Challenging Doctrines

Hello,

I think I found my next recipe. I used to love checking up on Bake or Break, which features tons of delicious desserts. Then the Bake or Break lady got a full-time job and stopped updating. What a bummer.

Actually one of the only things I actually made off her site previously was her peanut butter and jam bars, and I ended up eating almost the entire pan myself (a tired cliche I know). They were delicious, but insanely rich. Bascially peanut butter, sugar, and jam (and then some butter and sugar for good measure). Some people like a little less fat, perhaps a little less sugar, in their baked goods. Guess my family is made up of some of those people. Go figure.

Anywas, suffice to say this Bake or Break lady's recipes tend to run a little rich. And what she calls 'muffins' often don't jibe well with my philosphy (see: her Chocolate-Chip 'Muffins' - quotes courtsey of moi). What is my philosophy, you ask? Pretty simple: I'm making muffins here, not cupcakes. Not hand-held bread for giants. Just regular sized muffins.

Anyways, long story short - Bake or Break is back, and herRaspberry Cream Cheese Buns may challenge philosophy, but deliciously so. And who doesn't love a challange?

Brown Butter Cornmeal with Dates and Macintosh Apples

What a mouthful! The description of last Saturday's muffin sounds so complicated. Really it was such a mellow flavour, with the honey dates (all the way from Iran into my little kitchen!) adding some sweetness to the rich cornmeal batter. I liked that the cornmeal wasn't overpowering, but it gave the body of the muffin some depth. I had never browned butter before, but it was great.

Got me to thinking about the nutritional content of my muffins. Someone called last week and wanted to know if there were any low-fat muffins, and what the calorie count is. Well no, I don't do any spesific 'low-fat' recipes - thats just not how I roll! By focusing on fresh fruits and real flavours, the muffins are really flavourful and satisfying, and are a lot lower-cal than most store bought (or cafe) muffins.

These muffins only used 1/4 cup of brown butter per dozen, and two tablespoons of honey (plus the dates lent some sweetnes). Where am I going with all this ranting?

Basically I think that the nutty butter flavour came across really well, and without any refined sugar, these were pleanty sweet. Home made is best ;)

Dreaming of Mandarin Muffins...

These are the kind of Mandarins I want to capture in a muffin. There are trees like this growing right outside the door of my little bamboo house, on my husband's family property in Guatemala. At dinner with Walter's family (thats my husband!), cold well water is spiced up with fresh squeezed mandarins and limes. Refreshing and not-too sweet. The limes that grow right next to the mandarins have are bigger and have a slightly different flavour from what we can get here in Canada - I'm going to research them a bit more, as I think there strong, but not at all bitter character might be the secret to my proposed muffins.

I'll keep you updated on this recipe development.

Welcome!

First post! Luckily for us blogger has a built in spell checker.

This blog will be a place for me to post my inspirations for new muffin creations. Seasonal fruit is a big inspiration, and I'm always excited to go and pick-my own Ontario strawberries, blueberries, apples, and raspberries to go into my muffins. I'll keep you updated on my fruit and vegetable picking adventures as the season approaches.

Local farmers markets are another source of fresh, local produce for me, plus they are always fun to browse. I'll bring my camera with me on future trips!

Flavours and food combinations from my travels are another big inspiration - right now I am working on a something that captures the really fresh, citrusy taste of the mandarins and limes that grow at my husbands house in Guatemala.

So welcome, leave me a note and say hi, and enjoy the journey towards delicious muffins!

-Sarah

(hmm...my handy spell-checker is putting some red flags around my use of 'citrusy', above. I think in this case we can just leave it ;)