Blueberry Coffee Cake Muffins

Because of the disastrous Blueberry Scones with Lemon Glaze recipe yesterday, I decided to make Ina Garten's Blueberry Coffee Cake Muffins today. Tomorrow I have my Sociology Final and I was hoping these wouldn't be another flop of a recipe. Since I had a ton blueberries left over from yesterday, I might as well use them, right? This recipe was extremely simple and straight forward. Plus the blueberries didn't get crushed!! And why would they in this recipe? It's an actual batter which makes it less stressful. **Tip: Toss the blueberries in a little bit of flour before folding them into the batter to prevent them from sinking to the bottom of the muffin when baking. I also added the zest of one lemon to the batter because it goes well with blueberries. Making the batter was quick. The longest part of the recipe was the baking period but that was about it. These came out with a pale golden brown top and were delicious!! Finally, redemption from yesterday. These were moist, sweet yet tart from the blueberries and the lemon definitely rounded out the flavors. Hopefully these will be a great "brain food" tomorrow! They actually say that blueberries help with memory so let's see if that's true with my Sociology Final. Now I have to get back to studying!! Here's the recipe!

Blueberry Coffee Cake Muffins (Makes 16 Muffins)
Ingredients
12 tablespoons (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 1/2 cups sugar
3 extra-large eggs, at room temperature
1 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
8 ounces (about 1 cup) sour cream
1/4 cup milk
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
2 half-pints fresh blueberries, picked through for stems

Directions
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Place 16 paper liners in muffin pans.

In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy, about 5 minutes. With the mixer on low speed, add the eggs 1 at a time, then add the vanilla, sour cream, and milk. In a separate bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. With the mixer on low speed add the flour mixture to the batter and beat until just mixed. Fold in the blueberries with a spatula and be sure the batter is completely mixed.

Scoop the batter into the prepared muffin pans, filling each cup just over the top, and bake for 25 to 30 minutes, until the muffins are lightly browned on top and a cake tester comes out clean.


-Aaron John
My Food Outings: AJ's Food Adventure
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Blueberry Scones with Lemon Glaze

Lately, I've been craving Blueberry Scones. I haven't had one in a very long time. The first ever Blueberry Scone I had came from Starbucks and it was beyond good. It had a crunchy layer of sugar on the top, was buttery on the inside and the blueberries were tart and sweet. Just describing them makes me want to go buy one right now. But instead, I have a funny story to tell you that my friend told me about. My friend was at "By George", which is a cafe/food place underneath UW's Odegaard library, waiting in line to order. A girl in front of her ordered a muffin and when the cashier returned with the girl's order, she gave her a scone. Okay, who gets a muffin confused with a scone?! They look totally different! Anyway, since it's finals week here at UW, I thought Blueberry Scones would be a good "brain food" to eat before my FINAL EXAM. That's right, I only have ONE Final Exam and I took FOUR classes this quarter. I'm so happy about that. So, I searched high and low for a Blueberry Scones with Lemon Glaze recipe and ended up with one by Tyler Florence. His Blueberry Scones got rave reviews so I said "Why not?". Tyler Florence is a really great chef so I trust that he can make great food.

I did exactly what the recipe said. I cut the butter into the flour mixture and added the heavy cream. I noticed that the dough was very strange. It was extremely dry and thick so I had to add even more heavy cream. Then, I added the fresh blueberries (which I froze to try and reduce crushing them) and things got even worse. It was almost impossible to mix in the blueberries into the dough. Every which way, the blueberries were getting crushed even though they were frozen! The skins of the blueberries were peeling off and created a huge mess. I wasn't able to fully mix in the blueberries and to top it all off, now I had to pat it down so I can cut scones. I think you get the picture now, right? Patting them down led to more smashing. At this point, I was completely over and annoyed by this recipe and so I just cut out these scones, brushed them with heavy cream and sprinkled them with sugar. When they came out of the oven, they looked like deformed rectangles. Some weren't even cooked so I had to take out the ones that were cooked and put the rest back into the oven. At this point, I was so done with the recipe that I didn't want to waste more ingredients on these scones by making the glaze. Nothing could save them now. When I ate one, it wasn't that great. It was so doughy and dense. It wasn't fluffy and flakey like I hoped. Maybe I'll try it again but I don't want to put myself through this misery. Here's the recipe if you actually want to try out these scones. Because of this horrible recipe, I will make Blueberry Coffee Cake Muffins tomorrow so look out for that.

