blueberry pistachio meyer lemon cornmeal muffins

Lemons, lemons everywhere... but what oh what to do? A generous co-worker brought in bags and bags of freshly picked lemons. And I already had a bag of Meyer lemons and another bag of other lemons in my refrigerator. another co-worker strongly encouraged me to make lemon bars, but I felt like something a little less sweet. I set out in search of an inspired lemon scone recipe and found some interesting options. Then I stumbled across a post from Irvin Lin's very wonderful Eat the Love, and with a few adjustments I had the perfect concoction. These muffins are absolutely delicious and I will certainly be making them again and again with other fruit and nut pairings.


Happy baking!

Blueberry Pistachio Meyer Lemon Cornmeal Muffins 

Muffin Batter
280 g (2 cups) all purpose flour
1 cup white granulated sugar
 90 g (1/2 cup) cornmeal
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
zest of 1 Meyer lemon
1/2 cup buttermilk
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
1/4 cup Meyer lemon juice
1 large egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon almond extract
1 cup blueberries
1/2 cup shelled & chopped pistachios

Streusel Topping
140 g (1 cup) all purpose flour
110 g (1/2 cup) white granulated sugar
60 g (1/4 cup) dark brown sugar
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon salt
6 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted

1. Preheat oven to 350˚F. Line a regular muffin tin with paper cups or spray generously with cooking oil.

2. Place flour, sugar, cornmeal, baking powder, salt and zest in a large mixing bowl. With a whisk, stir vigorously until well blended.

3. Place the buttermilk, olive oil, Meyer lemon juice, egg, vanilla extract, and almond extract in a medium mixing bowl. Stir with a whisk until well blended.

4. Gently fold the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients with a large spatula, until most of the dry ingredients are incorporated. It’s okay if there are some dry pockets of flour, as you don’t want to over-mix the batter.

5. Fold the blueberries and chopped pistachios into the batter until just incorporated and distributed. Divide the batter into the prepared muffin tins.

6. Make the streusel topping by placing the flour, sugars, cinnamon and salt in a medium mixing bowl. Drizzle the butter over the dry ingredients, tossing with a fork until the topping starts to come together in clumps. Sprinkle the clumps of streusel topping over the muffins evenly.

7. Bake in the oven for 24-28 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the middle of a muffin comes out clean. Let cool in the muffin tins for 10 minutes before moving them to a wire rack to cool completely.

Makes 12 muffins.

cake pop adventures

It all started with an email from a 4th grade room mother... What would you like to contribute to the class "friendship" (formerly known as Valentine's Day) party?

I offered to provide three dozen cupcakes, of course. The Hot Chocolate Cupcakes I made for the winter holiday party were a big hit and cupcakes are so fun and easy. But then I thought... Cake Pops would be fun to try... Obviously, I'm not an early adopter with these baking trends. So, I did a little online research and found wonderful information and tutorials. The undisputed cake pop queen, of course, is Bakerella.

It seems the way to go is with "your favorite cake mix and your favorite canned frosting," and I almost, almost talked myself into that. How easy! But then I thought... buttercream would taste so much better than canned frosting... and... you know, cake from scratch is not that much more work... And that is exactly where things began to spin out of control...

When you're making treats for a class of 35 fourth graders, it's nice to have at least two flavor options so I decided to make a White Butter Cake and a Devil's Food Cake (both from The Simple Art of Perfect Baking by Flo Braker), and a swiss meringue buttercream (Martha) and a chocolate buttercream (Flo). Well, that's a Saturday afternoon attached to the Kitchen Aid right there. The cakes and buttercreams baked and whipped nicely and I took the night off to enjoy dinner at a funky little Thai restaurant.

Sunday afternoon came and it was time to crumble the cakes, stir in the buttercream and start forming cake balls. My advise is to refrigerate the dough before forming. I formed room temperature chocolate dough into little cake balls and it was a big mess!

Rolling the dough is easy enough, and each cake will make at least 48 cake balls. Smaller cake balls are a little easier to work with and decorate, and they actually look better too. After the dough is formed into balls, chill for about an hour before attaching the lollipop sticks.

I used Winton candy melts, and I read that Paramount Crystals would help smooth the coating and make dipping easier, but I didn't have any. A quick google search revealed that a little bit of shortening stirred into the melted coating would yield a similar result - and it did! Dipping was much easier with the shortening enhanced candy coating. Dipping is also easier and yields a better finished product when the cake balls are well chilled. I mixed a few candy colors to vary my shades of pink, and covered some with sanding sugar or sprinkles and piped little designs on others using a small disposable piping bag.

