Lucky for me, I had ingredients for muffins after filling a St. Patrick’s Day request for Chocolate Chip Whiskey Muffins. Add to that a need to develop a super tasty blueberry muffin recipe for brunch. Then add to THAT some sour cream (leftover from tasty tasty tacos) and you’ve got the ingredients for a one woman muffin smackdown.

Hello, breakfast.

The base recipe I use for the whiskey muffins is an easy yogurt batter, but a lot of great blueberry muffin recipes (including the one we made in pastry school) call for sour cream instead. Having both on hand, plus a trusty base recipe that was easy to divide in half meant that I was in business and ready to reveal the results in less than an hour.

Yumberries!

One thing I knew my Ultimate Blueberry Muffins needed was lemon zest, so I added that, along with a little vanilla and a sugary sprinkle. I do really love my blueberries with cinnamon, but feel that it goes a little better with the wild ones than with the gigantic cultivated berries I’d be more likely to have on hand. Cultivated blueberries can be really one-dimensional in flavor and the lemon brightens them up considerably.

Giant explosions of BLUE!

You probably want to know who won. DID either of them win? The batters should have been completely identical, except for the yogurt vs. sour cream. Well, they weren’t identical. The yogurt batter was fluffier and stiffer, the sour cream batter a little runny. I figured the yogurt muffins would come out on top. So I stuck them in the oven. And waited. And rotated the pans. And waited. And pulled the pans from the oven. And waited. And stuck the muffins in the fridge to hurry their cooling. And waited. And made tea for a muffin-and-tea party when Zack got home. And waited…

Love these wrappers. Wonder if I could use them at the restaurant?

I decided to try a yogurt muffin first. It was soft, the lemon was subtle but detectable, the blueberries had exploded into lovely pockets of juicy indigo pectin stickiness. It was good.

I moved on to the sour cream muffin. In the oven, the stiff-looking yogurt batter had melted a bit and looked a little flat in the wrappers. But the sour cream muffins rose evenly and didn’t develop too much overhang in the pan (muffin tops may be lovely but I’d rather have a smaller, tasty-all-over muffin than one with an overblown, crispy top and a dry stump). I admired the crumb and the berries…so far very similar. But then I tasted one.

I am now convinced that sour cream is magical when combined with blueberries in a muffin batter.

There’s a certain flavor and texture that just strikes me as ideal for a blueberry muffin. These muffins have it. They’re not too cakey, not too sweet, very light but still substantial. They’d hold up fine to being buttered. They’re like a bright little ray of sunshine in your kitchen. Best of all, they’re easy to make. Almost as easy as Whiskey Muffins.

The ideal muffin.

Blueberry Ultimuffins

1. 1 3/4 cups AP flour
2. 3/4 cup sugar
3. 2 tsp baking powder
4. 1 tsp baking soda
5. 1/2 tsp salt
6. 1/4 cup oil (canola or light olive oil work well)
7. 2/3 cup sour cream
8. 2/3 cup milk
9. Zest of 1 lemon
10. 8 oz. blueberries
11. Raw sugar, for sprinkling (optional)

Preheat the oven to 400F. Combine the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a medium mixing bowl, whisking thoroughly. Combine the oil, sour cream, milk and lemon zest in a large measuring cup or small mixing bowl and whisk or stir with a fork until well mixed. Dump the wet mixture and blueberries into the dry mixture and gently stir with a wooden spoon or spatula until there are no more large streaks of flour, but don’t overmix. Spoon the batter into a paper-lined or floured-and-greased muffin tin. Sprinkle fairly generously with the raw sugar, if using. Bake 15 minutes, then rotate the pan and bake for another 5 minutes. Remove from the oven and allow the muffins to cool for at least 5 minutes in the pan before removing to wire racks to finish cooling. Serve within a day or 2. Makes 12.

You may notice that in my Whiskey Muffin recipe, I used melted butter originally. I’ve switched to oil for muffins because I think it produces a much lighter final product. I really like what it did to my most recent batch of Whiskey Muffins. I also increased the amount of blueberries called for – I used 6 oz. but I think the muffins need 8 oz.

