Cooking
Couple of weeks ago, I made these - I think, personally - very scrumptious-looking muffins. Loads of almonds, milk chocolate chips and Daim chocolate. TONS I tell you! 56 kr. worth! (about $9!)
So how come the result just wasn't good?? I mean they were okay, but they weren't as delish as the ingredients promised. Too much of a good thing, you say? Really? I don't buy it, I'm sorry I just don't. People, we're talking CHOCOLATE here!
Maybe it was the shortening? I've never used shortening in my muffins before, I never have it at home, so I just substitute with (more) butter. Maybe I overworked the batter? Maybe... I can't say. They were a bit on the dry side, a bit crumbly. Maybe it was because I accidently started the oven out a little too cold, so I had to bake them for longer?
Anyhoo - there is one thing I was very pleased with about these muffin. The packaging. I can never seem to find paper cases that fit my muffin cups - they're either too small in diameter or too low for me to fill the cups all the way. So I decided to try and take matters into my own hands.
Allow me to present: the homemade paper case!
I can hardly take the credit for this invention myself - I've seen it both in How to Be a Domestic Goddess and one of the Donna Hay books, and had it like this once at a café. I like the idea - your muffins can go all tall! (and that means you're still only eating one muffin, but there's lots more to it - heh!)
I used a couple of pieces of baking parchment, crumbled it up a bit, to make it easier to fold and thereby fit the (buttered) muffin cup. I think it's important to butter the muffin cup as it makes it so much easier to get the muffin in it's liner out when it's cooled a bit.
Make sure to make as few folds in the parchment as possible - the more folds, the bigger the risk of your batter getting stuck in the folds, then having them spread everywhere when you "release" the muffin from the case. I've seen it happen, oh yes I have!
So there you go - no recipe, but a neat little idea!
- Blueberry Muffins:recipe
My latest warehouse find was an enormous package of blueberries imported from Canada. Looking at the package I saw the word "bleuets". Apparently in French speaking Canada blueberries are called bleuets. Isn't that a sweet word? Much more charming...
- Pumpkin Corn Meal Muffins
The other day Clotilde’s post on Chocolate & Zucchini was about corn muffins she had made from a mix. She asked if anyone had from-scratch recipes for corn muffins to recommend. A recipe for Pumpkin Corn Meal Muffins submitted by a reader was really...
- What Am I? A One-woman Bakery?
I can hear you from here; you're saying "Another muffin? C'mon, Stephanie...you're in a rut!". Another breakfast treat for Matt, and another recipe from this book; Chocolate (Mini) Chip Muffins. Such a simple muffin; dry ingredients, wet...
- Cinnamon Buttermilk Muffins
Second recipe from this book, and we're just as happy with the finished product. A nice muffin batter, with buttermilk and nutmeg (I like to think I don't need to include the 'freshly grated' instruction every time...), baked till dry...
- Now That's What I Call A 'muffin'
After a recent spend-fest at Bed, Bath & Beyond, and a purchase of a jumbo muffin pan, I then had to spend even more money, buying up muffin cookbooks. Two in the mail Monday, including the Williams-Sonoma Collection: Muffins book. A quick flip through,...
Cooking
A Neat Little Package
Couple of weeks ago, I made these - I think, personally - very scrumptious-looking muffins. Loads of almonds, milk chocolate chips and Daim chocolate. TONS I tell you! 56 kr. worth! (about $9!)
So how come the result just wasn't good?? I mean they were okay, but they weren't as delish as the ingredients promised. Too much of a good thing, you say? Really? I don't buy it, I'm sorry I just don't. People, we're talking CHOCOLATE here!
Maybe it was the shortening? I've never used shortening in my muffins before, I never have it at home, so I just substitute with (more) butter. Maybe I overworked the batter? Maybe... I can't say. They were a bit on the dry side, a bit crumbly. Maybe it was because I accidently started the oven out a little too cold, so I had to bake them for longer?
Anyhoo - there is one thing I was very pleased with about these muffin. The packaging. I can never seem to find paper cases that fit my muffin cups - they're either too small in diameter or too low for me to fill the cups all the way. So I decided to try and take matters into my own hands.
Allow me to present: the homemade paper case!
I can hardly take the credit for this invention myself - I've seen it both in How to Be a Domestic Goddess and one of the Donna Hay books, and had it like this once at a café. I like the idea - your muffins can go all tall! (and that means you're still only eating one muffin, but there's lots more to it - heh!)
I used a couple of pieces of baking parchment, crumbled it up a bit, to make it easier to fold and thereby fit the (buttered) muffin cup. I think it's important to butter the muffin cup as it makes it so much easier to get the muffin in it's liner out when it's cooled a bit.
Make sure to make as few folds in the parchment as possible - the more folds, the bigger the risk of your batter getting stuck in the folds, then having them spread everywhere when you "release" the muffin from the case. I've seen it happen, oh yes I have!
So there you go - no recipe, but a neat little idea!
- Blueberry Muffins:recipe
My latest warehouse find was an enormous package of blueberries imported from Canada. Looking at the package I saw the word "bleuets". Apparently in French speaking Canada blueberries are called bleuets. Isn't that a sweet word? Much more charming...
- Pumpkin Corn Meal Muffins
The other day Clotilde’s post on Chocolate & Zucchini was about corn muffins she had made from a mix. She asked if anyone had from-scratch recipes for corn muffins to recommend. A recipe for Pumpkin Corn Meal Muffins submitted by a reader was really...
- What Am I? A One-woman Bakery?
I can hear you from here; you're saying "Another muffin? C'mon, Stephanie...you're in a rut!". Another breakfast treat for Matt, and another recipe from this book; Chocolate (Mini) Chip Muffins. Such a simple muffin; dry ingredients, wet...
- Cinnamon Buttermilk Muffins
Second recipe from this book, and we're just as happy with the finished product. A nice muffin batter, with buttermilk and nutmeg (I like to think I don't need to include the 'freshly grated' instruction every time...), baked till dry...
- Now That's What I Call A 'muffin'
After a recent spend-fest at Bed, Bath & Beyond, and a purchase of a jumbo muffin pan, I then had to spend even more money, buying up muffin cookbooks. Two in the mail Monday, including the Williams-Sonoma Collection: Muffins book. A quick flip through,...