Blueberry Muffins: Round 2

There was no melty blueberry goodness in round 1. There was no inviting perspiration in round 1. This muffin brought it.

Aptly titled, the "To Die For Blueberry Muffins" are a serious front runner in my quest to find the best blueberry muffin recipe, ever. I think I may have to limit myself to three challengers ( and, I might pick a wimp for the third try so this one can win.) These were so moist, dense, and delicious... no residue but I'm starting to think that might be a good thing.

Something of note: the batter was like glue, keeping the berries from sinking to the bottom which I didn't even know I cared about until I realized I fully appreciated the even distribution. So, I checked back to round 1 muffins... there's no comparison.

(Oh, sorry about round 1, Trisha Yearwood. For what it's worth, I really liked your baked beans recipe and I sang "She's in love with the boy" for about three years straight....)

I found this recipe thanks to the fine community of Allrecipes.com I really like that there's a strong following at allrecipes.com providing invaluable information on how the recipes turn out, along with modification suggestions. I followed some advice and cut down the quantity of the crumb topping and did a 1/2 c. brown sugar + 1/4 c. white sugar mix ( instead of the 3/4 c. white sugar called for...this is because I ran out of white sugar.)


Crumb topping? Yes, that's right... and all was right with the world.











I'm not kidding. These are scary good. Seriously, look at this face I found in my evenly distributed berries...

Scary Good Blueberry Muffins

Source: Adapted from "To Die For Blueberry Muffins" by Colleen on Allrecipes.com
Yield- 7 big muffins

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
• 1/4 cup white sugar
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 2 tsp. baking powder
• 1/3 cup vegetable oil
• one large egg, beaten
• approximately 1/3 cup milk ( you'll see why the approximation)
• 1 cup fresh blueberries

For the topping:

• 1/8 cup white sugar
• 1/8 cup unsalted butter, cubed ( 1/4 stick)
• 1/8 cup flour
• 1 tsp. ground cinnamon

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Line muffin tin with muffin liners.

2. Combine flour, sugar, salt, and baking powder in a bowl.

3. Add 1/3 cup vegetable oil and egg in a 1 cup measuring cup. Add milk until the total volume of all wet ingredients is 1 cup. Add wet ingredients to flour/sugar mix, gently stirring until dry ingredients are just blended.

4. Fold in blueberries then spoon into muffin tin.

5. To make crumb topping, cut the sugar, flour, butter, and cinnamon together in a small bowl with a fork until a coarse meal forms.

6. Top muffins with crumb mixture and bake at 400 degrees for 5 minutes then lower temperature to 350 and bake an additional 15-20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean. ( The temperature change makes the outside crumb crust a bit crispy while preventing burning...I'm getting the hang of this.)

Blueberry Muffins- Round 1

I dig a good blueberry muffin... the ones that are super moist, chewy, and leave a little residue in your mouth for hours after you eat them. The tops are sometimes sticky, too. Yeah, those ones.


As I sit here on this bitter cold Sunday (the first day I've had to actually sit and chill since the year started) I found myself craving the above. With a pint of blueberries in the fridge, WHY THE HECK NOT? Exactly. I mean, nevermind the fact that I gained 10 pounds over the last month eating every cookie and confection in sight. Oh, and nevermind that every gadget I have is on the fritz and not configured properly. You know how they say never make three major life changes in one year? Well, I think that should include technological devices...trust me, switching a computer, a cell phone, and cable service in the same week is bad news for post-holiday destress.

Anyway, about the muffins.

These Blueberry muffins were made with Trisha Yearwood's recipe in "Georgia Cooking in an Oklahoma Kitchen." They're good but not what I was after... remember the residue of which I spoke? Not happening here. However, you might find these up your alley if your style of muffin is light, moist, and more breadlike. I consider these a success either way since I didn't burn them.

Nevertheless, the quest for my dream blueberry muffin is now on.

