M is for Muffin

Growing up I was a pretty picky eater. There were tons of foods that I would not even consider trying and would just push away... onions, blueberries, gravy, mashed potatoes, bananas... just to list a few. Fortunately, these days, I can proudly say that I have grown out of most of my food aversions :)

One thing I have always LOVED is a warm, homemade corn muffin. There is something about those golden little muffins that I cannot resist. Personally, I prefer my muffins to have a little bit of sweetness to them, not sugary or candy-like, just a little sweet from a touch of honey. I know that this immediately will make my version of corn muffins a "no go" for any southerners. Traditionally southern cornbread is not sweet and you will very rarely see a southern corn muffin. You will sometimes hear the sweeter kinds referred to as "Yankee cornbread".

Obviously, corn meal is the most important ingredient in the corn muffin and in my opinion it just comes down to personal preference. There is yellow or white corn meal and for the recipe below it is really up to you. In the south, you will normally see white corn meal, but I grew up on corn muffins made from the Jiffy box so I'm partial to the yellow corn meal. One thing you want to avoid picking up while shopping for corn meal is a "corn meal mix". This is not referring to the boxed muffin or cornbread mixes but rather a blend of corn meal and flour with a touch of a few other ingredients. Make sure you read the packaging closely and pick up one that is plain corn meal :)

And my last quick note before the baking starts. This recipe calls for 1 cup of milk and you can actually use any kind! For a more tender muffin stick with whole milk. You can certainly use skim milk (I have!) but beware that they might have a bit of a dry texture so pull them out of the oven a minute earlier than recommended :)

Enjoy!

Honey Corn Muffins
Ingredients

1 cup corn meal (yellow or white) 
1 cup flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 cup sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup of milk
2 large eggs
4 tablespoons of butter, melted
1/4 cup of honey

Preheat oven to 400*

In a large bowl, combine corn meal, flour, baking powder, sugar and salt.
In a second bowl, whisk together the milk, eggs, butter and honey.

Wet and dry ingredients

Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients.
Stir just long enough to combine all of the ingredients, this is a batter you do not want to overwork.
Let rest for 5 minutes.
Place muffin liners in a 12-muffin pan.
Evenly divide mix to make 12 muffins.

Filled muffin pan :)

Bake for 15 minutes, or until golden brown on top.

Yummmm

Let cool for a few minutes and then enjoy!

The final product, just waiting to be enjoyed!

Milk and Cookies

Hi Everyone! So sorry for the time away from the blog - I hope you all aren't too upset. I had a few "bumps in the road" here that held me up for a bit but all is well now :) (For those of you wondering, I was mugged while on the DC metro system and, unfortunately, my iPhone with all my wonderful baking pictures was stolen, but as I said all is well now).

So... I was going to write a post about these AMAZING corn muffins I made last night. But then I thought no, it is not exciting enough (look for that post on Wednesday!) I felt like I needed to come back with a post that you could get really excited about, something you would really want to try. How about homemade Oreo Cookies?

I thought that might get your attention :)

I love Oreo Cookies (well, c'mon, who doesn't?!). There is something about the chocolate cookie and the cream filling that just hits the spot. However, I'm not a fan of ingredients that I cannot pronounce and sadly the nutrition label on the Oreo bag has one to many for my liking.

A few quick notes before you start. The recipe calls for dutch process cocoa - this is what will give your cookies the iconic color of a real Oreo, you know the kind that will leave little bits of black cookie on your teeth when you bite into it. However, dutch process cocoa is sometimes hard to find so you can use regular cocoa powder as well. Recently Hershey's has come out with a "Special Dark Cocoa" which is a blend of Dutch process and natural cocoa and it is what I used when making the cookies and it worked well. And beware, this recipe get messy!! I hope you enjoy the cookies!



Chocolate Cookies
Ingredients


2 and 1/2 cups of all purpose flour
1/2 cup of dutch process cocoa (you can also use natural cocoa powder)
1/2 teaspoon of salt (kosher salt works best, but table salt can be used)
1 cup of unsalted butter
1 cup of sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon of vanilla

Preheat Oven to 350*. Line baking sheets with parchment paper (this will make your clean up a breeze)

Mix together the flour, cocoa and salt in a medium bowl, set aside.

Cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy

Beat in the egg and vanilla until well combined.
Add the flour mixture in very slowly, allowing the mixture to become fully combined before the next addition.

Once your dough has come together roll out on a surface "floured" with flour and cocoa. Your dough will look dry, but do not worry, it should :)

This is where it starts to get really messy!

Even as you roll out your dough it will still seem kind of dry and crumbly, yet it will stick to the rolling pin, just make sure to flour your rolling pin as you go along and you will be fine. I would suggest rolling it fairly thin, this will ensure that they will cook thoroughly. (Think back to making Christmas cookies with mom... the the thinner the cookie the crispier it was).

Then take a cookie cutter of your choice and cut away! I used a small fluted biscuit cutter and then went back and left an impression of a second smaller cutter as a design.

"Flouring" your cutter with flour and cocoa will help the dough from sticking.

These cookies will not expand as you cook them so you don't have to worry about having too much space between each one on the sheet. Once you place them onto the baking sheet put them in the freezer for 5 minutes.

Bake at 350* for 8 minutes (for thin cookies) and up to 10 for slightly thicker cookies.
Let the cookies cool before filling!

Cream Filling
Ingredients 

1 teaspoon plus 1/4 teaspoon of unflavored gelatin
2 tablespoons of COLD water
(Bowl of hot water)
1/2 cup of shortening (such as Crisco)
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 and 1/2 cups of powdered sugar

Stir together the gelatin and cold water in a small bowl or cup. Place the cup/bowl into the hot water and let sit for 5 minutes or until the mixture become transparent (it will not be completely clear depending on the brand you are using).  Remove the cup from the hot water and let it sit for 5 minutes.

In a medium size bowl beat the shortening until it starts to become fluffy
Add the vanilla
On LOW speed, a few heaping tablespoons at a time, add the powdered sugar
Once all of the powdered sugar has been incorporated add in the gelatin mixture
Make sure that everything has mixed together

To make the cookie sandwiches place about a teaspoon of cream filling onto an upside down cookie, add a second cookie right side up and gently press together. And voila! Homemade Oreo cookies :)

If you make your cookies about the size of the original you will end up with about 30 cookie sandwiches. I made my cookies a bit on the thicker side and had 24 cookie sandwiches!

Enjoy!