Blueberry Coffee Cake Muffins

Grrubere humarhehr yeosmegerrb? ...... errr....sorry...my mouth was full with these INCREDIBLE muffins. What I asked was, "Have you ever tasted a better blueberry muffin than this one?" (or at least that's what I was thinking...) Ina has certainly outdone herself with this one, let me tell you. I've seen her make them a couple of times...you know the show...the one where she has her girlfriend's daughter and her college friends over for brunch and they ask to live with her forever because she's an incredible cook...well, uh...most of that is my fantasy but you get the drift. :) Well, in my infinite search to find the perfect recipes to make for my family when they visit for a weekend on the rare occasion, I firmly decided to make these muffins for their most recent visit. And what else was I going to serve for breakfast that morning? Nothing. That's right. Nothing. Except coffee of course. Breakfast on a Sunday with the family in town in usually a mid-morning event (eggs, bacon, sausages, toast/bagels, and sometimes pancakes) and since I had already made a big pot of [yes you guessed it] Ina's split pea soup for lunch that afternoon, I didn't want to make a huge breakfast that would ruin appetites for later in the day.

What I didn't realize was that these muffins would be the be all and end all of blueberry muffins. I was totally expecting to get huge raves over my soup that afternoon but I don't think I've ever heard as many mmms and oh-my-gods as I did over breakfast. In fact, I think the soup may have been a let-down after the morning muffins. lol The muffins were absolutely perfect in every sense of the word. They were the kind of muffins where the whole muffin was eaten, not just the top. They were sweet. They were moist. They were blueberry-y.

They were not what I expected when I opened the oven to check on them with just a few minutes of the cooking time remaining. The muffin tops had totally spilled over into one another and became a muffin top mass. Thankfully they didn't run over the sides of the muffin tins onto the bottom of the oven but nonetheless, I totally panicked. Crap! What to do, what to do? With just a few minutes left, there wasn't really much I could do but hope that they tasted ok even though they didn't look like your typical muffin. My mom and my aunt soothed my muffin anxiety and I talked myself through the thoughts of my last muffin disaster 4 years ago, which coincidentally was the last time I made muffins. After a few extra minutes added to the cooking time, I took the muffins out, let them cool for a few minutes, cut the tops with a spatula, and gently removed them. They all came out in one piece. First sigh of relief. They all sat upright on the cooling rack. Second sigh. The third sigh came when I took that first bite and the muffin melted in my mouth. ahhhhh sooooo goooooood.....

Blueberry Coffee Cake Muffins
source: Ina Garten, Barefoot Contessa Family Style

• 12 tablespoons (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature
• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 3 extra-large eggs, at room temperature
• 1 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
• 8 ounces (about 1 cup) sour cream
• 1/4 cup milk
• 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
• 2 half-pints fresh blueberries, picked through for stems
  

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Place 16 paper liners in muffin pans (I just greased the muffin cups). In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy, about 5 minutes. With the mixer on low speed, add the eggs 1 at a time, then add the vanilla, sour cream, and milk. In a separate bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. With the mixer on low speed add the flour mixture to the batter and beat until just mixed. Fold in the blueberries with a spatula and be sure the batter is completely mixed.
2. Scoop the batter into the prepared muffin pans (I used an ice cream scoop - works great!), filling each cup just over the top, and bake for 25 to 30 minutes, until the muffins are lightly browned on top and a cake tester comes out clean.

Prep time: 10 minutes

Cook time: 30 minutes

Yields: 14 muffins (using the ice cream scoop)

Show me the gravy!

As a kid, my parents drove my brother and I all over the place: Niagara Falls, Disney World, Connecticut, Montana/Idaho, Hershey Park (PA). Driving truly sucked, especially with a bratty little brother in the back seat the whole ride...but that's another story for the couch so I won't go into it here. I suppose as a kid, I never really appreciated the opportunities to see the country that driving provided (which is why I self-medicated with Dramamine), but I did see the opportunities in tasting the local foods wherever we drove through or ended up. There's no question what my favorite local fare was and I looked for it on every menu at every truck stop, Denny's or IHOP we ever stopped at: Biscuits and Gravy. :: insert Homer Simpson drooling sound here :: It's not a dish that you can readily find here in the Northeast so it's always such a treat to order it, especially when I'm down South.

