Chocolate (again)!

Hey dudes! This time, I have an actual post, about actual food, with actual photos. That's right, after about five minutes of internet cafe time, I finally figured out how to open my camera on this darned maschine. So, let's get down to business.

One Sunday afternoon, I had a lot of free time. I wanted to do something. I eventually decided to make brownies for my class-group, after gnawing on a block of chocolate I had bought to make cocoa with. Don't worry, I cut off the bits I had chewed on. No, I'm not joking. Continuing on, I didn't have many problems making the actual batter. That was all fine. My one hurdle was the pan. All of the utensils, pans, etc, in this kitchen have been donated over the years by the inhabitants of my apartment. In this building, it's a 'communal' kitchen concept, and everyone is allowed to use any object (NOT THE FOOD) whenever they want. Oddly enough, there aren't any rectangular pans, there aren't any cake pans, there aren't any square pans, etc. There is only...a loaf pan. The commercial loaf pans over here are different, they are longer and thinner. So, what's a girl to do with a huge bowl of batter, and only one loaf pan?



Invent the brownie loaf, naturally.

It took two rounds of baking, and I added the powdered sugar later. Everyone liked them, and my instructor asked for the recipe, but I think they were only so-so. There wasn't enough chocolate flavor. I always have that issue with scratch brownies, though. I am too fond of the boxed mixes.

Now, this happened before the brownies were made. I wandered around on a hill for a few hours that Sunday morning, somehow getting myself lost on nature trails while trying to find a 433 meter tall lookout tower on the top of said here. I don't know how I did it. The view (on an exceptionally hazy day) looked like this.


The spiral staircase to the top was really scary. You should all be proud of me.

Afterwards, I decided to treat myself to some cake in a cafe. I had heard about a good place, called Cafe Max. I accidentally found it, and decided to pop in. What I ended up ordering, somehow, was more of a tort than a cake. To inform those who don't know, these people seem to like their tort. A tort is more of a...pudding-y thing than a cake. The bottom layer (I swear) was pie crust, topped with a thin layer of yellow cake, and then...some kind of custard, which contained some kind of alcohol-soaked...things. I don't know what they were, but I don't think they were fruit. It was odd. Then, it was topped with whipped cream, and some chocolate shavings. It also looked like this.

It wasn't half bad.

And that, folks, is it.

Schokolade

I live near a chocolate shop, called (not so inventively) Chocolaterie. The sign for the shop is an unwrapped chocolate bar, with chunk bitten off. It reminded me of that cupcake sign for the bakery in Stranger Than Fiction.

Said chocolate shop sells beer bottles fashioned out of said material, labels and all. They also have chocolate chips.

Marzipan

Germany waves hello, dudes!

Germany would also like to say that it will give opinions\reviews of certain regional specialties (mostly cakes and confections, because these guys throw meat in juuust about everything) as they come.

p.s. die Mandeln means almonds, as well as tonsils.

p.p.s. To Whom it May Concern, there are bakeries here that only use whole-wheat flour; this includes cakes and pastries.

Pesto 1

Well then, time just flies, doesn't it? Anyways, today I'd like to talk about pesto. This was inspired by a pasta-dinner box I saw at Target one night, long ago. It was for chilled pasta salad, something I had never heard of before. Then, that weekend, Ina Garten made lukewarm/chilled pasta salad on her show The Barefoot Contessa. I usually enjoy her recipes (hold the New England blue-blood), and a couple weeks after this I decided to give it a go. I've made pesto before, with limited success, and this wasn't much different. However, it is a good option for dinner on a hot summer night after you've either been popping popcorn or running up and down stairs carrying vaccum cleaners all the live long day. It is also very, very simple.

1) Boil some pasta. Spiral/Rotini is the best to use, because it holds the pesto sauce in the...wedges? Whatever you call it. Anywho, I rinsed mine very fast after it was done, but I retained some of the liquid for the sauce.

