Honey Muffin

I’m Back, and with a ZEST for baking!

honeymuffin — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 20:16:50 +0000

Okay, that was cheesy.

March? The last time I posted here was in MARCH? Good grief. Well, admittedly, I’ve had a few things going on since then. You can read all about it, but in a nutshell, I live in Spain now. I know, right??? SPAIN. And as one of my New Years Resolutions, I promised myself I would get back to baking and back to this blog on a regular basis.

Baking in Spain is a little different. Aside from the basic measurement conversions, most of which I’ve solved with my kitchen scale and by bringing back my measuring cups and spoons from the states, I haven’t quite nailed down all the ingredients. I DO know what we lack…for example, first and foremost, light brown sugar. I found a store here that sells dark brown sugar, but since I mostly use light, I’ve taken to ordering it from amazonuk. Other things…cream of tartar, fresh or frozen cranberries, canned pumpkin (YES, I know, I can make my own, it was just easier out of a can, what can I say), fresh sage, pecans, sour cream. The white chocolate here is a little different. In any case, I am finding my way and doing my best, and I treat every baking adventure like an experiment.

Today’s experiment was brought on my some crazy craving I have had for citrus flavored cakes, and after searching, oh, like six gazillion recipes, I opted for this one…primarily because I had all the ingredients on hand. And also because I haven’t yet brought back my bundt pans with me and this made a nice little recipe that could fit into three mini-loaf pans (which I did bring back!).

Yummmm,, just look at all that crunchy zesty citrusy sugar....

Verdict: DELISH. I didn’t end up making the glaze as thick as it said, and although I made the full recipe for the topping, I didn’t nearly use it all. Like Jessica says, the orange zested sugar hardens on top after they’ve sat for a bit, and it adds such nice crunchy top. I love them in these little pans and I imagine in a normal size loaf pan or, like she shows in her beautiful blog, perfect little muffins.

Filed under Keeper.

It’s good to be back.

TWD: Pecan Powder Puffs

honeymuffin — Tue, 29 Mar 2011 12:48:19 +0000

I decided to make these during a marathon baking day in early March – I was baking a making a bunch of things, and somehow in the middle of it all, I neglected to see that flour was an ingredient. I know. It’s listed in the ingredients, it’s referred to in the instructions, and yet somehow I completely and totally overlooked it. Who does that??? So, what an utter surprise it was when I opened up the oven door and instead of pretty little cookies, I had a cookie sheet spread thin with what was basically melted butter and pulverized pecans…I should have taken a picture, it was really something. Gooooood heavens.

SO. Take two. WITH flour. These are light and crumbly and remind me very much of Mexican Wedding Cakes, but even lighter. And they are sort of addictive, so off to work they will go tomorrow!

Yumsville choice, Tianne, thanks! Check out her blog for the recipe!

TWD: Honey Nut Brownies

honeymuffin — Tue, 22 Mar 2011 16:16:57 +0000

I have always had a thing about cakey cookies…and by “thing” I mean I don’t like ‘em, I like cookies that are crispy and chewy. I guess I also have a thing with brownies too. I like the crackly top, somewhat dense, maybe fudgy and gooey kind of brownie. So, without seeing a picture of these, that is what I was expecting. Instead, these were more like cake. In fact, so much like cake that someone at the office asked me if I was the one who brought in the chocolate cake (despite my efforts to cut them up in to brownie looking pieces).

I did like the slight honey flavor, but otherwise found these sort of disappointing. If I was going to make a chocolate cake, there are way better recipes out there for it (Dorie’s got a couple!!), and if I’m going to make brownies, well…same thing. These weren’t gone from the kitchen until way late in the afternoon, so my guess is that I wasn’t the only one who didn’t love them!

Always good to try something new though!! Thanks to Suzy for hosting this week!!

TWD: Citrus Currant Sunshine Muffins

honeymuffin — Tue, 22 Mar 2011 16:15:21 +0000

Woops! Last week came and went and I forgot to post this. Oh well, better late than never!

Okay, so based on ingredients on hand, my TWD recipe this week morphed into what I would more call an Orange Cranberry Muffin. No currants (I swapped out orange flavored dried cranberries), and no lemon oil. BUT, still a very yummy texture and a nice citrus-y kick, so overall I would deem these a success!