In the end, I had 8 dozen very cute and tremendously delicious cake pops. Most of them went to fourth and fifth grade class parties, but shared a few with my valentine, took a batch to share with coworkers and even delivered a little cake pop bouquet to a client.

This undertaking was similar to having a baby... right afterwards I thought "never again!" But now... what kind of cake pops should I make for St. Patrick's Day?

Happy baking!

chocolate truffle tartlets

The next recipe selection for TWD: Baking with Julia is Chocolate Truffle Tartlets - a real treat for most, but sadly I am not a lover of chocolate.

I had been looking forward to the project for a few weeks, imagining it to be a bit more complicated than it actually was. The best part for me was that the need for fluted tartlet pans with removable bottoms necessitated a visit a restaurant supply store!

One small shopping excursion later... I assembled my ingredients and food processor for the Chocolate Dough. The dough was quite easy to make in the food processor, but I found that forming the dough in the tartlet pans was a little bit of a challenge. The dough is so delicate, and the bottomless pans so small that I felt a bit awkward.

The filling came together very easily. The little tarts baked nicely and popped out of their pans readily (even though I neglected to coat them with cooking spray). The tartlets were pronounced "delicious" by those who love very rich chocolate desserts, but they were a bit much for me. But then again, that's one of the things I enjoy about baking - as I don't have much of a sweet tooth, I get all of the fun without the burden of those pesky extra calories!

Happy baking!

baking bread

So this is my first post on TWD: Baking with Julia. And, really, my first baking post ever. I have learned something about myself right from the get-go - the idea of blogging is more fun than actually blogging, at least for me. But baking, well that's another story altogether.

The prospect of baking bread, and not just 'bread,' but White Loaves for this first TWD: BWJ assignment, got me out of bed on a Sunday morning while everyone else was still asleep. You don't know me, but my every Sunday goal is to stay in bed as long as possible, completely skipping breakfast and arising only to avoid that look of scorn from my lonely children. However, this Sunday I was anxious to get out of bed well before 10 (aka before dawn) for a cup of French press coffee while I considered my baking task.

My Heavy Duty KitchenAid mixer has been boxed-up for almost two years and I couldn't wait to unpack it and fire it up. But this dough was bigger than my mixer and for fear of a burnt-out motor, I turned the dough out on a lightly floured surface and began to knead. I had forgotten how great it is to work bread dough - it's been quite a while. I must confess to having been spoiled by "culinary" school (my friend Shirin says, "why do you always call it cooking school?"). There were Hobart mixers almost as tall as me and no bread dough would ever best a mixer. But this is home baking and I am happy I got to knead my dough for a while, on a Sunday morning, with a great cup of coffee and a sleepy house. 

The dough rose...

And the dough formed nicely into pretty little loaves...

And then it was time to watch bread bake... and I couldn't stop. I felt like I was watching an egg, waiting for it to hatch. I turned the oven light on, and off, and on again. Opened the door just a bit...

I took a pale golden loaf out to check it's temperature (only 120)... and really enjoyed watching this blob of dough become something wonderful.

But now, what to do with it? I decided on croque-monsieur sandwiches to start (no photos). As my niece Jessica used to say, "it tastes almost as good as real...[bread]."

So, I was reminded of how much I love baking and how the process is always what I really enjoy. The blogging is probably good for me... I always struggle to find a successful recipe again because I love trying something new. And, the end result? I've already moved on... Valentine's Day cake pops for my daughter's 4th grade class party!

Happy baking!

getting ready

My book arrived yesterday and I sat right down and turned every page. Some of the recipes look a little intimidating, and some sound like something I would really rather not eat, but most look absolutely delicious!

I am really excited about the project. I've been roaming around some other TWD blogs and I am relieved to find so many others who are new to blogging. And, I'm inspired by some of the really lovely sites I've found as well.

First project - white loaves. There are few scents as wonderful as that of freshly baked bread!

Happy baking!

resolving to bake

After hearing the story about the Tuesdays with Dorie blog and the interview with Dorie Greenspan on All Things Considered, and then visiting the blog and learning about the new adventure, Baking with Julia, here I am with my very first post on my very first blog.

While I am new to blogging, I'm not new to baking. I attended the California Culinary Academy in the 90s and discovered my love for baking and the pastry kitchen there. After so many twists and turns, here I am, baking and really loving it. But I don't do it nearly often enough, so I am resolving to bake my way through Julia, along with other home bakers and bloggers from all over the world.

Happy Baking!