Bakery-Style Berry Muffins

These are the kind of muffins that I rarely make. White flour and a decent amount of sugar and oil - though actually I've seen muffins with more sugar and oil/fat so I guess these aren't too terrible. Well taste wise, they are not terrible at all. They're the perfect muffin - soft insides with hard tops. If you want to retain the crisp muffin tops, freeze the muffins immediately after cooling - then when you want to eat them, thaw them on the counter and eat shortly after. While I did not make these with soy yogurt (I've actually never tried non dairy yogurt if you can believe it), that's what the original recipe calls for so I'll leave it that way. I can't wait to try other mix-ins using this muffin base.

If this sounds good, you might also like:
Double Chocolate Avocado Muffins
Coconut Banana Muffins
Healthy Carrot Cake Power Scuffins
Blackberry Orange Tea Scones

Bakery-Style Berry Muffins
Adapted from Vegan Brunch

Makes 12 muffins

2 cups all purpose flour
3/4 cup sugar
1 tbsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup soy yogurt
1/2 cup nondairy milk (I used unsweetened plain soy)
1/2 cup olive oil (or canola or safflower)
2 tsp pure vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups frozen mixed berries (I used raspberries, blackberries and blueberries)

Preheat the oven to 375F. Prepare a muffin tin with oil or liners.

In a large mixing bowl, stir together flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt. Make a well in the center and add the yogurt, milk, oil, and vanilla. Stir to combine. Fold in the berries.

Scoop the batter into the muffin tin; it should almost fill the entire tin. Bake for 26 to 30 minutes, or until a toothpick or butter knife inserted through the center of the muffin comes out clean. Let cool for a few minutes in the tin, then transfer muffins to a cooling rack to cool completely.

Overnight Raspberry French Toast

Okay this is one of those times where I know the photo doesn't look that great but the recipe was really good! I could just not provide a photo but I think any photo is better than no photo, so here it is. A few weeks ago my family did breakfast for dinner, which was awesome. I love breakfast food but I rarely want to take the time in the morning to make something more complicated than a smoothie or a bowl of cereal (or sometimes waffles). I found this recipe in one of my favourite cookbooks, or rather favourite series, Bravo! Best of Bridge Cookbook. I've mention the Best of Bridge books before - they're the kind of cookbooks that you can open to any page, and trust the recipe will be delicious. And the ingredients required are things you can easily find. It's unfortunate that these books don't seem to be more popular outside of Canada - on Amazon.com they aren't even available except as used copies.

Anyway! So this overnight raspberry french toast - it has raspberries, almonds, cream cheese, cinnamon and the regular french toast stuff. It was really yummy though I used chopped almonds this time (instead of sliced) and I think it's kind of scary to have something crunchy in an eggy dish (people might think it's egg shells). We did breakfast/brunch for dinner for mother's day too, so keep an eye out for more brunchy things soon! What are your favourite things to eat for brunch?

If this sounds good, you might also like:
Gingerbread Waffles
Cinnamon Raisin Bread
Carrot Cake Oatmeal
Squash & Aged White Cheddar Tart with Sage and Roasted Garlic Custard

Overnight Raspberry French Toast
Adapted from Bravo! Best of Bridge Cookbook

Serves 6

The recipe suggests reserving 1/4 cup of the sugar to sprinkle on top but next time I'd just mix it in so that's what I wrote in the recipe. I also found the cinnamon to kind of clump up with the eggs, so make sure you whisk them well.

8 slices whole wheat bread, torn into small pieces
8 oz (250 g) cream cheese, cut into small pieces
1 cup fresh or frozen raspberries (don't thaw if using frozen)
1/2 cup sliced almonds, toasted (don't use chopped like me)
6 eggs
1/2 cup granulated sugar (you could easily reduce this amount)
1 cup milk
1 tsp ground cinnamon

Grease an 8 inch (2L) square glass baking dish. Scatter half the bread pieces in dish. Arrange cream cheese, raspberries and almonds on top. Finish with the remaining bread pieces. In a large bowl, whisk together eggs, sugar, milk and cinnamon. Pour over bread. Cover with foil and refrigerate overnight.