Blueberry Muffins

Source: Georgia Cooking in an Oklahoma Kitchen by Trisha Yearwood

Yeild: 16-18 muffins

Ingredients

• 2 cups all purpose flour
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1 Tbsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon
• 1/2 cup ( 1 stick) melted butter
• 1/2 cup milk
• 2 large eggs, beaten
• 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
• 1 1/2 cups fresh blueberries

1. Preheat oven to 350 and place liners in your muffin tin.

2. Sift dry ingredients together in a medium size mixing bowl . Make a well in the center and add butter, milk , eggs, and vanilla, stirring just enough to moisten the flour. Gently fold in blueberries.

3. Spoon batter into the lined muffin tin. Bake 25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in a muffin comes out clean.

OH, hey! If you have a blueberry muffin recipe you think I'll like, hook me up! Thanks.

Strawberry-Citrus Salad

After the vacation of meat, I was ready to return to something light. If you, too, have gone overboard on steak intake, then this dish is for you. It's for you even if you didn't consume about 5 cows last week. I saw it first in my Bon Appetit last month but didn't realize how simple it was to make until I saw it in The Bitten Word. If you want to be a purist, follow the recipe. But, it's as simple as combining the four ingredients to suit your tastes which is what I did... strawberries I had on hand, an orange, a heaping spoon of brown sugar, and about 5 mint leaves chiffonade ( that means stacked, rolled up together, and sliced thinly.) It's super refreshing and yet has depth from the brown sugar. Give it a try for any summer picnics you have coming up ( um, July 4th anyone?)


Strawberry-Citrus Salad

Bon Appetit May 2009 Serves 4

Ingredients

3 cups sliced hulled strawberries (about one 22-ounce basket)
3 large navel oranges, peeled, thickly sliced crosswise, cut into 3/4-inch pieces (about 3 cups)
2 tablespoons (packed) golden brown sugar
2 tablespoons thinly sliced fresh mint leaves

1.Toss all ingredients in large bowl. Let stand at room temperature 30 minutes.

Rhubarb Bread Pudding

With Memorial Day Weekend upon us, I thought I might share this new lovely recipe I happened upon while deepening my love affair with rhubarb. Behold, Rhubarb Bread Pudding:

Whether you're charged with bringing a dessert for the Saturday picnic or if you're taking it easy and finally have time to make a nice breakfast for the fam, this recipe is the way to go. I like standard bread pudding but sometimes it's too sweet for me. This with the kick of tart rhubarb???...oh my. Now that I'm thinking about it, I should mention that it's totally fair to have desserts for breakfast and breakfast for dessert. That's just how I roll.

Rhubarb Bread Pudding - Serves 6 ( or, two for 3 days)

Adapted from This Recipe at allrecipes.com (a great source for all sorts of recipes.)

The original recipe calls for regular sandwich bread with crusts removed and a lot more egg than I like in my bread pudding... I'm a fan of dense bread pudding- more creamy and doughy than eggy so I altered it to suit my needs. If you like your bread pudding more on the "pudding" side of life, you might check out the original.

Onward...

6 slices French Bread with crust on- toasted and cubed ( like, literally toasted in the toaster.)

4 eggs
3/4 cup milk
2 Tbsp. unsalted butter

1/2 tsp. cinnamon ( plus more for dusting)

1/2 cup white sugar

1/8 tsp. salt

1/8-1/4 cup walnuts

Raw sugar for sprinkling

.

.
.

.

That's all...

Oh, and 1 cup of diced rhubarb. Don't worry baby...I didn't forget you.

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees Farenheit.

2. Arrange cubed pieces of bread in a buttered baking/casserole dish (about 2 qt.)

3. Combine milk and butter in a sauce pan and bring to the point just at the boiling point...like if allowed to stay one more second it will boil. Remove from heat and pour over bread. Allow to set for 15 minutes or until it is all absorbed. Your kitchen will smell really good right about now...

4. Combine eggs, rhubarb, sugar, salt, and cinnamon in a bowl. Pour over bread and top with walnuts. Mix lightly.

5. Sprinkle with raw sugar to taste and more cinnamon if you love it like I do...

6. Bake for 45-50 minutes or until browned. Notice I didn't destroy it this time?

Round Two of Rhubarb baking goes to Amanda ( Oven smackdown!)