2) Cook some peas, or other vegetables. I like peas, and I would have included broccoli, but we had none. I'd say you should stick with greens, for both taste and aesthetic purposes. Don't get me wrong, I'm not the pesto police, so do what you want.

3) Make the pesto. If you haven't made pesto before, here is how it goes. Take a lot (1 1/2 cup) of basil leaves, 2 tbsp pine nuts, a crushed clove of garlic, olive oil, and put this all in a food processor. Process 'em. The garlic is important, because if you forget it, you'll realize it while sitting in the break room a few days later as you eat the leftovers for dinner and you will feel silly. Grate a whole bunch of parmesan cheese into the pesto, and keep adding olive oil if it's too thick. If you want something creamy, really amp up the cheese and add the olive oil until you have the consistency of peanut butter.

4) Mix the above together. It is pretty tasty.


There will be another entry regarding pesto, once I upload the photos. Until then, here is a photo of my birthday cake. If you know me, this will be kind of funny. I don't know who put the hear there, it was most likely my sister. She likes those kinds of things. I thought it was pretty neat. The things they can do with bundt pans these days!

Never too many vegetables

My dear friend, the clever Molly Wible, gifted me a Vegetarian cookbook this past Christmas. I have made a few of the recipes in it, but today's experiment deserves a blog all of its own. It was a toss up between the Eggplant Lasgna and the Pasta Primavera for dinner, but I decided upon the latter. It sounded easier (and faster) to make. I've been trying to walk more, and the need to pick up some fresh vegetables at my (very) local grocery store was also enticing. So, off I toddled with my totebag to procure some zucchini, asparagus, and penne pasta (whole-wheat, for those who-know-who-they-are). Upon returning home, I discovered that the vegetable stock I thought resided in the pantry was actually a figment of my imagination. I busied myself with preparing my other ingredients before setting out once again. I got some excellent vegetable stock, and fresh thyme. I figured, heck, if I'm going out, I might as well go all out!

Now that I was finally ready to get cookin', I will lay out the original recipe for you folks:

1 1/2 cup vegetable stock

2 sprigs fresh thyme

salt

1/2 cup peeled and diced carrot

1 cup asparagus tips, each about 1 inch long

1/2 cup diced zucchini or summer squash

1/2 cup shelled fresh or frozen peas, or snow peas

1 lb penne pasta (or other cut pasta)

2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil or butter

freshly ground black pepper to taste

1 1/2 cups freshly grated parmesan cheese

While boiling the pasta, one is supposed to cook the vegetables in the boiling stock in a sequential order. Once the pasta is about done, you add in the olive oil, remaining stock, and toss it all together with the parmesan.

I would like to note that I purposefully went easy on the pasta and heavy on the vegetables. Here is what I did:

a bunch of stock ('Imagine' brand, no fat or MSG), because the large amount of vegetables I had needed more liquid

2 dealies of fresh(?) thyme

no salt

4 small carrots, peeled and sliced

the tips from 2 bunches of asparagus

one whole diced zucchini

a package of frozen peas

a bunch of broccoli

12 oz. of whole wheat penne

a bunch of olive oil

no pepper (I like pepper, I just didn't add any)

a lot of freshley grated parmesan

one bottle-cap-full of lemon juice (I just felt crazy!)

I would like to say here and now that the vegetable stock was delicious. The broccoli florets absorbed much of its flavor, and that was a good thing. The cooking sequence goes: boil stock with thyme (ha!), add carrots for a couple of minutes, add asparagus (and broccoli) and cook for a bit, add zucchini and (surprise!) cook for a bit, and end with the snow peas. You aren't supposed to end up with a lot of stock left over, and I kept adding more because a) like I said, my amounts were all wacky and b) I like sauce. Depending on how long it takes your pasta to cook, take the veggies off the heat until the carbs are done. Finish them up on the heat with olive oil and some more stock for a few minutes. Toss together, add cheese, and voila! You will feel rewarded for the one hour of walking you did over the course of two trips to the grocery store.



