Coffee Bean Granita

We are both serious coffee people. I drink an extra-hot soy latte every morning, and Alex drinks a large cup of black coffee. We're grumpy if the coffee is bad, happy when the coffee is good, and we're far too dependent to consider weaning off it.

In our lives, coffee items are divided into two categories: important morning coffee and whatever anytime coffee. The soy lattes and black cups are important morning coffee -- if anyone messes with the flavor, beware. Whatever anytime coffee is more flexible -- sometimes an iced glass in the afternoon, sometimes coffee ice cream in the evenings.

This granita also falls into the category of whatever anytime coffee. It actually has a very strong coffee flavor, and it's pretty healthy as desserts go since it's just coffee, ice and sugar. We added just a touch of whipped cream on top, which worked wonders with the sharp flavor. This makes a perfect hot afternoon snack or warm evening dessert.

The recipe, which is from Epicurious, takes about 7 hours total, though only about an hour of actual work goes into it.

Ingredients:
4 cups water
1 cup sugar
2 1/2 cups whole coffee beans (about 6 ounces)
1/4 cup coffee liqueur (such as Tia Maria or Kahlúa)

Instructions:
Combine water and sugar in large saucepan. Bring to boil, stirring until sugar dissolves. Boil 3 minutes, then stir in coffee beans and boil an additional 2 minutes. Remove pan from heat, then cover and let steep until mixture is cool, about 3 hours. Strain liquid into 13x9x2-inch glass baking dish. Throw away coffee beans, or reserve some for garnish. Stir coffee liqueur into liquid in dish. Freeze until firm, stirring every 45 minutes, about 5 hours.

Sticky Buns

Yesterday, Penn sponsored an event for Senior Week called Walnut Walk, an eight-hour bar crawl across Philadelphia. There were 18 stops, and all offered drink specials for those of us graduating (and some offered drink specials for everyone, which made for severe crowding). There are about 2500 seniors in our class, so the event was inevitably a hot, hot mess.

But if there's anything that we've learned from our four years here, it's that days like yesterday go much more smoothly when everyone is stuffed with food before they begin. We'd been meaning to serve one final brunch after we had so much fun cooking for Homecoming, and yesterday gave us the perfect opportunity. It's amazing how much you can do without homework.

We knew that we had to do cinnamon buns, as we've been meaning to do them forever (along with bagels, which we have yet to accomplish). Both of us love the mall-bought variety, but there's an artificialness to them that we thought we could avoid. We chose a recipe from Epicurious for Ultimate Sticky Buns that reviewers raved were easy and out of this world -- our two criteria. We modified it slightly by increasing the filling, so I'll post what we did below. In the end, they turned out ridiculously delicious. The dough was so sweet and thick, and the filling was gooey and sticky and wonderful. It seeped throughout the buns so that every single bite was dreamy.

Don't touch that dial, more brunch recipes to come in the next few days!

Ingredients:
(dough)
1 cup warm water
4 tsp dry yeast
2/3 cup sugar
1/2 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
1/2 cup dry nonfat milk powder
1 1/4 tsp salt
2 large eggs
4 1/4 cups all-purpose flour

(glaze)
2 1/2 cups light brown sugar
1 1/4 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
1/2 cup honey
1/2 cup dark corn syrup
1/2 cup water
3 cups pecan halves

4 teaspoons sugar
4 teaspoons ground cinnamon

Instructions:
To make dough, mix 1/4 cup warm water, yeast, and pinch of sugar in small bowl. Let rest until foamy, about 8 minutes. Beat remaining sugar, butter, milk powder, and salt in large bowl. Beat in eggs 1 at a time. Mix in remaining 3/4 cup warm water and yeast mixture, then 3 cups flour (1 cup at a time.) Using rubber spatula, mix in 1 cup flour, scraping down sides of bowl frequently (dough will be soft and sticky). Sprinkle 1/4 cup flour onto work surface and knead until smooth and elastic, adding more flour if sticky, about 8 minutes. Butter another large bowl. Add dough; turn to coat. Cover bowl with plastic wrap and let dough rise in warm area until doubled, about 2 1/2 hours.

To make glaze, grease one large pizza pan (or two 10-inch round cake pans) Beat brown sugar, 1 cup butter, honey, corn syrup, and 1/4 cup water in medium bowl to blend. Spread half of glaze in bottom the pan. Sprinkle pecans over.

