Baking Bouchon - Recipe 45: Blueberry Muffins

CA's favorite muffin is a blueberry muffin.  My favorite is pumpkin but I do enjoy the blueberry as well... and banana, I love banana.  However, these may be the most interesting blueberry muffins I've ever made.

They're unique for 2 reasons.

1.  There is molasses in the batter which gives it a darker hue and a warmer, richer flavor.

2.  They have wild blueberries in them instead of regular blueberries.  Wild blueberries are tiny, the size of currants.  I'm not surprised that Thomas Keller would use wild blueberries (he says they have less water content so don't make the batter runny) but what did surprise me was that he uses frozen berries. Maybe it's because you can't really find fresh wild blueberries in regular stores but that hasn't stopped him from using other obscure ingredients that I can't even pronounce.

I had a bunch of taste testers for these muffins and everyone thought they were good, but no one was blown away.

It could have been that there were so many other things to eat and distract them from the goodness of the blueberry muffin.

Personally, I didn't love the addition of the molasses.  I feel like the whole idea behind a blueberry muffin is that it should be light.  I was, however, a big fan of the wild blueberries.  Because they're smaller they don't burst open and give the muffin soggy spots.  I think that's part of my issues with muffins with fruit chunks in them and why I like pumpkin and banana muffins better - the fruit/vegetable is all mashed up so it avoids the soggy possibilities all together.  I also really liked the almond streusel topping - all muffins should come with streusel topping.

PS - I neglected to take any pictures of these muffins once they came out of the tins.  Sorry, but this was part of the great baking adventure for all my house guests and I temporarily lost my blogging mind.

Enjoy!
Julie

Granola

I hate to burst your bubble, but granola is freakin' terrible for you!  I hope you know by now that this stuff is loaded with sugar.  It's ridiculous.  I'm pretty sure everyone in the 90's thought granola was the healthiest thing ever until we realized you might as well be eating pixie stix and pop rocks.

This version is better for you.  It still has sugar in it, but not as much as most of the stuff you buy in the store.  At least the sugar here is natural sugar... honey & maple syrup.  Plus, I cut way back on the amount the recipe called for.  Of course, that means that the granola doesn't really clump together like it's supposed to but it's a trade off I'm willing to make.

I realize that the previous paragraph makes me sound like a huge hypocrite because normally I'm posting sugar coma inducing recipes on this blog.  I get it. I'm very self aware.  However, I like to save my sugar bombs for treats and snacks - I don't want to be tricked into thinking something is healthy when it's not.

I haven't really eaten much granola since the 90's but I grab a handful of this stuff every time I pass through the kitchen which is probably dangerous, but at least it's better than eating Fun Dip... at lease there's a few vitamins in here from the whole grain oats and nuts.  CA has also been seen eating this for breakfast with a little milk on it.  I was really surprised to see him eating it since I'd never seen him eat granola.  Actually, I don't think I've ever seen any man eat granola.  Is it girly?

Granola is pretty darn easy to make - you mix up a bunch of stuff, spread it on a pan and bake it at a low temperature to dry it out.  It does take some time and having the oven on for two hours in the middle of the summer is not pleasant in my kitchen but other than that I have no complaints.

I made a big batch of this for all the guests I had in town recently - but feel free to half the recipe if you're looking for a normal "cereal box" size.

PS - if you use gluten free oats this recipe is gluten free for all of you who care about that.

Granola
adapted from Wheat-Free.org

Ingredients
5 1/2 cups Old Fashioned Oats (not quick oats)
1/2 cup shelled Sunflower Seeds
1/3 cup Coconut (shredded or desiccated)
1/2 cup Pecans
1/2 cup Slivered Almonds
1/2 cup Honey
1/2 cup Maple Syrup
1/2 cup Almond Butter (or peanut butter)
3 T Coconut Oil (or canola oil)
5 oz. bag Dried Cranberries

Instructions
Preheat the oven to 250 degrees.  Spray two sheet pans with non-stick cooking spray

In a large bowl mix together the oats, sunflower seeds, coconut, pecans and almonds.

In a small saucepan combine the honey, syrup, almond butter and oil.  Stir over low heat until smooth and combined.

Pour the honey mixture over the dry ingredients and mix together.

Spread the mixture evenly on the two sheet pans.  Bake for 2 hours, stirring every 30 minutes until dry and golden brown.  All to cool to room temperature.

Once cool, stir in the dried cranberries.  Store in an airtight container.

Enjoy!
Julie

Spinach, Mushroom & Sausage Quiche

Having a bunch of people in your house means having a lot of food around.  It also means that you better be prepared because if you're not, you'll be running to the store at 6:00 AM trying to find something for people to eat for breakfast.  I don't do that.

