Potato dill muffin ポテトとディルのマフィン

 This is another muffin from the “Mostly muffin” cookbook. My wife made this since we had leftover mashed potatoes made from russet potatoes baked (in Weber grill with pork roast). The mashed potatoes were seasoned with buttermilk, butter, salt and pepper. This is a very nice muffin with a clearly identifiable dill flavor but also a hint of the mashed potato.

Here again, I ask to my wife to take over.

Ingredients
2 cups AP flour
1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
3/4 cup milk
1/2 cup sour cream
1/2 cup cooked mashed potatoes
1/4 cup lightly salted butter melted and cooled
1 egg lightly beaten
1/4 to 1/2 tsp. Sriracha hot sauce
1 1/2 tsp. dried onion (or onion powder or 2 Tbs. chopped scallions)
2 Tbs. dill chopped

Directions:
Mix the dry ingredients in a bowl (Flour thru salt). In another bowl mix the wet ingredients (i.e. the rest of the ingredients). Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and mix until incorporated. Scoop (using 2nd largest scoop) into 12 heavily greased muffin tins. Bake at 400 degrees for 15 to 20 minutes until a cake tester in the middle muffin comes out clean. Let cool for about 5 minutes before removing them from the muffin tin.

These were very hearty muffins. The dill flavor was the most noticeable. The rest of the flavors were a bit muted. Next time I might increase the hot sauce and onion. Nonetheless this was a good muffin for breakfast or even lunch. 

Fig (stuffed) muffin 無花果入りのマフィン

Recently, we reorganized our book shelves and during this process, my wife found quite a few cookbooks which we forgot we had. One of which was a small book called "Mostly Muffins". It was published in 1984 but it appears to be still available on Amazon. As a devotee of stuffed muffins, my wife could not pass this one up. So this is a fig muffin (first picture). She managed to place the stuffing in the center without any gaping space around the stuffing.

The fig stuffing definitely gave nice slightly sweet and figgy taste and nice slightly chewy texture.

As usual, I ask my wife to take over the rest.

Ingredients:
For fig filling
1/2 lb dried figs, trimmed and chopped
1/2 cup triple sec (original recipe calls for freshly squeezed orange juice which we did not have).
3 tbs honey
1 1/2 tsp fresh squeezed lemon juice

For muffin batter
1 1/4 cup AP flour
3/4 cup whole-wheat flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup unsalted butter melted and cooled
1/2 cup sugar plus 1 Tbs. molasses (original recipe calls for dark brown sugar)
1/4 cup honey
1 egg, lightly beaten
1/2 tsp orange flavoring
3/4 cup triple sec (original recipe calls for orange juice).

Double recipe:
Ingredients:
For fig filling
1 lb dried figs, trimmed and chopped
1 cup triple sec (original recipe calls for freshly squeezed orange juice which we did not have).
6 tbs honey
 Tbs. fresh squeezed lemon juice

For muffin batter
2 1/2 cup AP flour

1 1/2 cup whole-wheat flour
2  tsp baking powder
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp salt
1 cup unsalted butter melted and cooled
1 cup sugar plus 2 Tbs. molasses (original recipe calls for dark brown sugar)
1/2 cup honey
2 eggs, lightly beaten
1 tsp orange flavoring 
1 1/2 cups triple sec (original recipe calls for orange juice).


Directions:
For the filling:
In as small saucepan combine the filling ingredients and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat and simmer covered for 20 minutes. If there is excess liquid remove the cover and reduce until thickened. (In this batch all the liquid was absorbed.) Cool slightly then place in a food processor fitted with a steel blade and process for 30 seconds until puréed. Set aside.

For the dough:
Liberally grease the muffin tins. In a large bowl mix the dry ingredients. In another bowl mix the wet ingredients. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients. Add half the dough to the bottom of the muffin cups. Top with the fig mixture. Don’t let the fig mixture touch the side of the muffin cups. Top the fig mixture with the remaining half of the dough. The next picture shows the muffins partially assembled; 8 muffin tins are shown half filled with the fig mixture and 4 muffin tins completely assembled with the fig mixture covered. Bake in a 400 degree oven for 15 to 20 minutes until golden brown. Let cool for about 5 minutes and remove from the tins to a cooling rack.

