Deb over at Smitten Kitchen was making knishes this week, and said some vey nice things indeed about yours truly! Thanks Deb, those knishes look fantastic. I’ll be trying some of those improvisations — probably this weekend!
READ ONReader Stuart writes to say that whoopee pie baker Beryl met and exceeded her $8,500 fundraising goal and was able to buy her used oven. Many thanks to all the generous souls who donated. Ya done good, JP readers!
READ ONI’m off to Florida for five days for a little seafood and relaxation. It’ll be the first time the girls have been on a plane or seen the ocean. Little 5-year-old Joan is excited to go, but says she’s worried about being “tasted” by a shark. We’ll see if I can get her in the […]
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These have a deep, dark chocolate flavor, but aren’t so decadent that you can’t rationalize eating one for breakfast (if you’re me, anyway). Begin by preheating your oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit and buttering (or spraying) a muffin mold.
READ ONIn general I like to stick with the classics, but I had a special plea for a chocolate muffin recipe, so I decided to put one up. These were inspired by Dorie Greenspan’s Chocolate-Chocolate Chunk Muffins from her excellent book, Baking: From My Home to Yours. The only difference is that I increased the sugar, since I felt they needed a little more sweetness (no offense, Dorie!). For a more austere muffin, something you would eat with a sweetened cup of coffee, subtract 1/3 cup of sugar.
3 ounces (6 tablespoons) butter
4 ounces bittersweet chocolate, chopped
10 ounces (2 cups) all-purpose flour
7 ounces (1 cup) sugar
1 ounce (1/3 cup) cocoa powder
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
10.5 ounces (1 1/4 cups) buttermilk
1 egg, room temperature
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
A few readers have registered complaints about my tender muffin rhetoric. They claim that if muffins are tender they’re indistinguishable from cupcakes. That of course begs the question: what’s the difference between a muffin and a cupcake? Though you might not think it, muffins and cupcakes are quite different under the hood.
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There’s a big misconception out there that muffins are supposed to have highly domed, even conical, tops. Nonsense. A peaked top is a sure sign that a muffin has been over-mixed, and that means it’ll be chewy, even gummy to the tooth. That’s not a good muffin in my book. I prefer them melt-in-your-mouth tender. Just out of the oven, when they have a touch of crispness on them, they’re a sort of an American version of paradise.
READ ONThat’s probably the biggest question most people have about muffins: should I be going for the cone on the top or not? Experts disagree on the subject but my firm feeling on the cone is that it’s a no-no. But why?
Cone-shaped muffin tops are like domes on cake layers: they’re a sign that the batter has been over-mixed, and a sure-fire sign that you’re in for a chewy, gummy muffin eating experience.
READ ONReally, nobody has seen a muffin man — a real one — since well before World War II. Once, and we’re going back some 150 years now to Victorian England, so-called “muffin men” were common in British cities. They sold a sort of dense wheat cake that went by the name of a “tea muffin.” Those cakes were a far cry from what we in America now know as “English muffins”, and today they are entirely extinct as a food.
The hatted, bell-ringing merchants that once roamed the streets of London with flannel-draped baskets of hot muffins now only exist in children’s rhymes. As early as 1899 traditional tea muffins were on their way out in Britain and the mantle of muffin cookery was being passed to the States. Or so said Victorian-era cookbook writer Theodore Francis Garrett:
READ ONWho knew you could make every course of a gourmet meal in a muffin tin? I’d never even considered the question, at least until the publishers of this book got in touch out of the clear blue sky today. Looks like good fun, actually.
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