Chai Spice Muffins

 

I am a teetotaler. I love tea. I never learned to enjoy the taste of coffee. It smells good when it brews but that bitter aftertaste just doesn't do it for me. I'm happy with a nice black, green, red, or white tea in the morning. Because I enjoy tea so much, I have a lot of different varieties, both in loose-leaf or bagged from all over the place. Needless to say, I need a shelf in the pantry just for my teas. One tea I enjoy is my Masala Chai. A friend of mine brought me back a bag of Masala Chai from a nice tea shoppe in New York City. I usually don't put milk in my tea but when I'm drinking Chai, I do. 

Not to long ago, I made some chai cupcakes and figured I would make some chai muffins when I had time. Well, I had time this past weekend and I decided to experiment with my cupcake recipe and make some muffins but not just any muffins; Chai Spice Gluten-Free muffins. Next time I make these, I'll add like a chai concentrate or add some more spices to the mix but for a trial run, these weren't bad.

Enjoy.

Ingredients: 1 3/4 c gluten-free flour*, 1.5 tsp baking powder, 1.5 tsp ground ginger, 1 tsp cinnamon, .5 tsp cardamom, .5 sea salt, .5 xanthan gum, 1/8 tsp ground cloves, 3/4 c light brown sugar, packed, 3/4 c unsalted butter, softened, 3 eggs, .25 c milk, 2 tsp pure vanilla extract

Instructions: (1) Preheat oven to 350F and prep a 12-c or 6-c muffin pan with liners or cooking spray. (2) In a medium bowl, whisk flour, baking powder, ginger, cinnamon, cardamom, salt, xanthan gum, and cloves. (3) Beat brown sugar and butter in a stand mixer until light and fluffy. Beat in eggs, one at a time, until well blended. Beat in milk and vanilla until blended. (4) Add flour mixture to egg mixture  and stir with a spoon until just blended. Divide batter equally among prepared muffin cups and bake for about 22-27 minutes or until tops are golden brown and toothpick comes out clean. Let muffins cool pan for a few minutes then completely on a wire rack.

*I some times use a brown rice flour blend with making gluten-free muffins. Here's a recipe I use and it usually makes about 3 cups.  2 c finely ground brown rice flour,  2/3 c potato starch, 1/3 c tapioca starch. Items can be purchased at some grocery stores in their organic aisle or at specialty health food stores. 

 

Brown Bread Muffins

The most famous New England bread is Brown Bread. It is blend of wheat and cornmeal and sometimes rye. The bread is usually steamed, often in cans. B&M offers brown bread with or without raisins. I never knew about brown bread until I moved to Boston and was dating my husband. Sometimes for Sunday dinner, there would be brown bread.  Being a Southerner, we would have buttermilk biscuits on the dinner table. Being north of the Mason Dixon line, I had to get use to bread out of a can.  These muffins are a version of the traditional Boston Brown Bread. Since St. Patty's Day is this weekend, I figured I would try a few recipes in between preparing for a wedding this week. Hope you enjoy the recipe and the next few to follow.


Ingredients: 1c whole wheat flour, .5 c cornmeal, 1.5 tsp baking soda, 3/4 tsp sea salt, 1/3 c dark brown sugar (packed), 1 egg, 1/3 c dark molasses, 1/3 c canola oil, 1 c buttermilk, 1 c raisins*

Instructions: (1) Preheat oven to 400 and prep a 12-c or 6-c muffin pan with cooking spray or paper linings. (2) Whisk flour, cornmeal, baking soda, and salt in a large bowl. (3) In a medium bowl, whisk brown sugar, egg, molasses and oil until well blended. Whisk in buttermilk until blended. (3) Add egg mixture to flour mixture and stir just until blended. Fold in raisins. (4) Divide batter equally amongst prepared muffin cups. Bake until toothpick comes out clean, about 16 minutes (longer if using a bigger pan). Cool in a pan for a few minutes and serve while still warm or transfer to a rack and cool completely.

*I opted not to have raisins in my brown bread.

Bread Pudding

While we were away last week, I had the most amazing piece of bread pudding. I usually do not like bread pudding. I had a small bite from Bob's plate and had to have my own. I didn't even know until after I had it that the dessert was bread pudding, that's how good it was. It just melted on your tongue and the spices used just exploded in your mouth.

Since I couldn't get the recipe off the chef, I figured I would find a recipe from one of my old cookbooks and give it a try. This recipe came from a cookbook printed by the Junior League of Baton Rouge, Inc. I've had this book forever and have often used it when I feel like making a little Southern dish.  Enjoy this recipe. The bread pudding is like a warm sticky bun drenched in butter and bourbon.