A week before my guests showed up I made these quiches to have around for breakfast.  The best thing about quiche is that you can bake it ahead of time, freeze it and heat it up whenever you want which is really convenient when you've got a house full of people.

I didn't used to eat quiche.  In fact, my family didn't eat a lot of eggs when I was growing up, which is weird because we all eat eggs now.  Eggs used to gross me out because I'd only really seen them in large quantities on buffet lines where they either look too wet or dry and grey.  Both are bad.  Don't get me started on powdered eggs.  Come to think of it I didn't used to eat mushrooms either so this dish is quite an evolution for me.  I'm very evolved.

Spinach, mushroom & sausage is my favorite quiche combination and this one is pretty classic.  I used chicken breakfast sausage (but pork or turkey breakfast sausage would work too), frozen spinach and baby bella mushrooms.  I also included a nice helping of Gruyere cheese which doesn't hurt.

This really is a great stand-by.  The recipe makes three quiches so you can eat one and freeze the rest.  Your breakfast guests will think you got up super early just for them when you pull a beautifully browned pie out of the oven.  I won't tell them you just rolled out of bed.

Spinach, Mushroom & Sausage Quiche
Makes 3 Quiche (18 slices)

Ingredients
3 Pie Crusts, baked (store bought will work.  I used this crust... you can also use this one for a gluten free version)
1 lb Breakfast Sausage (pork, chicken or turkey)
16 oz Frozen Spinach, thawed and the water squeezed out
8 oz. Sliced Mushrooms 
4 oz. Gruyere Cheese, shredded 
14 Eggs
1 cup Heavy Cream
3/4 cup Milk
3/4 tsp Salt
3/4 tsp Pepper

Instructions
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

In a skillet, brown the breakfast sausage and transfer to a plate lined with paper towels to drain.  In the same skillet, cook the mushrooms over medium heat until lightly browned, about 5-7 minutes.  

In a medium bowl, combined the eggs, cream, milk, salt and pepper and and whisk to thoroughly combine (I mixed mine up with my immersion blender which works perfectly if you have one).

Place 1/3 of the sausage in each pie crust followed by 1/3 of the spinach, cooked mushrooms and shredded cheese.  Pour 1/3 of the egg mixture into each pie crust

Bake the quiches until set in the middle, about 45 minutes. 

You can serve these immediately or refrigerate for up to 2 days or freeze for up to a month.  If freezing, wrap each quiche tightly in a double layer of plastic wrap.  Allow the quiche to defrost overnight in the refrigerator and reheat at 325 degrees for 30 minutes.

Enjoy!
Julie


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S'More Bar

I'm so excited about this!  The final chapter of the big party was a S'More Bar.  CA was totally skeptical of this idea (he doesn't really like S'Mores which is the most unnatural thing I've ever heard).  CA was totally wrong.  People loved the S'More Bar just as much as I did.

Here's the run down...

Marshmallows - I thought about making homemade marshmallows but I thought the effort would be better spent on making sure we had variety in the rest of the S'more components.  The marshmallow is really just the glue so I think I made the right decision.

Roasters - I used sternos as the "campfire" and metal skewers to toast the marshmallows.  It worked really well and was a no maintenance/no mess solution.

Graham Crackers - I gave people two options here.  The first was a traditional graham cracker.  The second was gluten free graham crackers.  We had a few gluten free party-goers and I looked high and low for store bought gluten free graham crackers but I was unsuccessful.  I would have settled for a shortbread or any plain cookie but I couldn't find them.  I used this recipe from Living Without and they were perfect!

  Chocolate - I had four varieties of chocolate available

1. Traditional Hershey Bar
2. Dark Chocolate Hershey Bar
3. Reese's Peanut Butter Cups
4. Caramel Filled Chocolate

Enough said.

Extra stuff...
- Nutella
- Peanut Butter
- Bananas


This S'More Bar was super successful!  The kids and adults loved it and CA even admitted he was wrong and it was a good idea (HA!)

My personal favorite combination was graham crackers, 2 marshmallows (because you always have to have 2 marshmallows on a S'More, even if it means you end up wearing it), a peanut butter cup and bananas.  It was amazing!  I also enjoyed a dark chocolate, nutella combo.  I won't name all the other combinations because then you'll know how many I had and I'm not prepared to admit that.

Enjoy!
Julie

THE Baked Beans

Today is the first post in a line of posts in which I stink at taking pictures.  Apparently, when I had a bunch of house guests I completely lost track of what I'd taken photos of and what I hadn't while doing all this cooking.  Oops.  Today you get ingredients and before pictures but you will receive no after pictures.  Sorry guys... if I could fix it, I would.  I, however, will not be remaking everything just to take after pictures.  I like you all, but not that much.

