Cooking with Love

with Gianna Conte    (Jan)

Makes 6 deep muffins

Makes 6 deep muffins

Sweet Dreams Muffins

This is a basic muffin recipe that can be very versatile. This morning, I decided to make blueberry surprise muffins.

I like using this particular popover style muffin tin. I like the shape. You can use a regular shape muffin tin. Here's what you need:

1 egg, room temperature

3/4 cup milk

1/2 cup melted butter

2 cups flour

1/3 cup sugar

3 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

Blueberry or Strawberry jam

Directions:

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Grease bottoms of 12 muffin cups or 6 popover tin or use paper liners.

In a small bowl, beat the egg. Stir in the melted butter and milk.

In a large bowl, stir the dry ingredients together.

Pour the wet ingredients into the bowl with dry ingredients and stir only until the flour is moistened. The batter should be thick and lumpy.

Fill muffin tins 1/3 full, top with your favorite jam (1/2 tsp) then top with more batter until 2/3 muffin tin is filled.

Bake until golden brown, about 15-20 minutes.

*Note: I like to use cookie sheet under the muffin tins to avoid spillage.

Variations:

Nut crunch topping:

Mix 1/4 cup brown sugar, 1/2 cup chopped nuts, 1/4 tsp cinnamon. Sprinkle on muffin before baking.

Nice and warm out of the oven. Pass the butter.

Nice and warm out of the oven. Pass the butter.



Let's get baking!


Preheat the oven to 350 degrees


 1 whole thin skinned orange, remove the stem and cut in quarters. Keep the skin on the oranges.

In a clean large food processor, add the orange quarters, 1 1/4 cups of sugar, three large eggs, 1 tsp of vanilla, 1 tsp of orange extract, 1 tbsp of Triple Sec liqueur, optional, 2/3 cup vegetable oil. 


Pulse all ingredients in the processor and then puree until mixture becomes a batter with specs of orange peel.


Add to the processor:


2 1/4 cups all purpose flour

2 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt


Process all dry ingredients until they are entirely incorporated into the batter.


Bake in a greased and floured spring pan, using a parchment paper circle on top of the greased bottom.*


Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Place in the center rack of the oven.  Bake for 30-40 minutes, depending on your oven.


Remove from your oven and let it cool down completely. Dust with powdered sugar or make a drizzle of 1/4 cup powdered sugar and fresh squeezed orange until thick and smooth.  Pour onto the cooled fresh orange cake.


*if you don't have a large processor, you can use a blender.


Enjoy with some espresso and close your eyes and it will feel like you're in Sicily.