Check out Lauryn’s cute blog for the recipe and her scrumptious looking muffins!

TWD: Corniest Corn Muffins

honeymuffin — Tue, 08 Mar 2011 16:35:36 +0000

I always get very excited to see the TWD recipes for the month when they are first posted, although I had some mixed feelings about the Corniest Corn Muffins. While I loooove a good corn muffin, I think of them more as a deep in the heart of winter sort of thing, to be served with some yummy smelling stew. And well, my heart (and the local weather) is tipping the edges of springtime. Thank heavens. In fact, we are just around the corner from springing ahead and getting hours of lovely light each evening.

Anyhoo. That all changed this morning. It’s icky, pouring rain, hovering around 50ish degrees…the starts aligned and gave me the right weather for my muffins.

AND even more exciting was that it gave me an excuse to use my roommate’s grandmothers cast iron corn bread pans. Aren’t they fabulous??

These are yummy. And they will be delish with our apple chicken stew tonight!! Great pick, thanks to Jill for the recipe and to the rainy weather for putting me in the right mood to make them!

My Love Affair with Biscoff

honeymuffin — Fri, 04 Mar 2011 15:03:46 +0000

I don’t generally have a whole lot of background story to most of my posts. In fact, I could generally sum them up with either “TWD” or “I was craving…” But there’s a wee bit of a story to this so here goes.

A couple years ago, I got a note saying that my USAirways frequent flyer miles were going to expire. GASP. I still hate that they can do that, just yank your hard earned miles out from underneath you. I probably had gotten a few (dozen?) emails to alert me, and I’m sure that I deleted all of them until finally I only had a week do SOMEthing to save them. Well, in the email, it highlighted that I could simply “click here” and associate my miles to a purchase of Biscoff cookies. I LOVE Biscoff cookies. LOVE them. If you’ve been lucky enough to have them (does any airline still serve them even???), you know this, but if not, they are like graham crackers but better. A little more buttery or crumbly or sweet or something. And up until that point, I didn’t even know it was possible to buy them! So POOF, with the click of a mouse, I saved my miles and shipped myself a Valentine’s tin of Biscoff (which ended up getting gifted to my roommate, which allowed them to stay in the house without me actually having to say I bought a tin-ful of Biscoff).

Fast forward a bit. Every year I bake something for my roommate for her birthday. She is a big fan of bread pudding, so we’ve had a couple years in a row. Which is okay, but never really my favorite (not that that’s the point, I understand). This year however, she requested that I bake something using Biscoff cookies (lucky me!!), so I ordered, um, a lot (in case I had any trial and error, or, uh, something like that) and spent a little time brainstorming what I would make.

What I decided on was a Key Lime Ice Cream Pie. I could use the Biscoff as part of the crust and maybe some decoration, and use an old favorite Cooking Light ice cream recipe that was super easy to whip up and utterly delish. We had it last night and if I don’t mind saying so myself, it was AWESOME. Dinner party worthy. Impossible to think about just waiting for me in the freezer. It was tangy, yummy, limey deliciousness on a buttery, coconutty, Biscoff-y good crust.

Key Lime Ice Cream Pie

Ice Cream – I used this recipe, but left out the final “mix-in” of graham crackers.

Biscoff Crust

Generous 1 ½ cups crushed (to graham cracker crumb consistency) Biscoff cookies
About 5 TBS melted butter
1 TBS sugar
Dash of cinnamon
About 1 cup of sweetened flaked coconut

Mix all of the above together.
Press into a 9 inch spring form pan coated with cooking spray.
Bake at 350 for 8 minutes.
Remove and cool completely.

While the crust was cooling, I made the ice cream. Takes no time to stir it together, and only 30 minutes in my Cusinart ice cream maker. While the ice cream is nice and soft, spread it over the cooled crust. Cover with plastic wrap (lay the plastic right on the ice cream to prevent any icing) and freeze for at least two hours. Remove and let sit about 10 minutes before serving. Decorate with some more crushed Biscoff if desired!

This Year’s Secret Cupid

honeymuffin — Mon, 28 Feb 2011 18:37:23 +0000

SOMEhow I managed to pick the name of the healthiest girl in the office. Snort. Like healthy as in sustains on veggies and Laughing Cow, does regular “juice cleanses” and can keep a big bowl of M&M’s on her desk without burying her head in them. So, my approach this year was slightly different and I toned down the sweets quite a bit, only focusing on a few teeny things that I had heard from a friend that she ”indulges in” – dark chocolate, peanut butter and pretzels.

