Archives for the 'breakfast' Category
Dorie’s great grain muffins…a taste of yellow
You know how much I love strawberry scones, right? Well, even though I haven’t made them as often as I did last year, I still make them…or at least I intend to. On Sunday I fully intended to make scones using Dorie Greenspan’s recipe…but then I remembered all the pain au chocolat that I’ve been eating because Cameron has been turning out such perfect delights lately, and then I thought about the baquette and butter splurge I went on the other evening, and I said to myself “hmmm, you need more whole grains”. Of course Dorie had the answer in the form of her great grain muffins.
A good muffin can be really good, but a bad muffin is often no better than a doorstop. Back in the 80’s I bought Jane Brody’s Good Food Book and learned a lot about whole grain cooking but as usual for me I went overboard…the details are unclear now but what I do remember is that the muffins I made were really dense (like a hockey puck) and heavy and I’m sure they had no resemblance to anything in Jane Brody’s book. The worst part is that I actually gave them to people to eat…I had no frame of reference on what a good muffin should be since I’d never made muffins before and honestly there were no muffins in my background…it wasn’t something my mom ever made.
These muffins are the good kind. They rise up with a nice perky little domes, their texture is good, they’re not heavy or dense…but they are satisfying. I chose to add dried cranberries and pistachios and I think it was a good choice. The colors add some interest and the flavors are well matched. 
Speaking of color…this post is my entry into the Taste of Yellow blogging event hosted by Barbara over at Winos and Foodies. I doubt that there is anyone who hasn’t been touched by cancer in some way and LIVESTRONG Day is the Lance Armstrong Foundation’s one-day initiative to raise awareness and funds for the cancer fight. LIVESTRONG Day 2008 will occur on Tuesday, May 13.
Great Grains Muffins
adapted from Baking From My Home To Yours by Dorie Greenspan
printer-friendly recipe
1 cup all purpose flour
1/3 cup whole wheat flour
1/3 cup cornmeal
1/3 cup old-fashioned oats
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup milk
3 tablespoons plain yogurt
1/3 cup maple syrup
1/4 cup sugar
2 large eggs
1 stick of butter, melted
1/2 cup dried cranberries
1/2 cup pistachios
Preheat the oven to 400° and butter a 12 count muffin tin or line the cups with paper muffin cups.
Combine the flours, cornmeal, oats, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a large bowl. Stir to combine. In another bowl combine the milk, yogurt, syrup, sugar, eggs, and butter. Whisk to combine. Add the cranberries and pistachios to the dry mixture. Fold the wet mixture into the dry mixture making sure to only stir enough to combine…don’t over-stir. Divide the batter evenly among the muffin cups and bake for 18 to 20 minutes or until the tops are golden and a thin knife inserted into a muffin comes out clean. Transfer the pan to a cooling rack and let it rest for 5 minutes. Gently remove the muffins and allow them to cool, or eat them right away…that’s what we do!
Snicker your doodle a muffin
There are people who do not care for chocolate. I know, I know…it is hard to comprehend, but I’ve heard stories on the internets and I’ve been told that they’re for reals. Those people have suffered long enough and they too deserve special treats that scream love from their flavorful, buttery crumbles. So if you happen to know of one of those people I suggest you bake them up a pile of snickerdoodle muffins…because they are so delightful that I cannot believe I wasted 46 years before I ate one.
I wish I could take credit for this amazing discovery but sadly no, it came from the genius Peabody, and I’m sure she’ll be nominated for a Nobel culinary prize or something for her astounding invention. I’ll admit that while I loved the concept of the muffin I wasn’t crazy about the recipe itself, mostly because it involved a mixer and a creaming technique with the butter and sugar. I generally think of muffins to be a type of quickbread that is formed from melted butter, egg, and milk combined with the dry ingredients and then quickly stirred. So I made some changes and came up with this recipe:
Snickerdoodle Muffins
printer-friendly recipe
2 cups flour
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 teaspoon cream of tartar
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup butter, melted
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 cup milk
2 teaspoons vanilla
1 cup sugar
2 tablespoons cinnamon
Preheat oven to 375°F. Either butter a 12 cup muffin tin or use paper muffin cups.
Mix the dry ingredients together in a bowl. In another bowl combine the melted butter, sugar, eggs, milk, and vanilla. Stir until combined. Pour the liquid ingredients into the dry and mix lightly with a fork.
Fill the muffin cups with batter. Top each muffin with the cinnamon/sugar mixture…it can be applied heavily.
Bake for 15 to 20 minutes or until a skewer inserted into a muffin comes out clean.
I know…isn’t that beeauuutiiifffulll? So simple, easy, and so damn good. These muffins taste just like a snickerdoodle, tangy, sweet, cinnamony pleasure…perfect to serve to your true-love for breakfast on Valentine’s Day. Oh, and if you happen to be like me and have fallen hopelessly in love with Uno the Beagle…then bake them for your other true-love…humans will love these muffins, dogs not so much. BTW…my muffins are really yellow because the egg yolks were practically orange…pretty, huh!
Petite brioche à tête…World Bread Day 2007
Here in the lovely Madison area we have some delightful bakeries. Anything baked at Madison Sourdough Company is crusty and satisfying, Café Soleil turns out an Epi roll that I long to have with a double shot latté for breakfast each morning, and we have a soft spot for Clausen’s boysenberry bread and they make an awesome rye.
But alas, very few turn out brioche on a regular basis. For me, this is the most indulgent, celebratory bread imaginable…the perfect bread to give you to celebrate today, World Bread Day 2007.
Over the past few weeks I’ve browsed through many bread books. Peter Reinhart’s The Bread Baker’s Apprentice includes 3 different recipes with varying degrees of richness and a step-by-step guide to form the brioche into the classic tête shape. Unfortunately for me it was a library book that I had already returned.
I ultimately used Nancy Silverton’s recipe from Julia Bakes. It was well written, offered encouragement in just the right places, and produced a bread that had the perfect texture, crumb, and flavor of the classic brioche.
If you’ve never made this bread before I can give you some advice: don’t be in a hurry. It involves a sponge, 5 eggs, 6 ounces of butter, about 25 minutes of mixing on medium (must use stand mixer), and then several long rises…including an overnight stay at spa refrigerator. This bread takes time, and then surprise…it bakes up super quick. While they baked some of them lost their heads and they all came out of the oven looking like drunken babies…and then they disappeared, gobbled up by my hungry men.
The finished product may not have looked perfect but the taste was superb…not too yeasty, sweet but not too sweet, soft yet strong…this is a bread full of contradictions…I love it. I can’t wait to make it again. Happy World Bread Day and thanks to Zorra of Kochtopf for hosting the party.
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