Blueberry Muffins

And that is how I came to have a lovely jar of blueberry jam sitting around my refrigerator.  For months.  I wasn’t going to toss anything that healthy.

When I decided to do my Kitchen Cupboard Spring Cleaning Project, I thought, “what could I do with some unloved-but-really-nutritious blueberry jam?”

I did my usual internet blog search and located this creative and tasty recipe that I adapted from the Damn Delicious site.  This original recipe calls for making your own jam by cooking down blueberries and sugar, but I figured I’d just warm up my jam to soften it and use that instead.  With 2 cups of blueberries in a dozen muffins you get some serious fruit in these!

The jam goes on the tops of the muffin along with sprinkles of lemon sugar resulting in a muffin that is especially attractive and a great candidate for a festive event.  Hmmm, Mother’s Day is coming up!

Blueberry Lemon Sugar Muffins

 Blueberry Lemon Sugar Muffins

Yields 12 muffins

INGREDIENTS

• 2 cups blueberries, divided or 1 cup blueberries & 6-8 oz jam
• 1/2 cup sugar (and 1 T additional sugar if not using prepared jam)
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 cup whole wheat flour
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 2/3 cup milk
• 1 T lemon
• 1/4 cup (1/2 stick) butter, melted
• 2 eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

For the lemon sugar topping:

• 1/4 cup sugar
• Zest of 1 lemon

DIRECTIONS

1.  Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Line a 12-cup standard muffin tin with paper liners or coat with nonstick spray; set aside.

2.  If not using prepared jam, make homemade jam as follows:  In a medium saucepan, combine 1 cup blueberries and 1 tablespoon sugar. Bring to a boil; reduce heat to low and simmer, stirring occasionally, until sauce has thickened, about 5 minutes. Let cool 10-15 minutes.

If using prepared jam, warm jam until softened.

Warm Blueberry Jam

3.  To make the lemon sugar topping, combine the sugar and lemon zest, rubbing the zest into the sugar with your fingertips; set aside.

Make Lemon Sugar

4.  In a large bowl, combine the flour, 1/2 cup sugar, cinnamon, baking powder and salt.  In another bowl, whisk together the milk, lemon juice, butter, eggs and vanilla.  Combine wet and dry ingredients, stirring just until moist.  Add 1 cup blueberries and gently toss to combine.

Combine Wet and Dry Ingredients

5.  Spoon the batter evenly into the muffin cups. Top each muffin with a spoonful of blueberry jam, swirling into the batter but letting it peel through. Sprinkle with lemon  sugar mixture.

6.  Place into oven and bake for about 20-25 minutes, or until a tester inserted in the center comes out clean.

7.  Cool then serve.

Muffin Close Up

Sugared Nuts in a Dish

It started when I added them to my shopping list.  Never mind that I have a 5 lb box of walnuts in the freezer.  Which was getting old.  Or that I’m in the middle of a Kitchen Cupboard (Spring) Cleaning project.

Hold it, wait, I could make my own Sugared Nuts!

Raw Pecans

You see, I’ve collected, torn out, bookmarked and otherwise squirreled away glazed nut recipes for many years.  I had even tasted one of the recipes.  A former Administrative Assistant included some in a Christmas food gift (did she know me!) and my family enjoyed them so much I asked her for the recipe.

When I found the recipe, it was clear that this would indeed be manageable–I even had all the ingredients (except nutmeg– who needs nutmeg)!  Best of all the process required virtually no attention.  You mix up the glaze, toss in the nuts, then bake for an hour, stirring every 15 minutes–which means I could set a timer and do this completely without thinking!  I was making muffins at the same time and the activities worked together perfectly.

Luv’ those nuts!

The nuts came out great, with a sweet, roasted-nutty flavor, but there was one problem.   When I looked at the recipe I though it looked like a lot of nuts so I halved it.  When the nuts cooled, however, I couldn’t stop munching.  Then my daughter came home and she couldn’t stop munching.

Just in time, I rescued enough for the salad.  Whew!  Salad (and Kitchen Cupboard Cleaning mission) saved!

Sugared Nuts Up Close

Sugared Nuts

Ingredients

• ½ c sugar
• ½ t salt
• ¼ t nutmeg (I omitted this)
• ¼ t cinnamon
• 1/8 t cloves
• 1 lg egg white
• 1 c each (total 3) unsalted walnuts, pecans, cashews

Directions

1.  Beat egg white until frothy.

Beat egg

2.  Add nuts and spices and stir to coat well.

Coat nuts

3.  Spread out on greased 11 x 17 inch baking sheet.  Bake in 250 degree oven for 1 hour stirring every 15 minutes (or it turns out like peanut brittle).

Sugared Nuts on Baking Sheet

4.  Cool completely.  Store in airtight container.  Makes 3 cups.

Marshmallow has been a thorn in my side for years.  We try to eat as organic as possible and marshmallows contain gelatin and heaven knows what else.  I am pretty sure that marshmallow gelatin doesn’t come from organic, grass-fed animals.  So every year at Easter and then again when it is s’mores season, I wince.

Not anymore!

I ordered organic gelatin from a company in Canada a couple of months ago (not thinking it would be a mere two days before Easter when I finally got around to this).  Then I used regular store-bought sugar because, as much as I love organic sugar, it doesn’t always perform well in candy.

Organic Gelatin

The recipe came from Martha Stewart and has a grand total of three ingredients–water, gelatin and sugar. And believe me, if I can do it, anyone can!

