Thursday, March 3, 2011

Orange Cream Cheese Muffins with Pepita Crunch


















Fourth recipe in the eat me, delicious tribute week!

I was immediately drawn to this recipe. Cheesecake? Always. Citrus? Intravenously, please. Seeds? Welcome anytime. Delicious baked goods? Definitely. Suffice to say, these are really good muffins. They're not health food by any stretch of the imagination and I think they taste rather cakey (but my brother didn't think so), but still so delicious. I assumed they would taste more like cake and less like muffins because of the really time-consuming and labor intensive mixing (secret to excellent soft cakes and cheesecake, by the way) and that the directions stipulated you needed to add the ingredients little by little (other secret of really delicious sweet good baking). Generally, muffins are less mixed which makes them more crumbly.

I didn't think the cream cheese flavor was that prominent, but Ashley did, so you should try them for yourself and tell me what you think.


















That being said, I really enjoyed these muffins. The pepita crunch was a welcome texture, and I especially liked sprinkling the leftovers on slices of the muffins (yum!)

My only frustration with the recipe was trying to scrape the pepita crunch off of the baking sheet. I didn't grease the pan at all, so this should be completely unsurprising (are you nonplussed?), but I also thought that there was a lot of leftover egg white which concerned me when I opened up the oven and it looked like I was making seedy scrambled eggs. Maybe one egg white to 1/4 cup of pepitas is not the right ratio? I don't know, but the seeds ended up tasting really good and not so eggy and after some enthusiastic scrubbing my cookie sheet is clean too.

Oh, and there was that part where I clumsily hit the muffin tin against the middle baking rack and two of my muffins toppled face-down onto the oven door. I just about cried, but luckily my mom was there to help me pick up the two I lost and encourage me to continue (thanks mom!).


















Definitely try this one out if you're in a dessert muffin mood.


Makes 12 muffins

Found on eat me, delicious

Orange Cream Cheese Muffins (with Pepita Crunch)
Great Coffee Cakes, Sticky Buns, Muffins & More


Pepita Crunch
1 large egg white (reserve yolk)
2 tbsp plus 1 tsp granulated sugar
1/2 cup pepitas (pumpkin seeds)

Muffins
1/2 small navel orange, cut into 6 to 8 pieces (zest, pith and flesh)
4 ounces cream cheese, at room temperature, broken into 3 to 4 pieces
2 cups all purpose flour, spooned in and leveled
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, slightly firm
1 cup superfine sugar
2 large eggs
1 large egg yolk (reserved from pepita crunch)
1 tsp pure vanilla extract

1. Position the racks in the upper and lower thirds of the oven. Heat the oven to 350F. Spray a rimmed cookie sheet with nonstick cooking spray.

Make the pepita crunch:
2. In a small bowl, whisk together the egg white and 1 tablespoon of the granulated sugar. Add the pumpkin seeds, tossing to coat well with the egg/sugar mixture. Pour into the prepared cookie sheet and spread evenly in a single layer. Sprinkle 1 more tablespoon of the sugar over the pepitas. Bake for 7 to 8 minutes, stir the pepitas with a fork, and bake for another 7 minutes. Remove from the oven, stir the pepitas, sprinkle with the remaining 1 teaspoon of sugar, and bake for another 3 minutes. Remove from the oven and allow to cool. Break up any clusters with your fingertips and set aside. (Ashley note: I found this baking time too long.)

Make the batter:
3. Increase the oven temperature to 375F. Line fourteen muffin cups with paper or foil cupcake liners.

4. Fit a food processor with the steel blade. With the machine on, drop the orange pieces through the feeder tube. Process until finely chopped, then measure 1/4 cup pulp and return it to the processor bowl. (Discard any remaining orange.) Add the cream cheese and process in three 10-second intervals, scraping down the side of the bowl after each process. The mixture should retain some orange texture.

5. In a large bowl, thoroughly whisk together the flour, baking powder, salt and baking soda. Set aside.

6. Cut the butter into 1-inch pieces and place in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Mix on medium speed until smooth and lightened in color, about 1 minute. Stop the machine and add the cream cheese/orange mixture, then mix on medium speed for 1 minute. Add the superfine sugar in a steady stream, then blend in the eggs, the reserved yolk, and the vanilla.

7. Reduce the mixer speed to low and add the flour mixture in three additions, mixing just until blended after each addition.

Bake the muffins:
8. Portion level scoops of the batter into the prepared pans using a no. 16 ice cream scoop (1/4 cup capacity). Sprinkle the top of each muffin with 1 tablespoon of the pepita crunch. Be sure to use any sugar the remains in the pan.

9. Bake for 22 to 25 minutes, or until the muffins are golden brown and the tops are springy to the touch. To ensure even baking, toward the end of baking time, rotate the pans top to bottom and front to back. Remove from the oven and place on a rack to cool.

Wednesday, March 2, 2011

Coconut Oatmeal Cookies























Happy Hinamatsuri (a.k.a Girls' Day)! When I was a little girl growing up in Hawaii, we celebrated girl's day every year. Although I said this week would be eat me, delicious tribute week, I really wanted to make hishimochi. So my dad and I set out on a mission, we drove to three different stores but none of them carried glutinous rice flour. I guess we're the last gluten-loving people on the planet. Oh well, next year! I'll keep my eyes peeled, though, because I'd love to figure out how to make red bean stuffed mochi and mochi ice cream. Maybe I'll try somewhere like Ranch 99 next chance I get. Any other suggestions? Where would you all get glutinous rice flour from?