Ingredients: 3 TBSP butter, softened, 1.25 pounds of French or Italian bread*, 1 c raisins, 3 large eggs, 4 c whole milk, 2 c sugar, 2 TBSP vanilla, 1 tsp ground cinnamon, Whiskey sauce

Instructions: (1) Spread softened butter over a glass 13x9-inch baking pan/dish. (2) Cut bread into .5 inch-thick slices. Arrange slices almost upright in tightly spaced rows in dish. (3) Tuck raisins between the slices of bread. (4) Whisk until frothy the eggs. Add in milk, sugar, vanilla, and cinnamon and continue to whisk until incorporated. (5) Pour liquid over bread and let stand for 1 hour, pressing down the bread with a spatula to wet the top slices every now and then. (6)Preheat oven to 375F. Bake pudding until the top is puffed and lightly browned, approximately 1 hour. Cover with whiskey sauce and let cool on a rack for 30-60 minutes, then cut into squares and serve.

*About 1.5-2 loafs of bread are used. You can try 1% or Fat Free milk if you want to lower some of the calories for this dessert.
*Whiskey Sauce. You need to heat in a saucepan, over low heat, 8 TBSP butter. Stir in 1 c sugar, 1/4 c bourbon or other whiskey, 2 TBSP water, 1/4 fresh grated or ground nutmeg, and 1/8 tsp salt. Cook, stirring, until sugar is dissolved and the mixture is blended. Remove from heat.  Whisk one large egg in a bowl until light and frothy and then vigorously whisk the egg into the liquor mixture. Set sauce over medium heat and, stirring gently, bring to a simmer. Cook until thickened, about 1 min. Serve at once, set aside at room temperature for up to 8 hours, or let cool then cover and refrigerate up to 3 days. Reheat over low heat, stirring. If sauce separates, remove from the heat and whisk in a little warm water.
*If you want a milder Whiskey sauce, replace up to 1/2 of the whiskey with water. For a stronger sauce, replace the water with additional whiskey.
*Whatever you do, if you are transporting this dish by car try to put it in a Tupperware container. If you are pulled over, the cop might think you have been drinking. Just ask my friend Gwen.

Almond Pound Cake

The other day while grocery shopping, I passed the bakery section and saw a loaf of Almond Pound Cake and started salivating, you know, the whole Pavlov's dog thing. I haven't had baked goods since the week before Christmas; well, actually, I did break and have a cookie on Christmas day, but still. Lately, I'm starting to crave things like hot fudge sundae's or hot pretzels or a slice of pound cake with a nice lemon icing on top because of the certain foods I'm eating and those I can't eat. I haven't totally caved, but the cravings are still there. So to help overcome this carving for a slice of pound cake, I figured I would bake one. Hopefully just the smell of it baking and maybe, just maybe, a SMALL taste of leftover batter will put the beast to rest. I'm not totally confident that I won't have a piece so this pound cake will be taken to a gathering tonight so I'm not tempted to have a slice with my tea later this evening!

I'm trying out a new recipe I found for Almond Pound Cake. I usually use my Sour Cream Coffee Cake recipe and add things like pure almond extract, almond flour, and almond paste. I wanted to find something similar but doesn't use the sour cream.  I just did an internet search for Almond Pound Cake and read through several before finding one that has ingredients I was looking for. So this is a first time cake and my guinea pigs, I mean, taste testers will have to let me know what they think, since I WON'T be having a slice!

Ingredients: 1.5 c butter, 3 c sugar, 5 eggs*, 2.5 c flour, 2 tsp baking powder, .5 c almond meal*, .25 tsp sea salt, 2 tsp pure almond extract, 1 tsp pure vanilla extract, 2 c milk, .33 c almond slivered

Instructions: (1) Preheat oven to 350 and prepare pan* with either a cooking spray that has flour in it (Baking Joy) or grease and flour the pan. (2) Beat butter until cream them slowly add in sugar. Beat until fluffy. (3) Add eggs to the batter, one at a time. Beat mixture another 2 minutes. (4) In a separate bowl, sift flour, baking powder, salt and almond meal. (5) Add extracts to milk, set aside. (6) On low speed, add a third of the flour mixture to the butter mixture. Beat until incorporated. Add half of the milk mixture to the mixing bowl and incorporate. Continue adding flour then milk then flour until all the flour and milk are incorporated into the mixing bowl. (7) Sprinkle slivered almonds on the bottom of the prepared pan (optional) and then pour batter into the pan. (8) Bake until done, about 55 minutes or until cake tester comes out clean. (9) Cool slightly then invert on cooling rack or pan and cool completely. Frost/glaze after cake is completely cooled.


