Basic Applesauce (Unsweetened)

Recently, our friends went apple picking and asked me if I would be willing to turn some of their apples into pie. I, of course, was willing, and used several of the apples they gave me to make my standard apple pie recipe. But I also ended up with several apples leftover and decided to go ahead and turn them into some unsweetened applesauce for their toddler, my godson.

This is the first time I’ve made applesauce, and I have three thoughts. First, I really had no idea it would be so damn easy. Second, I had no idea it would be so much better than the bland stuff you buy in a jar. And third, I have no idea why you would want to add sugar to it in the first place.

See, I tend to err on the side of decadence, and if I hadn’t been planning for this to be eaten by my godson, knowing his parents wouldn’t want him scarfing down something laced with sugar, I would have just defaulted to a run of the mill, sweetened recipe. As it turns out, if you start out with some good fruit, let it simmer for about an hour, and spice it up just right, it will taste perfectly tart and sweet on its on. And it also won’t taste watery and weak like every commercial variety I’ve ever tried.

So while it’s true that this applesauce is unsweetened, I struggle with calling it “unsweetened applesauce” because that makes it sound like it’s a bland punishment or like it’s second best to a sweetened variety. It’s neither of those things. It’s just a really good, really simple applesauce. My godson scarfed down two bowls the night I brought this over (while refusing the bite of pie he was offered!), so I think he agrees.

The flavor depends in large part on the apples that you are using, so you definitely want to use ripe, in-season apples. I also think a sweet-tart apple will give you a nice balance of flavor in the resulting apple sauce. The apples I used were primarily MacIntosh and Gala apples, but I remember seeing an episode of America’s Test Kitchen where they argued that Pink Lady apples yielded the best applesauce. Since I’m giving this batch of applesauce to my friends, I think I’m going to have to go get some Pink Lady apples and make another batch for myself.

Basic Applesauce

Notes: First, I didn’t peel my apples and pureed the skins with the rest of the sauce. This resulted in a slightly chunkier sauce, but neither my godson nor myself had any textural aversions to the skin.  For a smoother product, just peel the apples before you core and quarter them. Second, the ingredients I’ve listed below just indicate the way that I spiced this batch. I erred on the side of more lightly spiced since this was going to be eaten by a toddler. As is, I think the recipe amount of cinnamon and cloves provide enough flavor without overpowering the fruit, but you could easily create a more heavily spiced version by adding whole cloves or even by adding a bit of allspice or ginger.

• 10-12 small or medium apples (more if your apples are on the smaller side, less if they’re bigger)
• 2 cinnamon sticks
• Pinch of ground cloves

1. Peel your apples, if desired (see the note above). Core the apples and cut them into quarters. Or, if you don’t have a corer, cut the apples into quarters and then cut the cores out. Whatever.
2. Add 2-3 cups of water to the pot. The water should reach the half point of where the apples are in the pot. In other words, if your apples are about 4″ deep in the pot, you want to fill the pot with about 2 inches of water. You can always add more water if you need it, but you don’t want your applesauce to be too watery.
3. Bring the water to a boil, and boil the apples on high for 10 minutes. After ten minutes, the apples should begin breaking down.
4. Turn the heat down to low and add the cinnamon sticks and ground cloves. Give the apples a little stir to incorporate the spices, and then let the apples simmer, uncovered, for 30-40 minutes, stirring the mix occasionally. At this point, there will still be some chunks of apple, but the mixture should be starting to look a lot like applesauce.
5. Take the pot off the heat, remove the cinnamon sticks, and put the applesauce into a food processor or blender. Puree the mix until smooth. Or, if you like a chunkier applesauce, just give the apples a couple of quick pulses.

This recipe makes about 4 cups of applesauce. It will keep in the refrigerator for at least a week in an airtight container, but can also be frozen for several months.

