These muffins have been my obsession for the past week. They’re great with coffee for breakfast. Or with hot tea as an afternoon snack.
They're relatively healthy, too.
Pumpkin spice chocolate chip muffins Makes 10-12 muffins 3/4 cup all purpose flour 3/4 cup whole wheat flour 1 tsp. baking soda 1/4 tsp. baking powder 1/2 tsp. salt 1 tsp. ground cinnamon 1/2 tsp. ground cloves 1/2 tsp. ground nutmeg 1/2 tsp. ground allspice 1/2 tsp. mace 1 cup pumpkin puree (about 1/2 can) 1/3 cup canola oil 1/3 cup applesauce 1/2 cup white sugar 1/2 cup brown sugar 1 whole egg and 1 egg yolk 1 tsp. vanilla 1/2 bag (about 1 cup) semi-sweet chocolate chips, divided
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease muffin tin.
In large bowl, sift together flours, baking soda, baking powder, salt and spices.
In separate bowl, beat together pumpkin, oil, applesauce, sugars, egg, egg yolk and vanilla. Pour wet ingredients into dry ingredients and mix until just combined. Fold in 3/4 cup of chocolate chips. Reserve 1/4 cup for tops of muffins.
Using a 1/4 cup measure, scoop batter into muffin cups. Place 4-5 chocolate chips on top of batter. Bake 22 minutes, until muffins are still moist on top but cooked through inside.
The apples were multiplying in the fridge. Despite taking one for lunch nearly every day, I just couldn’t use them up.
So how do two people use up 10 apples in one day? The answer was in The SoNo Baking Company Cookbook, a frequent source of inspiration. I made an Apple Pizette. The recipe calls for ‘good quality’ applesauce. What better quality can one get than homemade? So, on Sunday morning, I set to work on Ina Garten’s Homemade Applesauce, halving the recipe and using six various types of red apples.
The 'applesauce,' before baking.Cook's sample. It definitely passed the test!
Later that day, I rolled out the puff pastry, spread it with the applesauce, and topped it with 4 sliced green apples.
Here’s where I found out why bakery treats are so yummy: They seriously overdo it on the good stuff. Let’s just say even *I* had a hard time drenching the pastry in more than 2 tablespoons of butter, 2 tablespoons of powdered sugar and a half-cup of strained apricot jam. But when I bit into the pizette I knew — more really is, well, more!
The finished pizette -- I mean, product.
I knew the husband liked it before he even went back for seconds; it was when he said “It tastes like a really good Toaster Strudel …” Good, then it’s a perfectly suitable breakfast, right?
Apple Pizette
Adapted from The Sono Baking Company Cookbook
1/2 pound frozen puff pastry, thawed
1/2 cup good-quality applesauce
4 green apples, cored and sliced (my green apples were locally grown and smallish. If you buy Granny Smith in the store, you could use about 2)
2.5 tablespoons butter, melted
2 tablespoons confectioners’ sugar
1/2 cup apricot jam
On floured surface, gently unfold and run rolling pin over puff pastry, to get rid of creases. Transfer to a baking sheet and prick all over with a fork. Chill for 30 minutes.
Set the oven rack in the middle position. Preheat the oven to 425. While dough is chilling, slice apples and melt butter.
Pour the applesauce onto the center of the dough and spread over the dough, leaving a 1/2-inch border all around. Arrange the apple slices in overlapping rows across the dough. Brush (or drizzle) with melted butter, then dust heavily with confectioners’ sugar.
Bake 25-30 minutes, rotating sheet after about 15 minutes. While the pastry is baking, heat the apricot jam. Strain through a fine strainer.
Remove pizette from oven, and while it is still warm, brush apricot liquid over the top. Using a pizza wheel, cut into squares and serve warm.
It holds a special place in my heart because it was the first from-scratch cake I ever made on my own. It was also, in my fashion, heavily modified from the original yellow cake recipe I started with.
I couldn’t remember what I did with that recipe from five years ago, so this time I went with Ina Garten’s.
The texture is like a pound cake.
Plenty of people who reviewed this recipe raved about its moistness; for me, it was still a bit dry. The only moist part was the top, where the lemon syrup went. I even stabbed the cake many times with a fork, hoping the syrup would seep in.