Preheat oven to 350F. Bake french toast, covered with foil, for 30 minutes. Remove foil and bake for 30 minutes or until puffy and golden brown.

Strawberry Lemon Sunflower Seed Muffins

I made these muffins a while ago when I bought a huge thing of strawberries that turned out to not be really great (which, as some of you might remember, is when I also made the chocolate strawberry loaf). I don't often add berries to muffins because I find they make them so wet, and that's exactly what happened with the first batch I attempted of these. The second batch I used less soy milk and it balanced out a lot better. The taste was delicious, and I especially loved the crunch of the sunflower seeds.

If this sounds good, you might also like:
Whole Wheat Orange Spice Muffins
Chocolate Strawberry Loaf
Coconut Lemon Bundt Cake
Applesauce-Oat Bran Muffins

Strawberry Lemon Sunflower Seed Muffins
Greatly adapted from Vegan with a Vengeance

If you can't get light spelt flour, use light whole wheat flour or another kind of flour. You can use all whole wheat flour instead but the muffin will be a bit denser.

1 cup whole wheat flour
3/4 cup light spelt flour
1 tbsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 cup maple syrup
1/3 cup canola oil
1/4 cup soy milk
6 ounces low fat vanilla yogurt (use soy yogurt to make vegan)
2 tsp vanilla extract
zest of 1 lemon
1 cup chopped strawberries
1/2 cup sunflower seeds

Preheat oven to 400F. Spray a twelve muffin tin with nonstick cooking spray.

In a large bolw, sift together the flours, baking powder, and salt. In a separate bowl, whisk together the maple syrup, oil, soy milk, yogurt, vanilla and lemon zest. Fold the wet ingredients into the dry; halfway through mixing fold in the strawberries and sunflower seeds.

Divide the batter among the 12 muffin cups. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes, until a toothpick in the center comes out clean.

Strawberry Cream Cake

I mentioned before that I made my boyfriend two cakes for his birthday - one was chocolate mousse layer cake and the other was this strawberry cream cake. I was convinced that I'd like the chocolate mousse cake better because I don't usually like baking with fruit (waste of fruit! I like eating it fresh) and I also don't like the sourness and mush that fruit can add to baked goods. BUT, this cake was outstanding. I must make it at least once a year, maybe more. It is absolutely worth sacrificing some delicious strawberries for.

The cake that's used is like a sponge cake, that is then layered with a strawberry sugar filling in the middle and halved strawberries around the edge, then on top of that goes the most amazing whipped cream concoction in existence - and the layers continue like so. The whipped cream is mixed with cream cheese, which is really brilliant. If you haven't tried this before you must, whether it's with this cake or another or just on top of something else or just in a bowl even. And on top of that, the cake is pretty easy to make.

If this sounds good, you might also like:
Raspberry and White Chocolate Pie
Creamy Coconut Cake
Lemon Cheesecake
Perfect Party Cake

Strawberry Cream Cake
Adapted from Cook's Illustrated May/June 2006 (found on Simply Recipes)

Cake
1 1/4 cups cake flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon table salt
1 cup sugar
5 large eggs (2 whole and 3 separated), room temperature
6 tbsp unsalted butter, melted and cooled slightly
2 tbsp water
2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Strawberry Filling
2 pounds fresh strawberries (medium or large, about 2 quarts), washed, dried, and stemmed
4-6 tbsp sugar
Pinch table salt

Whipped Cream
8 ounces cream cheese, room temperature
1/2 cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/8 teaspoon table salt
2 cups heavy cream

Bake the cake:
1. Adjust oven rack to lower-middle position. Preheat oven to 325°F. Grease a round 9x2 inch cake pan or and line the bottom with parchment paper. In a large bowl, whisk flour, baking powder, salt, and all but 3 tbsp of the sugar in mixing bowl. Whisk in 2 whole eggs and 3 yolks (reserving whites), butter, water, and vanilla. Whisk until smooth.