I needed to make something delicious to celebrate those double x chromosomes and my new favorite food blog, so I set to search and found a coconut cookie recipe. Given that I spent my early childhood in Hawaii eating mostly tofu, fruits, and vegetables (okay, and spam musubi and manapua, too), I love almost all things fruit, coconut especially. I had never baked with coconut before, and wasn't quite sure what to expect, but it is undoubtedly of my new favorite baking ingredients. I used the thicker unsweetened coconut (so good!) and organic oatmeal (mmmm!) and ended up with incredible cookies, but they were certainly a mouthful because of the large hunks of coconut. I didn't add the chocolate, and decided to make them more soft and chewy than crunchy, which I think is a personal preference. They were gone less than twelve hours later!

I received this phone call around 4:30: "Hey Erin, I just got home and I ate about three of your cookies in thirty seconds. I hope you don't mind, I was calling to make sure you wouldn't be upset if they were all gone by the time you got back. Your cookies are amazing, sweetie. Love you lots."

I was overjoyed. That was totally the purpose of making them.

May your baking adventures be as fruitful as mine (bad pun intended)!

Makes about 29 medium sized cookies
Coconut Cookies
adapted from: eat me, delicious, Barbara Boczany & This Week for Dinner

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter
1 cup brown sugar, packed
6 tbsp sugar
2 large eggs
1 1/2 tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 cup flour
2 1/4 cups oats
1 1/2 cups dried unsweetened shredded coconut*

Preheat oven to 375F. Beat butter and sugars at high speed until fluffy. Add eggs and beat till blended. Beat in vanilla, baking soda, and salt. Add flour and mix at low speed until blended. Stir in oats, coconut and chocolate.

Arrange 1/4 cup mounds about 3 inches apart on large buttered baking sheets. Pat down to 1/2 inch. Bake on middle rack, 10 minutes (note: my rickety old oven is really inefficient, your baking time should probably be around 8 minutes). Cool one minute. Transfer to cooling rack.

*I made these with 1 heaping cup of unsweetened shredded and 1 cup of flaked coconut, and used ener-g egg replacer and earth balance to make it vegan. less nutritional value/ more ethical. i used semisweet chocolate chips on the last batch of cookies. Makes about 36.

Tuesday, March 1, 2011

Soft, Lovely Pretzels



















Before finals kick in, I decided to make this week a tribute to my new favorite food blog, eat me, delicious (sorry if you are getting sick of hearing me dote, but the food Ashley blogs about is so good!). So I suppose this will be the second recipe for my eat me, delicious tribute week, and we'll count the first one as yesterday's introduction to the goodness of white chocolate.

Back to bendy food: pretzels are one of those breads that I really enjoy but rarely eat. California just isn't chock-full of pretzel vendors, unfortunately. I wrote in my first post that part of the reason I enjoy baking is to make other people happy. My dad had been asking me to make pretzels for a while, so I finally caved after I found scrumptious looking pretzels on Ashley's blog. They're surprisingly easy to make, too! My dad, Profe, and our dog, Elric, all flocked to the baking party, and Profe tried to steal a piece of my pretzel, the scoundrel! But don't worry, only dads were fed. :)

Ashley got the recipe from Alton Brown. A while ago, my best friend had mentioned that one of her favorite shows was "Good Eats" but I had never really watched Alton's cooking show (or any cooking show for that matter) or had any inkling about his culinary craftsmanship before today. I've been missing out. Check out his delicious looking enchilada lasagna. That's definitely on my ever-growing list of things to make.

Speaking of making things, these pretzels are fun, easy, and a deliciously comforting food. The baking powder in the boiling water created a huge mess, but the fun of making this recipe was totally worth it (and now my stove is really clean too!).

Enjoy!



Soft Pretzels
Found on eat me, delicious who got the recipe from Alton Brown

Makes 8 pretzels.

1 1/2 cups warm (110 to 115 degrees F) water
1 tablespoon sugar
2 teaspoons kosher salt
1 package active dry yeast
22 ounces all-purpose flour, approximately 4 1/2 cups
2 ounces unsalted butter, melted
Vegetable oil, for pan
10 cups water
2/3 cup baking soda
1 large egg yolk beaten with 1 tablespoon water
Pretzel salt

Combine the water, sugar and kosher salt in the bowl of a stand mixer and sprinkle the yeast on top. Allow to sit for 5 minutes or until the mixture begins to foam. Add the flour and butter and, using the dough hook attachment, mix on low speed until well combined. Change to medium speed and knead until the dough is smooth and pulls away from the side of the bowl, approximately 4 to 5 minutes. Remove the dough from the bowl, clean the bowl and then oil it well with vegetable oil. Return the dough to the bowl, cover with plastic wrap and sit in a warm place for approximately 50 to 55 minutes or until the dough has doubled in size.

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees F. Line 2 half-sheet pans with parchment paper and lightly brush with the vegetable oil. Set aside.

Bring the 10 cups of water and the baking soda to a rolling boil in an 8-quart saucepan or roasting pan.

In the meantime, turn the dough out onto a slightly oiled work surface and divide into 8 equal pieces. Roll out each piece of dough into a 24-inch rope. Make a U-shape with the rope, holding the ends of the rope, cross them over each other and press onto the bottom of the U in order to form the shape of a pretzel. Place onto the parchment-lined half sheet pan.


















Place the pretzels into the boiling water, 1 by 1, for 30 seconds. Remove them from the water using a large flat spatula. Return to the half sheet pan, brush the top of each pretzel with the beaten egg yolk and water mixture and sprinkle with the pretzel salt. Bake until dark golden brown in color, approximately 12 to 14 minutes. Transfer to a cooling rack for at least 5 minutes before serving.


This one is slightly heart-shaped!