The next picture shows the muffins just as they came out of the oven. 

This is a quite unique and nice muffin. They actually came out much better than expected.  I am not sure what difference substituting orange flavored liquor (triple sec) for the orange juice had but certainly the end result was very good. The muffin had a very tender texture and the fig filling added a mild sweetness. The slight crunch from the fig seeds in the fig mixture was a bit of a surprise but added an additional crunch element that was quite nice. They also provided inspiration on how to make muffins stuffed with other dried fruits...like persimmon...maybe.  

Ricotta sweet buns リコッタチーズバンズ

My Wife decided to make these muffins because she had made some ricotta cheese and wanted to use it before it went bad. (How the cheese was made is for a future post). These are very good breakfast muffins. They are more hearty than sweet. The combination of cheese and bread is very pleasing. The cheese has a nice lemon flavor. I saw her working on these buns and it looked very tedious to me with multiple steps. When it comes to baking bread, I am in the school of the simpler the better like no-knead breads. So I am grateful my wife is of the tedious multi-step school. 

My wife likes buns or muffins which have various kinds of filling but some times the moisture in the stuffing makes a gaping space above the filling. As a result of this recipe she learned that an indentation on the top of the dough then filled with the top open, will circumvent this problem. As you can see below, there is no gaps between the buns and the filling.

Ingredients:
for dough
1 cup whole milk
10 Tbs. butter melted
1 large egg plus 2 egg yolks
3 1/2 cups (496 gms) AP flour
1/3 cup (56.7 gms) sugar
2 1/4 tsp yeast
1 1/2 tsp salt

for filling
6 oz. (170 gms.) cream cheese softened
6 oz. (170 gms) ricotta cheese
3 Tbs. sugar
1 Tbs. AP flour
zest of one lemon
1/2 tsp. lemon flavoring
1 tsp. vanilla

Directions:
For the dough: Whisk milk, eggs, and butter together. Whisk flour, sugar, yeast and salt together in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a dough hook. Slowly add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients until fully incorporated. Increase speed and knead for 8 to 12 minutes. Transfer to a bowl and lightly coat surface with vegetable oil. Cover and allow dough to rise until doubled.

For the filling: Cream the cream cheese with the sugar, flour, lemon zest and flavorings. Add the ricotta cheese and mix until fully combined.

Measure out the individual amount of filling to use for each muffin so the filling is distributed completely and evenly. These calculations are for this batch of bread. Each batch may have different final weights so each batch should be weighed independently. I wanted muffins that were about 50 gm size. The total dough weighed 1020 gm/ 50gm = 20 pieces. The total weight of the filling was 452 gm/20 pieces = 22.6 gm/piece. Measure out and set aside.

Assembly: After dough has risen punch down. Divide dough according to weight (in this case 50 gm) and form into rolls. Place the rolls on a parchment lined baking sheet. Allow to rise until doubled in size. Using the bottom of a glass or cup slowly press down on the center of the muffin until the cup touches the sheet. (#1 and #2). (BTW, my wife used a very special hand-made very thin-walled porcelain Japanese sake cup for this because she said the size and shape were just right. Meanwhile I held my breath hoping it would survive its application to this purpose).

To prevent sticking dip, the cup in some flour. Beat 1 egg with 1 Tbs. milk. Brush the dough, including the indentation with the egg wash. Take the pre-measured cheese pieces and place in the indentation of the dough. Smooth out with a spatula (#3).

Bake in a 350 degree oven for about 25 minutes or until golden brown (#4).

These are very nice muffins. They are definitely not a "danish"-- they are not too sweet. The bread has a nice firm texture. The cheese mixture goes nicely with the flavor of the bread. The lemon flavor of the cheese really comes through adding a pleasant burst of fresh tartness. 

