Chocolate Chip Muffins

Another muffin recipe?? Yes!

When I purchase a new item for my kitchen (muffin pan), I tend to become a little bit obsessed with it. But I had been craving something chocolate chip for a while now and since I don't have a cookie sheet at the moment (sad. someone want to give me a gift card to Williams Sonoma? Crate and Barrel? Sur la Table?), I decided to make muffins.

Most of the time I enjoy rich dark chocolate, but every once in a while milk chocolate is just so good. Also, milk chocolate's flavor isn't overpowering. So this recipe calls for milk chocolate chips and if you buy Ghiradelli brand milk chocolate chips, they're huge! I like when recipes for sweet baked goods include both white and brown sugar, I find it produces a much better depth of flavor instead of just being sickly sweet.

I didn't have any muffin liners so I greased the pan with Pam butter flavor spray. Something weird happened though. When the muffins had cooled enough in the pan to be taken out to rest on the cooling rack, I found that the chocolate chips that baked on the bottom or the sides of the muffins stuck to the pan and left a hole in the muffin were the chocolate chip was. I ended up with a pan full of half melted chocolate chips and muffins with crater-like holes in them. It was weird. I don't know if it was the Pam spray or the giant Ghiradelli chips but either way next time I'll use muffin liners. Its easier to clean up too.

These muffins last for a few days when stored in an airtight container. I like to reheat mine in the microwave so that they are warm and the chocolate is a little melted.

Chocolate Chip Muffins

• 2 cups all purpose flour
• 1/3 cup white sugar
• 1/3 cup light brown sugar
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2/3 cup milk
• 1/2 cup butter (melted and cooled)
• 2 eggs (lightly beaten)
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 (11 1/2 oz) package milk chocolate chips
  

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Grease 12 muffin tin cups or use muffin liners. In a large bowl mix together flour, white sugar, brown sugar, baking powder and salt.

In another bowl stir together eggs, milk, butter and vanilla until well blended. Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients and pour the milk mixture into the well and stir until combined. Fold in chocolate chips.

Spoon batter into muffins tins. Place into the oven and bake for 15-20 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean and the edges are lightly browned. Remove from the oven and allow to cool for 5 minutes.

Orange Almond Blueberry Muffins

I'm finally posting a recipe with a photo! I was flipping through my cookbooks, looking for something I've never made before when I remembered my Baked baking book. Oh yeah! The Baked Brownie recipe isn't the only recipe in there! I remembered when I made the Baked recipe for Banana Espresso Chocolate Chip Muffins and how good those turned out so I decided to search the book for another muffin recipe. I also just got a new muffin pan from Williams-Sonoma (thanks boyfriend!) after my roommate took hers after moving out. What kind of food blogger would I be if I didn't test it out!? The pan is awesome. Sturdy, simple, and cooked the muffins evenly.

Now onto the muffins. Much like the Banana Espresso Chocolate Chip Muffins, this muffin recipe has an unusually long name. The muffins turned out unusually good, however, so the name is fine with me. This recipe calls for a lot of prep-work (juicing and zesting oranges, separating eggs, melting butter, blanching almonds, grinding almonds, toasted almonds, rinsing frozen blueberries) so I don't think it will go into my regular recipe rotation but it is definitely a perfect breakfast treat. The flavors of the orange, almond, and blueberry compliment each other well, and not one flavor is too overpowering. My muffins ended up being moist, light, bright, and flavorful. Yet another winner from Baked!

By the way, I used 2% milk because that was what I had on hand. I didn't notice any sort of textual issues because of this, but I did notice these muffins were a little less indulgent :) Now I don't feel so bad for eating these for breakfast! (Shh don't remind me about the 1/2 stick of butter...)

Orange Almond Blueberry Muffins
From Baked: New Frontiers in Baking

Note: If you use frozen blueberries, make sure to rinse them in a sieve until the water runs clear. Pat them dry and toss them in some flour before adding them to the batter. This will prevent your muffins from turning that icky greenish color and will keep the berries suspended in the muffin mix.
Note #2: To finely grind almonds, put them in the bowl of a food processor and keep pulsing in very short bursts until powdered. Be careful not to over-pulse the almonds, or they will become pastelike.

• Grated zest of 1 orange (about 1 tablespoon)
• 1/2 cup fresh orange juice
• 1/2 cup whole milk
• 2 large egg whites
• 4 tablespoons (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, melted and cooled
• 1/4 cup sliced, blanched almonds, finely ground
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1/4 cup sliced almonds, toasted
• 2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 3/4 cup blueberries
• handful of sliced almonds for decoration

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Spray a 12-cup muffin pan with nonstick cooking spray.

In a medium bowl, combine the orange zest, orange juice, milk, egg whites, and butter. Whisk until combined.

In another medium bowl, combine the ground almonds, flour, sugar, toasted sliced almonds, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Make a well in the middle of the dry ingredients. Pour the wet ingredients into the well, and stir until just combined. Fold in the blueberries.

Fill each muffin cup about three-quarters full, and arrange 3 or 4 sliced almonds on top of the batter in a floral decoration. Bake in the center of the oven for 15 minutes, or until the edges are brown and a toothpick inserted into the center of a muffin comes out clean. Move the muffin pan to a wire rack, and let cool for 15 minutes. After 15 minutes, remove the muffins from the pan and let them finish cooling on the rack.

