29.3.2014- Being in a Kitchen Alone has its Perks!

One thing I love about being by myself, is having the kitchen to me and only me. When it comes to a kitchen, I am greedy about that space. It is a therapeutic thing, cooking, when it's for me. Why? Because I know that I am not doing it for anybody else, and I am making something I know I will like, even it it fails. I listen to music, I communicate with others, I take pictures, I experiment; It's a process.
Example: one of the things I miss is pumpkin. Luckily, there are fresh pumpkins readily available for your heart's desire. The thing for me, is that I like to bake with pumpkin. In reality, that means I would need to make the pumpkin puree (which will be an adventure on it's own). My first thing, though, is how to do something with the pumpkin. I know there was a trend about using pumpkin as a side dish and, quite frankly, I was willing to try it. Please find below my homemade lunch, something that happened on my own.:
What you see here is my attempt at making roasted pumpkin bites with walnuts and garlic. The taste was fantastic. All I used was a touch of salt, pepper, a clove a garlic, and some chopped walnuts, an what I go was this flavor, reminiscent of thanksgiving dinner sweet potatoes. Yum!
To the right of the pumpkin, you will see baked bacon-wrapped chicken, and continuing clockwise, steamed broccoli. (those who know me know that I love broccoli)
Completely satiated my hunger.


Now on to the sweet stuff. Another thing I missed dearly were muffins. Blueberry, banana nut, carrot, bran, chocolate chip, strawberry cheesecake, wild berry, lemon poppyseed, pumpkin, ugh! :(
That being said, I was dead set on making muffins, it was going to happen. Now, I had really been craving one of my favorites of muffins: Cinnamon Struesel, and I wasn't going to let any flat pans stop me.
What's more fun than muffins? Muffies! Those who know Panera are completely familiar with the amazing-ness of muffies. And, since I had the flat pans that surprisingly enough look like that could make some serious muffies (muffin tops), I was totally in luck.
This Recipe says it makes 6 muffins, but I could get 8 muffies out of it. You can always substitute other ingredients, based on what you like (I will need to experiment more with other flavors, but I worked with what I had. I adapted my trial from Wilton Cakes and added on some other stuff.

• Muffin
• 1 cup all-purpose flour (you can substitute whole wheat or coconut flour here)
• 1/4 cup granulated sugar (you can substitute stevia here)
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup milk (Sub. Coconut milk/soy milk/ or almond milk)
• 1 egg , slightly beaten
• 3 tablespoons butter, melted
• (optional)- 1/2 cup chocolate chips
• (optional)-1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• Topping
• 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
• 2 tablespoons brown sugar (stick with the brown sugar, because of the molasses content, I prefer light br)
• 3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 2 tablespoons butter , softened
• 
  

 Don't forget to grease your pans!

Cinnamon in one bowl, chocolate chips in another, to appease my cravings! For extra pizazz (by pizazz, I mean crunch), I added walnuts!

Now, on to the recipe itself:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit (about 175 degrees Celsius). Grease your pans
2. In a medium bowl, mix your dry ingredients (Flour, sugar, baking powder, salt. 
3. Add your egg. Then add the milk and butter. mix well.
4. Pour half of mix into another bowl. In one bowl, add the cinnamon. In the other, add the chocolate chips.
5. Pour batter into the pans.
6. In a small bowl, mix 1/4 cup of flour, brown sugar, cinnamon, and butter. Sprinkle this on top of your cinnamon batter.
7. OPTIONAL: add 1/4 cup of chopped walnuts to your muffies (I chose my cinnamon, but I wouldn't care)
8. Bake at 350 degrees for about 10-12 minutes, or until golden brown. (my oven gets very hot, so I always check at five minutes, then every 2 minutes after.)
9. After you remove the tasty morsels, let them cool for about 5 minutes.
10. For more delectable indulgence, you can mix 1/2 cup of confectioners sugar, 1/2 tablespoon of milk, and 2 drops of vanilla extract to make a fun glaze and immediately top any of the muffies.

This is my end result! 

 Om nom nom.These turned out to be a major success for my Thai friends, too. Would I do it again? Absolutely.

Enjoy, and let me know what you think! I want to hear about experiences with the substitutes (maybe someone doing a banana walnut with coconut flour and coconut milk!)

Until next time,
K.