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?