Cookie and Cream Crumb Muffin

This is another muffin made from the chocolate cookie crumbs from the chocolate covered cookies rediscovered in the pantry.

The recipe came from “Dough-eyed” website.

Ingredients: (makes 12 muffins)

For the muffins:
2 cups AP flour
2/3 cup sugar
2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
2/3 cup milk
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 cup melted butter
1/4 cup sour cream
2 eggs
3/4 cup roughly crushed Oreos (we used our crushed chocolate covered cookies)
1/2 cup chocolate chunks (we didn’t have any so we did not include them) 

For the crumb:
1/2 cup shortening, room temp.
1 tbs. honey
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup regular sugar
2/3 cup flour
1/4 tsp. salt

(Recipe called for an additional 1/2 cup of crushed cookies. Since we didn’t have any left we did not include this.)

Directions:

For the muffins: 
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees, and line a 12 -cup muffin pan with liners of choice. Set aside.
In a large bowl, stir together the flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt. Set aside. In a small bowl, whisk together the milk, vanilla extract, egg, melted butter, and sour cream until combined.
Pour the wet mixture into the dry mixture. Add in the crushed cookies (and chocolate chunks if using them) and stir the whole mixture together with a spatula until there are no dry pockets.
Scoop the batter evenly into your prepared tin, filling each cup about 3/4 full.

For the topping :
In a medium bowl, using your hands mix the shortening, honey, brown sugar, turbinado sugar, flour, salt and (additional crushed cookies if using them).
Evenly and generously cover each tin of muffin batter with the topping. Bake muffins for 18-20 minutes, or until just golden. A cake tester should come out clean.

These muffins were amazing and very good. The topping formed a nice crunchy crust that tasted of toasted butter and honey. The muffin was fairly firm but nicely moist. Interestingly, it tasted distinctly like the cookies we had used. In fact it tasted like the cookies in fluffy format. The chocolate flavor really came through and was very pleasant. Never would have imagined something like this. We probably prefer this rendition of crushed cookie muffins more than the cookie butter crumb version.

Cookie Butter Crumb Muffin クッキーバターマフィン

This is a continuation of my wife’s saga about finding old forgotten chocolate covered cookies in the pantry and making muffins from them. She found this recipe on the Internet. Since this recipe calls for “cookie butter”, which she did not have, she started the whole saga by making cookie butter and then proceeded to make this interesting (in a good way) muffin. 

The recipe comes from “Bake or Break”

Ingredients:
FOR THE CRUMB TOPPING:
1/2 cup (60g) all-purpose flour
1/4 cup (50g) firmly packed light brown sugar
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
pinch of salt
3 tablespoons (42g) unsalted butter, cold and cut into 1/2-inch cubes

FOR THE MUFFINS:
1 3/4 cups (210g) all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup (57g) unsalted butter, softened
1/2 cup (100g) firmly packed light brown sugar
1/2 cup (140g) cookie butter* (such as Biscoff or Trader Joe's Speculoos Cookie Butter)
1 large egg
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
3/4 cup milk

*My wife made “cookie butter” from the chocolate cookies.

Directions:
TO MAKE THE CRUMB TOPPING:
Combine the flour, brown sugar, cinnamon, and salt in a medium bowl.
Add the butter, and mix with your fingers until the mixture forms crumbs. Set aside.

TO MAKE THE MUFFINS: Preheat oven to 375°F. Line or grease a 12-cup standard muffin pan.
Whisk together the flour, baking powder, and salt. Set aside.
Using an electric mixer on medium speed, beat the butter, brown sugar, and cookie butter until thoroughly combined.
Add the egg and vanilla, and mix well. Add the milk and mix well.
Add the milk mixture to the flour mixture and mix until fully blended.
Scoop the batter into the muffin tins using a 3 tablespoon scoop (I used the second largest ice cream scoop).
Distribute the crumb topping over the muffin batter.
Bake 20 to 25 minute, or until the muffins are lightly browned and a tester inserted into the center comes out clean.Cool the muffins in the pan for 10 minutes. Then transfer them to a wire rack to cool completely.

I’m not sure what we expected from these muffins but they were quite good. The topping formed a crunchy crust and the muffins were very tender in texture and pleasantly sweet. Interestingly, the cookie flavor was completely nonexistent. If you were not told, you would never guess cookies were involved in the muffin. I may have detected a slight hint of chocolate but the predominant flavor was cinnamon. Amazing!

Chocolate vanilla panna cotta チョコレート、バニラ パンナコッタ

As I mentioned before, my wife grew up with desserts as the end to a dinner. It was a kind of parental bribe, "eat all your dinner or you won't get dessert." So for a little kid the dessert was almost the goal of the meal. As I also mentioned I did not grow up with desserts so if my wife wants one usually she has to make it. (I, however, am not the least bit averse to helping her eat any dessert she may come up with) She makes a buttermilk panna cotta that we really like. With this success and after cruising several recipes on the internet, she was inspired to try a variation. She came up with this two layer, chocolate and vanilla panna cotta. She served it in a small double walled espresso glass. This makes a nice dainty dessert that is perfect for us. The recipe, however, can be scaled up for larger servings. 

Ingredients:
1 tsp. gelatin
3 Tbs. water
3/4 cup 4% milk
3/4 cup cream
1/4 cup sugar

for flavoring:
1/2 tsp vanilla
3 Tbs. cocoa powder

Directions:
Bloom the gelatin in the water and set it aside for a few minutes. Add the milk, cream and sugar to a sauce pan and heat gently until the sugar melts (don't boil). Take a ladle of the warm milk mixture and add to the gelatin mixture until the gelatin is completely melted into the milk. Add the melted gelatin into the rest of the milk mixture. Divide the milk mixture in half. Add the vanilla to one of the halves. Pour into a glass container that has been tipped on its side. See picture below.

Put into the refrigerator until it becomes firm. Meanwhile put the cocoa powder in a small bowl. Scoop in some of the milk mixture and stir to form a paste. Add back into the milk mixture. Stir to fully incorporate. When the vanilla mixture become firm add the chocolate mixture on top. Put back into the refrigerator until everything becomes firm.

This is a lovely little dessert. The texture is very creamy and smooth with a nice chocolate flavor contrasted with the vanilla. Just a few sweet bites to round out any dinner.