Savory Dinner Muffins

I've been spending all my time of late working on identifying plant and flower photos I have taken while visiting (and now living in) Arizona. I have taken a lot of photos. And generally I take closeups, with no thought to really being able to identify them later. It has been an arduous task. A task I love and have been enjoying, and it keeps me very busy, to the exclusion of just about everything else. Including this blog. 

Shallot & Pesto Muffins

I have been occasionally making something new, such as these savory muffins. 

One day recently I was planning to make my Roasted Corn & Poblano Chowder for dinner and wanted something bread-like to accompany the soup. My first thought was corn muffins, but the soup is full of corn and to top it off, with corn masa flour added, both for thickening and for flavor. Maybe I needed something other than corn for the "bread." The more I pondered, the less I was able to come up with. I didn't want just plain muffins, or plain anything. Even without sugar, plain muffins might go okay with the soup, but to me somehow they just didn't sound appetizing.

So I went online. I found ideas. Some were appealing. Others just gave more ideas. So, with what I had on hand, I went to work. While the muffins stayed very light colored, their flavor was excellent. And, best of all, they went so great with the chowder! We enjoyed every last one of them, over the course of a few days. If I had had chives available, I would have added some of those, minced finely as well, but at this time I did not. They came out excellently.

Shallot & Pesto Muffins

Shallot & Pesto Muffins

Makes 12 regular sized muffins

2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
½ teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
1 small shallot, minced
¼ cup fresh cilantro, minced finely
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¾ cup buttermilk
½ cup sour cream
3 tablespoons pesto
2 large eggs
2 tablespoons olive oil

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease the wells of a 12-well muffin tin: set aside.

Place the first 6 ingredients in a mixing bowl and toss well to combine; set aside.

In a large measuring cup or smaller mixing bowl, whisk together the next 5 ingredients until well combined, then pour into the dry ingredients and mix just to combine, until no dry ingredients are left. Divide the batter evenly between the muffin wells and bake the muffins for about 20 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center of one of the muffins comes out clean.


My passion is teaching people how to create a harmony of flavors with their cooking, and passing along my love and joy of food, both simple or exotic, plain or fancy. I continue my journey in ethnic and domestic cuisines, continuing my journey to explore diverse culinary experiences and hopefully to start you on a journey of your own. Join me also at A Harmony of Flavors on Facebook, and Pinterest.

Bourbon and Buttermilk - Creating a New Pie

It is interesting to me how I come up with "new" recipes - if any recipe can be called new, really. It seems that every time I think up a concept, if I go out and "Google It", it already exists, and in many forms, to boot. This morning I was thinking about buckwheat, because yesterday I had made the recipe I posted at the beginning of the month for pancakes made with buckwheat and Kamut flour. They were so fluffy and light I made them again for myself and was eating them this morning. I gave thought to buckwheat scones. I was thinking of what flavors would go well with buckwheat and I though of maple. Upon Googling, sure enough, there are buckwheat scones made with maple flavors. 

Bourbon Buttermilk Pie

I just thought up this new breakfast treat after breakfast this morning, and since scones are best fresh, I will wait on making them until I finish with the pancakes. Since I am the only one eating them, they will last at least 4 days. But instead, I had been thinking about my Chess Pie, which is one of my husband's and my favorite pies. It is so good, and so easy to make, I was imagining what to do to alter flavors just a little. I did see (online) some recipes for Bourbon and Buttermilk pies, some with one flavor, some with others. While they were similar to my Chess Pie, they differed in a few particulars. Since I have been making the Chess Pie for over 40 years, I figured, why mess with a good thing? I planned to stay as close to the amounts for my new recipe as possible.

Bourbon Buttermilk Pie just baked

With that in mind, I looked at that recipe and substituted the Bourbon and buttermilk, but then, what other flavors? I liked the orange extract flavor with Bourbon in the Pannettone Breads I made at Christmas time. I decided to use orange extract in this pie. Of course, when making a pie, one needs the pie pastry also. For me, the "soggy crust" at the bottom of the pie is a highlight, so I do not pre-bake the pie shell. If you are one of those who cannot stand the soggy crust, then I suggest pre-baking, as I described in my post of April 6th, except, once removing the beans or pie weights, do not continue to bake the shell. Just allow it to cool before adding the pie filling. The shell will be subjected to baking for nearly another hour, once filled.