This is what it looked like in my bowl, shortly before death by mastication.



In the words of another, hunger is the best spice. This stuff was tasty.

This has nothing to do with baked goods.

I believe that the focus of this 'blog' will change a couple of times in the next few months. I have been very busy these past few months with school, work, and an upcoming inter-continental move. My soul has been racked with guilt for not having had made/blogged about anything. I haven't mentioned the peanut butter cake I made for Molly's birthday, or much of anything else.
So for now, or at least very soon, I will chronicle all of my culinary endeavors. This can include restaurants, foods that I cook, and baked goods. In the fall, this may turn into a vehicle to keep friends and family updated on life and times in Germany. I am not sure about that, because my internet situation will probably be much more unreliable and slower than it is here.

Until then, my activities are not unlike that of a chicken whose head has been swiftly removed.

Response!

Well, all but two of the cone thingies were eaten by the folks at work. I'm guessing that means they are good.

Cupcakes!

Today's subject was a bit of a cop-out. I had been skimming through some cupcake cook-books recently, and I saw a couple of recipes for cupcakes- baked inside of ice cream cones. I thought this idea was cool, for a couple of reasons. Firstly, no annoying paper cup-thingie that just rips the cupcake apart. Secondly, if you really, really got detail-specific you could probably trick people into thinking these actually contained ice cream. Thirdly, I think they look cute. Nowly...er...Now, I would have preferred making these with some cake batter made from scratch. The chocolate cake recipes I was seeing sounded delicious, but their baking times were a bit too long for my time frame today. I just used a box-mix. The brand is Duncan Hines: Moist Deluxe- Butter Recipe Fudge.

A tip: do not overfill the cones with batter. Although, if this happens, you can just say that the "ice cream got all melty". It adds to the authenticity. Yeah!


I decided to frost half of the batch with chocolate icing, and the other half with vanilla. For the chocolate, I used a recipe called "Quick Fudge Frosting". Unless I made it wrong, which I probably did, it's not very fudgy and is mostly runny and soft. It hardened well, though.


For the vanilla frosting, I just made a run-of-the-mill buttercream icing. I decided to tint it green, to give a minty look. Why? I like the color mint. I considered using sprinkles, but I don't think I have any. I really piled it on, because the icing was stiff enough. I think it gives a nice scoop-effect as well. My sister approved.


Here is a photo of me trying to show contrast between something white and the green-ness of the frosting. I believe that I have failed. Oh well. It's green-ish, I promise.


These are for the cats at work. Reviews will follow.

Italienisches Brot

Lately, I've been making that chocolate chip cookie recipe like it was a second job. There were a couple of days where classes were cancelled because there was much snowfall. I never, ever though I would live to see a day, or even two consecutive days, when IUPUI shut down the campus. Truly amazing. However, that is not the subject for today.

After a disappointing experiment with rolls made of whole wheat flour that we shall never speak of again, I discovered a recipe on the back of a dried yeast package. It was called "Italian Bread", and was made with whole wheat flour. I was homeward bound that day due to the weather, so I decided to give it a go despite my despair over the failed rolls. That was the best decision I made that entire week. This stuff is fabulous! It rose phenomenally (think of "The Blob"), tasted wonderful, and made excellent toast. I prefer dipping chunks of it into olive oil with cracked black pepper, but I could live on that combination for the rest of my life. I know others have different tastes than I.


Here we have the finished product(s). Let me just say, this photo does not do their size(s) justice.

As for the recipe, here is what I can remember (my written copy is downstairs, and.....no, I will not go retrieve it).
I used two packets of Fleishmann's Active Dry yeast. You dissolve those suckers in two cups of warm water(110-120'F), in one large bowl. This will involve stirring. You must also add three tablespoon's of sugar to proof (which is, as best I can tell, a fancy way of saying 'make the yeast begin to grow at an alarming rate'), followed by two-thirds a cup of olive oil. That could be one-third, but I'm fairly certain the former is correct. Now, you add a little over three cups of whole wheat flour. Next, you let the stuff (referred to in the recipe as 'the sponge', straight out of a B-horror flick) rest for twenty minutes. You can take this time to add...a measurement I really can't remember. Downstairs I go. Ugh.