I skipped the lemon glaze, because, well, I was tired of dealing with lemons on a work night at 10 p.m. Instead, I served it with slightly sweetened whipped cream.
The recipe makes two cakes, and I froze one for later. I think once I bust out the second one, I’ll try the lemon glaze, just to see if it boosts the lemon flavor even more.
And what if I told you it only took 5 basic ingredients? Yep — grapes, sugar, butter, eggs and flour. Muscadine jam is super easy to make, just a little messy. I enjoyed its tangy sweetness several times on toast for breakfast before deciding to use up the rest for a work bake sale.
Muscadine jam
1 pint muscadine or scuppernong grapes
1/2 to 3/4 cup sugar
Mason jar w/lid
Wash grapes. Pop pulp from skins into separate saucepans. Chop skins and return to saucepan; cover with about 1/2 cup water. Simmer skins and pulp in separate saucepans, 15-20 minutes, stirring occasionally, until skins are soft and pulp has broken down. Push pulp through sieve or ricer to remove seeds. (This part was a pain. If it’s easier, try removing the seeds while you’re popping pulp out of the skins.)
Combine skins and pulp into one saucepan. Taste and add sugar accordingly. Bring mixture to boil over medium-low heat and simmer 20 minutes, stirring often to prevent sticking, until gelling occurs. Pour jam into sterilized jar, top with lid, and place in boiling water bath for 25 minutes. Remove jar and let cool. Refrigerate after opening.
1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour, plus extra for dusting
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup muscadine jam
1 tablespoon powdered sugar (optional, for dusting)
Preheat oven to 375. Cream together butter and sugar. Add in egg yolks one at a time, then add vanilla.
In separate bowl, whisk together flour and salt. With mixer on low speed, add flour to butter mixture in three increments, letting flour incorporate after each addition. Scrape down sides of bowl when needed.
Refrigerate dough for 15 minutes. Then, take two teaspoons of dough and roll into ball. This recipe makes about 32 balls. Set dough balls about 2 inches apart on cookie sheets. Dust back of teaspoon in flour and press down on dough balls, flattening while making a sizable indentation.
Spoon jam into pastry bag or zip-top bag with corner snipped. Pipe jam into indentations. Bake cookies 8-10 minutes. Let cool on cookie sheet 5 minutes before removing to cooling rack. Dust with powdered sugar.
* * *
Lucky for me, there’s a mess of muscadines growing wild in my backyard. I might have to make these recipes again.
I’m on a mission to perfect the pie crust.
It’s one of those things I feel I must conquer. If I want to consider myself a baker.
Pie dough has always been a major pain in my side.
Cherry pie with a crust that was darn near impossible.
I’ve tried using all shortening, all butter, butter-flavored shortening, and various combinations of the two. (Haven’t tried lard yet. The huge tub o’ lard at Food Lion scares me.)
I’ve tried chilling the fat, and I’ve tried using room-temperature fat.
I’ve tried cutting in the fat with the food processor, with a fork and with my fingertips.
I’ve tried using an egg in the dough.
I’ve tried immediately rolling out the dough, refrigerating the dough and freezing the dough.
Right around the rolling-out-and-transferring-to-pie-plate stage, it starts to break down. It rips. It sticks. It won’t hold together.
Well, a couple weeks ago I bought John T. Edge’s “Apple Pie” at Books-a-Million’s $1 sale. $1 well spent! One of its recipes contains two methods that gave me a huge dose of pie crust self confidence:
1. Using a spray bottle to spritz in ice water.
2. Banging — not rolling — out the dough.
Apple pie using Karen Barker's crust recipe.
These tips were right-on, because it’s the best crust I’ve ever made. Could I improve? Sure. Next time, perhaps, the lard.
Here’s the recipe, in case you’re interested:
Karen Barker’s Pin-Rattling Piecrust
2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 teaspoon kosher salt
3/4 tablespoon sugar
4 ounces butter, chilled and cut into pieces
4 ounces vegetable shortening, chilled and cut into pieces
1/4 to 1/2 cup ice water, chilled in a squeeze bottle or spray bottle
Pulse flour, salt and sugar in a food processor until blended. Add butter and shortening and pulse 12 to 14 times or until the mixture looks like clumpy sand. Transfer mixture to a large bowl and gradually spray in enough cold water to form a cohesive and evenly moistened dough that is still not sticky. Work quickly, tossing and stirring with a fork until dough begins to come together. Divide dough in two. Shape each half into a flattened round. Wrap in plastic and chill in the refrigerator for several hours or overnight. To prepare dough for the pie plate, lay down a sheet of wax paper. With a rolling pin, bang out the rounds into crusts, making initial impact at the centermost point before stroking it quickly outward. Life the pin each time before whacking it again. Ten or twelve spankings should do it.