Blueberry Scones with Lemon Glaze (Makes 8 scones)
Ingredients
Blueberry Scones:
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons sugar
5 tablespoons unsalted butter, cold, cut in chunks
1 cup heavy cream, plus more for brushing the scones
1 cup fresh blueberries
Lemon Glaze:
1/2 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice
2 cups confectioners' sugar, sifted
1 lemon, zest finely grated
1 tablespoon unsalted butter

Directions
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.

Sift together the dry ingredients; the flour, baking powder, salt, and sugar. Using 2 forks or a pastry blender, cut in the butter to coat the pieces with the flour. The mixture should look like coarse crumbs. Make a well in the center and pour in the heavy cream. Fold everything together just to incorporate; do not overwork the dough. Fold the blueberries into the batter. Take care not to mash or bruise the blueberries because their strong color will bleed into the dough.

Press the dough out on a lightly floured surface into a rectangle about 12 by 3 by 1 1/4 inches. Cut the rectangle in 1/2 then cut the pieces in 1/2 again, giving you 4 (3-inch) squares. Cut the squares in 1/2 on a diagonal to give you the classic triangle shape. Place the scones on an ungreased cookie sheet and brush the tops with a little heavy cream. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes until beautiful and brown. Let the scones cool a bit before you apply the glaze.

Technically you should make this simple lemon glaze in a double boiler (i.e. over a pot of simmering water with a heatproof bowl set on top) but it's even simpler to zap it in the microwave. Mix the lemon juice and confectioners' sugar together in a microwave-safe bowl. Stir until the sugar dissolves. Add the lemon zest and butter. Nuke it for 30 seconds on high. Whisk the glaze to smooth out any lumps, then drizzle the glaze over the top of the scones. Let it set a minute before serving.



-Aaron John
My Food Outings: AJ's Food Adventure
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"Strawberry Shortcake" Cookies

I have a love for many things strawberry. From the simple chocolate dipped strawberry, strawberry jams, strawberry ice cream and so forth. Then, there's my love for the Strawberry Kellogg's Special K Bars. These are my favorite to eat, especially during my two hour breaks in between classes at UW. They are a great snack to have and have a great sweetness. They taste similar to "Cap'n Crunch Berries". If you haven't tried them, you should!! Well, one day during my two hour break, I got an inspiration. I wanted to make a strawberry cookie that had the same intense strawberry sweetness that the Special K Bar had. Shouldn't be too hard right? I mean, I said to myself "I can probably just add strawberry extract to my chocolate chip cookie recipe and it would be done".

Well, I started to read the ingredients in the Special K Bar to see what the strawberry looking pieces were because if I was going to make a cookie like these bars, it should have some strawberry pieces right? However, these "strawberry pieces" in the Bars were actually CRANBERRIES! o__O What a revelation. A strawberry bar that doesn't have strawberries?! Say Whaaaaa?! It made my life a little easier though because I made "White Chocolate Cranberry Cookies" before. So, I would just have to add strawberry extract to this cookie. I did exactly that. In this case, I used imitation strawberry extract. I don't usually do or recommend this. If anything, get the pure stuff. However, after going to four different stores, they either had the imitation extract or none at all. Anywho, I used about 2 tsp. of the imitation strawberry extract and mixed it into the "White Chocolate Cranberry Cookies". Then I scooped and baked them. After coming out of the oven and cooled, I drizzled them with a simple icing made out of powdered sugar and milk. These cookies were delicious!! The cookies had the strawberry sweetness, the cranberries gave a tartness and the chocolate gave a vanilla creaminess. I gave them the name "'Strawberry Shortcake' Cookies" because the white chocolate chips really gave the creamy, vanilla factor that whip cream gives strawberry shortcakes. This has become one of my favorites!! :D Here was my simple icing recipe.