Next time I make these (hopefully in my new station but I’d be ok with making them at home again) I may try slightly decreasing the amount of liquid, which is a change I made with the Whiskey Muffins (though that was to make them less like eating straight whiskey). I feel like the batter could be a little stiffer and it might produce even higher, rounder muffins if the batter wasn’t so wet.

I know I don’t talk about myself all that much here. I’m more interested in telling you about food. But as this is food related, I figured I should mention it here.

I left my job.

I know. I really liked my job. And I still really like the restaurant. But sometimes, you have to move on to something else. So I decided to go in search of that something else. And I considered all sorts of things in my search…switching over to bakery work, learning a totally new cuisine, even raw desserts. Then I got lucky.

I’m not going to say too much now since it’s not open yet. Let’s just say I’m getting my very own pastry station. Dessert concepts have been submitted and approved. I can get in there and start testing in a matter of days. There’s a lot of work ahead of me, but it’s incredible that I’ve come this far, this fast.

Watch this space for more details (including, you know, name and address and opening date).

That’s enough of that for now. Let’s move on to the cupcakes I made for this month’s Mystery Box Challenge.

Is it really spring?

This month’s theme, luckily for me, was to make a pretty pretty birthday cupcake for someone special. My mom has a March birthday and what could be more special than that?

It blooms!

When I think of my mom, I think of plants and flowers and growing up in a house with a yard full of wild strawberries. So I made Spring Lawn Cupcakes with Strawberry Marshmallow Blossoms, Fresh Mint Custard and Chocolate Ganache Frosting.

Roots? Roots!

Since I’m generally all about flavors over really fancy presentation, I had to think hard to come up with something clever to make these as pretty as possible, so I filled the cupcakes with the pretty green custard to give the cross-section an illusion of roots growing from the soil.

Wishing for real flowers...

A few notes, if you make these. The recipe as I’ve written it only make 8 cupcakes, but you can’t very well just make a few small flowers’ worth of marshmallow, so you’ll have a lot of strawberry marshmallows left over. However, I’m not really minding…

Spring Lawn Cupcakes

First, Make the Cupcakes (adapted from Martha Stewart):

1. 3 Tbsp cocoa powder
2. 3 Tbsp hot water
3. 1 cup AP flour
4. 1/4 tsp baking soda
5. 1/4 tsp baking powder
6. 1/2 tsp salt
7. 3 oz. butter
8. 1/2 cup +1 Tbsp sugar
9. 1 egg
10. 1 tsp vanilla
11. 1/4 cup sour cream

Preheat the oven to 350F. Whisk together the cocoa powder and hot water, set aside. Sift or whisk together the flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt, set aside. In a small saucepan, melt the butter and sugar, then transfer to the bowl of a stand mixer and whisk on medium-high speed until cool (4-5 minutes). Beat in the eggs one at a time, thoroughly scraping down the bowl in between additions, then beat in the vanilla. Thoroughly incorporate the cocoa mixture, then alternately add the dry mixture and the sour cream in three additions each. Mix the batter until homogenous but don’t overwork it. Scoop into lined muffin tins, bake 10 minutes, rotate the pans and bake for another 10 minutes. Test the cakes with a toothpick to make sure they’re not wet on the inside before removing from the oven and cooling in the pans for 15 minutes. Remove to racks to finish cooling, then chill overnight, loosely wrapped in plastic.

Fresh Mint Custard:

1. 1 cup milk
2. About 30 medium-large fresh mint leaves, washed, dried and roughly torn
3. 1/4 cup + 2 Tbsp sugar
4. 2 egg yolks
5. 2 Tbsp cornstarch
6. Green gel food coloring

Place the milk and mint in a small saucepan and bring to a low boil, then remove from heat and cover. Steep at least an hour, until the milk tastes “leafy” but not too minty. Once you’re happy with the flavor, return it to the heat. While you wait for it to get hot again, whisk together the sugar, yolks and cornstarch (beat them really hard and don’t let them get too gloppy) and continue whisking until the milk steams. Pour the milk into the yolk mixture through a strainer, whisking constantly. Whisk in the food coloring a little at a time, until it’s a light yellowish spring green color. Once it’s all mixed together return it to the saucepan and cook over medium heat, whisking constantly. Once it becomes thick, taste it, but continue whisking. If it tastes at all starchy, keep cooking it, repeating the process until it no longer tastes like starch. Force through a chinois or strainer into a bowl, then press plastic wrap onto the surface of the custard and cut a few thin slits in it to let steam escape. Let cool in the refrigerator overnight.