Punch down dough, and divide in half. Roll each dough piece out on floured work surface to 12x9-inch rectangle. Brush any excess flour off dough. Grease dough rectangles with remaining 1/4 cup butter. Mix sugar and cinnamon in small bowl. Sprinkle cinnamon sugar over rectangles. Starting at 1 long side, tightly roll up each rectangle into log. Cut each log into 12 rounds. Place rounds, cut side down, prepared pan, spacing evenly. Cover with plastic wrap. (Can be made 1 day ahead; refrigerate.) Let buns rise in warm area until almost doubled, about 1 hour (or 1 hour 25 minutes if refrigerated).

Preheat oven to 375°F. Bake buns until deep golden brown, about 30 minutes. Run small knife around pan sides to loosen sticky buns. Turn hot buns out onto platter. Cool about 30 minutes and serve.

Soy Rice Pudding

It's supposed to be summer, but here in Philadelphia we've been stuck with rainy, 50-degree weather for the past few days. In some ways, it's made staying inside to study for finals much easier, but mostly it's just made me even hungrier for summer. It's no fun to drink smoothies and play with summer produce when you're bundled up in sweatpants. So yesterday we decided to embrace the chilliness with a warm and comforting dish for afternoon snack: rice pudding.

As I was "working" yesterday, I stumbled across a recipe for rice pudding with leftover rice that works with soy milk or regular milk. I happened to have some leftover rice in the fridge, and the rest of the ingredients in my cabinets. Even though I usually don't like mushy foods like Jello or pudding, this recipe looked so appealing that we literally started making it immediately.

Now I have one extremely debilitating problem in the kitchen: I am truly awful at judging volume, and I always use bowls that are too small for my ingredients. Because Alex wasn't supervising when I began cooking, I started to make the pudding in a pot that I now realize was way too small. It boiled over once, and I moved it to another burner. It boiled over again, and Alex intervened, making me transfer the rice to a larger pot. My entire stove flooded with soy milk.

Yet despite this minor incident (and Alex's doubts about my ability to pull it off), the rice pudding turned out wonderfully. It took very little time to make, and the soy milk didn't change the flavor at all. Very soothing to eat warm, and just as delicious cold later on.

Ingredients:
2 cups leftover cooked white rice
3 cups soy milk (or skim, or whole)
1/2 cup sugar
small pinch salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 cinnamon sticks or 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon (or both, or neither)
pinch nutmeg, optional

Instructions:
Combine cooked rice, milk, sugar and salt in a medium saucepan. Bring to a boil, then lower to a simmer and stir in vanilla and add cinnamon sticks if you are using them. Cook until almost all of the milk is absorbed (30-45 minutes). Stir in cinnamon and/or nutmeg, if using, and serve.

Zucchini Muffins with Chocolate Chips

On our second day of Spring Fling, we needed to make something delicious for a friend's brunch. We wanted to bake so that we could bring goodies that were still warm from the oven, but didn't have a lot of time in the morning. And since a lot of our friends have tasted many of our brunch recipes, we were reluctant to fall back on old staples. After piddling around recipe sites for a while, I decided to search the Smitten Kitchen archives, where I found a recipe for zucchini bread -- something that I've always loved, but never made myself. Because her recipes have never failed us (or likely, anyone) we decided to go for it. We opted for muffins instead of loaves to make serving easier.

Surprisingly, we were able to throw these muffins together in about 5o minutes total. Our food processor allowed us to grate the zucchini in no time, and the batter was extremely simple to mix after that. As soon as we sampled the raw mixture, we knew that these would be as delicious as we had hoped. It had such a perfect sweet and spicy combination that honestly think I could have eaten the entire batter bowl plain. Once baked, the texture was great and I think that everyone loved the way that they tasted. We added the optional chocolate chips and used apple pie spice because we were out of nutmeg, but I really wouldn't change anything from the original recipe, which I'm posting below.