At this point you can go solo like I did, or serve it with a basic cream sauce:

1/4 cup sugar

1/2 stick butter

1/4 cup cream

(optional- 1/8 cup Jack Daniels? P-dub's idea, not mine... though, I might steal it.)

Heat all ingredients in sauce pan on low heat until boiling. The end.

Yum.

Mmmmm....I wish I had more of this. I'm fresh out of Rhubarb now! Good thing I'll be in Tulsa this weekend...

Tarts- A Love Story with Rhubarb Tart Recipe

Aubrey and I discovered the joy that is a tart while on our first voyage across the Atlantic in May of 2005. It all started for us in Frankfurt, Germany when we discovered that,
a. It costs money to use a public toilet in Europe;
b. German police actually patrol with German Shepherds, and;
c. We would never be the same again after eating this:

Thus began our love affair with tarts and tart-like things...

But, it was really all about the tarts...

I patiently waited a year and we returned in May of 2006 to Paris for our honeymoon... and, guess what? So, you see my problem...we love tarts, we live in the middle of nowhere Oklahoma, and I can't bake. I can't remedy any of these conditions but I like to go down fighting against my oven. Yes, yes, friends. I tried baking......................again. Enter, rhubarb tart.

Have you ever had rhubarb? This was actually my first time and I can't believe I lived without it for so long...

For an amazingly simple recipe, I managed to screw up the puff pastry ( premade pastry dough, people! How can I mess that up?) and burn the edges. So, both of these faults should make my next statement really hit home.... this was the best sweet I've had since our trip last November. I'm telling you the honest truth. It brought tears to my eyes.
Sure, my puff pastry didn't puff ( note: don't thaw puff pastry in the microwave. Oh, and you roll it out in a sheet, not from the melted ball you formed in the microwave. I learned that here, too late.) But, despite all the obstacles, this was amazing. Whoever first combined tart and tangy rhubarb with the sweetness of a sugar orange glaze will go down in history as a genius in my book. Without further ado...

Rustic Rhubarb Tart with Orange Glaze( adapted from Gourmet April 2009. It's "rustic" because I can't roll out a rectangle... hehe. Recipe found here.)

1 cup fresh orange juice
1 tablespoon fresh lime juice
1/2 cup sugar
3/4 pound rhubarb stalks, thinly sliced diagonally ( about 1/8 inch)
1 sheet frozen puff pastry (from a 17 1/4-ounces package), thawed
1/2 teaspoon grated orange zest ( I skipped this part and it was just fine.)

1. Preheat oven to 400 with rack in the middle.

2. Mix orange juice, lime juice, and sugar in a bowl. Add rhubarb and soak for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.

3. Meanwhile, cut the sheet of puff pastry in half and roll out into two rectangles approximately 11" x 7." I literally brought out my ruler but didn't need it since the blob from the microwave wasn't going anywhere near a rectangle.

4. Place both rectangles on an ungreased baking sheet.

5. Strain rhubarb (retaining the liquid) and arrange on both of the pastry sheets.

6. Bake for 30 minutes or until golden brown.

7. While the tarts are baking, boil down the remaining liquid to reduce to a thickend glaze.

8. When tarts are finished, remove from oven and brush with the glaze.

9. Try not to burn yourself when you immediately attempt to eat the thing. Ahhh, what one does for true love.

Blackberry and Peach Cobbler

Ahhh. Sweet and delicious Blackberry cobbler. I've been wanting some of this for a few days now and finally got around to making it. It's another Pioneer Woman recipe and it's easy as pie... actually, easier! Check it:

1 cup sugar
1 cup self-rising flower
( mix these together)
1 cup milk ( whisk it in baby)
1/2 cup melted butter ( that's one whole stick- add it in there! Now whisk it! Whisk it good!)
Put the cobbler mixture in a buttered baking dish
2 cups Blackberries ( of the fresh or frozen variety- Just throw them on top)
1/4 cup more sugar ( sprinkle over the top of all that beauty)*
Bake for an hour at 350 degrees. That's that.

* This is "all that beauty" before it gets sprinkled with sugar and popped in the oven.
For an extra tasty alternative I made one with peaches and blackberries. I'm usually not one to brag but this was the best cobbler I have ever had. No joke. You may kiss my ring.