Strawberry Marshmallows:

1. 1/4 oz. powdered gelatin (1 packet Knox)
2. 6 Tbsp cold water
3. 1 cup sugar
4. 1/3 cup corn syrup
5. Pinch salt
6. 1-2 Tbsp strawberry juice
7. Red gel food coloring
8. Powdered sugar

Pour 1/4 cup of the cold water into the bowl of a stand mixer and sprinkle with the gelatin. Bloom for about 10 minutes. Meanwhile, combine the remaining 2Tbsp water with the sugar and corn syrup in a small saucepan. Bring to a boil and pour into the bloomed gelatin, then beat on the highest speed with the whip attachment for about 8 minutes, until the marshmallow is airy and fluffy. While it’s whipping, prepare a rectangular pan (a loaf pan would be fine, or a small sheet pan) with a generous amount of nonstick spray, then a piece of parchment paper and another layer of spray. Also apply the spray to a rubber spatula. Once the marshmallow is fluffy, beat in the strawberry juice and just enough food coloring to make it light pink. Once fully incorporated, quickly scrape the marshmallow into the prepared pan, spreading it flat if necessary. Top with another piece of greased parchment and let set for at least 3 hours.

Once set, cut out flowers with a small oiled cutter. If the pan you used for the marshmallows is small and your marshmallows are very thick, just cut thin slices and stamp out the flowers from there. Toss cut marshmallows in powdered sugar and store in an airtight container.

Ganache Frosting:

1. 6 oz. heavy cream
2. 6 oz. dark/bittersweet chocolate, chopped small

Heat the cream to a low boil and pour over the chocolate. Let it sit for a couple of minutes, then mix with a rubber spatula, stirring in small circles as you go around the bowl. If there are still chunks of chocolate after you’ve fully incorporated the mixture, heat over simmering water, stirring frequently until smooth. Chill, stirring occasionally, until it is thick and spreadable.

Assembly:

1. Chilled cupcakes
2. Fresh mint custard
3. Ganache frosting
4. Strawberry marshmallow flowers
5. Small fresh mint leaves, washed and dried

Using a small circle cutter, remove the center of each cupcake. Reserve the “stumps.” Beat the custard with a spatula or a handheld or stand mixer until it is smooth and pipeable and load into a pastry bag fitted with a very small round tip. Fill the cupcakes with the custard, reserving the leftover custard in the piping bag for a later stage of decoration.

Put the ganache into a piping bag fitted with a very large round tip and pipe blobs of frosting onto the cupcakes, fully covering the “root” of the cupcake. Crumble up the reserved bits of removed cake and press the crumbs into the frosting. Pipe a small circle of custard onto the top of the cupcake and arrange two or three mint leaves on it, then press in a marshmallow flower.

Makes 8

The winner of March’s Mystery Box Cupcake Challenge will receive prizes from:

• Angela’s Images; a selection of handmade crafts
• Bake It Pretty; a $5 online gift card
• Beanilla; a $7 online gift card
• Miss Kitty Creations; a handmade cupcake charm of your choice
• Simply Caked; 600 brown greaseproof cupcake liners
• Sweet Cuppin Cakes; a $5 online gift card
• Tundra Books; a selection of 3 very sweet children’s books

Thank you to all our prize sponsors!

A healthy-looking heart.

Well, in the past it would’ve meant I’d be looking forward to a day (or at least an evening) off, spent snuggling and probably having a nice dinner or something with Z. But now? Now it means I’m gearing up for a long weekend of busy dinner service with a special holiday menu at work. Ah, restaurant life.

So pretty!

Since I’d already been contacted by POM Wonderful and offered a bottle of their new POM concentrate with which to experiment and ultimately create a cupcake for their Valentine’s Day contest, I figured I should tackle that during my pre-holiday “weekend.” And so I did.

Kind of elegant.

It wasn’t easy, you know. Deciding what kind of cupcake to make. Pomegranate is pretty much my favorite fruit. I didn’t want to use chocolate, so cliche…but what else was I to do? The Flavor Bible to the rescue – pomegranate goes awesome with olive oil and lemon! And I totally had a bangin’ recipe for olive oil lemon cake. Once I had the idea for the decoration I considered myself set and gathered my ingredients.

