Confections of a Foodie Bride

We’re actually not just living on muffins these days. I swear. It is true, though, that my muffin pan has never seen this much work in such a short time (and my husband still wants more).

It is also true that after losing every perishable item in our fridge and freezer to that stupid hurricane, I promised to do better given our new blank slate fridge and gave “once a week cooking” a shot. I cooked a whole bunch of stuff over the course of a couple of days and loaded the freezer.

Muffins freeze well. So does Texas Tortilla Soup and Chili. We now have big batches of each, frozen flat in 2-serving freezer bags, ready to go. No more mystery bowls with mystery contents buried in permafrost.

Corn. There was a time when it was the only vegetable my husband would eat. So I made it for dinner all the time. Taco night? We’re having corn on the cob. Steak night? Corn on the cob. Grilled chicken? You get idea.

Growing up, I’d only eat corn in two forms: on the cob and popped, preferably the latter and preferably coated in caramel. I could watch you cut fresh corn off the cob, put it straight on my plate, and I’d refuse to touch it.

My dad eats his corn bread warm with peanut butter. Me, if it’s not sitting crumbled at the bottom of a bowl of chili, I like mine sweetened and served warm with butter and honey. Or even better - a baked with cheese and spicy jalapeños, and then served warm with butter and honey. And my husband? Would you believe me if I told you that he likes his plain

Corn muffins
3 1/2 cups flour
1 1/2 cups cornmeal, plus extra for dusting
1 cup sugar
2 Tbsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
3/4 cups unsalted butter, melted and cooled
3 cups heavy cream
3 large eggs
1 1/2 cup shredded sharp cheddar
2 large jalapenos, seeded and finely diced
1 1/2 cup frozen corn kernels, thawed and patted dry

Preheat oven to 350. Grease muffin pan or line cups with baking liners.

Add flour, cornmeal, sugar, baking powder, and salt to the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment and turn on low. Pour in melted butter, cream, and eggs. Add cheese and mix at medium speed until just combined. Fold in jalapeños and corn.

Fill muffin cups 2/3 full and sprinkle tops with corn meal. Bake for 15-18 minutes, until lightly browned. Serve warm and buttered. Or buried under chili… or not.

Yields 24 muffins
Adapted from The Pastry Queen

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My husband loves pistachios. I mean really loves pistachios. He eats them for a snack. He requests pistachio-crusted chicken for dinner weekly. So when we walked by the bakery of our grocery store and he spotted a stack of 6-pack of jumbo pistachio muffins… As far as he was concerned, breakfast couldn’t get here soon enough!

We opened the container of muffins the next morning and were kicked in the face by almond extract. Holy. Heck. Almond extract is… fragrant. Fragrant in a good way, but only in the smallest of amounts. In larger amounts, you could probably sub it for smelling sauce.

The muffins were electric green when we broke them open - like Incredible Hulk green. As in our insides will be bright green for weeks. After reading the label I was really disappointed - to be called “Pistachio Muffins” shouldn’t there be pistachios somewhere in the ingredient list? Food coloring, almond extract, and walnuts (of all things). Boo.

A recipe for pistachio muffins proved almost impossible to find so I started with a peanut butter muffin. We ended up with a moist, tender, and most definitely not Hulk-Green muffin that was full of enough pistachio goodness to make my husband eat three fresh from the oven. They were excellent served warm with butter and a cold glass of milk.

Pistachio Muffins
2 1/4 cups (270 grams) all-purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
3/4 tsp salt
2/3 cup dark brown sugar
6 tbsp butter, melted and cooled
1/2 cup pistachio butter (recipe follows)
2 large eggs, at room temp
1 cup whole milk
1/4 tsp almond extract
1/2 cup pistachios (reserved from Pistachio Butter)
Demera sugar, for sprinkling

Homemade Pistachio Butter
1/2 lb shelled pistachios, unsalted
2 tsp-1 Tbsp peanut or vegetable oil

If the pistachios are not roasted, preheat oven to 325. Spread pistachios in single layer on baking sheet and toast for 5-7 minutes, until fragrant. Let cool.

Set aside 1/2 cup pistachios. Place rest of pistachios in a food processor and process until finely ground. Stream in 2 tsp peanut or vegetable oil. Scrap sides often. When ready, consistency will be paste-like but won’t be as creamy-smooth as the store-bought peanut butter (this takes several minutes).

Preheat oven to 375F. Grease a standard 12-cup muffin tin or line with paper liners. Run the reserved pistachios through the food processor for 10-15 seconds, until chopped.

Whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt. Set aside. In the bowl of a stand mixer, cream butter, pistachio butter, and brown sugar until well combined. Add 1 egg at a time. Add milk and almond extract and mix until well combined.

Add dry ingredients and mix until just combined. Gently fold in chopped pistachios. Divide batter evenly between muffin cups and sprinkle tops with Demera Sugar. Bake until a skewer inserted into the muffins comes out with moist crumbs, about 20 minutes.

Let cool for 10 minutes in pan and remove. Excellent served warm with butter.

Yields 12 muffins

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Triple. YUM.

Nothing says, “Happy Birthday, Mom!” like meat on a stick.

My fabulous grocery store rarely lets me down, but they did this time. I spent forever searching the internet for a recipe for “those crispy breadstick thingies that they used to serve at that little restaurant by my old church,” as you can imagine.

