Strawberry muffins

I am in love with my muffin tin..it's as if all of a sudden, I realize what a great baking tool the muffin tin is. Since then, I want to use it all the time. It's great clean up. It's also wonderful when your baked goods is in these small portions and you can just grab, eat and go. So now I'm trying to think of what else I can make in my muffin tin. heehee =P

Anyway..onto these wonderful Strawberry muffins. These muffins are adapted from the Blueberry muffins from the New Best Recipe by the wonderful folks at Cook's illustrated. I used strawberries instead because I didn't have any blueberries on hand. They turned out wonderful!! They are so perfectly moist and the sour cream in the muffins made them taste like strawberry cream cheese muffins. yum-ME! Here's the recipe.

Strawberry Muffins
adapted from The New Best Recipe
total time: 1 hour

2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour (10 ounces)
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon table salt
3/4 large egg
1 cup granulated sugar (7 ounces)
4 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted and cooled slightly
1 1/4 cups sour cream (10 ounces)
1 1/2 cups strawberries

1. Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 350 degrees. Spray standard muffin tin with nonstick vegetable cooking spray.

2. Whisk flour, baking powder, and salt in medium bowl until combined. Whisk egg in second medium bowl until well-combined and light-colored, about 20 seconds. Add sugar and whisk vigorously until thick and homogenous, about 30 seconds; add melted butter in 2 or 3 steps, whisking to combine after each addition. Add sour cream in 2 steps, whisking just to combine.

3. Add frozen berries to dry ingredients and gently toss to combine. Add sour cream mixture and fold with rubber spatula until batter comes together and berries are evenly distributed, 25 to 30 seconds (small spots of flour may remain and batter will be thick). Do not overmix.

4. Use ice cream scoop or large spoon to drop batter into greased muffin tin. Bake until light golden brown and toothpick or skewer inserted into center of muffin comes out clean, 25 to 30 minutes, rotating pan from front to back halfway through baking time. Invert muffins onto wire rack, stand muffins upright, and cool 5 minutes.
Notes:

• The original recipe calls for 1 cup of sugar. I lowered it to 3/4 cups of sugar. I thought it was sweet enough...but you might want to put the whole cup of sugar if you like things sweeter.
  

Chocolate chocolate chunk muffins

A friend of mine had a little get together at her house...sort of like a tupperware party, but only better because it was clothes. The company is called Jessica's traveling boutique. It was so much fun having her at my friend's house. There were only a few of us, so we could really take our time browsing, and of course Jessica is so nice!!! If you're in Hawaii, I highly recommend throwing a party with Jessica.

Anyway...on to the food, this is what I brought to the get together. I wanted something kind of brunch-y. So I decided to make this Chocolate chocolate chunk muffins from Annie Eats. I think the recipe is actually originally from Baking from my home to yours.

I thought the muffins were just okay...it definitely did not have a wow factor. It's not very sweet and there's not enough chocolate flavor. If I were to make these again, I would definitely up the melted chocolate. Anyway, here's the recipe.

Chocolate Chocolate Chunk Muffins
Annie’s eats
total time: one hour

3/4 stick (6 tbsp.) unsalted butter
4-6 oz. bittersweet chocolate, coarsely chopped
2 cups all-purpose flour
2/3 cup sugar
1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder, sifted
1 tbsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
1 1/4 cups buttermilk
1 large egg
1 tsp. vanilla extract

1. Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 375°. Line a muffin pan with 12 paper liners. Set aside.

2. Melt the butter and 2 oz. of the chopped chocolate together in a bowl over a saucepan of simmering water; or do this in a microwave. Remove from the heat.

3. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda and salt. In a large glass measuring cup or another bowl, whisk the buttermilk, egg and vanilla extract together until well combined. Pour the liquid ingredients and the melted butter and chocolate over the dry ingredients and, with the whisk or rubber spatula, gently but quickly stir to blend. Don’t worry about being thorough – a few lumps are better than overmixing the batter. Stir in the remaining chopped chocolate. Divide the batter evenly among the muffin cups.

4. Bake for about 20 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of a muffin comes out clean. Transfer the pan to a wire rack and cool for 5 minutes before carefully removing each muffin from its mold.

Creamy bread

I just came back from a trip to Hong Kong where I acquired a wonderful bread recipe book. I can't wait to make every single thing from this book. It's called Japanese bread bread. When I was in Japan, I absolutely fell in love with Japanese bread. Don't get me wrong, I love my rustic bread once in awhile...but the soft and buttery Japanese bread is a different category all together. I don't think you can even compare the two.