P.S. We've been making muffins and cupcakes like crazy lately, but they'll be more variety soon!
Ingredients:
3 eggs
1 cup vegetable oil (or olive, but we used vegetable)
1 3/4 cups sugar
2 cups grated zucchini
2 tsp vanilla extract
3 cups all-purpose flour
3 tsp cinnamon
1/8 tsp nutmeg
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1/2 cup chopped walnuts or pecans (optional, we didn't do this)
1 cup chocolate chips (optional)

Instructions:
Preheat oven to 350, and line 24 muffin cups with paper liners. In a large bowl, whisk eggs together, then add oil and sugar, then zucchini and vanilla. In a medium bowl, mix together flour, cinnamon, nutmeg, baking soda, baking powder and salt. Add chocolate chips or nuts to dry mixture. Pour dry mixture into wet mixture, and stir until just combined. Spoon batter into muffin cups, and bake for about 20-25 minutes, until inserted knife comes out clean. Cool and serve.

Cinnamon Chips and Fruit Salsa

For a party to kick-off our final Spring Fling weekend at Penn, we baked homemade cinnamon chips and created an accompanying fruit salsa. Given the reviews for the recipe, we expected it to be good, but I don't think anyone anticipated how unbelievably delicious this snack would be -- it is absolutely our new all-time favorite party food. My love for this dish reminds me of Green Eggs and Ham: It would eat it in a car, I would eat it at a bar. I would eat it by the pool, I would eat it after school. I would eat it on my way, I would eat it every day.

I've always loved cinnamon pita chips, and I became completely hooked on these with my first bite. I couldn't stop eating them, and I wasn't the only one. They had a perfect crunch, and tasted amazing with and without the fruit salsa. I loved them as a late-night snack, but I don't think there's a time of day when these wouldn't be appropriate. I can't say enough wonderful things about these, so just make them and you'll see what we mean.

We found the recipe here on All Recipes, and we substituted the variety of apple, as well as blackberries for raspberries due to high costs. We used strawberry preserves, which turned out great. I'm posting our slightly modified version below. They are so good.

Ingredients:
2 kiwis, peeled and diced
2 Fuji apples, peeled, cored and diced
8 oz. blackberries
1 lb. strawberries
2 tbsp white sugar
1 tbsp brown sugar
3 tbsp strawberry preserves (or other fruit flavor)

10 (10 inch) flour tortillas
butter flavored cooking spray
2 cups cinnamon sugar

Instructions:
In a large bowl, mix kiwis, apples, blackberries, strawberries, sugars and preserves. Cover refrigerate at least 15 minutes. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Coat one side of each tortilla with cooking spray. Cut into wedges and arrange on a large baking sheet. Coat wedges with desired amount of cinnamon sugar. Spray again with cooking spray. Bake 8 to 10 minutes. Repeat with any remaining tortilla wedges. Allow to cool approximately 15 minutes. Serve with chilled fruit mixture.

Jacqui Muffins

Holy mother of muffins, we've truly outdone ourselves. I'd call them gems, but they are more like diamonds -- big, beautiful, shining diamond muffins. I'm so proud!

So sometimes clothing designers do this thing where they name pieces after people who inspire them, like "Emily dress" or "Sara tee," and I thought why not do the same for food. These are Jacqui muffins, inspired my roommate. Since a "Jacqui dress" would be high-fashion but classic, with tons of awesome elements that come together perfectly, I tried to achieve the same composition in this muffin. Besides, Jacqui loves to order muffins at overpriced coffee shops, especially when they come in pretty wrappings like the ones we used. But if you feel awk calling a muffin after someone you don't know, you could just call these Everything muffins, because it is essentially what they are. And when Everything is assembled with careful proportion, it's a wonderful thing.

I started out with a modified batter (I made it half whole wheat) from our carrot cake muffins, and added from there, adjusting the wet ingredients to compensate. I threw in anything that I thought would taste good, including nuts, seeds, oats, raisins and orange zest. The result was a super intense, moist, scrumptious muffin that is perfect for anytime. Have fun baking them for the red-headed Canadian Whartonite roomie in your life.

Ingredients:
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup whole-wheat pastry flour
1 1/4 cups granulated sugar
3/4 tsp baking soda
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/2 tsp cinnamon
2 tsp orange zest
3/4 tsp baking soda
4 eggs
1 cup canola oil
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup coconut
1/2 cup walnuts, toasted and coarsely shopped
1/3 cup pumpkin seeds
1/2 cup rolled oats
1/3 cup golden raisins
2 cups raw carrot, grated
1 large apple, peeled and grated

Instructions:
Preheat oven to 350, line muffin pan with cups. In a large bowl, combine flour, sugar, baking soda, baking powder, salt and cinnamon. Stir in orange zest, walnuts, coconut, rolled oats, raisins and pumpkin seeds. In a separate bowl, lightly beat eggs, and whisk in vanilla and oil. Add wet ingredients into dry ingredients and stir until just combined. Add carrot and apple, and mix. Spoon batter into muffin cups. Bake until an inserted knife comes out clean. For normal-sized muffins, this should be about 20 minutes, but cooking time will vary.