However, now I don't have to wait until I travel to find it!! My mom cut out a recipe for Biscuits and Gravy a few years ago from her local newspaper and it turns out that it's a wonderful and fairly authentic recipe that I've been making ever since. I'm sure the recipes in the South call for some form of lard to enhance the flavor (and of course further clog the arteries) but this recipe is pretty basic, and it's certainly not lacking in flavor. It happens to be Kyle's #1 breakfast request for special occasions, weekends hosting guests, and holidays - but I refuse to make it for any sort of random day because I feel that we should have a "special" breakfast made only a couple times of year so that the novelty of this great meal doesn't wear out.

Our most recent indulgence was for Thanksgiving morning breakfast and even with the hustle and bustle of preparing a turkey dinner for later in the day, there was still plenty of time to put this in our bellies because it's so easy to make. For this occasion, I didn't make biscuits from scratch (but have in the past), and used a can of refrigerated biscuits - no shame in that! I've never actually used the biscuit recipe below so I can't attest to how it turns out but it sounds like it would turn out OK. Please note that I've made some changes to the gravy recipe, which you can see in italics.

Biscuits and Gravy

source: Bev Bennett in Newsday, April 6, 2003

For the biscuits:

• 1 cup flour
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp sugar
• 1/4 cup (1/2 stick) cold butter, cut into pieces
• 4 to 5 tbsp milk
• 1 tbsp minced chives (optional)

1. Combine flour, salt, baking powder and sugar in a bowl. Cut in butter until mixture contains small chunks of butter. Add 4 tbsp milk and stir. If dough is stiff, add remaining tbsp of milk. Knead in chives. Dough should be soft, but not sticky.
2. Pat dough to 3/4 inch thickness on lightly floured board. Cut into 4 circles with 2 1/2 inch cookie cutter. Place on greased cookie sheet. Bake in 425 degree oven for 15 minutes or until golden brown.
3. Place on wire rack to cool for 5 minutes before splitting open. Makes 4 biscuits.

For the gravy:

• 8 oz bulk (ground) pork sausage in sage or hot seasonings (I use 12oz of ground breakfast sausage - either Jones' or Jimmy Dean)
• 1 tbsp* flour
• 1 cup* milk or combination of milk and half-and-half (should be room temperature)
• freshly ground black pepper (lots!!)

1. While biscuits are baking, brown sausage in a medium, non-stick skillet (it doesn't have to be non-stick). Do not pour off fat.
2. Add flour to sausage and fat and stir to make a paste. Stir (whisk) in milk or half-and-half and cook over low heat (medium works better), stirring frequently, until sausage is hot and gravy is smooth and thick. (The mixture will need to come to a simmer before you get the right consistency.) Season generously with pepper.
3. To serve, split each biscuit in half and top with 1/4 of the gravy mixture. Serve immediately. Serves 2.

*Notes:

1. You might need a little extra flour and milk if you use extra sausage.
2. Usually my gravy is a bit more "runny" than what these pics show but I was running low on milk that morning and had to make sure I had enough to last through the remainder of the holiday.
3. This recipe easily doubles but I don't recommend fully doubling the milk. Add as much milk as necessary to bring your gravy to your desired thickness.

Chocolate Chip Sour Cream Cake

Who do I think I am coming up with a post like this? Smitten Kitchen? Yeah, I wish! Deb's blog (aka Smitten Kitchen) is seriously one of the most fantastic food blogs I've ever come across. And I'm not entirely sure how I stumbled upon it (although I know it was by accident about 6 or 7 months ago), but Kyle sure is thankful that I did - almost as thankful that I've found solice in so many of Giada's recipes. Deb's blog is incredibly well-written and witty, and of course it features some of the most drool-worthy food porn out there in the blog-o-sphere. (Like my attention to jargon there?) You'll be hard-pressed to find a better food blog...at least I've yet to find one (although, Culinary Concoctions by Peabody ranks right up there).

