blue artichoke

Another Sunday. More muffins. More blueberry muffins, to be specific. Still working on cleaning out the freezer a bit, I dove into one of the big zipper bags of blueberries and came out with these uber-righteous muffins. For something that is supposed to be so healthy, they taste pretty good. Better than most of the other healthy muffin recipes I've tried, for sure. Like last week's, these are hearty. I ate only one, but it was a good one, full of blueberries and a nice rough-chewy texture. And I have plenty left over for breakfast throughout the week. Nice!

Blueberry-Walnut Wheat Germ Muffins

Serve these hearty, slightly sweet muffins with cubes of papaya, fresh strawberries, and vanilla yogurt. For an extra health boost, add 1/4-cup ground flaxseeds to the dry ingredients before baking. I did add the flaxseed, just for fun. The batter was rather runny when I slopped it into the muffin tins, but baked up nicely.

1 cup unbleached all-purpose flour
1/2 cup whole-wheat flour
1 cup wheat germ
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup finely chopped walnuts
1 egg, well beaten
1/4 cup canola oil
1/4 cup honey
1/4 cup molasses
1 cup nonfat milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup fresh blueberries or frozen wild blueberries

1. Preheat oven to 400°. In a large bowl, combine flours, wheat germ, baking powder, and salt. Stir in walnuts. In a medium bowl, beat together egg, oil, honey, and molasses. Beat in milk and vanilla extract. Add liquid ingredients to dry, stirring just until mixed. Gently fold in blueberries.

2. Line muffin cups with paper liners, and divide batter among cups. Bake for 18–20 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into center comes out clean and tops are lightly browned. Remove from oven and let cool for a few minutes before turning out of muffin tin onto a cooking rack.

Makes 16
Delicious Living, March 2006

Posted by Blue Artichoke at 06:37 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

With a freezer full of frozen summer fruit, mostly blueberries and plums, I have little room for other things, like the homemade chicken stock I made earlier this week or the big batch of marinara sauce I'm planning to make soon. I'd like to have some blueberries available to me in the dead of winter, but I can certainly start using up some now. So, yesterday I made blueberry muffins for our breakfast this morning. These muffins are hardy. They're blueberry, which is breakfast-y, but also cornmeal, which is dinner-y. Versatile. And filling. I ate one muffin and a muffin top and couldn't eat a bit more. These would be a good breakfast before going sledding; with that in mind, I froze the leftover muffins for such a wintery day.

Blueberry Corn Muffins

I had a really difficult time sifting the dry ingredients because they kept clogging my sifter. I ended up just sifting once, then continuing on with the recipe. Next time, I think I'll try whirling all the dry ingredients briefly in a food processor; it will be worth cleaning the food processor to not have to use the sifter.

1 ½ c. sifted unbleached flour
1 ¼ c. stone-ground cornmeal, fine grade, preferably not degerminated
½ c. sugar
1 T. baking powder
½ t. each cinnamon and salt
1-¼ c. milk
2 eggs, beaten
1/3 c. veggie oil
1 c. blueberries
Cinnamon sugar

Lien a 12-cup muffin pan with paper liners. Preheat the oven to 400.

Sift dry together 2x, ending in a large bowl.

Mix milk, eggs and oil.

Pour liquid into dry. Mix just to blend. Fold in blueberries. Divide batter among cups; this will fill them to the top. Sprinkle with cinnamon sugar.

Bake in the top third of the oven for 20 minutes, or until they are lightly browned on top and dry inside.

Serve warm or at room temp.

Makes 12.

NB: Muffins can be baked ahead of time, frozen and thawed in the microwave for a quick, convenient breakfast.

Superfoods: 300 Recipes for Foods that Heal Body and Mind, by Dolores Riccio

Yesterday afternoon, GC and I went to the Missouri football game. It was perfect football weather, cool and sunny. I wore a short sleeve shirt, even though the thermometer read temperatures in the 50s. Shortly after halftime, the sun went behind the stadium wall, casting a shadow on our section and dropping the temperature by about 10 degrees. I was freezing. I went to the team store looking for a long-sleeve shirt or sweatshirt, but couldn't find anything I liked that wasn't outrageously expensive. All I can say is thank goodness it was towel day. Between the two of us, GC and I had four free team towels, which I wrapped around my arms, making quite a fashion statement. Those towels, though, kept me warm enough to see the game through to the end, 42-28 Missouri. Rah!

Posted by Blue Artichoke at 12:42 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I know, I should be posting a Sunday Muffins recipe today, but, again, the muffins we ate this morning were just... good. I made Blueberry-Peach Muffins, the peach flavor supposed to be added by peach yogurt, but was undetectable. And, as blueberry muffins, they weren't the greatest. I suppose I'm in the midst of a Blueberry Muffin Snackdown. I've tried several recipes this summer, using the bounty of fresh berries that I buy each week, but so far no recipe has proven outstanding. There are a few more to try, though, so hopefully by the end of blueberry season, I'll have a winner.

I don't want to leave you without a delicious recipe, though, so here's the recipe for the awesome strawberry pie I made when GC's friend Kyle was in town (I don't know his gourmand name).

Strawberry Pie

Pastry:
½ c. shortening
1-½ c. flour
½ t. salt
3-4 T. ice water

Preheat oven to 425. Cut the shortening into the flour and salt until pea-sized. Add water, 1 T. at a time, mixing lightly with fork. When mixture holds together, gently form a ball and roll it out onto a floured surface to ~1/4” in thickness. Place in a 9” pie pan. Prick bottom and sides of dough with fork. Place pie weights or another lightweight pie pan on crust to keep it from bubbling up while baking. Bake 15-20 minutes or until browned.

Strawberry filling:
4-5 c. fresh strawberries
1 c. water
1 c. sugar
3 T. cornstarch
1 c. sweetened whipped cream or whipped topping

Crush 1 c. of strawberries. Add water. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer 3 minutes. Strain juice from berries. Add enough water to make 1 c. berry juice. Set aside.

Put sugar and cornstarch in a saucepan. Slowly add berry juice. Stir until smooth. Bring to a boil over med heat, stirring constantly. Cook until thick and clear. Cool slightly. Arrange remaining berries in baked pie shell. Pour glaze over berries. Chill.

Serve with whipped cream or whipped topping.

Serves 6.
The Cat Who…Cookbook

The crust was so quick to make and really easy to work with, baking up thick, crispy and flaky. Too bad it uses Crisco. The filling was also easy to make. I cooked some strawberries, then blended them with a wand-blender, strained and reduced that. I didn’t need to add additional water. It thickened up nicely and quickly, but was still a bit runny after sitting in the fridge. Make sure it is really thick before removing from the heat. I sliced the remaining strawberries into 1/4th and arranged them in the crust. It doesn't have to look pretty because the glaze will pretty much hide everything. Flavor was awesome. Best topped with whipped cream.

Getting to Know All About You: What is the dessert you most frequently make (type or specific recipe)?

Posted by Blue Artichoke at 01:27 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)