Wednesday, April 23, 2008

Muffin Madness

So if you are like me you start your morning off with a nice fresh brewed pot of coffee, neatly dispensed to you in a white paper cup by a not so happy caffeine professional. You also have a little bit a self control problem and when faced with the glass case full of pastries the apple you had for breakfast doesn’t feel quite like enough. One of my all time favorites is the blackberry hazelnut muffin.  
Now mind you I actually get up and make a fresh pot of coffee to have after my shower and before I brush my teeth and simply feel like I need another by the time I make it to work. In an attempt to cut back on the spending I am trying to make a couple more cups in my pot in the morning and cut the caffeine professional out of my morning routine once and for all. But what about the muffins you might ask? I surely did. Then I realized I am a woman who bakes, likes it, finds it cathartic even. I can make that damn muffin for myself and it will not be the size of my head. And it will not be overly sweet. And and and...I can actually feel good about my muffin consumption (God only knows how many calories I have been consuming all in the name of muffins).

My first attempt last night went pretty well but there will need to be some tweaking before posting the recipe.  I took the sour cream muffin recipe from my joy of cooking and substituted half the flour with ground hazelnuts (yummy) and then added frozen blackberries.  I know frozen you say, but the thing is I like to keep an item in my freezer that I can easily turn into dessert (you never know when people will stop by) and lately that dessert is berry cobbler.  So I had the berries already, thus making it a must make last night.  Anywhoo, the base recipe called for 4 tablespoons of sugar and I upped it to half a cup, and yet it was still not enough.  I want them to be slightly less sweet than the store bought ones, but a little sweeter than I made them.  I think next week I will make them with a cup or maybe 3/4 cup sugar and see how they turn out.  I also got a little lazy with the second batch of hazelnuts I ground (in my trusty dusty mini prep food processor) and I will not do that next time.  I was wrong a chunk of nut or two does in fact have a negative effect on the muffin.  I think I will be most excited when I get them right. Come on can you blame me, imagine it a muffin that tastes good, is made at home and is not the size of my head. I can use that, add in the stress reducing factor that baking brings on and you have a win win situation.  Only down side I can see is I am still trying to get the berry stain off my hands. Yes I washed them, more than once, sheesh!  Even with shampooing my hair in the shower this morning there is still stain under the nail.  Oh well it is all in pursuit of the perfect morning muffin, I will soldier on.

1 comment:

Alexis A. said...

I had no idea there was such a thing as a caffeine professional. Maybe I should become one?