So, yes, I've been reading Smitten Kitchen, almost on a daily basis for a few months now (love Google reader!), and was so excited to read recently that Deb and her beloved blog were being featured in the Boston Globe - pretty big honors for a woman who creates some pretty big food out of her pretty tiny Brooklyn, NY apartment kitchen. It was reading the Globe article online where I found this recipe of Deb's that had been filed away in her blog archives and probably wouldn't have been found had it not been for the article (as much as I love Smitten Kitchen, I just don't have the time to peruse nearly 18 months of blog posts). So after wiping the drool off my keyboard, I printed out the recipe and immediately decided to make this for my parents while I was down to visit them on good 'ol Long Island (actually, not too far from where Smitten Kitchen makes it's home).

I took full advantage of my mom's new double-oven that weekend, but didn't dare ask to use the brand-spankin' new holy grail of kitchen appliances (aka the Kitchenaid Artisan Stand Mixer in Onyx) that I had given her the evening before for her birthday. As much as it killed me to restrain myself from asking to use it, I knew that the only person who should break-in the holy grail is its rightful owner. So I used a hand-mixer - no big deal. :)

It's difficult to explain how incredible this recipe turned out without, again, wiping the drool off my keyboard. The coffee cake was exactly how I hoped it would be - dense and flavorful but not crumbly...and it yielded a bonus of a mouthful of chocolate cinnamon flavor in every bite. Can you really get any better than that?? I have to admit that I made the mistake of not cutting the servings small enough (what???) because this cake really is filling. My cake yielded 24 pieces but 32 or even 36 pieces probably would yielded a more appropriate serving size. But nonetheless, neither I nor my parents (nor Kyle after I brought the leftovers home to him in CT) had any regrets about my making this cake. It's perfect for any occasion - brunch, dessert, or an afternoon coffee break - and I will without a doubt make this again.

Chocolate Chip Sour Cream Cake
source: Smitten Kitchen blog

• 1 stick butter, at room temperature
• 1 ½ cups sugar
• 3 eggs, separated
• 1 ½ teaspoons vanilla extract
• 16 ounces sour cream
• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 ½ teaspoons baking soda
  
• 12 ounces chocolate chips (which I tossed lightly in flour before adding to cake to prevent the chips from sinking to the bottom)
• ½ cup sugar
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. In a large bowl, cream butter and 1½ cups sugar, then mix in the egg yolks and vanilla. Sift flour, baking soda and baking powder together into a separate bowl. Alternately add sour cream and then dry ingredients into butter mixture. Beat eggs whites until stiff, then fold into batter.
3. Mix last ½ cup sugar and cinnamon together in a separate, small dish.
4. In a greased 9″x13″ pan, pour in half of the cake batter. Sprinkle the top with half of the cinnamon-sugar mixture and half of the chocolate chips. Pour remaining batter on top, sprinkling the top with the remaining cinnamon-sugar and chocolate chips.
5. Bake for 40 to 50 minutes, or until a tester comes out clean.
   

Prep time: 20 minutes

Cook time: 40-50 minutes

Yields: 24-36 pieces

Big Fat French Toast

Admittedly, I've only made french toast twice in my life - the first time was years ago and the second, more recently, was too much of a flop than I'd like to admit. But I had some pretty decent cinnamon swirl bread that I picked up from my favorite apple orchard last weekend that needed to be used up quickly before it started growing your biggest bread enemy and mine: mold. So yes, as much of a huge fan I am of french toast, it's never been a major player in my breakfast repetoire. However, after this attempt, I think I might see what I can do with it in the future...maybe adding fruit? or chocolate?? or fruit and chocolate together????


This recipe is pretty simple and I figured I would jot it down here so that I can use it in the future and if anyone else out there is as inept at making french toast as I have been, there is now a simple recipe for you to use too. :) Considering my lack of french toast making skills, I didn't actually use a recipe, but kinda made it up as I went along...that IS what cooking is about sometimes, isn't it?


