Procrastination Muffins

I have a new favorite blueberry muffin recipe. I’ve adapted them from Simply Recipie’s blueberry muffin
recipe she adapted from a cookbook. Go to her site for more details – she’s got some great stuff. I’ve made them twice so far, the first time when I was procrastinating finishing a Major Essay that was overdue, the second time last night when I was avoiding reading my Hume. I think I shall call them my Procrastination Muffins. The first time I made them they came out better than any muffin I’ve made in my life. The top was well sized, the inside was light and fluffy without being too cake-like, the sides were well browned, and the whole outside was crispy. Last night they didn’t come out quite as well. For the first time in history, my oven has undercooked something. Well, not really undercooked, just under crisped. I left out the extra tablespoon of flour for using frozen blueberries, so I blame that. I also blame myself for over beating them – next time I’ll use an easier to deal with mixing bowl. After leaving them out last night, a bunch of condensation gathered on the plastic wrap thus getting rid of what little crispness there was. Oh well. They still taste divine. My main change from Elise’s recipe is cutting down the sugar even further and switching the lemon zest for orange. I’m not a big fan of lemon flavoring in baked goods, especially after a year of free day-olds from a coffee shop I worked at whose baker added lemon into everything she made except her pumpkin muffins. Anyhow. Here’s the recipe. I’ll post a picture when I upload it.

3 cups of all-purpose flour
1 Tbsp baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
10 Tbsp unsalted butter (1 1/4 stick), softened
1 cup sugar
2 large eggs
1 1/2 cup plain or vanilla yogurt
1 teaspoon grated orange peel
1 1/2 cups blueberries
1 Tbsp flour (if using defrosted frozen berries)

1 Adjust the oven rack to the middle-lower part of the oven. Preheat oven to 375°F.

2 Whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt and set aside.

3 In a large mixing bowl, cream butter and sugar together, beating until fluffy. Add eggs one at a time, beating until incorporated after each one. Beat in the grated orange peel.

4 Beat in one half of the dry ingredients until just incorporated. Beat in one third of the yogurt. Beat in half of the remaining dry ingredients. Bean in a second third of the yogurt. Beat in the remaining dry ingredients and then the remaining yogurt. Again be careful to beat until just incorporated. Do not over beat. This is very important – it will determine the looks of your muffin tops. Fold in the berries. If you are using frozen berries, defrost them first, drain the excess liquid, and then coat them in a light dusting of flour.

5 Use a standard 12-muffin muffin pan. (I’m a big fan of silicone, and both times I’ve used it it’s worked well. The muffins slid right out and still managed to crisp.) Coat each muffin cup lightly with olive oil spray. Distribute the muffin dough equally among the cups. Bake until muffins are golden brown, about 25 to 30 minutes. Test with a long toothpick to make sure the center of the muffins are done. Set on wire rack to cool for 5 minutes. Remove muffins from the tin and serve slightly warm.

NYT Crusty Mac and Cheese

I made the New York Times’ Crusty Mac and Cheese recipe last night. I have to say, I was a bit disappointed. Now, granted, I didn’t add the full 2 cups of cheese on top, and I cooked it for slightly less time than it said, but it ended up kind of bland. I doubled the pepper it called for – next time I might double that. I ended up using all cheddar, Trader Joe’s Pre-shredded Sharp Cheddar, to be exact. Believe it or not it’s the cheapest cheese they have. The cheddar flavor was prominent which is really exactly what I was looking for. It’s mostly the ‘crusty’ topping I’m disappointed in. It ended up crusty, yes, but only because the noodles on the top were burned and the cheese had hardened. Once you get past the top, it was nice. Nothing amazing, but nice. Oh, I also substituted penne pasta for elbow macaroni – I had penne on hand. That substitution ended up working well, as did my decision to add some nutmeg. All in all, this is a decent mac and cheese that was made about 20 times better with the addition of Trader Joe’s Peach Salsa – that stuff is a godsend. Anyhow, here’s my (modified) recipe, based off of theirs. Would I make it again? Probably not like this, but I think what I look for in Mac and Cheese might be different than what they're drying to make.

Time: 1 hour 15 minutes
3 tablespoons butter
24 ounces extra-sharp cheddar cheese, coarsely grated (minus two cups)
1 pound penne pasta, boiled in salted water until just tender, drained, and rinsed under cold water
1/4 teaspoon cayenne
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
Salt
2/3 cup whole milk.
1. Heat oven to 375 degrees. Use one tablespoon butter to thickly grease a 9-by-13-inch baking dish. Set aside a handful of cheese.
2. In a large bowl, toss together the pasta, cheese, cayenne, nutmeg, and salt to taste. Place in prepared pan and evenly pour milk over surface. Sprinkle reserved cheese on top, dot with remaining butter and bake, uncovered, 45 minutes. Raise heat to 400 degrees and bake 15 to 20 minutes more, until crusty on top and bottom.
Yield: 8 to 12 servings.

Roast Chicken Update

The chicken is amazing. I didn't have time to eat much of it before my 8pm class, but it was perfect. I have a bunch of leftovers so I'm making soup with some of it.
Soup:
First I made stock. I don't think I made enough stock, or, rather, I think the stock I ended up with was super concentrated. I covered the leftover chicken bones with water and boiled for two and a half hours. Then I got rid of all the bones and bits and refridgerated the stock so I could get rid of the fat.
As for the soup, I took my stock, added a bunch of boxed stock (Trader Joe's Organic Chicken Stock), added 1/2 box ear pasta (I forget the italian name, but I know it means ear), 1/2 bag lima beans, 1 can corn, 1/2 my chicken meat and a little bit of salt and pepper.
I cooked it for about twenty minutes, and voila!
I ended up with a large stuff to broth ratio which made it maybe more of a chicken stew, but it's great and it's definitely helping me lose this darned cold I have.