All I wanted to do was twirl some prosciutto around those breadstick thingies to round out the appetizer menu for my mom’s birthday. My husband had abandoned me for sleep hours before and it was far too late to open a bottle of wine and drink alone. (Plus, it sounds so… unhealthy.) If only Google could have read my mind!

I finally ran across a recipe for grassini at Wild Yeast. Twirling Prosciutto di Parma around the grassini proved to be a big hit - they were definitely my favorite appetizer. I served them with quartered fresh figs and homemade pesto mayonnaise.

Grassini (aka, those crispy breadstick thingies)
623 g flour
397 g water at room temperature
2 tsp yeast
1 1/2 tsp salt (I used fleur de sel)
2 Tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
Topping of your choice (I used more fleur de sel)
Pesto Mayonnaise, for serving

Combine the flour, yeast, and salt in the bowl of a large food processor. Pulse a few times to combine. Combine the water and olive oil in a liquid measuring cup. With the processor running, add the liquid to the dry ingredients in a steady stream. Process until the dough is smooth and elastic, about 90 seconds. This made my food processor work harder than it ever had in its short life. I’ll do it in my stand mixer next time, increasing the time as necessary.

Place the dough in a lightly oiled container. Cover the container and let the dough ferment at room temperature until doubled in volume, about 1.5 – 2 hours.

Preheat the oven to 350F. Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper or lightly coat with olive oil.

Knead dough a few times to form into a boule. Divide the dough into four equal pieces. The steps that follow will be repeated for each of the four pieces. Keep the pieces you’re not working with covered.

On a floured counter, roll the dough out into a rectangle about 12 x 8 inches. The exact dimensions are not critical. Cut the dough into 16 strips of equal width. A pizza cutter works very well for this. (I used my trusty bench scraper.)

On an unfloured surface, roll the strip into a long snake. Make it a bit longer than the length of your baking sheet, to allow for spring-back. Place the snakes evenly spaced across the width of the prepared baking sheet.

Lightly spray or brush the grissini with olive oil and sprinkle on the topping. Bake at 350F for 25 – 30 minutes, until golden brown. Cool on a wire rack.

Yields 64 breadsticks
Slightly adapted from Wild Yeast.

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I don’t like Miracle Whip. I am the real mayo-lovin’ black sheep in a fold of Miracle Whip lovers.

It wasn’t always like that, though. There was no Hellmann’s in my house growing up - we were a completely loyal Miracle Whip household. My mom would occasionally sneak in a jar of off-brand sandwich spread but only occasionally - the tantrum my dad threw over the fake Miracle Whip was so not worth the money saved! But after getting my hands on real mayo, I’ve never looked back.

Years later, grown up and married, I find myself again alone in my love for mayonnaise. I also find myself in a predicament: I’m whipping up a topping for crostini that has to chill overnight. It’s 2am and I don’t have any mayo. But I do have Google and I’m probably getting close to the 100 cookbook mark.

So many recipes, so few hours until the sun comes up. I passed over the ‘whisk for 10 minutes’ recipes in favor of an advanced, 21st century recipe. Call me lazy but whisking for 10 minutes? It’s after 2am.

Okay. Just call me lazy.

But really. If you only do it once, make a batch of homemade mayonnaise. It makes everything taste better. Brighter. Richer. Chicken salad, tuna salad, a tomato sandwich, dips and spreads. Everything.

For fantastic variation, stir in a couple of tablespoons of fresh cilantro pesto or basil pesto. Fresh rosemary is a great addition for a very unboring chicken salad.

Homemade Mayonnaise
1 egg, at room temperature
1 Tbsp lemon juice
1 tsp dijon mustard
1/4 tsp fleur de sel
1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil
1/2 cup canola oil

Add the egg, lemon juice, mustard, and fleur de sel to the bowl of a food processor. Turn on and process. Slowly stream the oils into the food processor. After adding all of the oil, process another 30 seconds. Place in a covered bowl, with plastic wrap pressed onto the surface of the mayo, and refrigerate.

Adapted from: The Gourmet Cookbook, 2004
Yields: Approx 1 1/4 cup mayo

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Two days, two batches. That’s how much my husband liked these muffins.

No, we didn’t eat 6 muffins each for breakfast. There were muffins for breakfast for us and our house guest friends, and perhaps I snagged one for a mid-morning snack. Then there was an after work snack or two and most definitely a midnight snack. And just like that, my husband was out of his new favorite muffins.

Since a muffin-stuffed man is a happy man, I baked another batch. These muffins are super tender and moist. If you’re like me and you’re not a big fan of sweets for breakfast, be sure to have a big glass of cold milk within arms reach.

Raspberry Muffins
3/4 stick (6 tablespoons) unsalted butter, melted and cooled
3/4 cup packed dark brown sugar
1/2 cup whole milk
1 large egg
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon fleur de sel
2 rounded cups raspberries
Fleur de sel or course sugar for sprinkling (optional)

Put oven rack in middle position and preheat oven to 400°F. Put liners in muffin cups or lightly spray with non-stick baking spray.

On medium-low, mix together butter, brown sugar, milk, and egg in a bowl until combined well. Whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt in a large bowl. Add to milk mixture and mix until just combined. Fold in raspberries.

Divide batter among muffin cups - it’s two scoops of a #20 scoop per muffin cup, if you’re a scooper like me. Sprinkle tops with course sugar or fleur de sel (if using) and bake until golden brown and a wooden pick inserted into center of a muffin comes out clean, 25 to 30 minutes.

Adapted from: Gourmet, July 2006
Yields: 12 muffins

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