2. Using a mixer fitted with whisk attachment, beat remaining 3 egg whites at medium-low speed until frothy, 1 to 2 minutes. With machine running, gradually add remaining 3 tablespoons sugar, increase speed to medium-high, and beat until soft peaks form, 60 to 90 seconds. Stir one-third of whites into batter to lighten. Add the remaining whites and gently fold into batter until no white streaks remain. Pour batter into prepared pan and bake until toothpick comes out clean, 30 to 40 minutes. Cool in pan 10 minutes, then invert cake onto wire rack; peel off and discard parchment. Invert cake again; cool completely, about 2 hours.

Strawberry filling:
3. Cut in half 24 of best-looking berries and reserve. Slice or quarter remaining berries; toss with 4 to 6 tablespoons sugar (depending on sweetness of berries) in medium bowl and let sit 1 hour, stirring occasionally. The sugar will macerate the strawberries, making them soft, and generating liquid. Strain the juices from berries and reserve (you should have about 1/2 cup). Put the strawberries in a bowl and mash them; set aside.

In small pot over medium-high heat, simmer reserved juices until syrupy and reduced to about 3 tablespoons, 3 to 5 minutes. Pour reduced syrup over macerated berries, add pinch of salt, and toss to combine. Set aside until cake is cooled.

Whipped cream:
4. When cake has cooled, place cream cheese, sugar, vanilla, and salt in bowl of standing mixer fitted with whisk attachment. Whisk at medium-high speed until light and fluffy, 1 to 2 minutes, scraping down bowl with rubber spatula as needed. Reduce speed to low and add heavy cream in slow, steady stream; when almost fully combined, increase speed to medium-high and beat until mixture holds stiff peaks, 2 to 2 1/2 minutes more, scraping bowl as needed (you should have about 4 1/2 cups).

Assemble the cake:
5. Using large serrated knife, slice cake into three even layers. Place bottom layer on cardboard round or cake plate and arrange ring of 12-20 strawberry halves, cut sides down and stem ends facing out, around perimeter of cake layer. Pour one half of puréed berry mixture (about 3/4 cup) in center, then spread to cover any exposed cake. Gently spread about one-third of whipped cream (about 1 1/2 cups) over berry layer, leaving 1/2-inch border from edge. Place middle cake layer on top and press down gently (whipped cream layer should become flush with cake edge). Repeat with 12-20 additional strawberry halves, remaining berry mixture, and half of remaining whipped cream; gently press last cake layer on top. Spread remaining whipped cream over top; decorate with remaining cut strawberries.

Serve immediately, or keep chilled. If the whipped cream warms to room temperature it will be harder to keep stable while cutting. Serves 8 to 10.

Chocolate Strawberry Loaf

Even though I have a huge back log of things to post about, I thought I'd post this strawberry loaf so that if it sounds good to you you'll have a chance to try it while strawberries are in season! Mostly I really don't like using fruit in baking, especially precious strawberries. I much prefer eating them fresh and unadorned. But we bought a gigantic container of strawberries from Costco and they really didn't taste so good so I thought I'd take the opportunity to bake with them. Elyse posted this strawberry loaf as if in answer to my strawberry woes! (Speaking of Elyse, go and check out her amazingly spectacular creation - a Samoa inspired cheesecake.)

I modified the recipe a bit - omitting the nuts, nutmeg and lemon, and adding chocolate chips. The loaf reminds me of the very moist banana bread my mom made when I was growing up. And the great thing is you can taste the strawberry! For myself, I wouldn't make this loaf again but my boyfriend wants me to. And it's a great way to use up strawberries if you have too many (not that it's really possible). And yes the loaf did have a pink tinge to it.

If this sounds good, you might like:
Mom's Banana Apple Bread
Candied Maple Walnut Pancake Loaf
Pumpkin Loaf
Banana Crunch Muffins

Chocolate Strawberry Loaf
Adapted from King Arthur Flour

The recipe calls for "mashed" strawberries. I pureed mine to make them less chunky. As mentioned above, my modifications were to omit the walnuts, nutmeg and lemon, and to add chocolate chips.

