Baking up so nice and puffy.

I finally got around to cracking open that can this morning when I decided to make muffins for breakfast as kind of a celebratory thing after graduation from pastry school yesterday.

Hello muffin.

Let me tell you, it was really nice to just bake something simple and delicious in the comfort of my own kitchen, without having to wait for ten other people to finish measuring out their flour before I could have a crack at it. Though the extra workspace in the school’s kitchens will be missed…

Wishing I could present these in smell-o-vision.

This is an idea I had a few months ago, originally intended to take the form of a simple loaf, but turned into muffins because, well, I almost never make muffins, and muffins are great!

Crunchy yummy nutty topping!

The best part about switching to muffins? I added “muffins” to the end of my search on Google and was able to find THE PERFECT recipe that I only tweaked a little bit.

If you're trying to hide, muffin, it won't work. You WILL be devoured.

I added some of the awesome gingerbread spice blend I still have lying around, which made the apartment smell AMAZING while these were baking. It was really exciting walking into the kitchen, smelling them and knowing that breakfast was totally going to rule.

Buttery, sugary pecans? YES.

I had wanted to add a streusel topping but didn’t feel like actually making one, so I crumbled up some whole pecans and coated them in melted butter and brown sugar. These need probably about double the amount I put on them, but I only had a little brown sugar left after mixing the batter. They’d also be great plain, but when the choice is between buttery, sweet toasted nuts or none at all…yeah.

The finest muffins that ever graced my muffin pan.

Pumpkin Gingerbread Muffins (adapted from RecipeGirl)

1. 1/2 cup butter, softened
2. 3/4 cup dark brown sugar, firmly packed
3. 1/4 cup molasses
4. 1 egg
5. 1 cup pumpkin
6. 1 3/4 cup AP flour
7. 1 tsp baking soda
8. 1/4 tsp salt
9. 1 1/2 tsp gingerbread spice blend

Preheat the oven to 350. In a stand mixer or with an electric hand mixer, beat the butter with the brown sugar and molasses until creamed and fluffy. Beat in the egg, scraping down the bowl after incorporating it, then add the pumpkin and do the same. Combine the dry ingredients in a separate bowl and whisk to combine, then add to the rest of the batter and mix slowly until just incorporated. The batter will be thick enough to scoop almost-full ice cream scoops into a line muffin tin.

Buttery Pecan Topping

1. 2 Tbsp butter
2. 1/4 cup pecans, crumbled into large pieces (I don’t like to chop if there’s not a huge quantity because of all the dusty little pieces of nut you get from chopping)
3. 2 Tbsp dark brown sugar

Melt the butter (I just put mine into a microwave-safe pint container and zapped for 30 seconds) and stir in the pecans to coat. Stir in the brown sugar, breaking up any clumps. Sprinkle over the muffin batter just before baking.

Bake for 20-25 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the middle of one comes out clean. Allow to cool slightly before eating. Makes 12 muffins.

These muffins are pretty much the best muffins ever. They have a soft, almost cakey texture when warm and fresh, and are a little denser once fully cooled. They’re irresistible and fragrant while hot, but the pumpkin and gingerbread flavors are much more pronounced after they’ve been sitting on the counter for a while. All around awesome and a great way to start any day!

Aww, all flowery and stuff!

However, I was recently contacted by Lyns of Sweet Cuppin Cakes Bakery & Cupcakery Supplies. She had a new product coming into stock soon and needed someone to test it out. Who says no to experimenting with free baking supplies? Not me!

Smells like...cinnamon bagels?

The product in question was disposable paper loaf pans. I wasn’t really sure what to make to test them out, but I was inspired when I came across some fat, juicy dates in a store when I was casually wandering around the East Village a couple weekends ago. Ooh, dates! What goes well with dates? Hmmm…cinnamon, chocolate…walnuts…cranberries?

Unfold to serve? Heck yes!

Unfortunately, I didn’t have the time to pick up the liners at the post office for almost another week, by which time I had snacked all the dates away. No big deal – the bodega downstairs sells dates, too!…And for a dollar less. Great. (Don’t go to Gourmet Garage, people. Good deals are not to be had there.)

Yummy chocolate swirl!

I kind of threw a recipe together, based on a random date bread recipe I found and tweaked. I added the cranberries just because I could, and decided I’d add a chocolate swirl and some cacao nibs on top, because I add cacao nibs on top of everything I possibly can.

Man this stuff was good.

And what’s the verdict on the loaf pans? Well, they’re really handy. Especially at this time of year – not everyone adheres to the old neighborly practice of returning someone’s plate or pan filled with your own homemade goodies, and it can be a pain to unmold freshly-baked loaves for wrapping to give to those who may not return your beloved bakeware. Plus, you can simply pull apart the glued folds of the pan to serve the bread – no transferring to a board or platter necessary (though you could just unfold it on top of a platter if you’re dead-set on being festive, and then you wouldn’t have to wash the platter after).

