Lemon Crunch Blueberry Muffins

photo courtesy of gimme some oven because I forgot to take a
 photo of my batch...these look prettier anyway

A longtime favorite My mom used to make these all the time when I was growing up and they remind me of weekend mornings lingering over breakfast with mom. I'm copying her recipe below, but I made some substitutions (which didn't quite work out). Next time I'll try this version to see if it's any better. I used 2 cups pastry flour, omitted the wheat germ (didn't have any on hand) and used 1/4 cup of coconut oil but the muffins were dense and overcooked (the latter mistake could actually be blamed on the pan I used because I never have luck cooking things properly in that pan).

1/3 cup wheat germ 
1/3 cup sugar 
3 tsp. baking powder 
1/2 tsp salt 
1 cup milk 
1/4 cup canola oil 
1 egg 
1 cup fresh or frozen blueberries 
2 tsp lemon zest 
Combine wet ingredients and beat well. 
Add dry ingredients to wet ingredients; stir to moisten 
Fold in blueberries. 
Fill muffin cups (paper-lined or greased) 2/3 full 
Combine the sugar and zest; sprinkle on top of each muffin

1 3/4 cups flour 
2 tbsp sugar 

Combine dry ingredients. Stir to blend. 

Bake at 425 for 20 minutes

Chocolate Espresso Shortbread Cookies

Wanted to make cookies. These sounded yummy and I had all of the ingredients for them. Used this recipe and didn't change a thing, except my batch did not make 42 cookies (more like 32). And I didn't dust them with additional confectioner's sugar. Subtle coffee and chocolate flavor - next time might double the coffee and increase chocolate amount a bit. A tasty shortbread!


1 tablespoon instant espresso powder
1 tablespoon boiling water
2 sticks unsalted butter, at room temp
2/3 cup confectioner's sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup chocolate chips, chopped (or left whole if mini chips)

Dissolve the espresso in boiling water, set aside to cool.

In a stand mixer with paddle attachment, beat the butter and confectioner's sugar together on medium speed for about 3 minutes, until the mixture is very smooth. Beat in the vanilla and the espresso. Reduce speed to low and add flour, mixing only until it disappears into the dough. Fold in the chopped chocolate.

Transfer the dough into a gallon size zipper-lock plastic bag. Leaving top open, put bag on flat surface and roll the dough into a 9 x 10 1/2 inch rectangle that's 1/4" thick. When correct size and thickness is achieved, seal the bag and refrigerate for at least 2 hours.

Heat oven to 325. Line two baking sheets with parchment.

Slit open the plastic bag, on a cutting board. Discard the bag and cut the dough into 1 1/2" squares. Transfer the squares to a baking sheet.

Bake for 20 minutes, rotating sheets from top to bottom and front to back at the midway point. The cookies will be very pale. Transfer cookies to a rack to cool.

My award-winning food photography

Cinnamon-Sugar Ribbon Bread

Coming off last week's recipe for PB&J muffins, I had a few cups of buttermilk left over and was searching for ways to use it up. So I went back to the Averie Cooks website and found this solution. I followed the recipe exactly. Elena enjoyed helping to sprinkle the cinnamon-sugar on top. As Averie suggests, it makes a tasty toast, especially when cut thick and slathered with butter, a decadent but quick breakfast on a rushy Monday morning. If I make this again I might use 1/2 tsp freshly grated nutmeg instead of the pre-ground stuff.

1/3 cup granulated sugar
1 tablespoon cinnamon
1/4 cup butter, melted
1 egg
1 cup brown sugar, packed
1/4 cup canola or vegetable oil
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1 cup buttermilk
2 cups all purpose flour
1 teaspoon nutmeg
3/4 teaspoon baking soda


Preheat oven to 350.

In a small bowl, combine the granulated sugar and cinnamon, set aside.

In a large microwave-safe bowl, melt the butter. Let cool momentarily. Add egg, brown sugar, oil and vanilla and whisk to combine. Add buttermilk and stir just till blended.

Add flour, nutmeg, and soda and stir just to combine. Batter will be thick and lumpy.

Pour half of the batter into a loaf pan, smoothing it lightly with a spatula. sprinkle 3/4 of the cinnamon-sugar mixture on top, then top with the remaining batter, smoothing again with the spatula. Top with remaining cinnamon-sugar.

Bake for 50 minutes, when toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool in pan for 15 minutes, then invert bread onto a rack to completely cool.

It's hard to photograph bread attractively

Peanut Butter and Jelly Muffins

A work colleague recently brought in some peanut butter and jelly cupcakes to share. They were vanilla cupcakes with sweet strawberry jam - the gluey fake kind that is often used at bakeries - with fluffy peanut butter icing. Another work friend and I split one, skeptical about how they would taste. While they were not terrible, they were way too sugary for my taste. I thought the recipe could be better executed as a muffin so decided it would be my next baking project. I found this on Averie Cooks. I made a slight alteration to her recipe, and also used a mini muffin tin so I was able to yield 24 mini muffins and 6 regular-sized muffins. Though there's only 1/2  cup of peanut butter the PB flavor came through really nicely and the muffins were not too sweet. Will make them again!

1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 light brown sugar
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 egg
1 cup buttermilk
1/2 heaping cup peanut butter
1/3 cup canola or vegetable oil
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/4 cup jam, any flavor (I used this)

Preheat oven to 350. I lined my mini muffin tin with liners, and left my regular sized muffins liner-less (didn't need to grease the tin because I used a non-stick).

In a large bowl, whisk together the dry ingredients. In a separate bowl, whisk together the wet ingredients (everything but the jam)

Pour the wet ingredients over the dry ingredients and fold to incorporate until just combined.

Fill muffin cups so the bottom of the cup is filled with batter (about a 1/3 of the way full). Next, add spoonfuls of jam (I used about 1/2 teaspoon of jam for the mini muffins, and 1 teaspoon of jam for the regular-sized muffins). Top each muffin with the remaining batter.

Bake for 20-25 minutes until tops are golden and springy to the touch. Enjoy!