Peanut Butter and Jelly Crumb Morning Muffins

Give me a peanut butter and jelly sandwich and I'm a happy girl. Smooth, crunchy, whatever- but the jelly (or really, jam) HAS to be raspberry! No substitutions for me! It's not a PB&J if it has any other kind of jam.

So this edition of Baked Sunday Mornings was perfect for me. PB&J all rolled in to one delicious muffin with crumb topping filled with crushed, toasted peanuts. What could be bad?

The recipe calls for grape jam, but you can substitute your favorite( as I did). 

Breakfast, snack, dessert or just any time is fine with me! Eat them as you like- in one big bite (my preferred way) , a little nibble at a time or even with a spoon. Just savor that strong peanut flavor then rejoice when you hit that burst of jam in the middle!

You can find the recipe at Baked Sunday Mornings and see what the other bakers have done.

Enjoy!

Pumpkin Nut Crunch Muffins

I love to bake so much, that sometimes I will wake up early in the morning and throw something together before I leave for work. Some may say I'm crazy- why would you want to wake up when it's still dark out, to bake?  For me, it's the best start for a day. I get in my "fix" ( if I don't come home after work and bake some more) and my day is always better when it begins with baking. 

Listen, everyone has a little "thing"- this one is mine.

So, early this morning I was going through my routine of checking mail, FB (tried to stop but that didn't work), Pinterest- and somewhere, can't remember where, I came across this recipe by Jennifer at Once Upon a Chef.  Looked like my kind of recipe so I dove right in, put it together in 45 minutes (including the baking) and took them to school hot- right out of the oven. 

I think my colleagues were pleased, at least it appeared that way! Hey, if I can bring a smile to someones face with my baking, then I've achieved my goal! Many have asked for the recipe so- here you go guys- have fun!

Make these- now. You won't be sorry. 

Then, make them again.

Pumpkin Nut Crunch Muffins
(adapted from http://www.onceuponachef.com/)

Makes about 18 standard muffins

What you need
Topping
4 tablespoons all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
¼ cup demerara sugar
½ cup chopped pecans  or walnuts
¼ teaspoon cinnamon

Muffins

2 cups all-purpose flour (280 grams)
½ teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon ground cloves
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1½ cups granulated sugar (300 grams)
¾ cup (1½ sticks) unsalted butter, softened (170 grams)
2 large eggs
1 15-ounce can 100% pure pumpkin

What to do

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (180 C). Spray two standard muffin pans with non-stick cooking spray.

For Topping: Combine flour, butter, demerara sugar, chopped pecans or walnuts and cinnamon in a small bowl. Set aside.

For Muffins: Combine flour, salt, baking powder, baking soda, cloves, cinnamon and nutmeg in a medium bowl and mix well (I use a whisk). Set aside. In the bowl of an electric mixer, beat butter and sugar at low speed until just blended. Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition; continue beating at medium speed until very light and fluffy, 3-4 minutes. Add pumpkin and beat until combined, scraping down sides of bowl as necessary. Turn speed down to low and mix in flour mixture until just combined. Use an ice cream scoop to transfer batter to muffin pans, filling each muffin tin about ¾ full. Sprinkle topping evenly over batter. Bake for about 30 minutes. Let cool on rack for about 10 minutes, then turn out onto rack to cool completely (use a butter knife to lift them out of pan).

I also made some without the nuts for anyone who either doesn't like nuts or has an allergy.

These are easy and quick to make, taste amazing right out of the oven or later if you can wait. Perfect for freezing and pulling out whenever you get the craving!
Enjoy!

Lemon Pistachio Cornmeal Muffins

 I wasn't sure about the combination here, but I've learned in baking, as in life, that one needs to take chances sometimes and go with what isn't so familiar. It can only lead to a sincere learning process and discovery of things that we may never have known, whether for the positive or the not so positive. When we learn something new, even if to realize that it is something we don't want to incorporate in our lives, then the learning was a success. My, my, how philosophical we are today. And all because of some muffins!

So what did I learn here? That I love pistachios (although I knew that already) and I don't use them enough in my baking. The combination of lemon and pistachio is so right.. who would have thought?! I am definitely a "texture" eater- besides taste of course, I am always looking for the texture of food. Texture can make or break it for me. The texture of these cornmeal muffins "makes" it for sure. Best eaten warm right out of the oven with a little slab of butter melting over the top, but also good warmed up later in the microwave (just a few seconds is all you need) or oven. These are great breakfast muffins or for that matter, great anytime muffins.