1/2 cup chocolate chips
1 1/2 cups (6 1/4 ounces) unbleached all-purpose flour
1 cup (7 ounces) sugar
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 eggs
1 1/4 cups (10 ounces) pureed strawberries
1/2 cup (3 7/8 ounces) vegetable oil

Preheat your oven to 350°F. Grease and flour (or spray with non-stick vegetable oil spray) a 9 x 5-inch loaf pan.

In a medium-sized mixing bowl, whisk together the chocolate chips, flour, sugar, soda, and salt. In a separate bowl, whisk together the eggs, strawberries and vegetable oil. Combine the wet ingredients with the dry ingredients, whisking until well-blended.

Pour the batter into the prepared pan, and bake for 55 to 60 minutes, until a cake tester inserted into the center comes out clean. Cool the bread in the pan for 15 minutes, then remove it from the pan and transfer it to a rack to cool completely, 1 hour or longer. For best flavor and easiest slicing, wrap the bread while still slightly warm and let it sit overnight.

TWD: Orange Berry Muffins

Jaime from Good Eats 'n Sweet Treats invited me a few days ago to join Tuesdays With Dorie! Tuesdays with Dorie is a group of 6 people now (Jaime as mentioned, Quirky Cupcake, Sugar & Spice, Abby Sweets, Crazy Delicious and Queen of the Marginally Bright) who choose one recipe a week and all make the same thing from Dorie Greenspan's Baking: From My Home to Yours. Such a great idea as I really love this cookbook and haven't made nearly enough things out of it. So this was my first week with them and we made orange berry muffins!

I wasn't sure that I was going to make them as I was trying to be healthier this week with my whole wheat blueberry muffins. But when I found out that today was a snow day and my school was closed, I had to make them! And I'm really glad I did. They're such soft, fluffy and tender muffins. And so beautiful looking too! I went all out and even buttered the muffin tin instead of using muffin cups, making for nice crispy muffin edges all around, mmm. I didn't have any buttermilk, so I used milk with a bit of vinegar and it seemed to work fine (my first time using a buttermilk substitution).

The blueberry and orange flavours were perfectly balanced and the muffins were just the right sweetness. The muffins were very easy to put together and I love that the recipe uses melted butter instead of room temperature butter, meaning you can bake them on a whim! Thanks ladies for welcoming me to your group. Go check out the others' blogs to see their yummy muffins!

Other muffins I've made:
Almond Coconut
Snickerdoodle
Lemon Poppyseed
Healthy Banana Bran
Healthy Pumpkin Banana

Orange Berry Muffins
Adapted from Baking: From My Home to Yours (Dorie Greenspan)

Grated zest and juice of 1 orange
1/2 tbsp vinegar + 3/4 cup milk, mixed (or 3/4 cup buttermilk)
2 large eggs
3 tablespoons honey
1 stick (8 tablespoons) unsalted butter, melted and cooled
1/3 cup sugar
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup frozen blueberries

Preheat the oven to 400F. Butter or spray the 12 molds in a regular-size muffin pan or fit the molds with paper muffin cups. Alternatively, use a silicone muffin pan, which needs neither greasing nor paper cups. Place the muffin pan on a baking sheet.

Pour the orange juice into a large glass measuring cup or a bowl and pour in enough buttermilk to make 1 cup. Whisk in the eggs, honey and melted butter.

In a large bowl, rub the sugar and orange zest together with your fingertips until the sugar is moist and the fragrance of orange strong. Whisk in the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Pour the liquid ingredients over the dry ingredients and, with the whisk or a rubber spatula, gently but quickly stir to blend. Don’t worry about being thorough - the batter will be lumpy and bubbly, and that’s just the way it should be. Stir in the blueberries. Divide the batter evenly among the muffin cups.