Homemade peeps, drying

Homemade Marshmallow Peeps

Special Equipment

• Candy thermometer or instant read meat thermometer that can handle high temperatures
• Piping bag, medium oval tip optional (Alternatively, you can pour marshmallow into a 8 x 8 pan, let firm and cut out with cookie cutters)

Ingredients

• 1 cup sugar
• 1/4 cup water
• 1 pkg (2 1/2 tsp) gelatin
• 1/3 cup water
• Decorations of your choice

Directions

1.  Mix sugar and 1/4 cup of water in a small saucepan on medium heat.  Stir until dissolved then stop stirring.  Heat until 238 degrees (soft ball stage).

Cook sugar to soft ball stage

2.  While sugar is cooking, sprinkle gelatin over 1/3 cup water in mixing bowl.  Let stand to soften.

Soften gelatin

3.  Sprinkle sugar on parchment paper to prepare for forming peeps.

4.  When sugar has reached 238, pour it into the softened gelatin.  Beat on high until mixture soft peaks form and are able to hold shape (about nine minutes).

Beat sugar and gelatin mixture

5.  Spoon into piping bag.  Martha recommended using a medium oval tip, but I didn’t have that one so just left the tip off, piping through the plastic tip holder, which worked fine.

6. Pipe marshmallow onto sugar topped parchment  in reverse “s” shape (that is start at the bottom of the “s”) to form a chick.  Sprinkle immediately with colored sugar

Piping out a homemade peep

7.  Mix a little cocoa powder with a couple drops of water and dot eyes using  a toothpick. (thanks to the Kitchn for the tip.)

Dot peep eyes with cocoa powder on toothpick

I’ll admit It took me three tries to get it just right but they were quick tries (and frankly I didn’t really expect to succeed ever).  The first time, I learned that my candy thermometer was not working because by the time it hit 238, the sugar was burnt.  Luckily I discovered that my instant read meat thermometer goes up to candy temperatures and it worked perfectly for my second try.

The second try worked fairly well but I didn’t beat the sugar and gelatin mixture long enough.  The peeps were still reasonably cute, but I wanted to give it one more try.

First try at piping peeps

On the third try, I beat the sugar for a full nine minutes and checked that the peaks in the mixing bowl were able to hold not melt back quickly.  Success!

Additional Tip:  You can make your own colored sugar by adding a drop of food coloring (next year I’ll try a natural color) to granulated sugar.  Just stir until the color incorporates, which takes a little while.  This is cheaper than the pre-colored and finer in texture which is better for the peeps.  I won’t be paying $4 for a little container of fancy sprinkles after this!

Making homemade decorating sugar

This was seriously fun and when summer rolls around you can bet I’ll be making my own campfire marshmallows too!

Trouble is, this gave me a terrible craving tor chocolate biscotti.

Chocolate Mint Biscotti

Finally I made some chocolate espresso biscotti but they weren’t quite what I hoped for.  And so the craving continued…

Today I decided to remedy that with Chocolate Mint Biscotti–this time for a Children’s Choir bake sale.  They were looking for holiday themed treats so I added some mint and a some green sprinkles and tied up my treat bags with a green ribbon.  Perfect for St Patrick’s Day!

Chocolate Mint Biscotti on Rack

Biscotti take a bit of elapsed time but are an easy and relatively healthy treat, though I did have a little trouble with the white chocolate drizzle.  Okay, a lot of trouble, to the point where I gave up and went out for Wilton Candy melts at 8 PM.  White chocolate is notorious for seizing–that is, turning grainy and clumpy– if it isn’t handled properly.  A typical culprit is water, so adding alcohol based peppermint extract would be a no-no–but I had used an oil based flavoring.  This was the second time I struggled decorating with white chocolate so I threw in the towel and used the candy melts–sooo much easier and worked like a charm!  Any white chocolate experts out there feel free to advise!  Otherwise I’m a candy melt convert!

The family got to eat the biscotti ends which were gone before morning.   Not that I expected anything else…

Chocolate Mint Biscotti with Coffee

Whole Wheat Chocolate Mint Biscotti

.
Ingredients

• 3/4 cup sugar
• 2 T butter
• 1/4 c water
• 1/2 tsp peppermint flavor oil + 1/2 tsp for the drizzle
• 1/2 tsp vanilla
• 2 eggs, beaten
• 2 cup whole wheat flour
• 3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 3/4 c chocolate chips
• 6 oz white candy melts (1/2 pkg)
• Holiday colored decorations

Directions

1.  Melt butter and mix with sugar, peppermint oil, vanilla and water.  Add beaten eggs and combine well.

2.  Mix flour, oatmeal, cocoa and baking soda together.  Add to liquid ingredients and combine well.  Mixture will be dry (you can add a little extra water if needed).

3.  Mix in chocolate chips, then form into two logs on greased baking sheet.

Biscotti Logs on Baking Sheet

4.  Bake at 350 for about 25 minutes until logs feel firm but not hard.  Remove from oven and cool.

5.  Slice on the diagonal and lay the slices flat on a cookie sheet.  Bake for another 10-15 minutes to crisp up then cool.

Slice Bisccotti Logs on Diagonal

6.  Melt 6 oz white chocolate or candy melts in double boiler and mix with 1/2 tsp peppermint flavor oil.  Drizzle over biscotti and sprinkle with decorative sugars or candies.

Chocolate Mint Biscotti