Chess Pie, if you are unfamiliar with this term, is basically a custard pie. It has just a teensy bit of flour and cornmeal to thicken, but aside from that, it is eggs, milk and sugar.  Butter gives it exquisite flavor. All these things would stay the same, except substituting buttermilk for the plain milk. The bourbon was just an added 2 or 3 tablespoons of liquid. With the amount of egg in the recipe, this would be no problem. I opted to use vanilla bean rather than extract. While 1 teaspoon more, or less, of liquid would be no big deal, I felt that the crisp flavor of true vanilla bean would be better. In retrospect, perhaps at another time, it might be good to use brown sugar instead of white, granulated sugar, for a more caramel-y flavor. 

The results? The Bourbon is noticeable. The orange extract is not. I cannot detect anything that points to buttermilk instead of regular milk. The texture is identical to Chess Pie; smooth and creamy. All in all, while the pie is excellent, I guess more changes are needed to make it truly something other than Chess Pie. Still. If you've never had a Chess Pie, but like the idea of Bourbon in a pie, you might want to try this one out!

While I used a 9-inch pie plate for this pie, the filling was just a little bit too much. It would be best to use a 10-inch pie plate if possible, or make two smaller 8-inch pies. This is what I did:  

Bourbon Buttermilk Pie

Bourbon Buttermilk Pie

Makes one 10-inch pie
 
1 (10-inch) pie shell
2 - 3 tablespoons Bourbon or Whiskey
½ vanilla bean, scraped into the Bourbon
½ teaspoon orange extract
1 stick (8 tablespoons or ½ cup) unsalted butter, softened
1 cup granulated sugar
1 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon yellow cornmeal
½ teaspoon salt
5 large eggs
1 cup buttermilk

Fit the pie crust to the plate and crimp the edges high. Place the empty shell in the fridge until needed. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Combine the Bourbon, vanilla seeds and orange extract and set aside. The vanilla may have to be coaxed to separate. Mine wanted to stay in clumps.

Bourbon, vanilla & extract; creaming butter & sugar; eggs added             

In a mixer bowl, cream together the butter and sugar with the flour, cornmeal and salt. Add in eggs, one at a time, beating until each is incorporated before adding the next. Add the Bourbon mixture to the buttermilk and add this to the creamed mixture and beat to combine. Pour the mixture into the prepared pie shell and bake for 50 to 60 minutes. As this is a custard type pie, the center will still be a bit jiggly when the pie is done. It will set completely as it cools.


My passion is teaching people how to create a harmony of flavors with their cooking, and passing along my love and joy of food, both simple or exotic, plain or fancy. I continue my journey in ethnic and domestic cuisines, continuing my journey to explore diverse culinary experiences and hopefully to start you on a journey of your own. Join me also at A Harmony of Flavors on Facebook, and Pinterest.

St Paddy's Day and Irish Brown Bread

Irish Brown Bread

I don't really celebrate St Paddy's Day myself, nor am I Irish. My eldest daughter chose that day to get married 20 years ago, and so that remains a cause for celebration, but not because of the Irish sense of it. I rarely remember to wear green, and do not have much of anything green to wear, even should I choose to do so.

 
Still. While Irish is nowhere in my own heritage, my husband does have Irish in his ancestry. He pays no more attention to St Paddy's Day than I do; probably less. Green is a color he probably wouldn't be caught dead in anyway. As for food, well, when attending Gaelic festivals, he will eat lamb stew. He does not drink beer. At all, ever. He'd probably be thrown out of Ireland for that heresy. Just being facetious here.

What I am getting at is that in all my (almost) 65 years, I have never even once made anything specifically "Irish", whether for St Paddy's or any other time. Unless you count Irish Oatmeal ;-) When perusing my Facebook feed a few days ago, I saw a recipe for Irish Brown Bread, something I have never tried before. I did eat what was supposedly Irish Soda Bread a couple of years ago at the local Gaelic Festival, with some lamb stew, but while it was good, having never looked at a recipe, I really had no idea what went in it (besides baking soda). And there began my search.

