios helped, they were a little bland.
• Next time, I will increase the granulated sugar to a full cup. The muffins would have been much better had they been sweeter. As is, they are basically savory muffins.
• The muffins came out a little doughy in the center. Next time, I will increase cooking time by 2 or 3 minutes.
• Instead of thinning out the glaze with water, next time I will use more lime juice. Today, I only had the one lime half lying around.
• I might play around with substituting yogurt, ricotta cheese, or buttermilk for the butter. The muffins are naturally heavy because of the fats in the avocado, and I think they could use some lightness.
• I might also try adding lime juice to the actual batter to give it some tang.

Chocolate-Cherry Muffins

These muffins work with a classic fruit and chocolate combination, to very decadent results. The ricotta cheese in the recipe makes these muffins extremely moist, and almost like cheese cake, but doesn't leave any taste. The only problem with these muffins is that they end up on the smaller side, even when filling the muffin tray 5/6th of the way full. I also got to use more of my chocolate chips... on my way to completing The Challenge! :)

On a related note, thank you to my cousin Kat for mentioning me on her blog The Ginger Cook! Hopefully it will help get people reading about my baking endeavors!

p.s. I can't wait to try her recipe for ginger snaps. It looks delicious!

Chocolate-Cherry Muffins

Adapted from Sunlight Cafe

Ingredients:

• 2 c. all-purpose flour
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
• 1/8 tsp. baking soda
• 1 tbsp. lemon zest
• 1/2 c. granulated sugar
• 1 c. ricotta cheese
• 1 c buttermilk
• 2 eggs
• 1 tbsp. fresh lemon juice
• 1 1.2 tbsp vanilla extract
• 4 tbsp. unsalted butter, melted
• 1 dried cherries

To Make:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F and spray about 12 muffins cups with non-stick cooking spray.
2. Combine in a large bowl the flour, salt, baking powder, baking soda, lemon zest and sugar.
3. In a medium bowl beat together buttermilk and ricotta. Add eggs one at a team and beat well, then beat in lemon juice and vanilla. Add wet mixture, cherries, and butter to the dry ingredients and stir until combined.
4. Toss chocolate chips in all-purpose flour to coat. Add to batter and mix to combine. Spoon batter into muffin cups to the top and bake for 20 minutes (until lightly browned on top).

Some Notes:

• I think next time I might use fresh pitted cherries for color and enhanced flavor. The cook time, if you use fresh or frozen cherries, is supposed to be between 25-30 minutes.

Chocolate Gingerbread Muffins

Okay so these muffins are the definition of a delicious failure. I decided at the last minute that I wanted to add Hershey's cocoa powder to the dough to try to incorporate chocolate (you'll see why in the next post) and the muffins came out so densely that the lemon curd wouldn't go into them as filling. I abandoned that idea and just decided to run with the chocolate theme. It turned out really well, but I have ideas for next time I make them...

Chocolate Gingerbread Muffins

Adapted from New Recipes from Moosewood Restaurant

Ingredients:

• 1/2 c. unsalted butter
• 1/2 c. granulated sugar
• 1 c. molasses
• 1 egg
• 2 1/2 c. all-purpose flour
• 1 tsp. ground ginger
• 1/2 tsp. nutmeg
• 1 tsp. cinnamon
• 1 1/2 tsp. cocoa powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 c. hot, strong chocolate-flavored coffee
• 1 1/2 tsp. baking soda
• 1 c. chocolate chips (for topping)

To Make:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line about 2 muffin tins with muffin liners.
2. Cream together the butter and sugar in a medium bowl. In a large bowl, beat egg into molasses, then add the creamed mixture. 
3. Sift together all dry ingredients except baking soda, then fold the dry ingredients into the wet ones.
4. Dissolve the baking soda in the coffee and add it to the batter, beating for several minutes. Place batter in muffin liners, about 3/4 of the way full. Bake for about 30 minutes.
5. To make topping, melt 1 c. chocolate chips in a double boiler until melted. Spoon into pastry bag and decorate.

Some Notes:

• Next time I make these, I plan on adding 1 c. of chocolate chips, coated in all-purpose flour, to the batter for a more chocolaty taste.
• Instead of a pastry bag, you can use a ziplock bag as a decorating tool. Just place all the chocolate into the ziplock bag, cut the tip off and squeeze.