Really Good Chocolate Cupcakes

I am pretty much a baking traditionalist. I like classic flavor combinations, and I like classic desserts. And what’s more, I was raised in the Midwest and so my definition of what constitutes “classic” is largely determined by my Midwestern sensibilities. I’m wary of baking fads (I’m giving you the side-eye, cake pops), and I don’t like dessert hybrids. I love cheesecake, and I love a good red velvet cake, but red velvet cheesecake seems like the kind of thing that would make me wish I was eating my standard cheesecake recipe. I don’t like overly complicated recipes that call for ingredients I wouldn’t normally keep on hand. And I just can’t get behind recipes that involve baking mixes. I mean, if you’re already going beyond simply adding oil and eggs to the mix, then why not just make the whole thing from scratch?

I am guided by two primary goals as a baker: 1) to build up a library of recipes for really great, classic baked goods like chocolate chip cookies and bagels; and 2) to continually focus on improving my technique so that I can do things like make a really good loaf of whole wheat sandwich bread (my current project) or consistently whip up a really good all-butter pie crust. These goals mean that I am content to make the same things over and over and over again without feeling compelled to try something new or raise the bar. That’s kind of boring. These goals also make me a mite snobbish (see comment above about baking mixes). So it goes. The point is that when I acknowledge and stay true to these goals rather than worrying that I should try making marshmallows like all the other cool kids, I enjoy my time in the kitchen more and am generally more pleased with the results of my work.

Of course, all this is a long-winded way of saying: Baker, know thyself. Think about what you like to make and why, and let that guide your baking projects. And also, maybe try weaning yourself off of baking mixes if you haven’t already. Or at least don’t do that weird thing where people mix them with things like black beans or Diet Coke. Because, ew. There’s just no reason for that.

 

This chocolate (cup)cake recipe is one of my go-to recipes, and it gets rave reviews from everyone who tries it. When I eat these cupcakes, I think of the scene in Matilda where the evil headmistress punishes a kid by making him eat a gigantic, insanely rich chocolate cake. I am almost certain this was the recipe used to make that cake. These cupcakes have a wonderfully tender, sticky crumb and the chocolate ganache frosting spread on top makes them out of this world. My theory is that what makes this cake really excellent is the coffee incorporated into the batter. Much like the chocolate stout cake I’ve made before, I think the presence of a bitter agent in the batter helps bring out some of the deeper notes in the chocolate flavor, which balances the sweetness of the cake nicely.

I decorated these particular cupcakes to look vaguely record-ish because they were for a birthday party where our friend was showing off his new turntable and tube amp, letting people share their favorite records all night. Since the chocolate ganache frosting is naturally a dark brown, it was relatively easy to turn it black with some black food dye. Using my signature low-tech decorating techniques, I spread the frosting on, ran the tines of a fork around the cupcake to create the record grooves and then slapped one of those candy melt wafers flat-side up for a record label. I piped a dab of the ganache in the middle of the candy melt and Bam!: vaguely record-ish cupcakes.

Double Chocolate Cupcakes (Adapted from Gourmet, March 1999)

Notes: My major adaptation to this recipe is, obviously, to use it to make cupcakes. If you want to make a layer cake, double the frosting recipe and refer to the original recipe (linked above) for baking times. I’ve tried filling these cupcakes in the past, but wouldn’t recommend it since the cake isn’t firm enough to stand up well to the filling process. I would also highly recommend making these a day in advance since the texture and flavor of chocolate cake significantly improves with an overnight rest.