The reason I ended up buying this book in particular is because of this recipe. I saw the picture and the ingredients, and I was drooling at the bookstore. It turned out really well. The little buns are so soft and buttery. Absolutely delicious. The only gripe I have with this book is that it's in Chinese, it also has English translation in the book, but the instructions are not detailed at all. The following is the recipe from the book with a little bit more guidance from me...hope you enjoy it too!

Creamy bread
adapted from the Japanese Bread
total time: 2 hours

250g bread flour
25g sugar
10g milk powder
80g butter
8g yeast
2 pieces egg yolks
100g milk
40g warm water

1. Mix 5g of sugar, yeast and the warm water together. Allow the yeast mixture to rest for five minutes or until it is frothy.

2. Mix the bread flour, 20g of sugar, milk powder together. Combine the milk, frothy yeast mixture and the two egg yolks together. Mix the wet ingredients with the dry ingredients and knead the mixture until it is smooth. Add the butter and knead until it is smooth and elastic.

3. Allow the dough to rest for about 30 minutes or until it is double in size. Roll out the dough into a square. Roll up the dough and close the sides by pinching the dough.

4. Preheat your oven to 400 degrees.

5. Cut the rolls up into 12 equal pieces. Place each piece in a muffin tin. Brush the dough with egg wash and allow the little doughs to rest for 45 minutes.

5. Brush with egg wash again. Bake the rolls for 10 minutes or until the little buns are golden in color.

Notes:

• The original recipe says to roll up the dough, let rise for 30 minutes, and then cut it up. I didn't shape the dough until after the first rise. I'm not sure if this would make a difference, that's normally how it's done in other bread recipes I have used.

Daring Bakers-Pizza

I missed the last three daring bakers challenge while I was away so I was so happy to be back in the kitchen with this challenge!! Although I love sweets, I love it when our challenges are savory. The hardest part about this challenge is we were required to toss our pizza, and as you can see in the picture..I didn't do so well. heehee..I'm sorry, at least I tried right?!

The pizza came out well, everyone was happy with the results. I made the traditional "super supreme" variety. I used a quick tomato sauce recipe from cook's illustrated, and just added some fix-ins. Take a look at all the other Daring Bakers' pizza successes. here's the recipe:

Basic Pizza Dough

Adapted from “The Bread Baker’s Apprentice” by Peter Reinhart.
Makes 4-6 pizza crusts

For the dough:
4 1/2 Cups (20 1/4 ounces/607.5 g) all purpose flour, chilled
1 3/4 Tsp Salt
1 Tsp Instant yeast
1/4 Cup (2 ounces/60g) olive oil or vegetable oil
1 3/4 Cups (14 ounces/420g or 420ml) ice cold water, ice cold (40° F/4.5° C)
1 Tb sugar
Semolina/durum flour or cornmeal for dusting

DAY ONE
1. Mix together the flour, salt and instant yeast in a big bowl or stand mixer. Add the oil, sugar and cold water and mix well (spoon or paddle attachment) to form a sticky ball of dough. On a clean surface, knead for about 5-7 minutes, until the dough is smooth. If it is too wet, add a little flour and if it is too dry add 1 or 2 teaspoons extra water.

2. If you are using an electric mixer, switch to the dough hook and mix on medium speed for the same amount of time. The dough should clear the sides of the bowl but stick to the bottom of the bowl. If the dough is too wet, sprinkle in a little more flour. If it clears the bottom of the bowl, dribble in a teaspoon or two of cold water. The finished dough should be springy, elastic, and sticky, not just tacky, and register 50°-55° F/10°-13° C.

3. Flour a work surface or counter. Line a jelly pan with baking paper/parchment. Lightly oil the paper. Cut the dough into 4-6 equal pieces. Sprinkle some flour over the dough. Make sure your hands are dry and then flour them. Gently round each piece into a ball.

4. Transfer the dough balls to the lined jelly pan and mist them generously with spray oil and cover with plastic wrap. Put the pan into the refrigerator and let the dough rest overnight or for up to thee days.

NOTE: You can store the dough balls in a freezer bag if you want to save some of the dough for any future baking. In that case, pour some oil (a few tablespooons only) in a medium bowl and dip each dough ball into the oil, so that it is completely covered in oil. Then put each ball into a separate bag. Store the bags in the freezer for no longer than 3 months. The day before you plan to make pizza, remember to transfer the dough balls from the freezer to the refrigerator.