I love these liners!

Pause for a second here…check out those adorable cupcake liners! I had recently placed an order with Fancy Flours for a bunch of supplies (partly to restock on little gift boxes after Christmas’s Bakestravaganza and partly to set myself up with cupcake wrappers for the year…and partly because I can’t refuse cookie cutters in very stupid shapes, like giant armadillos and tiny fruits) and noticed these sweet new harlequin print liners. Not until I actually went to use them did I notice that they are from Sutton Gourmet, whose liners are extra-thick and stay white and more or less opaque even after you bake chocolate cakes in them. Awwwwwesome.

Oh my!

The original idea with these cupcakes was that the pomegranate concentrate (which I used to replace the amaretto in the olive oil cake recipe) would turn the cakes pink and I’d have perfectly Valentine’s colored cupcakes. Dork that I am, I forgot that eggs and extra virgin olive oil are very yellow and that they wouldn’t play nice with the pretty purpley concentrate. Ultimately I added a bunch of red food coloring to at least tint the batter…the end result being kind of a natural-looking pink velvet type of thing. The food coloring is totally unnecessary, IMO, and if you really DO want a pinkish cake you’d have to use a lot of it, or at least a more concentrated form than I did (gel is apparently not enough).

Kind of craving one now.

Despite the coloring mishap (if you can call it that), I’m really happy with the cakes. This recipe bakes up so cute as cupcakes, all perfectly domed and shiny. They’re very sturdy and perfect for filling,* but I chose to keep it simple this time and just topped them each with a round blob of lemon cream cheese frosting (which is the only type of frosting that I believe powdered sugar is acceptable in, and then only in the barest minimum amounts).

*Pomegranate jelly, curd or mousse would all be neat fillings.

Just a nibble...

I’m exceptionally pleased with the heart design on the top. I tried drawing it out on paper beforehand when I was conceptualizing (yes I draw a lot of my cupcakes, and other desserts that are only concepts for now…sometimes just so I can outline and color them when I’m bored) but couldn’t get the placement right until I actually put the arils on. The only drawback is that you can’t appreciate the cupcakes fully from the top and side at the same time.

Happy Valentine's Day!

No recipe here, since it is in the contest you’ll have to go over to POM Wonderful’s site to see it. I actually made half the recipe that’s posted.

Looking a little seedy.

This burst of frugality was inspired by the theme ingredient: honey. I really love honey meringue frosting and since it would give me an opportunity to use up some extra egg whites, I figured I’d see how far I could take the concept of using only things I already had.

Seedy indeedy.

I thought about some things that go well with honey that I also happened to have. Lots of teas and flowers, obviously, but I wanted something different. Something special. Something that was just languishing in my kitchen cabinet.

It looks kind of fanciful.

A lone jar of tahini was my answer. Sesame and honey are awesome together! I boosted the intensely nutty sesame cake experience with a crunchy chewiness via some of the toasted sesame seeds that I always keep around.

A little monochromatic but look at that crumb!

Since the meringue frosting is so insanely sticky-sweet, I figured I’d tone it down by torching it a bit, but I wanted something else to cut through both the sweetness of the honey and the tender fatty richness of the cake itself.

Sunshiney!

I decided to go with  a nice sour lemon marmalade, with a little honey cooked into it to give it a nice floral note and tie the flavors together a bit. I think it does the trick quite nicely – though lemons were the only thing I didn’t have. Luckily they can be had cheaply in the store downstairs from my apartment, so it didn’t really matter.

Anyway, these cupcake are pretty crazy. The frosting is so light and billowy yet marshmallow-like in stickiness, and it completely collapses when you take a bite. The cake is just as insubstantial, due in part to the extreme fattiness of sesame seeds (also this recipe just makes crazy soft and tender nut or seed butter cake). This is why the directions call for repeatedly freezing the cupcakes during the decorating process. Altogether they’re a bit exotic and unusual, but definitely tasty. Don’t skip the torching step – even if you have to do it with a Bic lighter the toastedness is essential.

On a pedestal.