For the cake:

• 3 oz semi-sweet chocolate (I used Ghirardelli)
• 1 1/2 cups hot brewed coffee
• 3 cups sugar
• 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 1/2 cups unsweetened cocoa powder (not Dutch process)
• 2 tsp baking soda
• 3/4 tsp baking powder
• 1 1/4 tsp salt
• 3 large eggs
• 3/4 c vegetable oil
• 1 1/2 c buttermilk
• 3/4 tsp vanilla

For Ganache Frosting (simply spread onto the top of the cupcakes, this will make enough to frost the entire batch. However, if you’re the kind of person who likes to pipe on a generous little mound of frosting, you’ll want to double the recipe)

• 8 oz semi-sweet chocolate (I’d recommend using something a little on the nicer side)
• 1/2 c heavy cream
• 1 tbsp sugar
• 1 tbsp light corn syrup
• 2 tbsp unsalted butter

Make the cupcakes:

1. Preheat the oven to 300 degrees and line a muffin tin with baking cups.
2. Finely chop the chocolate and then combine in a bowl with the coffee. Let the mixture stand, stirring occasionally, until the chocolate is melted and the mixture is smooth.
3. In a large bowl, whisk together the sugar, flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder, and salt.
4. In another large bowl, beat the eggs until they are slightly thickened and lemon-colored (about 3 minutes with a standing mixer, and a bit longer with a hand-held mixer). Slowly add the oil, buttermilk, vanilla and melted chocolate/coffee mixture to the eggs, beating until combined after every addition.
5. Add the sugar mixture and beat on medium until just combined.
6. Fill the baking cups 2/3 full with batter and bake for 20 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center of a cupcake comes out clean. Allow the cupcakes to cool completely on a wire rack before frosting.

Make the frosting:

1. Finely chop the chocolate.
2. In a small saucepan, bring the cream, sugar, and corn syrup to a boil over medium-low heat, whisking until the sugar is completely dissolved.
3. Remove the pan from the heat and add the chocolate, whisking the mixture until the chocolate is completely melted.
4. Cut the butter into pieces and add to the frosting, whisking until smooth.
5. Transfer the frosting to a bowl and allow it to cool, stirring occasionally, until spreadable. You can speed the process up by putting the bowl in the refrigerator for about 20 minutes, although you’ll want to check on it every once in awhile, stirring to make sure its cooling evenly and making sure that it doesn’t become too firm.

Remember How I Have a Blog?

Because I had forgotten. Not really–but blogging obviously wasn’t on my list of priorities. My interests wax and wane, and I just haven’t been that interested in baking for awhile. It’s hard to maintain a baking blog when, over the past year, I’ve only baked a handful of times and, more often than not, made the same three recipes over and over. They were all delicious (from what I can remember) but how many odes to brownies can a woman write? (I mean, a person could feasibly write several odes to brownies, but I can’t imagine it makes for interesting reading.)

So what have I been doing over the past year? For one, I made this Brobee birthday cake for my godson.

I’ve been blogging on and off since I was 17 (before I really knew that what I was doing was even called blogging). And since then, I’ve probably started 10 different blogs, some of which have never gotten farther than a first post, but none of which have lasted very long. This ongoing cycle of starting and leaving blogs has me thinking about why I care about blogging in the first place. Luckily, it’s not because I want to make money or create a brand for myself. (Ew. I shudder at the thought.) Because if those were my goals, I’d obviously be a miserable failure.

I also made this ridiculously adorable monster for my sister’s birthday. The pattern is Rebecca Danger’s Sammie the Sock Monster.

Instead, my interest in blogging really boils down to writing. As a grad student, I’m writing all the time. But my academic writing, while rewarding in its own right, tends to be very formal, is rarely read by or shared with an audience of any size, and is often hard. There are only so many times you can wrestle with the wording of a single sentence or agonize over the use of a particular term before you start to forget that writing can be pleasurable. That’s why I care about blogging, and why I continually come back to wanting to blog even if I let a blog wither and die: because I want a space where the writing comes easier and offers a quicker reward. I like the writing that I do as part of my research, but I also feel compelled towards outlets that help balance some of tediousness of that work. (Plus, I spend a lot of time making things, and I like to show them off.)

I also spent a lot of time kissing this sweet face.

So I’m blogging again, but with a better sense of purpose. I’m not trying to maintain a niche blog about baking–I’m maintaining a space where I can write about my life and my projects. And hopefully that means I won’t wait around until I bake something to write here.

