Blueberry Muffin Cakes

Blueberry Muffin Cakes

I've been wanting to make blueberry muffins for awhile now. Yesterday, I finally went to the grocery store and bought blueberries! And even though it's really warm today I decided to turn on the oven and bake these.
These blueberry muffins are more cake-like than muffin-like. They didn't puff over like muffins usually do, but just rose slightly in the middle. Apparently, since they more cake than muffin they can sit for a day or so and still be moist. I found the recipe on One Perfect Bite . I've already eaten three muffins...I think that's a good judgement of how tasty they are.

Ingredients:
3 cups all-purpose flour
2 1/4 tsp baking powder
3/8 tsp salt (I used about 1/4 tsp)
3/4 cup butter, softened
1/2 cups sugar
3 large eggs
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp lemon zest
3/4 cups milk
2 cups fresh blueberries, or
frozen blueberries, thawed
powdered sugar, for dusting

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Spray muffin tin(s) with non-stick cooking spray (original recipe says 2 six-muffin tins. I used a 12-muffin tin and the recipe made almost 24 muffins. I think my muffin tin is smaller than normal, but not mini muffins.)
2. Whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt in a bowl. Set aside.
3. Combine butter, sugar, eggs, vanilla and lemon zest in a bowl of an electric mixer. Beat on medium speed until light and fluffy. About 5 minutes.
4. Turn speed to low. Alternately, beat in flour mixture (in fourths) and milk (in thirds) starting and ending with the flour mixture. Mix until just combined.
5. Using a spatula fold in blueberries until just combined.
6. Fill muffin cups about 2/3 full (I filled my first batch 2/3 full and the second batch almost to the top, which made bigger muffins, but didn't overflow).
7. Bake 25-30 minutes until golden brown and a cake tester comes out clean (mine were done in a little less than 25 minutes. Start checking a little early.)
8. Yield: Original recipe: 12 large muffins. I got 22 small muffins.

Tea Time!

Petit Fours from Lovejoy's Tea Room

Today, I went to Lovejoy's Tea Room in San Francisco with a group of 6 girls. Between all of us we ended up with a selection of 5 different teas, assorted sandwiches, scones, fruit and a crumpet (we were wondering what exactly a crumpet was). I thought the scones were one of the best things (especially when smothered with the double cream). All the teas were yummy, the blood orange herbal tea in particular.

The tea room itself was really cute. It was decorated with all sorts of teapots, teacups and antiques all over the walls and in display cases. None of the tea cups or teapots matched, but that definitely added to the charm. Overall, it was a lovely place to spend a Sunday afternoon with the girl friends.

More s'mores bars, please!

S'mores Bars (Photography: Ryan Mak)

This weekend my friend had a potluck/housewarming at his house. I always like to bring dessert so I chose s'mores bars. This was actually my second attempt at this recipe - the first one was a disaster. And it was my fault...I didn't follow the recipe and I used actual marshmallows instead of marshmallow fluff. They melted out too thin and created a toffee-like sugar bar thing instead of ooey, gooey s'mores.

This time I made sure to buy the marshmallow fluff (which, I realized is much more expensive than a bag of marshmallows) and it resulted in a delicious treat, very reminicent of your usual campfire s'mores. I got this recipe from Lovin' From the Oven and followed it to the letter (well, this time).

Ingredients:
1/2 cup butter, room temperature
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup sugar
1 large egg
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 1/3 cup all purpose flour
3/4 cup graham cracker crumbs
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
2 king-sized milk chocolate bars (e.g. Hershey's)
1 1/2 cups marshmallow creme/fluff (not melted marshmallows)

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350° F. Grease an 8-inch square baking pan.
2. In a large bowl, cream together butter and sugar until light. Beat in egg and vanilla. In a small bowl, whisk together flour, graham cracker crumbs, baking powder and salt. Add to butter mixture and mix at a low speed until combined.
3. Divide dough in half and press half of the dough into an even layer on the bottom of the prepared pan. Place chocolate bars over dough. 2 king-sized Hershey's bars should fit perfectly side by side, but break the chocolate (if necessary) to get it to fit in a single layer no more than 1/4 inch thick. Spread chocolate with marshmallow creme or fluff. Place remaining dough in a single layer on the top of the fluff (most easily achieved by flattening the dough into small shingles and laying them together.
4. Bake for 30 to 35 minutes, until lightly browned. Cool completely before cutting into bars. Yield: 16 bars.

I discovered that the bars were much easier to cut if after being refrigerated until solid. The recipe says it makes 16 bars, but I ended up cutting each bar in half because I found out that there would be a lot of guests attending the potluck. Overall, a very successful recipe - they came out with a distinct layers of graham cracker, marshmallow and chocolate and were delicious.

Introduction

I've decided to start a food blog. Inspired by Julie and Julia (although I have yet to see the movie), my friends' blogs (food and otherwise), TasteSpotting (LOVE this website), my new camera (Canon SD780IS) and my boss.

My goal for this blog is to post a recipe I tried at least once a week. Hopefully more. I'll also try to post/write about restaurants, food shows, and other interesting food related things.

My first "real" post will probably be this weekend - I'm making s'mores bars for a potluck!

<3 Annaliese