Ah...baking

Well, I have been baking, just not doing much blogging. Three kids, a job, a husband and a...erm...messy house will do that to you. So, what have I made latley? Well, a couple of recipes from my new baking illustrated book! Which I'm finding to be SO much fun. I love reading about the different techniques they've tried and what worked and what maybe was not so good.

First, I made Blueberry muffins. Which I've never made from scratch before. First problem- my muffin pan is not a proper muffin pan. If I'm correct it is some sort of fairy cake pan, which are just small, muffin shaped cakes here in Britain. Of, course I've never really used the thing so it didn't occur to me that there would be a problem. Using paper muffin cups, it wasn't to bad, though since the pan is very shallow, the muffins were really pretty flat, though they held their shape better. But, I decided to try the second batch without the muffin cups. Well, these werent terrible, but they spread quite a bit so overall looked like funky squat little pancakes...

As the muffins cooled I melted some butter over the stove and combine some cinnamon and sugar. Then I dipped the muffin tops into the butter and rolled them in the cinnamon sugar- a tip suggested by the cookbook.

The muffins weren't that great right out of the oven, they were still to hot and wet to really be enjoyable, and tasted awfully rich. Especially with the cinnamon sugar topping. With a whole heaping tablespoon of baking soda, I had worried about a possible aftertaste, but couldnt detect anything. I added some chopped strawberries as well, just because we love strawberries. They were good, but I think contributed a bit to the wetness of the muffin. I was all set to mark the muffins as a failure, but ended up taking some to work with me. Toward the end of the night I wandered into the staff room and picked up the last muffin. The room temperature muffins tasted great. Absolutley delicious. I was really shocked by this turn of events and as soon as I got home, tried another one to be sure- fantastic. As my husband hates all things cinnamon or blueberry he missed out on these, but the kids were eager guinea pigs and declared them a hit. I can't wait to make them again! Pictures and recipe coming soon...