(Oh, and I passed my exams with distinction. This song most accurately reflects how that felt.)

Chocolate Stout Cake

Somehow, I’ve already finished two weeks of the new semester and even collected the first assignment from my students. I have a calendar full of meetings and reminders and plenty to keep me busy. Being on an academic calendar is weird because it means adjusting your schedule every few months, but I think I’ve finally made it through this adjustment period. The biggest change this semester is that I’m no longer taking classes. After 20+ years of class after class after class, I’m done (unless I have a temporary lapse in sanity and decide to take another).

Not being in class anymore is incredible. Incredible. I’ve suddenly gained a lot more control over my schedule and routine and I’m not generating to-do lists from cross-listing several syllabi. My work is more focused since I’ve now just got a couple of big projects on the horizon. I’m getting 7 or 8 hours of sleep every night. I’m not too tired to make dinner. My stress-related jaw pain has disappeared. I get to look forward to Thanksgiving and Christmas time because I’m not haunted by the terror of finals week. I feel more even and balanced. I feel like a real person.

The most exciting part is that I get the chance to break a lot of the bad work habits that I developed while taking classes. Like pulling all nighters. Or writing papers in one exhausting slog 2-3 day slog. Or expecting myself to be working all the time, feeling demoralized by the thought, and then getting little to nothing done as a result. Also, drinking too much caffeine and not eating often enough and then developing massive headaches. I made a fancy little work schedule for myself where I’ve blocked out spaces of time for discreet tasks like writing, reading, and teaching prep. I’ve tried to realistically appraise my life and made my schedule keeping in mind that I am unlikely to continue doing the same thing for more than two hours at a time, that I won’t get anything done past 8:00 (which sounds late, but is more like my version of 5:00p since I am a night owl), and that I won’t get up any earlier than 9:00a. So far, the schedule seems to be working. I’m writing in the mornings five days a week–I started with 30 minute sessions and am slowly working myself up to 2 hours. I haven’t had the stress of trying to whip up last-minute class plans. I’m continually surprising myself with how much I can get done when I set a finite work time. I’m actually enjoying work.

And the best part is that I have plenty of time for baking and knitting and Netflix watching and novel reading and blog writing. Not that I wasn’t doing those things before, but now I’m not weighed down by the guilt of feeling like I should be doing something else. I much prefer it this way.

I made this cake for a beginning-of-the-semester department potluck. At one point in it’s life, it was an entire bundt cake but this is the only piece that made it back home with me. I take that as a sign that it was well-received. Oh, and someone told me it may have been the best chocolate cake they’d had. So I’m definitely marking this recipe a success.

As the name of the recipe suggests, this cake is made with a stout–I used Guinness–and I figured any cake made with beer would be a big hit with academics. The cake isn’t overly sweet but instead has a rich and nutty chocolately flavor. It’s also has a ridiculously moist crumb and the ganache on top is flavored with instant espresso, sending the whole thing over the top on deliciousness. The only tricky part is getting the cake out of the bundt pan. Grease that pan like you’ve never greased a pan before. And if the top of the cake still gets stuck to the bottom of the pan, scoop out the stuck cake bits, mound them up on the top of the cake, and then artfully drizzle your ganache to cover the imperfection. That’s what I did.

Chocolate Stout Cake (from Smitten Kitchen)

• 1 c stout (I used Guinness)
• 1 c unsalted butter
• 3/4 c Dutch-process cocoa powder (I’ve been using Hershey’s Special Dark cocoa powder in place of Dutch-process)
• 2 c all purpose flour
• 2 c sugar
• 1 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 3/4 tsp salt
• 2 eggs
• 2/3 c sour cream
• 6 oz semi-sweet chocolate chips
• 6 tbsp heavy cream
• 3/4 tsp instant coffee (I substituted 1/2 tsp instant espresso because it was what I had on hand)