My Irish Brown Bread, sliced and buttered

Search, and Research

When I look into a new recipe, and more particularly if it is a specific ethnic food, I like to find out what I can about where it came from, why it is made that way and what the most authentic recipe might be. On that research I base any ideas of my own. The recipe I saw on FB had whole wheat flour, whole wheat pastry flour, soda, salt, butter and buttermilk. Many recipes I saw online also had butter in the ingredients, and some had eggs. Some added honey, and some added sugar. Okay, but what is truly authentic, I wondered? I refined my search to "traditional" Irish Brown Bread and came up with actual Irish people's recipes. One was from Rachel Allen. But more to the point, I did learn a bit more about Irish Brown Bread or Soda Bread and why it is made as it is.

What I learned is that in Ireland, the flour that was available long ago was too "soft" (their words, not mine), or too low in gluten and did not work well with yeast to make a yeast risen bread. The flour available was mainly coarse whole grain, whether wheat, barley or oat. Soda was used as the leavening agent, but the bread itself was a simple thing: flour, soda and buttermilk. Even salt was optional. What was stated is that anything like butter, eggs or much less honey added to this bread is most absolutely not traditional Irish Brown Bread. The Irish would keep the butter to spread on the finished bread, not waste it in making the loaf. 

Having looked at and compared over 10 recipes, from the butter and egg types to the simple flour, soda and buttermilk varieties, I decided on a very slight deviation from the absolute basics. Based on the concept that the flour was not conducive to yeast use, I thought I would use mostly a slightly coarse grind of whole wheat, with a little all-purpose flour and an even lesser amount of cake flour to try and replicate a mixture that would be a poor mixture for yeast bread. The cake flour can be substituted with all-purpose flour, bringing that amount up to 1½ cups total. I did toast some wheat germ to add, as well as adding a little oatmeal. Other than that, I stayed within the basics. I did consider using some barley flour, but I will reserve that for the next try. My husband got me a wonderful grain mill not long ago, so making some barley flour will be a fun experiment. For now, this is what I did to make my version of Irish Brown Bread, which I will be serving with my Irish Lamb Stew tomorrow.

Irish Brown Bread sliced

Irish Brown Bread

Makes 1 loaf

2 cups whole wheat flour
1 cup all-purpose flour
½ cup cake flour (or use all-purpose)
½ cup wheat germ, lightly toasted
½ cup rolled oats
2 teaspoons baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
2 cups buttermilk

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Lightly grease a baking sheet and set aside. In a large mixing bowl stir together all the dry ingredients. Make a well in the center and pour in all the buttermilk. Stir in the center, gradually incorporating all the dry ingredients, until no dry remains. Turn the mixture out onto a floured surface and "knead" gently by patting out the dough, folding it in half, flattening and folding, about 8 to 10 times. Form into a round loaf approximately 9-inches in diameter and 1½ inches high. Cut a large "X" across the top. Bake the loaf for about 45 to 50 minutes, until nicely golden and it sounds hollow when tapped on the bottom. Cool on a rack.

Irish Brown Bread

The Verdict?

This loaf came out nice and brown with a great crust, moist in the center and a beautiful crumb. It is dense and filled with all that is good in wheat. This bread will pair extremely well with the Lamb Stew I will make tomorrow. I will be making this again, as I want to try it with barley flour. The recipe, as it stands, is fantastic!


My passion is teaching people how to create a harmony of flavors with their cooking, and passing along my love and joy of food, both simple or exotic, plain or fancy. I continue my journey in ethnic and domestic cuisines, continuing my journey to explore diverse culinary experiences and hopefully to start you on a journey of your own. Join me also at A Harmony of Flavors on Facebook, and Pinterest.

New Cupcakes with Beautiful Texture

I am not much of a cupcake fan, all in all, usually figuring it isn't necessary to dirty a muffin tin and have to wash all those little wells when I can just make a cake, even two-layers and only have to wash two items. Just me. Still, every so often I just want to make something small. Yesterday was one of those days. I wanted to make "Key Lime" cupcakes, but only had regular limes, so Lime Cupcakes they turned out to be. Going on a concept of what goes into a Key Lime Pie for example, I wanted something creamy in the frosting, so of course I used cream cheese. Then I wondered if using Malibu Rum would up the tropical flavors. Usually with any type of alcohol added, and most especially if it is one of the regular alcohols and not a liqueur, the alcohol flavor really shines through. Not this time. The frosting is delicious, but I do not detect any rum or coconut flavor.