Burnt Honey Sesame Cupcakes with Sour Lemon Marmalade

First Make the Marmalade:

1. 1 lemon (weighing about 125g)
2. 250g water
3. 200g sugar (superfine if available)
4. 50g honey

Thoroughly wash the lemon. On a plate with a substantial rim (so you don’t lose any juice), use a sharp knife to slice the lemon very thinly, reserving the seeds. Chop the slices up further until you have very small pieces of outer skin attached to the flesh. Dump the lemon and juice into a small saucepan and cover with the water. Tie the seeds into a cheesecloth pouch and add to the pan. Bring to a simmer and cover, cooking gently until the rind is soft. Remove from heat and stir in the sugar and honey until the sugar is dissolved. Return to heat and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat and cook on a low boil for about ten minutes, testing on chilled white plates to see if it’s set. Once it is, remove from heat and squeeze all the pectin you can out of the cheesecloth bag. Allow to cool fully before attempting to use.

Then Bake the Cakes:

1. 5 oz. (1/4 cup + 2 Tbsp) butter
2. 1 cup sugar
3. 1 egg
4. 2 tsp vanilla
5. 1 cup AP flour
6. 1/2 tsp baking soda
7. 1/4 tsp salt
8. 1/4 cup buttermilk (regular milk with a couple drops of lemon juice or white vinegar is fine)
9. 5 oz. (1/4 cup + 2 Tbsp) hot water
10. 1/2 cup tahini
11. 2 Tbsp toasted sesame seeds

Preheat the oven to 350F. Cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the egg and vanilla, scraping down the bowl and making sure it is fully emulsified into the creamed mixture. Sift together the flour, baking soda and salt. Add it to the batter alternately with the buttermilk and hot water, scraping down the bowl often. Add the tahini and sesame seeds and beat on medium-high for a couple of minutes, until light and fluffy. Spoon into a lined muffin tin and bake 15-20 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the center of one comes out clean. Allow to cool fully before assembling.

Finally, Make the Frosting:

1. 1 cup honey
2. 2 egg whites, room temperature
3. Pinch salt

Place the honey in a small saucepan and bring to a boil. In the meantime, whip the egg whites and salt to medium-stiff but not dry peaks. Reduce the whipping speed to medium and pour in the boiling honey in one continuous stream. Return the speed to high and whip until stiff, glossy peaks form and the meringue is about room temperature or a little warmer.

To Assemble:

Freeze the cupcakes solid and trim any excess cake overhang with kitchen shears. Using a small circle cutter, cut the center out of each cupcake, reserving the plugs of cake and trimming them down to 1/4″ thick lids. Fill each cupcake with marmalade and top with lids. Freeze again until solid. Using a small spatula or a butter knife, spread the frosting on the cupcakes, leaving the sides thick and the top fairly flat. Using a kitchen torch or just a high powered gas burner, brulee the outer edge of the frosting on each cupcake, then sprinkle more toasted sesame seeds in the middle. Makes 12.

Nutty goodness.

The first thing I’m going to show you is brought to you in part by Oh Nuts! of Brooklyn. I was contacted by them and asked if I’d like to try some of their bulk nuts and dried fruit for use in a recipe. Of course I said yes! It took me a while to decide what I wanted to try (they have a HUGE selection, and I’ll definitely be placing future bulk orders through them), and eventually I decided on raw macadamia nuts (because they are generally not something I would buy due to their price) and dried candied kiwi (which I’d never had before).

Kiwis: now in technicolor.

The kiwis are honestly kind of a better snack than an ingredient, but I did use a few alongside candied pineapple and papaya (from the store downstairs) in my first creation, some coconut macaroons topped with macadamias.

Both nutty & coconutty.

Where is the fruit, you ask? It’s a surprise!

Hey, fruit!

However, that is not one of the recipes I will be sharing today. I wasn’t overly thrilled with the way they came out and they were a pain in the butt to shape without them falling apart. They were tasty, but I thought the macadamias deserved a little something more special. So I made something else.

Crunchy & soft.

I decided to make macadamia-topped banana mochi cakes. I couldn’t find an actual recipe for banana mochi cakes, just one for Hawaiian mochi banana bread. It sounded great but contained Bisquick, something I definitely don’t keep in my kitchen, so I found a recipe for a Bisquick substitute and replaced the flour with non-glutinous rice flour to keep them gluten-free. I also added what I believe to be the banana’s best friend: Chinese 5 spice powder. And to give another slight dimension to the flavors, I used a splash of sesame oil.