My family calls these THE baked beans.  They're not just any beans, they're special.  We've been making them for years and I have no idea where the recipe came from.  There's a lot going on in these beans - but I think there are two things that make them extra special.

#1 - Sausage: because on a day where someone came and roasted a 60 pound pig in my yard, we needed to eat more pork

#2 - Rotel Tomatoes: the chilis in the tomatoes add some extra zing but not too much heat that they're not palatable for the masses

There's also green onions, BBQ sauce, brown sugar and mustard in case you need more reasons to love these beans.

Generally, I find baked beans to be pretty boring.  I'd pick another side dish 90% of the time but these are the exception.  They are quite exceptional if beans can be called exceptional.  I know one thing for sure, despite this recipe making an aggressive amount of beans there were very few leftovers which is always a good sign.

THE Baked Beans
feeds at least 30 people

Ingredients
84 oz. Baked Beans, partially drained
2 lb. Breakfast Sausage, cooked, crumbled & drained (1 hot and 1 regular)
1 bunch green onions, diced
2 cans Rotel Tomatoes, drained
1 1/2 cups BBQ Sauce
1/4 cup Yellow Mustard
1/2 cup Brown Sugar

Instructions
Mix all the ingredients together and baked in a 13"x9" pan at 375 degrees for 1 - 1 1/3 hours. 

Enjoy!
Julie

Black Bean, Corn & Feta Dip

I have a friend who used to make this dip and I became quite obsessed with it.  It's just about the easiest thing in the world to make, plus it's cheap.  I know I'm not supposed to say that, but it's true.

I suppose you could make it more complicated or expensive by shucking your own corn off the cob or buying the organic black beans, but I don't really bother.  Frozen corn and pesticide ridden black beans are fine by me. (The thing that would probably make the biggest difference here is really good feta cheese, because good cheese really does matter. - I however, bought regular grocery store cheese and I'm not ashamed).

People love this dip and so do I.  There are a lot of variations of this dip roaming around the Internet and they all have their merits, but this is my favorite combination.

You can absolutely make this ahead of time and keep it in the fridge until you're ready to serve it.  In fact, I recommend it to give the flavors some time to meld.  I like to serve this with tortilla chips - the salty chip is a great accompaniment but pita chips work great too.

Black Bean, Corn & Feta Dip
Yields a really big batch good for 30+ people

Ingredients
4 cans Black Beans, drained and rinsed
28 oz. frozen Corn, thawed (you could use canned or fresh as well)
12 oz. Feta Cheese, crumbled
1 bunch Green Onions, thinly sliced
2 T Olive Oil
4 T Red Wine Vinegar
3/4 tsp Salt
1/4 tsp Pepper
1 T Sugar
Tortilla Chips for serving

Instructions
Mix all the ingredients in a large bowl until combined.  Refrigerate until ready to serve.


Enjoy!
Julie

Layered Greek Dip

I love this dip.  This is probably my favorite cold dip and I have made it at least ten times.  Every time I make it, people ask me for the recipe.  I'm happy to share it but I wouldn't call it a recipe.  It's more like a test of your chopping stamina.  I doubled the recipe this time and I was awfully close to having a blister on my hand by the time it was ready.

 All the chopping is definitely worth it, sometimes you have to earn your food and all the compliments you'll get from your guests.

Once you get everything chopped, the rest is easy - you just layer everything into a serving dish.  I prefer to serve this in a glass bowl so you can see all the pretty layers.  It's so colorful!

I like to serve this with pita chips.  I think it goes with the whole Greek theme.  Some people disagree with me and want tortilla chips.  I'm happy to oblige, especially when all it means is that I have to open another bag of chips.


My one piece of advice is not to make this too far ahead of time - a couple of hours is OK - but any longer and the cucumbers release a bunch of water and then you've got soggy dip.  Of course if that happens, you can just tip it sideways and drain off the water.  Unfortunately, that also ruins all the pretty layers you built so don't do that.

Layered Greek Dip



Ingredients
2 16 oz. tubs Hummus
1/2 English Cucumber, finely diced
1 Red Peppers, finely diced
1/2 jar Kalamata Olives, finely diced
6 oz. Feta Cheese, crumbled
2 T finely chopped Dill 
Pita or Tortilla Chips for serving




Instructions
Spread the Hummus in the bottom of a serving dish.  Evenly sprinkle the cucumbers on top of the hummus.  Sprinkle the red peppers on top followed by the olives and the cheese.  Sprinkle the chopped dill on top.  Serve with pita or tortilla chips.

Enjoy!
Julie