The muffins can be stored in an airtight container for up to 2 days.

Lasagna for Two (no photo)

If you read my last post you'll know that lately I've been having problems with my camera skills. I made Lasagna from America's Test Kitchen Cooking for Two recipe magazine and I was so preoccupied that when I did manage to take a few pictures, they turned out horrendous because my camera was in all the wrong settings.

But I'm posting this anyways because I've had a few requests and because while eating this lasagna for dinner, my boyfriend said it was "the best lasagna I've ever had". Now, he is biased, but I have to agree that this is a pretty solid recipe for lasagna that serves 2, which I've never seen before. The typical lasagna recipe can feed a whole dinner party of people which is way too much food for a couple, even including leftovers.

This is the first recipe I've made from my Cooking for Two recipe magazine that I mentioned a few posts ago. I'm happy to say this recipe is a keeper. I look forward to making more dinners for 2 from this little magazine.

This recipe is cut down to size to serve two and is baked in a 9 by 5 inch loaf pan. The 2 servings are hearty, and for us it ended up being more like 2 dinner servings and 1 leftover serving for lunch the following day.

Lasagna for Two
From America's Test Kitchen Cooking for Two 2009

Note: If you cannot find meat loaf mix, substitute equal parts 80 percent lean ground beef and sweet Italian sausage, casings removed. Do not substitute fat-free ricotta.

Sauce

• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1 small onion, minced (about 1/2 cup)
• table salt
• 8 ounces meat loaf mix (see note)
• 2 tablespoons heavy cream
• 1 (14.5 oz) can diced tomatoes, drained, 1/4 cup juice reserved
• 1 (8 oz) can tomato sauce
• ground black pepper

Filling, Noodles, and Cheese

• 4 ounces whole-milk or part-skim ricotta cheese (about 1/2 cup) (see note)
• 1 ounce Parmesan cheese, grated (about 1/2 cup), plus 2 tablespoons
• 3 tablespoons chopped fresh basil
• 1 large egg, lightly beaten
• 1/8 teaspoon table salt
• 1/8 teaspoon ground black pepper
  
• 4 no-boil lasagna noodles (Our favorite is Barilla)
• 4 ounces whole-milk mozzarella cheese, shredded (about 1 cup)

Adjust an oven rack to the middle position and heat the oven to 400 degrees.

For the sauce: Heat the oil in a large saucepan over medium heat until shimmering. Add the onion and 1/8 teaspoon salt and cook until softened, 3 to 5 minutes. Stir in the garlic and cook until fragrant, about 30 seconds. Stir in the meat loaf mix and cook, breaking the meat into small pieces, until it is no longer pink, about 2 minutes.

Stir in the cream, bring to a simmer, and cook until the liquid evaporates, about 2 minutes. Stir in the drained tomatoes, reserved juice, and tomato sauce. Bring to a simmer and cook until the flavors are blended, about 2 minutes. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

For the filling, noodles, and cheese: Combine the ricotta, 1/2 cup of the Parmesan, basil, egg, salt, and pepper in a bowl.

Spread 1/2 cup of the sauce over the bottom of a 9 by 5 inch loaf pan, avoiding large chunks of meat. Place 1 of the noodles on top of the sauce and spread one-third of the ricotta mixture over the noodle. Sprinkle evenly with 1/4 cup of the mozzarella, and spoon 1/2 cup of the sauce evenly over the top.

Starting with a noddle, repeat the layering process twice more. Place the remaining noodle on top, cover with the remaining 1 cup sauce, and sprinkle with the remaining 1/4 cup mozzarella and remaining 2 tablespoons Parmesan.

Cover the dish tightly with foil that has been sprayed with vegetable oil spray (or use nonstick foil). Bake until the sauce bubbles lightly around the edges, 25 to 30 minutes. Remove foil and continue to bake until hot throughout and the cheese is browned in spots, about 10 minutes longer. Let cool 20 minutes before serving.

Update!!

Some of you may be wondering if I'm still alive. I am!! My life has been hectic lately and a lot of things have prevented me from posting, such as: my roommate moved out and took her dining room table (nowhere to take photos!), I have been searching for a new job, I have started my fall semester of classes, I took a trip to California, and I seemed to have totally forgotten how to use my camera! Since my last post I have made Chicken Bolegnese, Lasagna for 2, and brownies and unfortunately I was so preoccupied while taking photos of every single one of these recipes, that the settings were totally wrong and all the photos came out horrible!

Things have begun to settle down though. We bought a new dining room table (thank god for Ikea! cheap!), I've gotten into the swing of things at school (sort of, can you ever get used to homework and essays?), and I have recovered from temporary camera amnesia. I'm still searching for a job, however, but I should be hearing a call back from a potential job by the end of this week (wish me luck!).

I will be making Lemon Curd squares sometime this week, so look out for that post!

I've missed blogging and I've missed my fellow food bloggers! How are you guys? How was your labor day? By the way, if anyone would like me to post the recipes for the food I made (without photos), I would be happy to do so. The lasagna and the brownies were especially good. Just comment or email me (handleheat@gmail.com).