I have struggled and struggled with this recipe, as the muffins tasted really good but didn’t rise very well. It seemed to me as if the issue must be with the leavening. If you have acidic ingredients such as buttermilk, as my original recipe did, then you’re supposed to use baking soda instead of baking powder, but the recipe called for baking powder. So I’ve tried a number of different leavening amounts and combinations, but I never was quite satisfied with the results. After one especially disastrous experiment I got a Sally’s Baking Addiction post in my inbox (she’s one of only three cooking websites to which I subscribe) that was basically her version of this recipe, although with different spices. Boy, would it have been helpful if she’d made those muffins a week earlier! The version I had just produced
Breakfast & Brunch
How to Tweak a Recipe
This week I’m doing something a little different from the usual recipe-for-company-or-a-crowd. Instead, I’m writing on how to adapt a specific recipe with some general principles thrown in.
Complicated-but-Good Harvest Muffins
I would highly recommend these muffins, and you could leave off the topping if you want them to have less sugar. The amount in the muffins themselves isn’t too bad. You do have to measure a fair number of spices and grate apples. I kept trying to talk myself out of putting in the apples when I made this recipe for the first time, as I didn’t want to bother, but I decided I’d better go ahead and include them and I was glad I did. The combination of the pumpkin and the apple is really good, and the apples are probably counted as part of the liquid in the recipe. So it’s kind of a pain, but worth it. These probably aren’t muffins that you’d whip up for a regular weekday breakfast, but they’re very nice for a special occasion.
The World’s Best Waffles
I say on the sidebar to this blog that I’m concentrating on “company” food, not on what I made for dinner Tuesday night. It’s not really cheating for me to include this recipe, since I have made it for an overnight guest–once. These waffles have been a Saturday breakfast staple at our house for almost 20 years, as I can remember making them when Gideon was a baby. (I probably got started making them because we were given a waffle iron as a wedding present. Thanks, Steve and Evelyn! That waffle iron lasted a long, long time.) Over those same 20 years I’ve made various changes of my own, so I now feel comfortable posting the recipe. The original is from a cookbook I’ve mentioned before, Beat That! Cookbook by the inimitable Ann Hodgman. You know a cookbook is good when the pages are splattered and covered with notations. That’s certainly true for my copy of this one. Ann titled this recipe “The Only Waffles Better Than That Damn Mix” (her language, not mine!). The mix she’s referring to is Pepperidge Farm’s Homestyle Pancake and Waffle Mix, which I’ve never seen on a grocery store shelf. But then, I don’t buy mixes. (Hoity-toity, aren’t I?) I do make these using freshly-ground flour from my grain mill, but don’t let that scare you off. I think they’d be very good (just not as good) made with store-bought white whole-wheat flour. You can mix up the dry and the wet ingredients the night before. I’ve tried mixing up the batter completely the night before and putting it in the fridge, but I’ve decided that it’s not as good that way.
Easy Southwest Corn Pudding
When we went on a huge driving trip one year from Denver to Los Angeles and back again, our first stop was at Arches National Park in Utah. In their gift shop was the gorgeous cookbook Seasonal Southwest Cooking. I decided that it would be my one souvenir for the trip, and I’ve made a number of its recipes. The one below has come in very useful whenever I’m feeding a breakfast crowd, as at the Saturday-morning rehearsals of the community chorale to which I belong. People go absolutely nuts over it, and it’s vegetarian and gluten-free! So almost everyone is a crowd can eat it. Highly, highly recommended.
Make-Your-Own Granola
Many years ago I ran into a granola recipe in the old Gourmet magazine (now gone, alas) called “Sherry’s Granola.” I have followed its basic concept for many years, tweaking it and generalizing it until I can call it my own. Granola is a great kitchen-sink item, and as you’ll see below it’s more of a procedure than a recipe.
You may be surprised at the amount of sweetener called for, a whole cupful of maple syrup (not pancake syrup, puh-leeze!) or honey, since these recipes are for the most part low- or no-sugar.
Labor-Intensive but Worthwhile Muffins
Another one of my badly-composed photographs. I always end up frantically taking a few shots at the very last minute before the hordes pour in the door. We had a very nice retreat breakfast, and the pictured pumpkin muffins were eaten down to the last crumb. I’ve made the recipe a little less complicated. As I’ve mentioned before, the principle for recipes is that you must make three changes in it in order to claim it as your own. I’m giving full credit to America’s Test Kitchen for the original recipe, but I have made three changes: I made muffins instead of bread, I’ve changed the technique for getting water out of the pumpkin, and I’ve taken the butter out of the streusel topping, as the use of butter makes the topping very clumpy. (Also, as you’ll see, there’s another small change I made as I was typing the recipe, so you can note yet another unnecessary step they were making you do!)
Breakfast for 75
The first of what I hope will be a weekly series of posts on my excursions into feeding people, usually at our home but sometimes somewhere else. (I’ll hope to develop my abilities as a photographer along the way.)
This past Saturday morning the Cherry Creek Chorale had its usual retreat rehearsal. Once per concert season, usually about every two months, we have this special,