1. Preheat the oven to 350°. Grease a bundt pan really, really well.
2. Bring the stout and butter to a simmer in a saucepan over medium heat. Add the cocoa powder and whisk until smooth. Allow the mixture to cool while you prepare the rest of the cake batter.
3. In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, baking soda, and salt.
4. Beat the eggs and sour cream together in another bowl. Slowly beat in the stout/butter/chocolate mixture and beat until just combined. Add the flour mixture and beat briefly on low speed, using a spatula to fold in the rest of the flour mixture if necessary.
5. Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake for 35 minutes or until a tooth pick inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean. Allow the cake to cool completely on a wire rack before inverting the cake onto a plate to remove it from the pan.
6. For the ganache, melt the chocolate chips, heavy cream, and instant coffee or espresso granules together over low heat, whisking until smooth. Drizzle over the top of the cake.

 

 

Blueberry Oatmeal Quick Bread

Apparently I decided to take a summer blogging hiatus. So it goes. As with all things, it’s hard to get back into something you’ve gotten out of the habit of doing, so I’m going to be very unceremonious and jump back in.

I whipped this bread up Tuesday night when I was done teaching–it was at once a form of stress relief and a celebration of the fact that my kitchen is no longer a million degrees. It’s a simple quick bread dough made a bit heartier through the addition of some whole wheat flour and oats. The recipe calls for a fair amount of almond extract, which I was a little worried about since almond extract has such a strong flavor. I thought about substituting vanilla, but forged ahead with the recipe as written and was pleasantly surprised by how nice the almond flavor works with the nuttiness of batter and the flavor of the blueberries.

This bread is basically a good, hearty muffin in bread form–it’s got great flavor, it’s filling, and it’s not too sweet, making it perfect for breakfast or a mid-day snack. I followed Faith’s suggestion and ate a thick slice of this bread lightly toasted and slathered with butter. Seriously delicious and an excellent start to the day with my morning tea.

Blueberry Oatmeal Quick Bread (Adapted from An Edible Mosaic)

Note: The original recipe makes two loaves and includes chopped almonds and a delicious-looking white chocolate glaze. I cut the recipe in half and left off the almonds and glaze because I didn’t have the ingredients on hand. What I’m posting here will make a single, unglazed loaf.

• 1 c blueberries, fresh or frozen
• 1 c all-purpose flour
• 1 c whole wheat flour
• 1 1/4 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp baking soda
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/2 c sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 c milk
• 2 tbsp vegetable oil
• 1/2 tsp almond extract
• 1 cup rolled oats
• 2 tbsp chopped, unsalted almonds, optional (I didn’t have almonds on hand but would definitely add them if I did)

1. Preheat the oven to 350° and grease one 8×4 loaf pan.
2. If using fresh blueberries, add a rounded teaspoon of the flour to the berries and mix to coat the berries well.
3. Whisk together both of the flours, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a small mixing bowl.
4. In a medium mixing bowl, whisk together the egg and sugar. Add in the milk, oil, and almond extract and whisk until well incorporated. Slowly add the dry ingredients to the wet mixture, stirring until just combined. Fold in the oats and blueberries and then spread the batter into the prepared pan. If using, sprinkle the chopped almonds over the top of the loaf.
5. Bake for 50-60 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Allow the loaf to cool on a wire rack before removing from the pan.

 

Cherry Raspberry Pie

It was 92° today, which set a new record high for the date in our area. Gross. I am not a huge fan of summer and this kind of heat is precisely why. The heat itself is bad enough, but living in a second-story apartment with sky lights in every room with no AC is disgusting and it makes me hateful. I’m just keeping my fingers crossed that this isn’t an indication of how the rest of the season is going to play out. Still, now is probably as good a time as any to start digging up recipes that don’t involve the oven. I think this may be a good summer to invest in a set of popsicle molds so I can make these Strawberry Lemonade Popsicles. Yum. And cold.