Carrot Cake Muffins with Cream Cheese Frosting

Oops -- Two days ago, we completed our 100th post and we didn't even notice or bake ourselves something to celebrate! We originally planned to do a cake for the occasion, and though we forgot, we did coincidentally make some amazing carrot cake muffins, complete with a delectable cream cheese frosting.

As we've become something of muffin experts over the past few months (at the very least, we're obsessed and deluded amateurs), we can officially write that these are the best muffins in existence. Perhaps this is because we followed our recipe perfectly, but we'd like to think that our ever-improving baking skills had something to do with it, too. The frosting, after all, was our own. Adding apple to the batter along with coconut and carrots ensures an unbelievably moist and soft texture. They are perfect without frosting, but if added, they become sublime.

The recipe is from the Joy of Baking, and since it's so good that even people who are too lazy to click a link deserve to try it, I'm re-writing the instructions below. Happy 101st post anniversary to us! Please, celebrate with a muffin.

Ingredients:
(muffins)
1/2 cup pecans or walnuts, toasted and coarsely shopped
2 cups raw carrot, grated
1 large apple, peeled and grated
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/4 cups granulated sugar
3/4 tsp baking soda
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/2 tsp cinnamon
1 cup coconut
3 eggs
3/4 cup canola oil
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
(frosting)
8 oz. cream cheese, softened
1/4 cup unsalted butter, softened
2 cups powdered sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 cup crushed walnuts (for topping)

Instructions:
Preheat oven to 350. Line 18 muffin cups with paper liners. In a large bowl, whisk together flour, sugar, baking soda, baking powder, salt and cinnamon. Stir in nuts and coconuts, and set aside. In a separate bowl, whisk together eggs, oil and vanilla. Fold wet ingredients, apples and carrots into the flour mixture. Stir until just moistened. Spoon batter into muffin cups and bake 20-25 minutes, until inserted toothpick comes out clean. Let cool. Meanwhile, make the frosting by combining the butter, sugar, cream cheese and vanilla in a bowl, and mixing them together (preferably with a mixer) until smooth. Once the cupcakes are cool, frost and sprinkle the crushed walnuts on top. Serve, or if not serving immediately, refrigerate.

Hummus, Hummus and Hummus

The new food processor is like our puppy. We excercise it daily, wash it, and even clean up after it when it makes a mess all over the kitchen floor. We want to challenge it, but it can do no wrong. Sometimes, we sit and talk about its shiny and finished coat -- er, surface.

Today's trick was hummus, a food-processor classic. Not to sound hideously un-foodie-ey, but my favorite hummus has always been Costco's. My mom buys it by the tub. Partly because I didn't want to betray my #1 love (Alanna + Costo hummus 4Evah) and partly because we make everything more complicated than necessary, we skipped the classic version and shot the moon with roasted red pepper, roasted garlic and spicy black bean varieties. Alex liked the black bean best, and I liked the roasted red pepper. Okay, so they all tasted moderately similar. Similar, but delicious.

We made a basic hummus, separated it into three bowls, and then re-processed each with its different ingredients. The basic recipe is on Epicurious here, but I've re-written below with some minor tweaking, plus our own additions. We served it with couscous tabouleh in pita with lettuce.

Ingredients:
2 cups canned chickpeas (save the liquid)
1/2 cup tahini (sesame paste)
1/4 cup olive oild
1/2 tbsp ground cumin
1/2 tbsp paprika
3 lemons, juiced
salt and pepper to taste
and for special varities...
Black Bean: 1/3 can black beans, chili powder
Red Pepper: 1/3 cup roasted red pepper
Roasted Garlic: 3 garlic cloves, roasted (cook in a pan without oil until aromatic and slightly brown)

Instructions:
Combine all of the basic hummus ingredients in the food processor and blend. If you want a lighter, fluffier consistency, drizzle in about a tsp of water or chickpea liquid and re-process. Divide the mixture into three bowls, and re-process each with its extra ingredients.