Ah yes, a ten minute search has yielded the recipe book which was in this room the entire time. Glorious. So anyway, while 'the sponge' slee- I mean, 'rests', in another small bowl you should add the following: two teaspoons salt, three fourths a cup of grated parmesan, two teaspoons of garlic powder, two teaspoons of dried basil, and one teaspoon of dried oregano. Mix 'em all up. Go do something else for fifteen minutes. Then, mash the sponge about a tad bit, and stir in the parmesan/herb mixture. Add around one cup of bread flour next, just enough to make the dough easy to handle. Now for the fun part! Knead the dough, always on a lightly floured surface, for about ten minutes. If you have not kneaded bread dough before, you should know that you will find it necessary to re-flour the surface every so often. Unless I'm doing this wrong. If you do not, it will stick to your countertop. That is not fun. After you are done kneading, divide the dough into two round loaves and let them rise on a couple of baking pans for forty-five minutes. I only used one, but it got a wee bit crowded.
Now that you have occupied yourself while the bread rose, it must now bake inside of at oven at the Fahrenheit temperature 350 for the duration of thirty/thirty-five minutes.

Be warned, this is very aromatic stuff. It is also really, really good.

Hail those of you who are about to bake. We salute you!

SMASH! BLAMMO! KER-POW!

I presume that we all have those days where you just, for lack of a better phrase, want to break things. Today was one of those days. This afternoon while I meandered online, I discovered something called cookie bark. You essentially just take a box of OREO's, smash them to bits, mix them into a bunch of melted chocolate, refridgerate, and BINGO. Cookie Bark. You could use any kind of cookie or chocolate, but in the pantry we had some Trader Joe Joe's (organic oreos), 14 oz of white candy chocolate and then a 10 oz package of nestle "holiday swirls". Again, these are just the ingredients that I chose for culinary Mayan sacrifice, you can name your own victims.
I had read the recipe a few hours ago, and I was a bit too...well, I wasn't in the mood to search through a few thousand recipes on allrecipe.com to find it. Besides, that meant going upstairs. Onward I forged, despite my extremely unreliable memory! I crushed the cookies with my bare hands for the first batch, and I used a spoon for the second. I prefer the first method, it is most satisfying for cookie destruction. Then I melted the white chocolate with my laser vision. You mere mortals could use a microwave, I suppose, or melt them on the stove top. Then...you mix them together. I didn't measure the oreo's out into the chocolate, I just kept adding handfuls and stirring until I didn't think there was enough chocolate left to coat anymore cookies. You just dump the goop out onto a cookie sheet (no greasing or wax paper necessary, it doesn't stick), sort of spread it out, and chill it for a while. It will cool faster than you think. It is probably done when you can't leave a mark, or indentation, after punch- er, pressing it. For the finale, hack the stuff to bits with a spoon or a spatula. Lots of vigorous stabbing motions, mind you. Then, you can eat it. The stabbing process results in lots of little chocolate/cookie bits that are similar to those delightful little bits of fried batter at Long John Silvers.

Cookie bark on the edge, man!



As you can see, they did not sustain the fall. I'm kidding, I used a spatula. note: cookie bits ala Long John Silver's in the foreground.


Red, green, and white make brown when you melt them. I never mastered the color wheel, and I was surprised when this happened.

Shortly after this photo was taken, the cookie bark was found dead. Some crazy broad stabbed him until he was virtually unrecognizable. The remains were deemed unfit for this blog.

I will admit, the white chocolate produced better bark than the holiday swirl things. Both were too sweet for my personal tastes, but I didn't really care. I'm not the one eating this stuff, I just wanted to crush some cookies.