Anyway. We spent Memorial Day with friends, grilling out but eating inside to enjoy the air conditioning. I decided to make a pie, because pie seems like the kind of thing you’re supposed to eat on summer holidays. My original plan was to make a strawberry rhubarb pie, but when I went to the store, they were out of rhubarb. They were also out of Corona. It was a trip of frustrations. But never mind, I reevaluated my plans, grabbed a bag of sweet cherries and a pint of raspberries and decided to throw them together. The decision to throw in the raspberries was born mostly out of the fact that a single bag of cherries wouldn’t have been enough to fill a pie, and a pint of raspberries were significantly cheaper than a second bag of cherries. I had misgivings when I got home. I was worried that the fruit wasn’t flavorful enough, that I should have kept it simple and only stuck with one kind of fruit, and finally that it was all going to be a soupy mess.

Luckily, none of my fears came to pass. You can see that part of the crust collapsed while baking, but beyond that the pie was great. For the first time in a long time, I felt like my crust was rockin’ in flavor and texture. I used the same all-butter crust recipe I’ve been using since I started this blog, but this time I added the butter in one stick at a time, which made it easier to cut into the flour and seemed to help in bringing the dough together. (I picked this trick up from my King Arthur Flour cookbook.) For the filling, I used this Sweet Cherry Pie recipe–substituting, of course, part of the cherries for about two cups of raspberries. The raspberries gave the filling a nice tartness that didn’t overwhelm the cherries, but kept the filling from being overly sweet. I’ve been wary of the idea of sour cherry pie, having some unpleasant memories of sour cherries from my childhood, but now I think I need to try it out. Also, this is the first time that I’ve made a lattice top pie (way easier than I expected) and used an egg wash on the pie lid (totally sold–the result is beautiful). We enjoyed the pie with some homemade whipped cream. It was a good day.

Basically, I wish that everything I tried my hand at turned out as well as this pie. Also, I wish we had central air. Oh well.

Cherry Raspberry Pie (Adapted from Smitten Kitchen)

Note: The above link is for the original pie filling recipe. For the crust, I also used Deb’s all butter pie crust recipe, which can be found here along with a great set of step-by-step pictorial instructions. If you’re new to making pie crust, definitely check out her post. It’s been a huge help to me, although you might want to try cutting the butter into the flour one stick at a time. I don’t have a cherry pitter, so I just pitted the cherries with my hands. But I followed the advice offered in one of Deb’s comments and pitted the cherries inside of a gallon-size ziploc bag. It helped contain the mess in a big, big way.

1 double pie crust

For Filling:

• 2 c pitted sweet cherries
• 2 c raspberries
• 3/4 c sugar
• 4 tbsp corn starch
• 1/8 tsp salt
• Juice from half a lemon
• 1/4 tsp almond extract
• 1 tbsp cold unsalted butter cut into small bits

• 1 egg beaten with 2 tsp cold water for egg wash, optional

1. Combine the fruit, sugar, corn starch, salt, lemon juice and almond extract in a large bowl. Stir until well combined.
2. Roll out the dough for the bottom crust, creating a 13″ round. Line your pie plate with the rolled out crust, and trim the sides to leave a half inch overhang.
3. Use a spoon to spread the fruit mixture into the pie shell, leaving behind most of the liquid that has developed at the bottom of the bowl. Dot the filling with the bits of cold butter.
4. Roll out the pie lid and lay it over the pie plate (or cut strips from the dough round and create a lattice top). Trim the sides of the dough and use your fingers or a fork to seal and crimp the edges. Cut slits (for steam vents) in the pie lid and brush the pie lid with the egg wash, if using.
5. Bake at 400° for 25 minutes. Reduce the oven temperature to 350° and bake for an additional 25-30 minutes. Allow pie to cool completely on a wire rack.

Raspberry-Topped Muffins

I like to listen to music while I’m in the kitchen and while I’m working on my laptop. Sometimes, I listen to my iTunes, but a lot of the time I listen to Pandora. I have a handful of very different stations I’ve set up, and for the past week each station has started playing Fleetwood Mac’s “Landslide” and/or “Rhiannon” several times a day. It’s getting a little eerie.