One more thing I really liked about Edge’s book. This little story about Karen Barker, the owner of Magnolia Grill in Durham:
A gentleman lawyer and avid eater who lives near the Barkers … says, “You know, she’s not really a pastry chef. She’s more of a baker.” When I profess to be unaware of the distinction, he tells me that a pastry chef is more of a high-wire act. A pastry chef takes chances. What Karen does is not dramatic or inventive enough to be called pastry work.
… I call Karen and tattle on him. … But Karen just sighs. “If a pastry chef wants to build a spun-sugar cage around a slice of apple pie, that’s fine by me,” she says. “Besides, baker sounds forthright and honest. I like that.”
That’s exactly what happened to the bottom of my oven — a blueberry explosion. I failed to set this pie on a baking sheet, and two days later the stench of burnt, boiled-over blueberry filling still singes my nostrils when the oven’s on. Looks like a fun day of oven cleaning (in 95-degree heat) is in my future.
It’s totally worth it, however, because the pie is delicious. In fact, this whole experience is a little bit of yin and yang.
The crust (adapted from a recipe here) was quite difficult to roll out and transfer, but the end result is sweet, flaky and not soggy.
The filling (recipe here) took about one minute to throw together and is perfect just the way it is.
Pie dough
(Makes 4 crusts)
4 cups all purpose flour
1 cup shortening
3/4 cup cold butter, diced
4 tbsp. sugar
1 tsp. cinnamon
2 tsp. salt
1 egg
1/2 cup water
For blind baking:
Aluminum foil
Butter
Dry beans or rice
For egg wash:
1 egg, beaten with splash of water
Add first six ingredients to food processor. Pulse until coarse crumbs form. Beat egg and water in separate bowl. With food processor on, drizzle in wet mixture. Dough will become extremely thick and sticky. (Mine didn’t form a ball.)
Dump dough onto large sheet of plastic wrap. Wrap and form into disk. Refrigerate 30 minutes.
While dough chills, preheat oven to 350.
Remove dough and cut into quarters. Lightly form quarters into disks. Freeze two disks for later use. Roll out first disk slightly larger than pie plate (a healthy amount of bench flour needed here). Transfer to pie plate (good luck).
Grease one side of aluminum foil with butter. Place greased side down onto dough in pie plate and fill with beans or rice. Bake 5 minutes. Then, lift foil and beans from plate and use a fork to poke holes in the bottom of the dough. Bake another 5 minutes.
While crust bakes, roll out second disk to same size. Use a ruler to cut dough into six or seven equally sized strips.
Remove pie plate from oven and turn heat up to 425. While blind-baked crust cools a bit, make the pie filling (recipe here.)
Pour blueberry filling into pie plate. Gently weave dough strips to form lattice crust atop filling. Brush lattice copiously with egg wash.
PLACE PIE PLATE ON BAKING SHEET, then bake 50 minutes. I covered my whole pie with aluminum foil after 20 minutes, as the crusts were sufficiently brown.
Remove pie from oven and cool at least 2 hours. (Bonus: Refrigerate overnight — it’s even better the next day!)
*Optional: Whip 1/2 cup heavy cream with 1 tsp. sugar. Serve atop pie.
But now that I’m officially part of the family, I got THE recipe. The one he grew up eating on birthdays.
He says I’m not allowed to share it here (and considering we’ve only been married 7 months, I don’t want to be excommunicated from the family quite yet).
I’ll give you a hint what makes it different: No cream cheese icing. WHAT?! Sacrilege, you say? So did I. But it’s not bad. Let’s just say the butter content makes Paula Deen look like Jillian Michaels.
The icing layers are thicker than the cake layers. Bee-yoo-ti-ful!
All in all, I’d say it was a success. Happy birthday, hubby!
Nicole M. Markle 