Fig Spread with Blue Cheese on Crackers

Alex deserves complete credit for this recipe -- he invented it from scratch and the internet. We set a bunch of these out on a plate before dinner with some friends last night, and they disappeared within seconds. We re-plated about 10 times, and had to force ourselves to stop there.

In technical terms (we've been reading Michael Ruhlman's The Elements of Cooking, which is as humbling as it is inspiring), the spread is a food-processed reduction. That means we basically cooked figs in some stuff for a while, and played with our favorite toy some more. The spread is designed to be sweet, but the pomegranate juice lends it a light tang, and it all goes perfectly with the creaminess of the cheese.

We didn't intend it, but the colors make it perfect for holiday hors devours. Bring the beer. We mean cheer.

Ingredients:
12 dried figs, chopped
1 cup wine
1/2 cup pomegranate juice
3 lemon slices
2 tbsp honey

Instructions:
Combine all of the ingredients in a saucepan. Bring to a boil, then turn down the heat and simmer the mixture for 15 minutes, until only a bit of liquid remains. Remove from heat, remove the lemon slices, and let cool. Spoon the mixture into the food processor (a blender would probably work as well) and pulse until smooth. Spread over crackers (preferably multi-grain) and top with miniature slices of blue cheese.

Apple Cinnamon Swirl Muffins

Alex accuses me of turning this into a stew and muffin blog, and I'd like to publicly offer some defensive arguments:

1) He loves stew.
2) Fall demands stew for warmth.
3) Stews are cheap, healthy and perfect for college students because they freeze beautifully.
4) I have no defense for muffins. I just love them.
5) I nearly forgot, muffins are photogenic.

Moving on, or not ... muffins muffins muffins! Baking muffins is decidedly among my favorite stress-relieving activities, second maybe only to listening to Harry Potter on the iPod. The process is simple and instinctual. Liquids and solids combine, mix and bake. And because the steps are basic, there are oodles of opportunities to invent.

Tonight, we wanted to use up extra apples, so we simply chopped them up and added them to a basic cinnamon swirl muffin. It resulted in a great tartness that complimented the sweetness of the batter, and gave it a healthy, fresh taste.

Ingredients (makes 12 muffins):
1 1/2 cups self-rising flour
1 tsp baking powder
pinch of salt
1/2 cup superfine sugar
1 egg, lightly beaten
1 cup skim milk
7 tbsp smart balance
1/4 tsp vanilla
3 apples, chopped
2 tsp ground cinnamon (for the cinnamon sugar)
6 tbsp granulated sugar (for the cinnamon sugar)

Instructions:
Preheat the oven to 375, and fill a muffin pan with muffin cups. In a large bowl, mix together the flour, baking powder, salt and superfine sugar. In a separate bowl, mix together the egg, milk, smart balance and vanilla. Mix the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients, and mix in the apples. Spoon batter into each muffin cup until it is about 1/4 filled, then add a layer of cinnamon sugar and repeat twice. Using a toothpick or tip of a sharp knife, swirl the mixture in each up to achieve the swirl effect. Bake for 18-20 minutes, let cool and serve.

Vanilla and Chocolate Chip Muffins

Please don't shoot, but we don't really understand the cupcake craze. They're cute, yes, and there's the portion control factor, but we still don't think they merit the obsessive blogging and photographing and selling for $6 each, etc. Perusing the cookbook section of Penn's bookstore yesterday, we found like 5 books on cupcake decorating alone.

Muffins, however, are the underrated, modest back-up singers to the attention-mongering cupcake divas. Though they are frequently just as sweet and much tastier than cupcakes, they're not showing off about it. They're also healthier, and more versatile -- there's a whole galaxy of savory and fruity muffin-making that doesn't involve buttercream frosting or German chocolate anything (note: we are not opposed to buttercream or German chocolate generally, just in cupcake excess).

So I guess now would be a good time to disclose after making fun of all of the cupcake books at the bookstore yesterday, we purchased a muffin one. It's called Muffins Galore, and I love it. We decided to start with a simple recipe for chocolate chip muffins to bring for breakfast for our team members participating in Philadelphia's Race for Hope this morning, which raises money for the Brain Tumor Society. I've eaten two already today, and they are perfectly spongy with a great vanilla flavor. Completely simple and so yummers.


