Tuesday, August 27, 2013

The World's Perfect Brownie Stands Alone

It's been a really long while, but I'm back at it again! And by 'it,' I mean improvising recipes. 

During the course of my recent revamp of the way I eat, I had a monster craving for chocolate and was at the limit of my calorie allotment for the day. (Pregnancy cravings didn't hold a candle to weight-loss cravings. YIKES!) In a moment of weakness, I began trolling Pinterest for recipes, preferably for only a single serving, but I was willing to eat a whole pan of brownies if I had to-you know, to hide the evidence. ;) Anyway, I found an awesome brownie-for-one recipe that is tasty and not super-bad for you! YAY!

ORIGINAL RECIPE ON SPARKRECIPES

Ingredients

    1 TBSP whole wheat flour
    1 TBSP sugar (do not substitute)
    1 TBSP unsweetened cocoa
    a pinch of baking soda
    a pinch of salt
    1 TBSP of low fat vanilla yogurt, add more if needed to blend the mixture

Directions

mix it all up, pop it in the microwave for just over a minute, enjoy :)

MODIFICATIONS:

I used full fat, plain yogurt instead of low fat vanilla. Low fat or non-fat plain yogurt would be just as good.
I also added about 10 chocolate chips (semi-sweet).
Clarification (not really a modification): I nuked mine for 1 minute and 15 seconds. (For reference, I have a 1050 Watt Microwave and used 100% power.)

I know, I know-Really! That's ALL I modified! 

VERDICT

It was a little spongy (maybe cook it less?), but for a 'healthy' brownie, the taste was SUPER AWESOME! This will be a go-to in my house for those chocolate cravings when just a plain handful of chocolate chips ain't gonna cut it!

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Edit to add: I tried it again, and I cooked it for only 1:05. It wasn't spongy at all!  

Wednesday, March 20, 2013

Perfect Blueberry Muffins.....no, really!

I have found perfection, and it is tasty!! This muffin recipe, found here at Smitten Kitchen met with rave reviews at my house, and I didn't even modify it. Much. Plus, I've fallen in love with baking with yogurt. It gives everything such a nice, moist texture!


The Recipe: 
Perfect Blueberry Muffins
Adapted from Cook’s Illustrated
Muffins are really best on the first day (another argument for halved recipes) but I’ve never met one I couldn’t resuscitate split, toasted and patted with salted butter.
My major changes: As always, attempted to rewrite this into a one-bowl recipe (because muffins should just not require a lot of work), halved the recipe and added weights.
Makes 9 to 10 standard muffins
5 tablespoons (2 1/2 ounces or 71 grams) unsalted butter , softened
1/2 cup (3 1/2 ounces or 100 grams) sugar
1 large egg
3/4 cup sour cream or plain yogurt
1/2 teaspoon grated lemon zest
1 1/2 cups (6 3/4 ounces or 191 grams) all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoon (7 grams or 1/4 ounce) baking powder
1/4 teaspoon (1 gram) baking soda
1/4 teaspoon (2 grams) salt
3/4 cup (3 3/4 ounces or 105 grams) blueberries, fresh or frozen (if frozen, don’t bother defrosting)
Preheat oven to 375°F. Line a muffin tin with 10 paper liners or spray each cup with a nonstick spray. Beat butter and sugar with an electric mixer until light and fluffy. Add egg and beat well, then yogurt and zest. Put flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt into a sifter and sift half of dry ingredients over batter. Mix until combined. Sift remaining dry ingredients into batter and mix just until the flour disappears. Gently fold in your blueberries. The dough will be quite thick (and even thicker, if you used a full-fat Greek-style yogurt), closer to a cookie dough, which is why an ice cream scoop is a great tool to fill your muffin cups. You’re looking for them to be about 3/4 full, nothing more, so you might only need 9 instead of 10 cups. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes, until tops are golden and a tester inserted into the center of muffins comes out clean (you know, except for blueberry goo). Let cool on rack (ha), or you know, serve with a generous pat of butter.

Modifications:
*I did not have an lemon zest, so I just omitted it.
*I mixed with a whisk, not an electric mixer, since muffins that are over-mixed get really hard. 
*I do not own a sifter, so I whisked the dry ingredients before I added it into the batter bowl a little at a time. I'm glad I did-the dough was so thick, it NEVER would have integrated had I dumped it in all at once. 
*I used plain greek yogurt, no sour cream. 
*Before I put them in the oven, I sprinkled a little cinnamon/sugar mixture on top of the muffins. (I actually wanted a streudel topping, but was too lazy to make it.)
*Side note-her recommendation of an ice cream scoop was right on! It made 9 perfect muffins. 

The Verdict:
I had to fight to get two muffins for myself out of the batch. My three year old turned blue in the mouth and fingers, and he cried when I told him we didn't have any more. My husband said, "Those muffins are awesome! Can I take some to work for breakfast, please?" The best part is it only took about 10 min prep time and the ingredients were pretty basic. I love easy recipes!

I couldn't get a picture before someone took a bite out of it!


Thursday, March 7, 2013

I've been at it again! Suped up Broccoli Cheddar Muffins

The title of this post says it all. I really have been at it again. I know I've been off for a while. The holidays happened. Then all of us were sick for what seemed like forever. Then, just when I thought we were all getting better, the baby had an allergic reaction that landed us in the ER and on steroids for 2 weeks. Anyway, we're here now and on the mend. It's good to be back!

The Recipe:
Broccoli Cheddar muffins.
The recipe I started with can be found on cheese.food.com.
As per my usual modus operandi, I did not specifically follow the recipe, but only the general idea.

Ingredients:
4 large eggs
1/2 cup melted butter
1 1/2 cups shredded cheddar cheese
1 (8 ounce) package corn muffin mix
1 (10 ounce) package frozen chopped broccoli, cooked and drained
1/2 cup chopped scallion (optional) *I omitted


Directions:
In a large bowl, beat eggs with an electric mixer until light colored.
Add butter and cheese and mix on low.
Add muffin mix, broccoli and scallions and mix at low speed for another minute.
Coat a 12 cup muffin pan with cooking spray; divide batter among muffin cups.
Bake at 375 degrees for 15 minutes until light golden brown.
Cool on a rack before turning muffins out of pan.

serves 12
Modifications: 
*1/2 cup butter substituted with non-fat plain greek yogurt (1:1)
*8 oz corn muffin mix subbed with 6 oz mix and about 2 TBS whole wheat flour
*10 oz pkg frozen broccoli subbed with who knows how much? I had a 16 oz pkg on hand and didn't use all of it. I think it was close to 10 oz, maybe more. probably more.
*I also added about a cup of ham.
*I chopped up the ham and broccoli super fine so the baby would be able to eat these without too much help.
*I baked them for a little over 20 min on 375, till they were golden brown on top.

The verdict:
The texture was moist, but not gooey, and they were more filling than I expected. The kids tolerated them. It *is* broccoli, after all. I will definitely add these to my repertoire.

Bonus: They are pretty darn healthy (compared to the original) so I didn't feel guilty eating 3 in one sitting. :)
They look pretty yummy, no?