Sooooo…I whipped up some chocolate dipped pretzels, some dark chocolate and toffee bark (love bark, it’s so easy peasy), and my favorite of the lot, peanut butter cups. YUM. I’m not even a peanut butter person and I dug ‘em. Here are a few pics, and the recipe (adapted from here) is below.

dark chocolate peanut butter cups (slightly adapted from here)
makes 20 – 22 mini peanut butter cups.

12 oz bittersweet chocolate (60-70% cocoa)
1/3 cup creamy peanut butter
1/4 cup confectioners’ sugar
1/4 cup crushed graham crackers

1. In a bowl, mix together the peanut butter, confectioners’ sugar and graham crackers. Divide the mixture into pieces (probably about 6 or 7 grams?), roll into little balls and then flatted slightly.

2. Break up the chocolate into smallish pieces and zap in the microwave on high for one minute. The pieces won’t all be melted, but just stir for a minute and they will be.

3. Line up your little cupcake liners on a baking sheet. Spoon some chocolate into each one, tilting it around to cover the sides and leaving enough of a solid base on the bottom.

4. By the time you have done them all, the first ones have started to solidify a bit. Drop one ball/disk of peanut butter mix in a cup, and spoon in enough melted chocolate to cover the peanut butter and almost reach the top of the cup. Repeat with all the others.

5. Pop the peanut butter cups in the freezer for another 15 minutes to set. Let warm to room temperature before serving.

TWD: Toasted Almond Scones

honeymuffin — Tue, 22 Feb 2011 14:49:11 +0000

I’ll be short, sweet, and to the point on this one. These were 1) super easy, and that’s coming from someone who has a history of fouling up any recipe that has something about not “overworking” or “overmixing” the dough, 2) smelled really good – how could toasted almonds and butter NOT smell good!, and 3) were all gone by lunch. I didn’t even taste them, I just brought them in and poof, gone. Which says a lot!

Many thanks to Mike for an apparently yummy pick – check out his version (which look perfect!!) and the recipe on his blog!

TWD: Chocolate Oatmeal Drops

honeymuffin — Tue, 15 Feb 2011 15:59:54 +0000

I’ve gone on a baking frenzy. Typing this post right now, these cookies don’t come up as our weekly recipe for another two weeks! But, I got in the mood and basically baked for a whole weekend. Actually, truth be told, two whole weekends. More fruits of my labor to be posted soon.

I can surely say one thing about these cookies and that is they were REALLY quick to pull together. And I enjoyed the batter, probably a little too much. The problem for me is that I didn’t think the batter translated into cookies that were nearly as good. They were very chocolatey, and I’ve like chocolate and oats together in the past, but these were sort of crumbly and a wee bit disappointing. Maybe it was something I did? Wouldn’t be the first time!

The true test is the fact that these took all DAY to disappear from the kitchen at work, and not one person said anything to me about them. Which means they ate them, they were okay, and that was that. I never mind the experiment though, despite how they turn out…so thanks to Caroline and Claire for their choice this week!

These Would Be Cute For Valentine’s Day (if you celebrate it…)

honeymuffin — Thu, 10 Feb 2011 20:37:25 +0000

As I’ve said before, I have never really loved Valentines Day. Well, maybe since I was in grammar school. But yes, when it comes around, I do celebrate it by sending my friends goofy cards, and doing our office Secret Cupid and by baking things that are Valentine-ish, just because it’s fun to have a reason to.

These Red Velvet Sandwich Cookies were quick and easy and cute and yummy (albeit reallllllllly sweet). My test kitchen was calling these Whoopie Pies, but I’m not a huge fan of whoopie pies (which I’ve decided is a texture thing) and would suggest that they are NOT Whoopie Pies in that cakey sort of way, but rather sandwich cookies (as they are called on the recipe!), because all though they were made with cake mix (thus the super easy part), they were still cookies – chewy and well, cookie-like!

I would only warn that you cannot “sneak eat” these as they temporarily turn your tongue red, but if you are like me, that is not enough of a detterent. Give them a try! You can find the recipe here.