Bake for 22 to 25 minutes. If you want to top the muffins with decorating sugar, sprinkle on the sugar after the muffins have baked for 10 minutes. When fully baked, the tops of the muffins will be golden and springy to the touch and a thin knife inserted into the center of the muffins will come out clean. Transfer the pan to a rack and cool for 5 minutes before carefully removing each muffin from its mold.

Raspberry & White Chocolate Pie

A couple of weekends ago, I was waiting at the car dealership with my boyfriend while his car was getting serviced. I was surprised to find out that they had a giant tv, and most pleased to see that it was tuned in to the Food Network! One thing I saw being made on Ricardo and Friends was a white chocolate raspberry pie, which I had stuck in my brain after that and had to make it the next day. I had also been wanting to find places to buy local fruit close to home, so making this pie seemed perfect. I went out and bought my first local raspberries and got way more than I needed. Disappointingly, they weren't as good as the raspberries my mom picked up at the grocery store a few weeks ago. I actually don't really like raspberries that much because I find they can be too sour. Blackberries are my favourite berry (well those and blueberries), but as I said, those raspberries from the grocery store were extremely tasty so I was hoping for more like that. In any case, I had lots of raspberries and white chocolate and I was super excited to make my pie!

This was my second time making a crust, and thankfully it was my second successful crust. This crust was shortbread though, while the other was savoury. It was a real pain to roll out, which I guess makes sense for being a shortbread crust. I just stuck it into the dish and pressed it around with my fingers, and that seemed to turn out okay. Well it turned out okay as in it tasted good and had a nice texture, but when I tried to take out a slice of the pie, sometimes the bottom of the crust would break apart. I need (yes need, not want) to get a tart pan with a removable bottom (and also a rectangular quiche pan and a tartlet pan and, and, and..) As for the filling, I was expecting a white chocolate ganache type filling. I'm not sure why, since there's an egg in the filling and not that much white chocolate - so it was more of a custard. Next time I would add a lot more white chocolate because the flavour wasn't strong enough for me, and maybe add some vanilla too. Overall it was delicious, fun to make (aside from the aggravating crust incidents) and tasty.

Raspberry and White Chocolate Pie
(Adapted from Ricardo and Friends)

Shortbread Crust
2 1/4 cups (560 ml) flour
1/8 tsp salt
1/2 cup (125 ml) sugar
3/4 cup (180 ml) unsalted butter, chilled and cubed
4 egg yolks
1 tbsp (15 ml) ice water or 35% cream
1 tbsp (15 ml) lemon juice

Filling
3/4 cup (180 ml) 35% cream
4 ounces (120 g) white chocolate, chopped
1 egg, lightly beaten
1 1/3 cups fresh raspberries
White chocolate shavings

Shortbread Crust
1. Place the flour, salt and sugar in a food processor and pulse for a few seconds.
2. Add the butter and pulse until the mixture resembles coarse cornmeal.
3. Add the egg yolks, water or cream and lemon juice.
4. Pulse until the mixture begins to form a ball.
5. Remove the dough from the food processor. Shape into a disk.
6. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 30 minutes.
7. Pat the dough into a 9-inch (23 cm) pie pan. Refrigerate for another 30 minutes.
8. With the rack in the lowest position, preheat the oven to 375°F (190°C).
9. Line the chilled crust with aluminum foil, scattering a few dry beans or pie weights on top to hold the foil in place.
10. Bake for 10 minutes. Remove the weights and foil and bake for 5 minutes more. Let cool.

Filling
1. Preheat the oven to 325°F (170°C).
2. In a saucepan over low heat, gently melt the chocolate in the cream.
3. Lightly beat the egg using an electric mixer on lowest speed.
4. While beating, slowly add the chocolate mixture, taking care not to incorporate air into the mixture. Beat for 15 seconds more.
5. Arrange 1 cup (250 ml) raspberries on the pie crust with their pointed ends facing up.
6. Gently pour the filling over the berries without covering them completely.
7. Bake until the centre is firm, 30 to 35 minutes.
8. Let stand at room temperature for 3 to 4 hours.
9. Just before serving, garnish with white chocolate shavings and the remaining raspberries. Best if served the same day.