French Toast
source: Smells Like Home

• 8 thick slices of bread, preferably a few days old, about 1" thick each
• 6 eggs
• 1/2 cup skim milk
• 2 tbsp half n half
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• butter, cinnamon-sugar mixture (2 tbsp sugar and 1 tsp cinnamon) for serving, and maple syrup

1. Heat a griddle or large non-stick frying pan to medium heat. Meanwhile, beat eggs, milk, half n half, vanilla, and cinnamon together in a large bowl.
2. When griddle is hot, soak bread in egg mixture until softened and place on griddle. Repeat for remaining slices of bread. Flip after about 3 or 4 minutes (bottom will be browned) and then move cooked french toast to a warmed plate in a warm oven until all the bread is cooked.
3. Top each piece with a small pat of butter, sprinkle with cinnamon and sugar mixture, and serve with maple syrup, if desired.

Prep time: 5 minutes

Cook time: 8-10 minutes

Serves: 4

Fabulous Frittata

When life gets hectic, the last thing I want to do is be a slave to the kitchen trying to cook dinner. I had a feeling yesterday would be one of those days and I'm so glad I planned early to make frittata for dinner, because it really was one of those days.

I had a 5pm dentist appt after work to have what I thought was a small filling put in as a preventative measure, which didn't have me worried at all because I don't need any novacaine for these types of things. In fact, the last time I had novacaine was over 20 years ago. Well.....this procedure proved to be different. The dentist numbed me gum as soon as I got in the chair then came at me with the novacaine needle - ummm....what??? I thought this was a small procedure!! As it turns out, the "spot" they originally saw two months ago progressed to a full-blown cavity IN BETWEEN my teeth and the dentist ended up having to drill down damn close to the nerve ending. OK, so I felt nothing whatsoever during the procedure but the novacaine left me feeling weird and slightly disoriented. To make matters worse, when I got back in the car, I realized that I had broken my glasses when I made the tranisition from glasses to sunglasses earlier in the afternoon. GREAT. Alright, not so much of a big deal because I'm not totally blind without my glasses and it was still semi-light out so I could handle it.

On the drive home, I decided to stop at Barnes & Noble to pick up my next book club book. I parked and got out of my car to put my jacket on and when I leaned back in the car to get my purse, I hit my head so hard on the top of the door jam that I literally saw stars. Woah!! Seriously, could the chain of events get any worse?? Thankfully it didn't and I was so happy to come home and only have to make frittata for dinner because if I had planned anything else, it would have been take-out for sure.

If you're still reading, this, I commend you...and if you're wondering, yes, I do still have an egg on the top of my head. But I digress...the frittata was fabulous!! I used up some thawed out frozen spinach, chopped red peppers, sliced roasted garlic chicken sausage and fontina cheese (my favorite!) and I couldn't be more pleased with how this turned out. Seriously, if you have trouble getting your kids to eat their veggies, put them (the veggies, not your kids) in a frittata! All of the flavors came together beautifully and not a single veggie screams out "I'M A VEGETABLE!!" I told Kyle that I was considering making this frittata again for dinner tonight! :)

Fabulous Frittata

source: Smells Like Home

• 1 tbsp butter
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 6 eggs
• 2 tbsp heavy cream or heavy whipping cream
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp freshly ground black
• 2 chicken sausages, sliced
• 1/2 cup frozen spinach, thawed, and drained
• 3/4 cup red pepper, diced small
• 3 oz fontina cubed small

1. In a large bowl, beat together eggs, cream, salt, and pepper. Set aside.
2. Turn oven on to broil. In a 9 or 10 inch non-stick, oven-safe skillet, heat oil and butter over medium-high heat. Coat the sides of the pan with butter and oil mixture. Add spinach, peppers, and chicken sausage and cook for 3-4 minutes until tender crisp and heated through. Reduce heat to medium-low and add egg mixture then cheese. Cover and cook for 2 minutes until eggs have set but the top is still runny.
3. Carefully move pan from stovetop to oven and broil for 4 minutes or until the top is browned and no longer runny. Remove from oven (handle will be hot!!) and let stand for 2 minutes. Loosen frittata with a non-stick spatula and slide onto serving plate.

Prep time: 5 minutes

Cook time: 15 minutes

Serves: 2-3

Pumpkin Pancakes

The finale to a picture-perfect and relaxing autumn weekend with my parents was a good, hearty breakfast. Kyle and I haven't made pancakes in ages and since he asked for chocolate chip pancakes this morning, I thought I'd take it a step further and use my improv skills with the help of the can of pumpkin puree that has been calling me from my cupboard for weeks.