Besides the handiness, the print is so cute that all you’d have to do to gift a loaf is wrap it in plastic and affix a bow to the top! Instant pretty gift!

Keep in mind that they are smaller than the standard loaf pan, so one normal quickbread recipe will fill two pans.

You served well, little date bread.

Cinnamon Chocolate-Swirl Date Bread

1. 1 cup boiling water
2. 6 oz. chopped dried dates
3. 2 oz. dried cranberries
4. 2 Tbsp butter
5. 3/4 cup sugar
6. 1/4 cup brown sugar
7. 1 egg
8. 2 1/4 cups AP flour
9. 1 Tbsp baking powder
10. 1/2 tsp fine salt
11. 1/2 tsp cinnamon
12. 1/2 cup chopped walnuts
13. 2 oz. chopped unsweetened chocolate, melted and cooled
14. Cacao nibs, for sprinkling

Preheat the oven to 325. Place the dates and cranberries in a heatproof bowl and pour in the boiling water. Add the butter and stir to combine, then set aside. Beat the sugars and egg until light. In a separate bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, salt and cinnamon. Remove 1 Tbsp and toss with the walnuts. Alternately add the water/fruit mixture and the flour mixture to the egg and sugar mixture until fully combined. Remove 1/2 cup of the batter and combine with the melted chocolate. Pour the batter into loaf pan(s) and swirl in the chocolate batter, then sprinkle with cacao nibs. Bake 45-55 minutes, until a skewer inserted in the center of a loaf comes out clean. Allow to cool before slicing.

I have one loaf pan left to use but I wish I also had more of this bread. It was excellent (too excellent, in fact – I forced myself to bring one loaf in to class to share, where it was appreciated by many). I couldn’t really locate the dates in it – they just kind of bake into gooey smears of sweetness – but the tart, plump little cranberries and crunchy bits of walnut were great contrasts to the sweet, bready goodness that made up the loaves.

I’m thinking a little pumpkin gingerbread action to use up the final loaf pan, maybe baking the remainder in muffin liners. I can bring the bread with me for Thanksgiving and not have to worry about eating ALL of it myself.

It was audibly crackling for like two minutes after I took it out to cool.

I figured I had no reason at all to not try to make my own bread.  I definitely have the time for homemade bread!  I’d only ever made bread with a bread machine before, though, so where to start?  I obviously wanted to do something as simple as possible, and the no-knead bread recipe that (I think) had been printed in the NY Times, oh, a couple of years ago or so seemed like a pretty easy option.  The only thing I had to buy was the yeast, and I bought a little canister of it as opposed to a packet so I can make more than one or two loaves of bread.

This bread is DELICIOUS.  Super crusty on the outside and really soft and almost gummy (but in the good bread way) on the inside.  The only thing that went even remotely wrong was that I way overfloured EVERYTHING, not sure of just how much extra flour I needed.  Um, not that I used too much flour in the bread, just on the counter…the towel…the surface of the bread…you can kind of see.  The problem with too much flour is that, aside from getting everywhere, any extra flour in the bottom of the cooking vessel will burn.  Burnt flour doesn’t smell very good, and will make you worry that you ruined the bread.  It will also burn to the bottom of the bread, creating a blackened crust that can’t really be cut through…you kind of have to break the bottom crust once you cut through the rest of the bread.  Also, it doesn’t taste that awesome…not bad, just clearly a little burned.  So, lesson learned there.

Despite my overzealous flouring, the rest of the bread was not affected and we enjoyed steaming hot slabs of it fresh from the oven (of course buttered).  I still have a ton of it left and plan to have some for breakfast tomorrow…maybe heated slightly with some jam.  It would also go fantastically with a nice chunky winter soup or stew, or as part of a more rustic-themed spread for a cheese-and-wine-type gathering or picnic.  But especially with soup or stew, because something with a crust that shattery needs something yummy to soak up.  Now the leftover minestrone in the freezer is calling to me…not to be eaten now, as it’s 2 in the morning and I’m still full from dinner (recipe coming tomorrow-ish, and is the second part of the pizza-esque aroma).  But maybe tomorrow…oh, but I have that squash I wanted to incorporate into a risotto…hmm.  Eventually.

Anyway, if you’ve never made bread before, I definitely recommend giving this a try.  Pretty much every food blogger already did long before I got to it.  I’m excited to try other yeasty-type recipes in order to get through that whole canister of yeast, but I’m sure I’ll be making this again.  Especially when I know I’ll be making some soup.

No Knead Bread

If you look really closely you can see the fragrant steam rising from the, um, yummylicious bread.