I can hear you calling to me, Stevie Nicks. And yes, I will be your best friend. Next time, feel free to just call.

(Seriously, though. Make sure you watch that video all the way through, both for Stevie Nicks’ intense performance and for the retro videography.)

Anyway, the creative non-fiction class I started earlier this month is over now. On our second-to-last day, I made some raspberry topped lemon muffins to share at our break. I found the recipe through Smitten Kitchen, and it’s one that I’ve made before to share with friends on a road trip to Louisville for a conference. It’s a basic buttermilk vanilla muffin flavored with lemon sugar (that is, lemon zest mashed into a little bit of sugar) and then topped with a couple of raspberries. It’s enough flavor to keep the muffins interesting without it being the kind of taste explosion that a lot of people don’t care for at breakfast. The muffins are really delicious, and I like this recipe precisely because it’s not your typical struesel-topped blueberry muffin. Believe me when I say that I don’t have anything against blueberry muffins–far from it. But it’s nice to have something a little different. Plus, these muffins are particularly nice for these 80° May days since they taste a whole lot like summer.

You’ll have to excuse this muffin for being a little . . . well . . . homely. I’m not sure why it’s raspberries are so sunken in or why it’s having trouble keeping it’s little muffin clothes on. But this is the only muffin that made it back with me from class and so it was the only muffin I was able to photograph since I forgot to take pictures before I went to class. You should just trust that even in its ugliness, it was a very delicious little muffin.

The striped muffin liner is from a whole gaggle of muffin liners my friend Abby collected for me after I blogged awhile back about running out of them. Now I have a ton, and a whole host of colors and patterns to choose from. It really does feel like dressing my baked goods up. I see many (hopefully prettier) muffins in my future . . .

Just for fun, here’s what I listened to while I was whipping these babies up:

1. Heart, Alone
2. Blondie, Call Me
3. The Bangles, Walk Like an Egyptian
4. Joan Jett, Do You Wanna Touch Me? (Oh Yeah)
5. The Go-Go’s, We Got the Beat
6. Madonna, Material Girl
7. The Runaways, Rock and Roll
8. Joan Jett, I Love Rock ‘N’ Roll
9. Billy Idol, Rebel Yell
10. Patty Smyth, Goodbye to You

As I write this, Edge of Seventeen just started playing. Perhaps its time for me to take a Gypsy 83-style Stevie Nicks pilgrimage?

What are you listening to this weekend as we kick-off the unofficial start of summer?

Raspberry-Topped Lemon Muffins (from Smitten Kitchen)

Note: This recipe is supposed to make 14 muffins, but I decided to just divide the batter evenly among one muffin tin to make an even dozen. I was able to top my muffins with a 1/2 pint of raspberries and still had a few leftover. But if you want to put more raspberries on the top or make more than a dozen muffins, you might need another 1/2 pint.

• 1 c sugar, plus 2 tbsp for the lemon sugar
• Grated lemon peel from 2 large lemons
• 2 c all purpose flour
• 2 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 3/4 tsp salt
• 1/2 c unsalted butter, softened
• 1 large egg
• 1 c buttermilk
• 2 tsp vanilla
• 1/2 – 1 pint raspberries

1. Preheat the oven to 375° F and line 12 or 14 (see note above) muffin cups with paper liners.
2. Mash the 2 tbsp of sugar and lemon zest together in a small bowl until well-combined. Set aside.
3. In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder and salt.
4. Using an electric mixer, cream together the butter and remaining 1 c sugar. Beat in egg. Add buttermilk, then vanilla, and then the lemon sugar, mixing after each addition until combined. Beat in the flour mixture.
5. Divide the batter among the muffin cups and top each with 3-4 raspberries. (I used three berries on the top of each muffin.) Bake 30-35 minutes until lightly browned on top and a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.