Banana carrot muffin バナナニンジンマフィン

 This is another muffin my wife made. We thought it was a bit unusual since it uses grated fresh carrot and banana. My wife got this recipe from her sister. It came from “Wild about muffins” by Angel Clubb.  Although we do not know the published date, this book appears old. After just a quick search on the internet, however, it appears that there are quite a few muffin recipes using bananas and carrots. So, apparently, although we have not heard of it before,  this is not such an unusual combination.

Some recipes add nuts but my wife added raisins as per the recipe she used.

Ingredients: (Makes 12 muffins)

Dry ingredients

1 1/2 cup (210g) AP flour

1/2 cup (85g) sugar

2 tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp salt

1/2 tsp nutmeg

One pinch of ground cloves

1 cup (125g) grated carrot

Wet ingredients

2 eggs

1 Tbs. molasses (this plus the white sugar results in brown sugar)

1/2 cup(125ml) oil

1/2 cup (125) buttermilk

1/2 cup (125ml) mashed banana

1 tsp vanilla

Other ingredients 

1/4 cup (40g) raisins (optional)

nuts (optional)

Directions:

Combine the dry ingredients and add the carrots stirring until they are coated with the flour. This helps keep them from sinking to the bottom of the muffin. Mix the wet ingredients together and combine them with the dry ingredients. Add the raisins and mix until they are incorporated. Using a large scoop put the batter in a well greased muffin tin. Cook in a 400 degree oven until a skewer comes out clean about 18 to 20 minutes.

These muffins were quite good. They were very moist with a mild nutmeg banana flavor. The raisins are a nice addition. They are a nice addition to any breakfast. Next time we might add some nuts.

Pumpkin muffins with topping

This is a muffin-form of pumpkin bread my wife made a number of years ago. She is now really into muffins and rolls rather than loaves and is converting bread loaf recipes into muffin/roll recipes. This is one such example. Because of the topping, this is a bit sweeter than usual but not too sweet. 

She usually omits the toppings but this time the topping really worked with pumpkin/pumpkin seasoning. As usual, I ask my wife to provide the recipe.

Ingredients:
Topping:
5 Tbs. packed light brown sugar,
1Tbs. all purpose flour,
1Tbs. unsalted butter softened,
1 Tsp. ground cinnamon,
1/8 Tsp. salt.
I used my fingers to mix all the ingredients together until the mixture resembled coarse sand.

Bread:
2 cups all purpose flour,
1 1/2 Tsp baking powder,
1/2 Tsp. baking soda,
1, 15 oz. can of unsweetened pumpkin puree (According direct mathematical conversion 15 oz. should equal 425 grams.  But when I weighed the actual contents of the can it came out to 418 grams. I provide this information in case I don’t have a can of that exact size),
1tsp. salt,
1 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon,
1/4 tsp. ground nutmeg,
1/8 tsp. ground cloves,
2 cups granulated sugar,
1 Tbs. molasses,
1/2 cup vegetable oil,
4 oz. cream cheese cut into pieces,
4 large eggs,
1/4 cup buttermilk,
1 cup walnuts or pecans toasted and chopped.

1/2 cup candied ginger chopped. 


Directions:
I mixed the flour, baking powder and baking soda together in a bowl and set it aside. I combined the pumpkin puree, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg and cloves in a large sauce pan and cooked continuously until it turned brown and reduced by about half. I removed the pan from the heat and stirred in the sugars, molasses, oil and cream cheese. I mixed it until everything was incorporated and homogeneous. I whisked together the eggs and buttermilk and added it to the pumpkin mixture. (This step requires some care not to curdle the eggs so either let the mixture cool down or temper the eggs a bit before adding.) I poured the cooled pumpkin mixture into the flour mixture to form a batter. I folded the walnuts into the batter. Using a large scoop I distributed the dough into heavily greased muffin tins and sprinkled the topping mixture on top of the muffins. I cooked the muffins in a 350 degree oven for about 25 to 30 minutes or until a skewer came out clean. Just after cooking, the muffins are very tender so I let them rest in the pan for about 20 minutes before I attempted to remove them.

This is a great seasonal treat. It has lovely pumpkin spice flavor. The texture is very tender with a nice crunch from the nuts. And muffins are just the right size for breakfast with coffee.