3 cups bread flour, plus more for dusting (you can use AP flour if you must)

1/4 tsp instant yeast

1 1/4 tsp salt (I used fine sea salt)

1 5/8 cups water

Cornmeal, wheat bran, oat bran, etc., for dusting (optional…I just used the flour)

Combine dry ingredients in a large bowl.  Add water and stir until blended – dough will be shaggy and sticky.  Cover with plastic wrap and let rest in a warm place (about 70 degrees) for 12-18 hours (18 is better).  Once the surface of the dough is dotted with little holes, lightly flour a clean work surface and place the dough on it.  Lightly sprinkle the dough with more flour and fold it over itself once or twice, then cover it loosely with plastic wrap and allow to rest for another 15 minutes.  Liberally coat a clean dish towel (not terrycloth) with your choice of dusting material.  Coat your hands with a light layer of flour (to prevent sticking) and, working quickly, gently form a ball from the dough.  Place the dough seam side down on the cloth, dust with more flour or bran or whatever, then cover with another cloth and let rise for 2 hours.

Half an hour before the dough is ready, place a covered 6-8 quart heavy pot or casserole dish in the oven and turn the oven on to 450.  Once the dough is ready (about doubled in size and no longer springy when you poke it), carefully remove the cooking vessel from the oven and quickly flip the dough into it, seam side up (shake the pan slightly if the dough is really uneven).  Cover and bake for 30 minutes, then remove the lid and bake for another 15-30 minutes, or until the crust is browned.  Remove to a cooling rack and allow to cool slightly before devouring.

Not so hard!  I think I might like traditional bread-baking, too, since I like to squish foodstuffs around with my hands.  Kneading could be lots of fun!

Z and I also stopped by the Little Dog, a coffee shop in my hometown that sells super fancy cupcakes made by local super fancy cakesmith Carrie of Fields of Cake! They only had one cupcake sitting among the other, less pretty baked goodies in the case, so we took it along with us. It turned out to be one of the Spicy Gingerbread Cupcakes Filled with Chevre Cheesecake and Buttery Caramel and Topped with Dark Chocolate Ganache and Chevre and Cream Cheese Buttercream that she had made for the latest Iron Cupcake Challenge (cheese!)…Yes, it’s a long name. There was a lot to that cupcake; maybe too much for me. I think the cake was a little dry from sitting out in that case (and since it was a pretty thin layer around the copious fillings, it crumbled really easily), but I did really like the peppery zing it had – there was a kind of bite to the aftertaste of the cupcake, and I think I would have LOVED the cake if it were fresher. The caramel part of the filling was good and unexpected, and there was nothing bad about the cheesecake, though perhaps having it on top and inside was a little excessive. I’ll still probably make a habit of checking out the selection over there, and maybe see what days I should stop by to get the cupcakes as fresh as possible. I’m also sad that none of the pictures I took before we “tasted” the cupcake away to nothing came out, but that’s what I get for trying to photograph a baked good outside at twilight…on my lap. There are lovely pictures in the link, though!

Since I didn’t make anything else yesterday, here’s something I made a month or so ago that is the closest thing I’ve made to gingerbread. Sometimes you just have to use up the bananas.

Spicy Baby Banana Bread

That...is a LOT of cinnamon.

6 slightly overripe baby bananas, peeled

1/3 cup vegetable oil, melted unsalted butter or unsweetened applesauce (depending on how healthy you want the bread to be)

3/4 cup sugar

1 egg

1 tsp vanilla

1 tsp baking soda

Pinch salt

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

2 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp ground ginger

1 tsp nutmeg

Cinnamon sugar, for dusting

Preheat oven to 350. Grease a 4×8 inch loaf pan. Place the bananas in a medium mixing bowl and smash them up with a wooden spoon. Mix in the oil/butter/applesauce, then incorporate the sugar. Crack the egg into the bowl and lightly beat it before mixing it into everything else.* Stir in the vanilla, then pour flour, baking soda, salt and spices into the bowl. Mix everything together, then pour into the pan. Sprinkle with cinnamon sugar (if you use a lot you’ll get a crystallized spicy-sweet “crust” on top) and bake 50-60 minutes, or until a toothpick or fork inserted into the middle comes out clean. Allow to cool for at least half an hour, while you enjoy the gingerbread-like smell. Make some tea and enjoy a slice while it’s still a little warm, with some butter or cream cheese.

The bananas make this a very moist, dense bread that is delicious for breakfast or as a snack, or even dessert. It could be dressed up with whipped cream or maybe even ice cream. I actually used a few tablespoons of applesauce and rounded out the rest of the 1/3 cup with oil, since we had one of those little single-serving cups of unsweetened applesauce hanging out in the fridge.

*The recipe I based this off of said to beat the egg before adding it to the main mixing bowl, but in the interest of having one less dish to do I did it this way.