Weeks? You ask? Yes, weeks. I've had so many pumpkiny foods that I've been yearning to make but either my time runs out or I can't decide what to make so I've ended up not making anything...until today.

It was during the middle of mass at church this morning when I had what you might call an epiphany (of sorts) and I suppose the timing of it was fitting, considering where I was and what I was doing. Why not pumkin pancakes?? Is what I said to myself...and thus my great idea was born. I planned out the recipe on the ride home (yes, I was able to redirect my attention to the mass) and got started as soon as I got home.

The first batch that came off the electric griddle were plain pancakes with chocolate chips for Kyle...then came just plain pancakes...then I added 1/4 cup pumpkin, 1/2 tsp cinnamon, and 1/8 tsp ground nutmeg to the remaining amount of batter (maybe 1/4 of the total amount of batter) and I started to see what I had in my mind come alive. The batter alone smelled wonderful and my parents started hovering once they started to cook. To the last 2 pumpkin pancakes to go on the griddle, I added a few chocolate chips for good measure and these turned out to be les pieces de resistance.

Holy moly were these pumpkin pancakes (with and without chocolate chips) incredible!! So incredible that, based again on the number of "mmms" I heard this morning, they I expect they will end up on our post-church breakfast table again very soon (yes, that means that although he was skeptical of the idea of pumpkin pancakes, Kyle loved them too).

Breakfast for dinner?

Oh yeah!! What's easier than a frittata? Not much...and it was so good that Kyle ate 3/4 of it!! Before last night, I had only "attempted" frittata once and since it came out so well the first time, I decided to modify the original recipe (tomato, asparagus and fontina frittata from Giada De Laurentiis, see below) to better suit our...err, Kyle's...tastes.

Broccoli and Fontina Frittata

• 6 large eggs
• 2 tbsp heavy cream or half-and-half
• 3 ounces cubed fontina cheese
• 1 1/2 cups broccoli, chopped
• 1/3 cup bell pepper (red, orange or yellow), diced
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 1 tbsp butter
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp freshly ground black pepper

In a large bowl, beat together eggs, cream, salt, and pepper. Set aside. Turn oven on to broil. In a 9 or 10 inch non-stick, oven-safe skillet, heat oil and butter over medium-high heat. Add broccoli and peppers and cook for 3-4 minutes until tender crisp. Reduce heat to medium-low and add egg mixture then cheese. Cover and cook for 2 minutes until eggs have set but the top is still runny. Carefully move pan from stovetop to oven and broil for 4 minutes or until the top is browned and no longer runny. Remove from oven (handle will be hot!!) and let stand for 2 minutes. Loosen frittata with a non-stick spatula and slide onto serving plate.

Prep time: 10 minutes

Cook time: 10 minutes

Serves 4-6

Tomato, Asparagus & Fontina Frittata

There's a first time for everything, right? After having had numerous types of frittatas while growing up, I never attempted to make one myself because I never had a frying pan that could be alternatively used in the oven.....until the other night.

I ventured back into my new favorite cookbook, Everyday Italian: 125 Simple and Delicious Recipes by Food Network star, Giada De Laurentiis, and came across this...

Tomato, Asparagus and Fontina Frittata

• 6 large eggs
• 2 tbsp heavy cream or half-and-half
• 3 ounces cubed fontina cheese
• 1 cup asparagus, chopped
• 1/2 cup tomato, diced
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 1 tbsp butter
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp freshly ground black pepper

In a large bowl, beat together eggs, cream, salt, and pepper. Set aside. Turn oven on to broil. In a 9 or 10 inch non-stick, oven-safe skillet, heat oil and butter over medium-high heat. Add broccoli and peppers and cook for 3-4 minutes until tender crisp. Reduce heat to medium-low and add egg mixture then cheese. Cover and cook for 2 minutes until eggs have set but the top is still runny. Carefully move pan from stovetop to oven and broil for 4 minutes or until the top is browned and no longer runny. Remove from oven (handle will be hot!!) and let stand for 2 minutes. Loosen frittata with a non-stick spatula and slide onto serving plate.

Prep time: 10 minutes
Cook time: 10 minutes
Serves 4-6