DAY TWO
1. On the day you plan to eat pizza, exactly 2 hours before you make it, remove the desired number of dough balls from the refrigerator. Dust the counter with flour and spray lightly with oil. Press the dough into disks about 1/2 inch/1.3 cm thick and 5 inches/12.7 cm in diameter. Sprinkle with flour and mist with oil. Loosely cover the dough rounds with plastic wrap and then allow to rest for 2 hours.

2. At least 45 minutes before making the pizza, place a baking stone on the lower third of the oven. Preheat the oven as hot as possible (500° F/260° C). If you do not have a baking stone, then use the back of a jelly pan. Do not preheat the pan.
Generously sprinkle the back of a jelly pan with semolina/durum flour or cornmeal. Take 1 piece and lay the dough across your fists in a very delicate way and carefully stretch it by bouncing it in a circular motion on your hands, and by giving it a little stretch with each bounce. Once the dough has expanded outward, move to a full toss.

3. Make only one pizza at a time. During the tossing process, if the dough tends to stick to your hands, lay it down on the floured counter and reflour your hands, then continue the tossing and shaping. In case you would be having trouble tossing the dough or if the dough never wants to expand and always springs back, let it rest for approximately 5-20 minutes in order for the gluten to relax fully,then try again.You can also resort to using a rolling pin.

4. When the dough has the shape you want, place it on the back of the jelly pan, making sure there is enough semolina/durum flour or cornmeal to allow it to slide and not stick to the pan. Lightly top it with sweet or savory toppings of your choice.
Slide the garnished pizza onto the stone in the oven or bake directly on the jelly pan. Close the door and bake for about 5-8 minutes.

Espresso chocolate shortbread

I'M BACK!! yipee..i'm so glad to be back in my kitchen and baking again. The last few months I have been thinking about what I would bake when I come back home..and I really had a hard time deciding. But when I got home, I saw that I received Dorie's Baking from my home to yours (THANK YOU, S) for my birthday!! I had to make something from my new cookbook...so I decided on these Espresso Chocolate shortbread cookies.

I read about these cookies from Smitten Kitchen and from Use Real Butter and they both rave about it. These cookies are so easy to make and they're delicious. I especially loved the texture of the shortbread. Here's the recipe:

Espresso-Chocolate Shortbread Cookies
Baking: From My Home to Yours

Makes 32 cookies

1 tablespoon instant espresso powder
1 tablespoon boiling water
2 sticks (8 ounces) unsalted butter, at room temperature
2/3 cup confectioners’ sugar
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
2 cups all-purpose flour
4 ounces bittersweet chocolate (plain, or a toffee variety), finely chopped, or 3/4 cup store-bought mini chocolate chips
Confectioners’ sugar, for dusting (optional)

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

2. Working with a stand mixer, preferably fitted with a paddle attachment, or with a hand mixer in a large bowl, beat the butter and confectioners’ sugar together on medium speed for about 3 minutes, until the mixture is very smooth. Beat in the vanilla and espresso, then reduce the mixer speed to low and add the flour, mixing only until it disappears into the dough. Don’t work the dough much once the flour is incorporated. Fold in the chopped chocolate with a sturdy rubber spatula.

3. Using the spatula, transfer the soft, sticky dough to a gallon-size zipper-lock plastic bag. Put the bag on a flat surface, leaving the top open, and roll the dough into a 9 x 10 1/2 inch rectangle that’s 1/4 inch thick. As you roll, turn the bag occasionally and lift the plastic from the dough so it doesn’t cause creases. When you get the right size and thickness, seal the bag, pressing out as much air as possible, and refrigerate the dough for at least 2 hours, or for up to 2 days.

4. Position the racks to divide the oven into thirds and preheat the oven to 325 degrees F. Line two baking sheets with parchment or silicone mats.

5. Put the plastic bag on a cutting board and slit it open. Turn the firm dough out onto the board (discard the bag) and, using a ruler as a guide and a sharp knife, cut the dough into 1 1/2-inch squares. Transfer the squares to the baking sheets and carefully prick each one twice with a fork, gently pushing the tines through the cookies until they hit the sheet.

6. Bake for 18 to 20 minutes, rotating the sheets from top to bottom and front to back at the midway point. The shortbreads will be very pale–they shouldn’t take on much color. Transfer the cookies to a rack.

7. If you’d like, dust the cookies with confectioners’ sugar while they are still hot. Cool the cookies to room temperature before serving.