You can find the very simple recipe here. Enjoy!

Lesson 1

Last Monday I had the first lesson of the pastry chef course I have so long been waiting for. I loved every minute of it, even though we started at 4 p.m. and finished at 1a.m.! The first few hours were lecture and I took 9 pages of notes(!) - there's going to be a test at the end so I'd better pay attention! Then we spent the rest of the evening practicing what we had learned. We broke into groups of 4 and I must say it takes a bit of getting used to working in a kitchen with 3 other bakers. I am so used to my own way of doing things and so is everybody else! Good lesson in cooperation.

This week the topic was basic mixed cakes. These cakes are based on one of two kinds of fat- oil or butter. The difference will be in the final result. Butter will produce a tighter, more pound cake- type quality and oil will give you a lighter, airier, but less melt-in -your -mouth taste. When using butter, it must be at room temperature, not melted, just soft to the touch. Usually it is creamed with the sugar first- a process called "cremage", to produce an emulsion.

Cakes made with oil have a more liquid batter and do not need to be creamed, just mixed. There are lots of other things we learned about the qualities of leavening and the characteristics of baking powder and baking soda ( a real chemistry lesson!), when each is used and what reaction takes place, but let's leave that for another time ( or not). More important are the pics of what we made and a few of the recipes for anyone interested.


First, we have Banana-Chocolate Chip Muffins- great combination!

Recipe for Banana-Chocolate Chip Muffins

makes about 10-12 muffins depending on the size of your muffin pans

220 grams flour
120 grams sugar
3 grams baking powder
3 grams baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
2 eggs ( room temperature)
200 ml. milk
70 grams yogurt
100 grams melted butter
20 grams corn syrup
2 well-ripened bananas cut in cubes and lightly mashed ( still leave some chunks in there)
150 grams chocolate chips

Streusel Topping

50 grams flour
50 grams cold butter
50 grams brown sugar
dash of cinnamon


1. Preheat oven to 180 C. ( 350 F)

2. Prepare the streusel topping- In a food processor, process all ingredients to a large crumb stage. Chill .

3. In a large mixing bowl combine all the dry ingredients for the muffins- flour, baking soda and powder,salt and chocolate chips.

4. Melt butter and corn syrup together in a small pot.

5. In a separate bowl combine eggs with sugar and mix until well combined. Add milk, yogurt and the butter-corn syrup mix.

6. Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients and add the liquid ingredients. Mix only until combined.

7. Add the mashed bananas and lightly mix in.

8. Pour mixture into muffins tins. Bake 10 minutes, then remove and sprinkle streusel topping on top. Return to oven for another 8-10 minutes until a toothpick comes out with damp crumbs- not dry.

Genoise cake

Carrot Cake( lower ) and Marble Pound Cake

Lemoncella Pound Cake

Basic Pound Cake

English cake or kugelhof or ring pan ,greased and floured

preheat oven to 180 C( 350F)

200 grams butter at room temperature

200 grams sugar

200 grams eggs (3-4)

200 grams self-rising flour

200 grams buttermilk

1 tsp. vanilla

Upgrades

Marble cake- 150 grams bitter chocolate

Halva and Honey cake- 3 tablespoons tehina paste , same amount of honey and 30 grams chocolate chips

Lemoncella cake- 80 ml. lemon juice ( reduce the quantity of buttermilk accordingly), zest of 2 lemons + syrup for moistening the cake ( 100 ml. water, juice of one lemon , 60 grams sugar, 1-2 tablespoons lemoncella liqueur)

1. Cream butter and sugar for 5 minutes. Add eggs one at a time and mix for an additional 3 minutes.

2. Add alternately the buttermilk and the flour- beginning and ending with the flour. Continue mixing just until the mix is all incorporated then a quick 5 sec pulse on high.

3. At this pint you can add any of the ingredients for the upgrades.

4. Pour into greased and floured pan ( either English cake, kugelhoff , ring) and bake at 180C ( 350F) for 40 minutes.

5. When the cake is ready, take out of oven and rest in pan for 10 minutes. Turn over and cool on a rack.