for Perry...

Since I'm trying to cut 5 more pounds before the end of the month, the urge to bake is proving problematic. I usually have the best intention beforehand to set aside some of the goods to eat later. Well that doesn't always work out. So instead, I've decided to just bake for other people. These chocolate chunk banana crumb muffins are for my friend Perry. They came out moist and delicious, not too dense, with a great banana flavor. The semisweet chocolate chunks are wonderfully melty when the muffins are warm, and the crumb topping adds a contrasting texture component. Too bad I could only eat one :(

Chocolate Chunk Banana Crumb Muffins
Makes 12 muffins

Muffins:
1 1/2 cup all purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
pinch salt
3 large ripe bananas, mashed
1 egg, beaten
1/3 cup white sugar
1/3 cup brown sugar
1/3 cup oil
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 cup chocolate chunks

Crumb Topping:
2 tbsp cold butter
4 tbsp all purpose flour
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1 tbsp raw or turbinado sugar

Blend mashed bananas, brown and white sugar, oil, and egg until combined. Stir in flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon until moistened, being careful to not overbeat. Fold in chocolate chunks. Pour into greased or lined muffin pans to about 3/4 full.

To make crumb topping, cut cold butter into the flour, cinnamon and sugar until coarse. Add a spoonful on top of each muffin. Bake in a preheated 375 degrees oven for 18-20 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.

Meyer Lemon Poppyseed Muffins

My friend Helen gave me a book titled Homemade Muffins by Carol Tennant a few years ago. I've flipped through it a few times but never got around to making the recipes. I thought I'd try the recipe for Lemon Poppyseed Muffins. I used the sweeter meyer lemons because I had those on hand, but you can use regular lemons or even oranges.

Meyer Lemon Poppyseed Muffins
Makes 12

Muffins:
2 cups flour
1 tsp baking powder
3/4 cup sugar
pinch salt
1 egg, lightly beaten
1 cup milk
1/3 cup butter, melted
2 tbsp poppy seed
zest and juice of 2 meyer lemons
1 tsp lemon extract

Lemon Syrup:
3/4 cup confectioner's sugar, sifted
zest and juice of 1 lemon

In a bowl, mix lemon juice, egg, milk, butter, lemon extract, and lemon peel. In a separate bowl, combine flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt. Add the wet ingredients to the dry and stir until just combined, being careful to not over-mix. Spoon batter into greased muffin pan, about 3/4 full. Bake in a 400 degrees preheated oven for 15-20 minutes, until a toothpick comes out clean. The muffins should be golden and risen. In the meantime, mix the confectioner's sugar with the lemon juice and zest until well blended. Spoon over hot muffins and let cool in the pan.

I actually made these without the lemon extract and found that the muffins weren't lemon-y enough. I figured the addition of the extract would help with that. The soaking syrup on top was a nice touch, though it's very important to soak the muffins when they're right out of the oven. I found it helpful to remove the muffins from the pan and dip the entire top into the syrup.



I had these the next day with a bit of vanilla yogurt and blueberries. Just split the muffin into top and bottom and heat in the microwave. Spoon on some yogurt, add in a few blueberries, and top with the muffin top. Yum.

the scientific method works....

I stopped by Trader Joe's after work today to pick up some bread for dinner, and some more chocolate for baking. I'm loving that store more and more. Anyways, they had blueberries on sale, and I suddenly got a craving for blueberries muffins and scones. Good news for my palate, bad news for my next weigh in. But I came home and found that there was no milk for muffins! Luckily I found a recipe from Elton Brown's Good Eats that used yogurt instead.

The muffins came out light, fluffy, and very moist, almost like a cupcake. I sprinkled some turbino sugar (large grained raw sugar) on top for extra crunch. There is quite a bit of leavening in the mix (3 tsp worth) so don't worry if the batter foams a bit. Remember to not overbeat and to gently fold the berries in. I used some of the batter (without blueberries) for apple muffins as well.










Blueberry Muffins (adapted from food network)
makes 14 muffins (12 if you make them slightly bigger)

1/2 cup vegetable oil
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1 egg
1 cup yogurt (I used non-fat plain yogurt)
1 1/2 cup all purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
2 tsp baking powder
pinch salt
1 1/2 cup fresh blueberries
1 tsp flour
Turbino sugar

Preheat oven to 380 degrees.

Combine vegetable oil, sugar, egg, and yogurt in bowl. Combine 1 1/2 cup flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Add dry ingredients to wet. Mix until just combined. Toss blueberries with 1 tsp flour (so they wouldn't sink to the bottom) and gently fold into batter.

Fill greased (or lined) muffin pans about 3/4 full. Place into oven and turn temperature up to 400 degree. Bake for 20-25 minutes. About 10 minutes before they're done, sprinkle on turbino sugar.

* For apple muffins, omit the blueberries and replace with 1/3 cup chopped apples and 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon.

food for though...

Benefits of soy beans:

• complete protein containing many essential amino acids
• high content of polyunsaturated and monounsaturated fat (good for the heart), fiber, vitamins, minerals
• low content of saturated fat
  

Soy vs. cow's milk

• Equal amount of proteins
• Soy milk's main dissacharide is sucrose, which breaks down into fructose and glucose. Because of the lack of lactose, soy milk can be drank by those who are lactose intolerant or suffering from galactosemia (inability to digest galactose, a byproduct of lactose breakdown)
• Soy milk contains less saturated fat than cow's milk and no cholesterol
• Soy milk contains lecithin (protects large intestine from colon bacteria) and Vitamin E (antioxidants)
• Soy milk contains little digestible calcium (however, most manufacturers enrich their products with digestible calcium carbonate)

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A traditional Chinese breakfast is hot sweetened soy milk (豆浆 dou jiang) with crisp fried dough strips (油条 you tiao). Indeed, whenever we go back to China, my aunt would buy several containers of fresh soymilk for breakfast every morning. The street vendors set up their stands early in the morning, drawing crowds with the aroma of sizzling, golden you tiao, and the rising steam of soy milk. The flavor of the off-white liquid is rich and smooth, distinctively nutty.

In the states, we like to make our own soy milk. It's a simple process, with gratifying results.

Soymilk
makes about 5 cups
1 cup dry soy beans
granulated sugar to taste
water

Soak dry soy beans overnight (8-10 hours). Add about 1/3 cup soy beans to blender and add water until blender if 1/3 full. Blend until liquid. Pass puree through fine cheesecloth and squeeze to get all the liquid out. Be careful to not let pulp pass through. Strain again if desire. Place strained soy milk into pot and bring to boil. Add sugar to taste. Serve hot or cold.

You can adjust the water in the blender to obtain your preferred thickness of soy milk. And since I like my soy milk rather sweet, I also add in quite a bit of sugar. Allow the hot soy milk to cool before pouring into a pitcher and refrigerating.