Honey Muffin

Taneasha has been telling me lately that I don't make enough chocolate stuff.

So I made honey-blueberry muffins.

Apparently I'm feeling a little contrary today. Today. Ha.

Honey Muffins with Berries

2 cups flour
1-1/2 tsp baking powder
1-1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 tsp cardamom
1/2 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/3 cup honey
1/3 cup orange juice
1/3 cup plain yogurt (greek style if you have it)
1/3 cup vegetable oil (peanut works)

2/3 c berries
1 tbsp honey
1 tbsp orange juice

 

Preheat oven to 400°F and line your muffin cups.

Realize there was no honey in your ingredients pic. Honey muffins and no honey...

In a big bowl, combine all the dry stuff: flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, cardamom, sugar. Yes, sugar. I know it usually goes into the wet stuff, or the butter so it will dissolve first, but, as I said, I’m feeling contrary today.

I’m a little concerned about this recipe because my yogurt is a wee bit thicker than your typical yogurt.

Seriously, you could spread this stuff on a bagel and eat it like cream cheese.

The yogurt, honey, and orange juice can be piled into one cup, measure by displacement.

In another bowl, mix all the wet stuff: yogurt, honey, juice, eggs, oil, vanilla.

Before you mix the wet and dry, make sure your berries are thawed. Even looking at the volume in the second bowl, I was still worried about the liquid content.

So, I added a tablespoon of honey and a tablespoon of juice to a pan with them, and just melted everything. You don’t want them warm, just melted.

And dammit, no matter how hard I tried I couldn't get a shot of the orange juice being poured into the pan.

Stir the wet stuff into the dry until it’s just barely mixed. Hm, doesn’t look too dry. This could pass for muffins. But, I’ve got the berries all melted, so in they go.

Again, stir until just mixed. Berries do weird stuff when you mix and bake them. If you stir them too much, they’ll actually turn green. I can't decide if these are green or purple... There's a reason I wear a lot of black.

I had enough for 13 muffins.

The 13th muffin.

I'm still having a bit of trouble with my oven. This time, I erred on the side of too hot - probably at least 425. The muffins were golden on top after only 8 minutes, but still gooey inside. By 15 minutes, they looked like this.

Muffin 13, despite the heat, still lost it's peak in the middle.

I think I need new baking powder.

But heat was definitely a factor in these.

They are tasty though. Very caramelly in flavour as well as colour. And the honey really comes through. I think next time, I'll omit the sugar and add a bit more honey. They're really quite sweet. More blueberries too. Or maybe none?

At least they're not green anymore?

No Bake Cookies

In my house that term referred specifically to these cookies.  Growing up, I never realized ‘no bake cookies’ was actually a family of cookie, like drop cookies or cookie bars.  I just assumed it was the name of these chocolate and oat cookies, as chocolate chip cookies is to, well… chocolate chip cookies.  Not until I started cooking on my own did I realize that there is a huge variety of no bake cookies and that the term actually referred to the method in which they are made.  For me, no bake cookies will always be these.  Most recipes for these call for peanut butter, but since Seeley already made a peanut butter no bake cookie, and since the ones I grew up on didn’t use it, these are just chocolate. 

Here’s what you’ll need:

• 1 cup butter
• 2 cups sugar
• ½ cup milk
• 6 Tablespoons cocoa powder
• 3-3 ½ cups oats
• 2 teaspoons vanilla
• ½ teaspoon salt

Measure 3 cups of oats into a large mixing bowl and set it aside.

Put the sugar and salt into a fairly large saucepan.  Sift in the cocoa powder. 

Yes, you really do need to sift it.  Cocoa powder is always lumpy.  Technically you should sift it before you measure, but even I’m too lazy for that.  Using your fingers or the back of a spoon, break up all the lumps and shake them through the sieve. 

See, nice and lump free. 

Now, so that it doesn’t clump back up when you add the milk, whisk it into the sugar. 

Then pour in the milk.

Cut the butter into chunks and add it to the pan. 

Turn the heat to low and stir everything together. 

Once the butter has melted, you can turn the heat up to medium. 

Continue stirring until it comes to a boil. 

Cover it for 2 minutes.  Wash your spoon or get a clean one.  It needs to be free of crystals. 

I know, this is looking a lot like making fudge.  Well, truth be told, it basically is.  ‘Cookies’ is probably a misnomer for these.  They might be more aptly called oatmeal fudge patties, or chocolate oatmeal candy, but let’s be honest, those don’t sound very appealing.  But just like fudge, if you don’t get rid of the crystals, these will end up with a grainy texture. 

So when the 2 minutes are up, remove the lid, turn off the heat, and stir in the vanilla.  Pour the mixture over the oats, and again like fudge, don’t scrape the pan. 

Stir until all the oats are well coated.  If it’s too runny, ad more oats ¼ cup at a time.  You’re looking for something like this. 

Scoop out a tablespoon or so and plop it onto a sheet of parchment or foil. 

Repeat until you’ve basically scraped your bowl clean.  They should hold their shape nicely and not have puddles around them.  If they run, they need more oats. 

They aren’t the prettiest things ever, but boy are they tasty.  I actually only made a half recipe because they’re addictive, and I’m afraid I might eat them all either way. 

What are your favorite no bake cookies?