This One, for the Theatre

I recently found out that these particular cookies were beloved by some of my co-workers. I have mostly been making peanut butter cookies lately, so I thought I would shake things up a bit and bring these into work on Friday. They are ridiculously easy, and they're drop cookies so that means I'm not up until 2am making cookie dough just so's I can get up at 7 to bake the suckers. Huzzah! Here, on your left, is one of these cookies.





I added extra orange zest this time, as per the advice of a friend. They all seem to like the orange factor, but they don't seem able to identify it. Everyone was asking me what "it" was. I haven't had one myself, so I can't give my opinion. Orange gives me a headache. Zesting 1 Tbsp worth was fun, let me tell you. At least it wasn't a clementine. I don't think I'll ever even try a recipe with clementine in it, unless someone really wants me too. Orange is the enemy.




This is only 2/3 of the batch. I ran out of the glaze, so the last sheet was plain. I just wanted to illustrate something with this photo; 7 people ate this many cookies before 6pm on Friday. As for the glaze, you may have noticed that there is a progession in texture from left to right in the photo. I will explain. The glaze is made on the stove top. You melt some butter, add vanilla bean paste (lots), and then you add 2 cups of powdered sugar. It is really hard to not make a mess, because the powedered sugar poofs all over the place. This is like making the thickest gravy ever, only it burns faster and is more difficult. I made the glaze in between batches, and when it is warmer (or fresher) it is spoonable and it drips everywhere. However, it had been sitting for a bit before I got to the next sheet of cookies. I had to spread it with a knife. Lesson learned? Bake first, glaze last.

Here is one last photo, because I liked the way it came out. This recipe comes from a Betty Crocker cookbook. I'm not sure how old, or which edition, the book is. I'd guess late seventies/early eighties, but I am just going on all of the suggestions for wheat flour and the way the photos look. There are about 8 different versons of this drop-cookie recipe in there, and I intend to try them all. Especially the brown sugar ones. That sounds very tasty. I will also try topping the pumpkin cookies with chocolate sauce sometime. I think I know a few people who would enjoy that.

This One Goes Out to David

Now it is time to discuss The Recipe That Launched A Thousand Copies. My friend David has formulated a chocolate chip cookie recipe that you probably know about, if you are reading this. If you do not know what I am talking about, I am sorry. Your life is clearly incomplete. If memory serves right, I first had these wonderful creations on May 9, 2006. The date could be wrong, but it was a Monday night sometime in early May. That was a good day. Well, actually, it had been one of the worst days that entire year. I don't think Dave knew that, but anyway the cookies made me feel completely better. Sometime this past fall, I discovered that a certain employee of his had acquired this recipe. Unbeknownst to him, she was handing out photocopies to half of the free world. She even gave me one, under the condition that I didn't tell David that I had it. It laid dormant, waiting until I could buy vanilla bean paste.

Fast forward two months later- I broke down and asked David where to buy vanilla bean paste, and the cat was outta the proverbial bag. I made them, and it was good. I had putzed around the kitchen baking some baguettes, and some pumpkin bread for my friend Heather because the scent of it reminds her of Autumn, but this is when I really started getting enthusiastic about baking. Long story short, I kept making cookies, and here we are. Today, I made these because I haven't had the time to bake lately and I was going crazy. My sister also likes it when I make cookie with chocolate in them, because I usually make the peanut butter one's and she hates them. She's never actually tried one, by the way.
Now, I've played around with this recipe. I substituted a secret ingredient for the milk a while back, and David was of the opinion I improved upon his achievement. I don't know about all that, but they were tasty. Today, I was out of that special sumthin', and have you been outside lately? I was not about to get in the rickety old van that doesn't have heat to go and get the special sumthin'. So, I used something else in addition to the milk. I will not tell you people what it was, but I will say this much: my mother was highly skeptical of my idea, and upon tasting the cookie she declared it was the best chocolate chip cookie of her life. I also went equal parts with the two different types of flour, and I chilled the dough for longer than required. As a result, these cookies are about one inch tall and two inches wide, and a bit crunchy on the outside. That last part is my fault, I left the last three sheets in the oven a bit longer to get them a slight golden brown, because the first (and best) sheet was too pale for my liking.
I myself have had four this evening. I also have a headache from the sugar. Let's hope they survive until tomorrow for their intended recipient(s). Here are some bad photos.