Vanilla Icing (Good for a batch of 8 cookies)
Ingredients
1/4 cup powdered sugar
1 teaspoon milk
A Splash of vanilla

Directions
Place all ingredients in a bowl and mix until smooth. Once finished, check to see if the icing is able to be drizzled easily. If not, add more milk. If too thin, add more powdered sugar. Once at desired thickness, drizzle lightly over the cookies.

-Aaron John
My Food Outings: AJ's Food Adventure
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"Jamoca Almond Fudge" Cookies

If you've ever been to Baskin Robbins, you know that one of their classic flavors is their "Jamoca Almond Fudge" ice cream and you probably have tried it before. If you haven't, their "Jamoca Almond Fudge" ice cream is a combination of coffee ice cream, chocolate fudge that is running throughout and roasted almonds. This has been one of my favorite flavors at BR. So, still on my creative project of turning ice cream flavors into cookies, this post is the recreation of BR's "Jamoca Almond Fudge" ice cream. Once again, I used my chocolate chip cookie batter recipe. The recipe I used to use can be found at my old blog post, "The Best Chocolate Cookie Out There". I feel like I should explain why I'm using this recipe constantly. Well, the reason why I always use this recipe in creating new flavors is because it's a great cookie dough to work with. It has a neutral vanilla flavor which goes well with everything, it creates a nice chew to the cookie and it's easy to do. They say, you always need a great base in order to build a building. Well, you also need a great cookie dough to create a great cookie and the chocolate chip cookie dough recipe is exactly that. Anyways, back to my "Jamoca Almond Fudge" cookie. Like I said before, I used the chocolate chip cookie dough recipe. During the stage where I cream the butter and sugar together, I added about 2 tablespoons of instant espresso powder. I then continued the recipe as is. Then when it came time for the "mix-ins", I added 1 cup of chocolate chips and 1 cup of roasted almonds. Once baked, I let them cool and I topped them with a "hot fudge sauce" from a recipe by Wayne Harley Brachman. His recipe didn't taste like a store bought one but it was alright. I would say to buy the store bought stuff though because it is easier to use and tastes great. Overall, these cookies were somewhat of a success in my creative project. They only had a hint of coffee which was alright but it was missing that fudge sauce flavor that this sauce did not give. It was a good trial though! Here's the hot fudge sauce recipe I used.

Hot Fudge Sauce

Ingredients
1/2 cup very hot brewed coffee
1/2 cup sugar
3/4 cup unsweetened Dutch-processed cocoa
1/2 cup light corn syrup
4 ounces semi-sweet chocolate, chopped
2 tablespoons unsalted butter

Directions
In a medium bowl, whisk together the coffee, sugar and cocoa. Whisk in the corn syrup until all the sugar crystals are dissolved and the mixture is completely smooth.

Place the chocolate and butter in a large, dry bowl or in the top of a double boiler set over barely simmering water. When the chocolate has melted, whisk in the coffee-cocoa mixture until smooth and blended. The sauce is best if left to ripen for a full day before serving. Store in a sealed container. The sauce keeps for 3 weeks in the refrigerator or 3 months in the freezer.

-Aaron John
My Food Outings: AJ's Food Adventure
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Florentines (Almond Lace Cookies)

Yet another week where I have never baked, let alone eaten, this weeks creation before. What kind of foodie am I? haha. Anyways, this weeks creation was Florentines which are also known as Almond Lace Cookies. These cookies come from Italy and are extremely thin and almost candy like. I mean, it's a cookie and candy all in one! How can you go wrong? It is made mostly out of nuts, in this case almonds, and sometimes even dried fruit, usually cherries. However, I didn't want to go the dried fruit route so I opted for a simple version of the cookie. I ended up with this recipe from the food network.

