Berry Muffins

Look! I actually cooked something! Well, baked technically. I have been in a mega-funk lately and any effort into cooking is usually one of the first things that goes when I am. I just want to come home, eat chips & salsa, and sit in front of the telly. This past week though we had a bit of a blizzard, with over a foot of snow in some areas. Being stuck at home gave me a little more impetus to do something in the kitchen, so I looked around for a recipe that would work with what I had on hand and found this one from, where else, Everyday Food. This is a basic muffin recipe to which you can add mix-ins, such as berries like me, or chocolate chips, nuts, dried fruit, etc. These came out great and not only made a yummy late breakfast snack, but were good warmed that evening with a little homemade ice cream too.

Better Than Basic Muffins
Recipe from Everyday Food; Makes 12














3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, melted, plus more for pan
2 cups all-purpose flour, spooned and leveled, plus more for pan
2 large eggs
1/2 cup whole milk
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
3/4 cup granulated sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
mix-ins
2 tablespoons sanding sugar (optional)

• Preheat oven to 375, with rack in lower third. Butter and flour a standard 12-cup muffin pan, tapping out excess. Set aside.
• In a small bowl, whisk together butter, eggs, milk, and vanilla; set aside. In a large bowl, whisk together dry ingredients; make a well in the center. Add egg mixture to well. With a rubber spatula, gently stir ingredients just until batter is moistened. Do not over-mix; a few lumps are fine). Add mix-ins, if desired.
• Spoon batter into prepared muffin cups, filling each about two-thirds full, sprinkle with sanding sugar, if desired. Bake until a toothpick or fork inserted in center of a muffin comes out clean, 15-20 minutes. Loosen muffins, and tip them on their sides to cool in pan. Serve warm or at room temperature.

My notes: I used 1 cup AP flour and 1 cup white whole wheat, and I substituted soy milk since that's what we had. I added 1 cup of mixed frozen berries into the batter at the end of step two. And I topped each muffin off with a sprinkling of red decorators sugar for Valentine's Day. Also I baked these in muffin cups that I spritzed with cooking spray instead of buttering and flouring.

Strawberry Shortstack

We had a pretty lazy day for July 4th. We slept in late, and lounged around a little bit before we made a quick trip to the store for cat food. While there I grabbed some pretty strawberries that were on sale, along with some heavy cream and a pint of vanilla ice cream. I wasn't 100% sure what I was going to do with them, I figured some kind of dessert. But then when we got home and I spied the 4 leftover pancakes from Monday night's dinner sitting in the fridge. And that's when I decided to create the Strawberry Shortstack. I made some whipped cream- 1 cup heavy cream, 1 tablespoon white sugar, 1/2 tablespoon powdered sugar, and 1/4 teaspoon Mexican vanilla. I popped that in the fridge and tossed my pancakes into a 350 degree oven to warm, only takes a few minutes. I cleaned and sliced my strawberries, and the blueberries I had leftover from the blueberry muffins while I was at it. Once all my ingredients were prepped I spread whipped cream on one pancakes, layered it with strawberries and then repeated with the second pancake. And of course I had to give it a little Independence Day flair! And to go with our Strawberry Shortstack I blended up some blueberry smoothies- 1 cup vanilla yogurt, 1 banana, and 1 cup blueberries. Mmmmm!