The lime flavors used in the cupcakes were fresh lime zest, some lime juice and a few drops of lime oil to reinforce the flavor. I have little bottles of Boyajian Citrus Oils; Orange, Lime and Lemon. These are pure citrus oils and not extracts. The flavor is really true and very strong. Lime is my favorite of them all. I used a little measuring spoon that is deemed "just a smidgen" and holds 1/32 of a teaspoon. This turned out to be 4 very tiny drops. The overall lime flavor is lovely in the cupcakes; just enough, but not overwhelming.

Lime Cupcakes with Malibu Rum Cream Cheese Frosting

The cake itself started when I created a white cake recipe. I used 4 drops of green food color to simulate the "lime" color, otherwise it would have just been a white cake with little green flecks of lime zest in it. No matter the color, the texture of the cake is just perfect. It is very tender, with an exceedingly fine texture and crumb. I almost wish I had just made it in cake form. Oh well. Though less an exciting flavor combination than I had hoped for, they are most delicious to eat.

Lime Cupcakes

Lime Cupcakes with Malibu Rum Cream Cheese Frosting

Makes 24 cupcakes

2¼ cups cake flour
1½ cups sugar, divided
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon fresh lime zest
½ cup (1 stick) butter, room temperature
1⅓ cup buttermilk
1½ tablespoons fresh lime juice
1 teaspoon vanilla
4 drops green food color, optional
1 - 4 drops lime oil, optional
½ cup egg whites (about 4), room temperature

Preheat oven to 350 degrees (325 on Convection Bake). Prepare cupcake tins by either greasing the individual cups or lining with muffin papers. Alternatively, if making cake layers, grease two 8 or 9-inch baking pans and line the bottoms with parchment. Grease the parchment. Set aside.

Sift or whisk together the flour, 1/2 cup of the sugar, the baking powder, baking soda, salt and lime zest. Cut in the butter with a pastry blender, or use the whisk attachment on a heavy duty stand mixer until the mixture is just making crumbs. Set aside.

In a measuring cup, combine the buttermilk, lime juice, vanilla, food color and lime oil if using and set this aside.

In a separate bowl, beat the egg whites until they are just starting to have a little bit of form to them in the wake of the mixer. Begin beating in the remaining cup of sugar a little at a time until the meringue is just at stiff peaks and still very glossy.

Now go back to the flour and butter mixture and add in the wet ingredients, mixing until well combined and no dry ingredients remain. Fold in the meringue gently until no streaks remain. Divide the batter into prepared muffin tins or cake pans. Bake cupcakes for about 20 to 25 minutes. Bake cake layers for 30 to 35 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Allow cake layers to cool in the pans for 10 minutes before turning out to a rack to finish cooling.
As an alternative to using rum or Malibu Rum, coconut flavoring would be great in this frosting. Start with ½ teaspoon and go from there. The coconut flavor along with regular rum would also be good.

Malibu Rum Cream Cheese Frosting

Makes enough to frost 24 cupcakes or one two layer cake

Malibu Rum Cream Cheese Frosting

2 sticks butter at room temperature
4 ounces cream cheese, room temperature
4 cups sifted confectioners' sugar
½ teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons fresh lime zest
2 teaspoons Malibu Rum, optional

It is highly important the butter and cream cheese be at room temperature before starting with this frosting. It will not beat properly otherwise.

Place the butter and cream cheese into the bowl of a heavy duty stand mixer with the paddle attachment. Beat these ingredients for 8 minutes on medium speed, until the mixture is almost white and very soft. Separately, sift together the confectioners' sugar and salt and add all at once to the mixer bowl, along with the lime zest. Start the mixer on the lowest speed for about 1 minute, until most of the confectioners' sugar is moistened enough to not fly all about the room. Increase speed to medium again and beat for another 6 minutes, adding in any flavorings before this time is elapsed. Be careful to not add more liquid than needed or the frosting will be too soft to hold together nicely. Taste for flavor.


My passion is teaching people how to create a harmony of flavors with their cooking, and passing along my love and joy of food, both simple or exotic, plain or fancy. I continue my journey in ethnic and domestic cuisines, continuing my journey to explore diverse culinary experiences and hopefully to start you on a journey of your own. Join me also at A Harmony of Flavors on Facebook, and Pinterest.