Oh them banana speckles.

But that’s not all. Oh no. You see, I thought that banana and macadamia weren’t quite enough. I wanted a third flavor. I asked on Twitter. The responses were basically all cries for chocolate and coconut. But I had no chocolate in my possession (or else I’d have added cocoa nibs, I’m sure) and I didn’t want to mess with the texture by adding dessicated coconut. There was a third flavor that kept floating to the top of my brain – CARAMEL – but for a while I just couldn’t figure out the best way to add it to the batter without compromising the recipe. So I took a step back and thought about all the things that went into the recipe. It quickly became obvious that I just had to caramelize the bananas first! So I did. And the cupcakes were amazing.

Pretty cake!

Caramelized Banana Mochi Cakes with Macadamias

1. 4 medium bananas, ripe
2. 1/4 cup sugar in the raw
3. 5 g baking powder
4. 2 g sugar
5. 48 g rice flour (not Mochiko)
6. 23 g vegetable oil
7. 8 oz. Mochiko
8. 2 tsp baking soda
9. 1/2 tsp salt
10. 1/4 tsp Chinese 5 spice
11. 3/4 cup sugar
12. 3/4 cup vegetable oil
13. Splash of sesame oil
14. 1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
15. 2 1/2 eggs (scramble one egg and add half the weight to the other two)
16. 1/2 cup roughly chopped macadamia nuts

Slice the bananas in half lengthwise and place on a foil-lined sheet or broiler tray. Sprinkle the raw sugar in a thick layer. Broil or torch until the sugar is melted and well caramelized. Allow to cool, then puree thoroughly in a blender and set aside.

Preheat the oven to 350F. Combine the 5 g baking powder, 2 g sugar and non-Mochiko rice flour in a medium-large bowl and use a pastry cutter to cut in the 23 g vegetable oil. You want the mixture to be in tiny crumbs…crumblets, if you will. Whisk in the Mochiko, baking soda, salt, 5 spice and sugar. Stir in the oil and vanilla, then the eggs, then the bananas. Allow the batter to rest for a couple of minutes, then spoon it into lined muffin tins. Sprinkle with chopped macadamias and bake for 20-25 minutes, until the edges of the cake tops are browned. Makes about 16 cupcakes.

These cupcakes, unlike most mochi cakes, are actually really good while still warm (like most banana baked goods), though a bit oily. They don’t get quite as chewy as a normal all-mochi cake, but they are extra soft and crazy fragrant. I declared them possibly the most banana-y thing EVER. Z likes them with a schmear of cream cheese.

***BONUS RECIPE Y’ALL***

I know I promised two recipes, so here’s the second one! It does deserve its own post but I only got one decent picture so I decided to just tack it on here. Prickly pears have a pretty short season so get a bunch while you can (discounted bruised-looking ones are the way to go; the outside looking yucky doesn’t mean the insides aren’t fine) and make this fast! It’s a great thing to have on hand in the early fall if you’re going through a final heat wave like much of the country is now. Just be careful and don’t touch them bare-handed – the worst pricklies are invisible!

Hard to capture the insane magenta color.

Prickly Pear Sorbet

1. 12 medium prickly pears
2. 6 Tbsp sugar
3. Juice of 2 limes
4. 1 Tbsp tequila or vodka

Wearing gardening gloves or holding the fruit with an oven mitt or other form of prickle protection, slice each prickly pear in half lengthwise and use a spoon to scoop out the pulp. Combine the pulp and the other ingredients in a blender and puree thoroughly. Strain out the seeds and chill. Once cold, churn in an ice cream maker and freeze until solid and scoopable. Makes about 1 quart.

Prickly pears come from cactus plants and as such are indigenous to the American southwest, Mexico and Israel. They come in a variety of colors ranging from yellow to magenta, with magenta being the most common. They’re full of little stone-like seeds, so they’re most often consumed blended and strained into Margaritas. Both the fruit and sorbet have a simultaneously sticky and slimy quality to them that isn’t unpleasant, it just makes for some tricky scooping sometimes. It tastes at first like unripe banana, then like lime, then not at all like either of those things, and is very tasty and addictive.