Does the above photo really surprise you?


This is one of the later, and more brown, cookies.


Again, the last one outta the oven.

This was the first sheet. See how pale (and blurry) they are?

That is all. I will bake something else soon, and it will probably show up in the break room at work.

Anticipation

The title is falsely presumptuous. I don't actually think anyone is waiting on pins and needles for my posts. Anyways, because I'm just whiling away the minutes until I go to sleep, I thought I'd say I will make cookies, or something, tomorrow and blog about it.

Brown Sugah

Well, today's stab at the Muffin Territory was the most successful yet! The muffin pan came with a recipe for Blueberry muffins, and I devised my own recipe using the former as a broad guideline. I followed most of the ingredients (flour, baking soda, salt, milk, eggs, butter), and added or altered a few of my own. I decided I would make some brown sugar-cinnamon muffins, and I ended up throwing in some nutmeg as well. I don't know why, I don't particularly care for our nutmeg because I think it smells and tastes like soap, but it just seemed like something I was suppose to do. In adding the brown sugar, I simply reduced the regular granulated sugar by a half cup and substituted the other half cup with brown sugar. For the cinnamon and nutmeg, I threw in a teaspoon of each to the dry ingredients. As always, I sort of just poured the vanilla bean paste in until I was tired of holding the bottle. Now, as per the instructions, I alternated adding the dry/wet ingredients to the base batter. I used an electric mixer for the first half, which I think might have been a bad idea. Apparently, the idea you're going for when you make muffin batter is lumpiness, or a general coarseness. I think mine was too well-mixed, which could have altered the intended texture. I'll try it all-wooden-spoon next time. I sprinkled brown sugar and cinnamon liberally on top of the muffins prior to baking them. I have some vanilla sugar from the Heidelberg Cafe that I considered adding, but I was afraid it would be too vanilla-y. I don't mind vanilla-y, but someone else might. To be honest, the sugar was upstairs from the kitchen and I was tired tonight.

Here are some photos.





I even tried one tonight! They taste like spice cake. It had an excellent moisture, with a very fine, crumbly texture. It tasted like spice cake, minus the icing. My mother found hers to be delicious, and believes it will go well with coffee tomorrow morning. We still have more left over. Anybody want a muffin? Or the recipe?

All Points Bulletin

I am running out of people to push my baked goods on. I can't make it to work everyday to put them in the break room, bake-swaps online seem a bit dubious, and my family can't eat everything I make. I either need to meet more people who love carbs, or I should start selling/giving away what I make. What has clued me into this despite my flour-induced pipe dreams?

When you're starting to store loaves of bread in the garage freezer, you know you've got a problem...

This One Goes Out To John

It is now time to talk about a cookie that has achieved some small degree of fame, due to Mr. John Peddie. When I first happened upon this recipe, I knew I had to make them for said man and my good friend Molly. If memory serves right, I baked them up on a Tuesday night, intending to schlep them around during my school day and give them to John at work that night. Molly loves peanut butter cookies, so I let her try a cookie before I gave them to John. Partly because I wanted to test them out before giving them to John, and because she was drooling over the package I carried. She and her friend Taylor tried one each, and the threatened to knock me out and steal them away. Needless to say, they made it to work for John and his wife Amy. I made them to celebrate the coming Child of Peddie (after new information was received, this has been edited to Son of Peddie).

Well, long story short, I don't think I will ever see the look John had on his face as he tried that cookie again. The man is a FIEND for these cookies. To his credit and my delight, he seems to enjoy most of my baked goods. I am glad. One day, I'll write about The Great Christmas Cookie Tower. However, today I only have time for the most recent batch of Peanut Butter with Snicker's cookies. The actual recipe name is "Santa's Surprise! Cookies", but that title is, for lack of a better word, lame.