When making this cookie, the one thing I changed in the recipe was the use of orange zest. Call me crazy but I don't fancy the flavor of orange in baked goods, especially the combination of orange with chocolate. To fix this, I used lemon! I love using lemon instead because it only gives a slight hint of flavor and really boosts the flavor of the vanilla. In addition, I really did not believe that this recipe needed 2 tablespoons of zest. Unless you want a strong citrus flavor, go for the full 2 tablespoons. However, I changed the measurement to about 1 teaspoon of lemon zest which is usually the zest of one lemon. Of course you can add more or add less. What I like to do is zest the lemon onto a plate separately and add zest, little by little, to the batter until it has reached the point where I am satisfied with the flavor. (Don't be afraid to taste the batter. That's the only way you'll know if it tastes good or not!)

After making the batter, things seemed strange. The so called "batter" was not a batter. After letting the batter cool as stated, it became extremely crumbly and would not hold it's shape when scooped with a mini ice cream scoop. Because I had never made these before, I assumed that maybe that's how it was suppose to be so I scooped and baked one cookie from this batter. The cookie ended up spreading very little and it had a "lump" of batter in the middle. The next trial was scooping this crumbly batter and flattening it out. The cookie was even in thickness throughout but it barely spread. So, on a whim, I added some milk to see if it would form a dough again, which it did. I was pretty happy when it actually held together. So, I scooped the batter, flattened it in between parchment paper and baked. They came out perfect!! They were circular, golden brown, thin and crispy. So, if you ever have trouble with the batter being crumbly as well, just add milk until it is able to hold together and you should be fine. When you make this, you MUST use either parchment paper or a silpat on your baking sheet!! I can't stress this enough. These cookies WILL stick to your baking sheet if you don't. I mean, you have a candy like cookie which equals STICKY. Plus, this is a very thin cookie and that equals DELICATE. Put two and two together and without parchment paper or a silpat, well, you get the picture right? Overall, these cookies were good. Topped with chocolate and they were even better. If I had to compare them to something I would say that they tasted similar to the "Almond Roca" Candy. I wouldn't say I would eat these all day but they were pretty good. Here's the recipe.

Florentines (Almond Lace Cookies)
Ingredients
1 3/4 cups sliced, blanched almonds (about 5 ounces)
3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
Finely grated zest of 1 orange (about 2 tablespoons)
1/4 teaspoon fine salt
3/4 cup sugar
2 tablespoons heavy cream
2 tablespoons light corn syrup
5 tablespoons unsalted butter
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
Chocolate Topping, optional:
2 to 4 ounces semisweet chocolate, chopped

Directions
Position a rack in the center of the oven and preheat to 350 degrees F. Line a baking sheet with a silicone baking mat or parchment paper.

Pulse the almonds in a food processor until finely chopped, but not pasty. Stir together the nuts, flour, zest and salt in a large bowl.

Put the sugar, cream, corn syrup and butter in a small saucepan. Cook over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until mixture comes to a rolling boil and sugar is completely dissolved. Continue to boil for 1 minute. Remove from heat and stir in the vanilla, then pour mixture into almond mixture and stir just to combine. Set aside until cool enough to handle, 30 minutes.

Scoop rounded teaspoons (for 3-inch cookies) or rounded tablespoons (for 6-inch cookies) of batter and roll into balls. Place on prepared baking sheet, leaving about 3 to 4 inches between each cookie since they spread.

Bake 1 pan at a time, until the cookies are thin and an even golden brown color throughout, rotating pans halfway through baking time, about 10 to 11 minutes. Cool on baking sheet for 5 minutes, then transfer to racks to cool. Repeat with remaining batter. Serve.

Optional chocolate topping:
Put the chocolate in a medium heatproof bowl. Bring a saucepan filled with 1 inch or so of water to a very low simmer; set the bowl over, but not touching, the water. Stir the chocolate occasionally until melted and smooth. (Alternatively, put the chocolate in a medium microwave-safe bowl. Melt at 50 percent power in the microwave until soft, about 1 minute. Stir, and continue heat until completely melted, about 1 to 2 minutes more.)

For sandwiches: Drop about 1/2 teaspoon chocolate onto on the flat side of half of the cookies and press together with remaining halves. Return to rack and let chocolate set.

For chocolate decor: Drizzle melted chocolate over Florentines as desired. Set aside at room temperature until chocolate is set.


-Aaron John
My Food Outings: AJ's Food Adventure
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