*Eggs are better at room temperature.
*Bob's Red Mill has an almond meal that can be used. We use it when we make our macarons. If you don't want to pay the price for the almond meal (can be around $11 per bag at a grocery store), you can ground up almonds in a food grinder.
*You can use a bundt pan, a loaf pan, a tube pan, or any pan you want.
*I might top this cake with a almond glaze or a dusting of powdered sugar or serve it plain. All depends on what I feel like doing after the cake cools.

Almond Lemon Souffle

I love making souffles when it is cold out. I can make them for dinner or for dessert and since you want to serve and eat these creations immediately after they come out of the oven, it's a great way to have a warm meal on a cold winter's night. 

I  have definitely had some failures but once I got the technique down and started doing a few different things, the souffles have been turning out almost perfect. I can't say perfect because nothing is ever PERFECT.

This recipe I got from the Cooking Light Magazine. I like finding delicious recipes that aren't so bad for me if I eat them. I tried this recipe out during the weekend and enjoyed it. I would definitely do a few things different next time I make this recipe, but, as my husband says sometimes, this is a keeper! I'm planning on using other citrus flavors like tangerine or even grapefruit to see how they come out. The lemon flavor is nice but I would add more lemon rind for a more lemony flavor. The almonds make this different from a traditional souffle that usually has powered sugar sprinkled on top. However you decide to make it, enjoy.







Ingredients: cooking spray, 1/2 cup + 2 TBSPs of sugar, divided, 2 large egg yolks, 3/4 cup buttermilk, 1 TBSP grated lemon rind, 1/3 cup fresh lemon juice, 2 TBSPs butter, melted, 1/4 cup of flour, 6 large egg whites, 1/2 tsp cream of tartar, 1/4 cup sliced almonds


Instructions: (1) Place a baking sheet with sides in the oven and preheat to 425. (2) Lightly coat 6 ramekins with cooking spray and evenly sprinkle with 2 TBSP sugar, titling to coat sides completely. (3) Combine 1/4 c sugar and egg yolks in large bowl and beat at high speed until thick and pale. Add 3/4 c buttermilk, lemon rind, lemon juice, melted butter, and flour; beat at medium speed until just blended. (4) Combine egg whites and cream of tartar in a bowl and let stand for 15 min. at room temperature. Using clean, dry beaters, beat at high speed until soft peaks form. Gradually add remaining 1/4 c of sugar, 1 TBSP at a time, beating until medium peaks form. (5) Gently stir 1/4 of egg whites into lemon mixture; gently fold in remaining egg whites. Spoon mixture into ramekins. Sharply tap dishes 2 to 3 times on the counter to level. Sprinkle with almonds. (6) Place ramekins on preheated sheet and return to oven. Reduce oven temperature to 350 and bake for 20 minutes or until puffy and lightly brown. Serve Immediately.

*Recipe obtained from Cooking Light Magazine, June 2011.

A Chocolate dessert even non-chocolate lovers can enjoy!

So this week has been one of experimenting. I already posted two new breads to the website and let you know about it in a previous blog. If you didn't have a chance to read it, let me introduce them again to you. We've added a Lemon Poppy Seed bread and a Coconut-Banana Bread to our list of tasty items for you to try.

Wednesday, I was being lazy and decided to give the pound cake idea a try. We offer a cream cheese pound cake already. You can purchase it as a loaf form or as a  bundt form. The recipe came into the family by way of Kentucky. My grandmother remarried after the lost of my grandfather to a gentleman from Kentucky. Man, did Preston have the thickest drawl out there. Living in Louisiana, I have heard my share of thick southern drawls but his sure beat all. He would make this pound cake and people would rave about it. My mom asked him for the recipe and then I asked her for it. A while ago we were talking about it and my mom mentioned that when my grandmother found out we had it, she stated that not even his daughters have it. So thank you Preston for giving us a little of your family recipes to share. So anyway, I decided to added a heaping amount of cocoa to the recipe to see what it would taste like. The kitchen sure smelled good while it was baking and it looked delicious while it was cooling on the rack. Since I was now running late to church, I cut it up to give out to tasters for their feedback. All who had it said it was unbelievable but it was the comment of a friend that stood out.

Joanne is like me in all her candy choices. She doesn't like chocolate hardly ever and would rather have something sugary instead of something chocolaty. She's even been known to order a birthday cake for someone else in vanilla because she doesn't like chocolate cake. So when she called me and stated, "That was amazing. Oh my goodness. A++" I knew I had a winner. For someone who doesn't eat chocolate much to fall in love with a chocolate dessert, what more feedback could I want?  So now you can purchase the Chocolate Cream Cheese Pound Cake from the website. It is only in the bundt version but will be a dessert that you would want more of after you have had a slice.