I did not have the time to bake this batch tonight, for I have found myself staring down the barrel of that vicious gun Time yet once again. I'm already skirting disaster staying up late to make the dough, which has to chill for a few hours, because I have to be on the road to Bloomington for an Important Exam at 8 this all too quickly coming morning.

Enough talk! This is what the dough looks like. Inside of My KitchenAid.



Why is this underlined? I don't know what I just did...um. Well, as you can see, I ran out of saran wrap ( I do this baking thing quite often), so I MacGuyver'd a giant Ziploc bag for the job. I credit my friend David for this trick.

Ok, so now we're not underlined? I don't understand. This is mysterious. Um. OK, so these are the snickers bites that will go inside of the cookies at seven o'clock this coming morning. Wait, did I mention why I'm making these? Dangit. I promised my friend Paul that I would bring him homebaked cookies when I made it down to Bloomington. Tomorrow, I plan on delivering. Ouch...sorry about the bad pun.

Hey, look! I ran out of flour. Again, I do this 'baking' thing on an almost daily basis. No, really. I do. Want some cookies? You can see my 'apron' in the below photo. Today I discovered that I can secure a towel through my belt instead of throwing it over my shoulder. I should probably get an apron one of these days.

Ah, and here we have the finished product: The Cookie. My friend David has a Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe that he is known far and wide throughout the land for, I'll write about that recipe another day, and I think that I have made a similar, lesser known niche for myself with this sucker.

They are best when warm. I shipped them to my friend Jason and his fiance, Letha, but I don't know how the cargo fared. He said they were "grrreat!", but even though I appreciated that, it was somewhat vague.

I haven't modified the original recipe terribly much. I use vanilla bean paste instead of extract, dark brown sugar in place of light brown, and I do not drizzle melted chocolate on top. I tried to melt chocolate once...and I almost started a fire.

The next modification I'm going to try is whole wheat flour. On a very ordinary, unsuspecting day...

Muffins Elude Me

So, I like to bake. I've been doing so much of it lately, that I decided I would make a little blog about it for my own amusement. Besides, I've just got loads of free time on my hands! Why not add another task to the to-do list? All sarcasm aside, I decided I would kick off with my most recent food stuff: muffins.

For the past few weeks, I had been keeping a lustful eye on the bake ware in Williams-Sonoma, a cooking store in the mall where I 'work'. The hand-held Kitchen Aid mixers, the perforated baguette pan, the loaf pans (of many different sizes, most notably the miniature ones that would make giving bread away very easy to do), the pastry board, and the muffins pans. Now, I don't really eat muffins. I don't care for them. I don't actually eat many of the things I bake, to tell you the truth. When I do, I don't really taste anything special. An exception to this was a certain batch of chocolate chip cookies I gave a friend for Christmas; I have yet to re-create that symphonic miracle. Yet, for some reason, I have felt to urge to being learning how to make really great muffins. My 'paycheck' last week was far larger than I anticipated, and I decided that I would pick myself up a little something as a treat to me. The Chosen Item was a muffin pan. A six muffin, aluminized steel, crowned muffin pan, to be exact.

It is a thing of beauty.
That night, I christened it with a batch of Betty Crocker's Pumpkin Muffin's. I put cream cheese in half of the muffins, after hearing my friend talk about the deliciousness that it cream cheese filled muffins. The verdict?

The muffins are beautiful, but nothing special. I blame the recipe. It called for 'Pumpkin Pie Spice', which I reluctantly used. I felt that using nutmeg, cinnamon, cloves, and some ginger in their individual incarnations would be a wiser idea. I should have followed my intuition. I was told the muffins tasted of pepper.

Pepper? I like pepper just fine, I'm rather fond of it, but in muffins? That is incorrect.

Lesson Learned: Screw 'Pumpkin Pie Spice'.