More Great Scones for Breakfast

KAF's Cinnamon Flav-r-bites

UPDATE 10-23-2019:
As of some while back, King Arthur Flour / Baker's Catalogue discontinued the Cinnamon Flav-r-Bites and the Maple Flav-r-Bites. The Maple concept has not been replaced, but the Cinnamon ones have been replaced with something they now call Cinnamon Sweet Bits. I have yet to buy them, though they seem to look as if they would work similarly.

I think of all bread type breakfast products, scones are my favorite. This is reflected in how many different scone combinations I have concocted over the years, versus pancakes, muffins or breads. I love a good piece of toast for breakfast, and I make plenty of different breads to keep it interesting. It still comes back to scones. Eventually I just have to have them. Today was another of those kind of days. 

Some few months back, when I was placing an order from King Arthur Flour, among the items I needed to replace were the Cinnamon Flav-r-Bites I use for my Cinnamon Chip Scones, recipe here below:

Cinnamon Chip Scones

Cinnamon Chip Scones

Makes 8 scones

2 cups flour
2 tablespoons sugar
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon fresh orange zest, optional
5 tablespoons cold, unsalted butter
1 cup heavy cream
¾ cup cinnamon chips (Cinnamon Sweet Bits)

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Line a baking sheet with parchment and set aside.

Combine the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt in a bowl. Cut in the stick of butter using a pastry cutter. (To simplify, grate the cold butter using a larger holed grater and it makes cutting in easier). Add in orange rind if using, and cinnamon chips to taste - ½ to ¾ cup. With a fork, gently toss in buttermilk and stir just until moistened. Turn out onto a floured surface and gently pat the dough into an 8-inch circle. With a large knife, cut across the circle 4 times, creating 8 wedges. Transfer wedges to a greased baking sheet, allowing at least 1-inch space between them. Bake for 15 minutes, or until golden brown.


 

Maple Walnut Scones

closeup of texture

I mostly keep a similar base recipe for scones. When something works, I keep at it. I started using a combination of all-purpose flour and cake flour, but if you do not keep cake flour in your pantry, just use the combined amount of all-purpose flour. In some varieties of scones an ingredient might make a difference and then adjustments are needed, but in general the recipes are similar. I have seen scone recipes with egg, and even tried one once, but I feel they come out too much like muffins in texture. If I wanted muffins, I would make muffins. This recipe is quite similar to the Cinnamon Chip Scones.

I used walnuts in these scones because I love walnuts more than most any other nuts. Obviously, any other type of nuts can be substituted, or use none at all. Also, the amount for the nuts can be altered as desired. I used 3/4 cup. 

Maple Walnut Scones

Maple Walnut Scones

Makes 6 or 8 scones

1 cup all-purpose flour
¾ cup cake flour
1½ teaspoons baking powder
½ teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
1 stick (8 TB) unsalted butter, cold
3 tablespoons brown sugar
¾ cup chopped walnuts
¾ teaspoon maple extract, or to taste
¾ cup buttermilk

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees (350 if on convection). In a bowl, sift together the flour(s), baking powder, baking soda and salt. Grate the butter with a large holed grater into a separate bowl. If a large holed grater is not available, cut the cold butter into tiny cubes. Add the brown sugar and pour the sifted ingredients over all. With fingertips, rub the cold butter into the ingredients until the mixture is like coarse crumbs. Add in the nuts and Flav-r-Bites and toss to distribute evenly. Pour the buttermilk over the mixture and toss quickly with a fork until most of the mixture is moistened. With hands, bring the mass together and onto a floured surface. Gather the dough into a rough ball and flatten. Fold the dough over on itself. Flatten again and fold; repeat this a few times, trying not to overwork the dough. Gather the dough into a round mass once more and flatten slightly. Cut the dough into 6 or 8 equal wedges. Set the wedges on a baking sheet that has been sprayed with non-stick spray. Bake the scones for about 18 - 20 minutes, or until golden brown.



My passion is teaching people how to create a harmony of flavors with their cooking, and passing along my love and joy of food, both simple or exotic, plain or fancy. I continue my journey in ethnic and domestic cuisines, continuing my journey to explore diverse culinary experiences and hopefully to start you on a journey of your own. Join me also at A Harmony of Flavors on Facebook, and Pinterest.