Ingredients (makes 12 muffins):
2 cups self-rising flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 cup butter
1/3 cup superfine sugar
1 cup milk or semi-sweet chocolate chips
2 eggs, lightly beaten
1 cup milk (skim works)
1 tsp vanilla extract

Instructions:
Preheat the oven to 400. Line your muffin pan with paper muffin cups. Mix the flour and baking powder together in a large bowl, add the butter and rub it into the mixture. Stir in sugar and chocolate chips. In a separate bowl, combine the eggs, milk and vanilla, then pour this mixture over the dry one. Mix until combined, and spoon batter into the muffin cups. Bake for about 20 minutes, until well-risen and golden. Cool for about 10 minutes, and serve.

Chewy Granola Bars

Obviously: happy halloween! Tonight, we made granola bars -- perfect for tomorrow when we anticipate vomiting at the sight of candy (Alex's mom sent up a HUGE bag, and too many pieces are gone already).

As granola bars nuts (haha), the realization that we could make them ourselves was very exciting. See, we have a habit of becoming obsessed with a variety of bar for about two months, then tiring of it and switching to another. But now, we'll be able to switch ingredients in and out depending on season and mood, and never again have to assume the stressful task of picking a new brand! Except, I literally have three boxes of TLC Honey Almond Flax bars waiting for me in my pantry, and I love them too much to abandon completely.

In any case, this recipe is remarkably easy; It onlytook about five minutes of active cooking time. And though ours didn't look super pretty, they tasted great -- almost like oatmeal cookie bars. We used smart balance but you can use butter, and I imagine that adding coconut would be great as well. Also, feel free to add or substitute your favorite nuts, dried fruits, etc.

Ingredients:
4 1/2 cups oats
1 cup flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp vanilla
2/3 cup smart balance
1/2 cup honey
1/3 cup packed brown sugar
2 cups chocolate chips
1 1/2 cups raisins
1 1/2 sunflower seeds

Instructions:
Preheat the oven to 325. In a large bowl, mix all of the ingredients together (we used a mixer, though you could probably do it with a fork and a lot of effort). Lightly press the mixture into a lightly greased 9x13 inch baking pan. Bake them for about 20 minutes, until golden brown. Let them cool for 10 minutes before cutting them into bars, and let them cool completely before removing them.

Sweet and Crunchy Pumpkin Seeds

We've heard some folks complaining about Halloween falling on a Wednesday this year. To these individuals, we would like point out that this "inconvenience" is actually awesome, because it allows for the maximization of celebratory days. Because Halloween doesn't belong to a particular weekend, we can arguably celebrate it both weekends -- which means 4 nights out PLUS an entire week in-between of Halloween festivities. Boo-yah.

Opening ceremonies began yesterday with pumpkin carving followed by pumpkin-seed roasting. While I'd always had them simply salted and toasted, we thought it would be fun to experiment by carmelizing them. They came out great, and made a perfect, crunchy snack.

Ingredients:
pumpkin seeds (we had about 3 cups, so modify accordingly)
3 tbsp melted smart balance, but you can use butter or whatever
2 tbsp granulated sugar
1 tbsp brown sugar
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1 tsp cinnamon
spinkles of apple pie spice (optional)

Instructions:
Preheat the oven to 400. When the pumpkin seeds are washed and dried, coat them in the smart balance, add all of the additional ingredients, and mix well. Spread them on a baking sheet and roast them in the oven for about 30 minutes, until they are puffy and crunchy, but be careful not to let them burn.

Peanut Butter and Jelly Muffins

Remember this? It's kind of how we feel right now.



I found this recipe on Baking Bites, a super yummy blog that is among my most recent obsessions. Now, no one loves peanut butter & jelly like I do. Though my mom wouldn't let me or my brothers pack PB&J for lunch because she deemed it too unhealthy, she would sometimes let us eat it for dessert on whole wheat, and I remember going nuts over it (ditto Captain Crunch, which was NOT a breakfast food). Clearly, the apple is sitting obediently at the base of the tree.

The muffins came out beautifully. They were moist and soft and very muffiny, as in not too sweet, but so so good. I'm writing out our recipe here, because we modified them by subsituting whole wheat flour and smart balance. I actually really enjoyed the warm, wheaty taste, and the consistency was perfect despite the lack of butter. We even used reduced fat peanut butter. These are simple and delicious -- much like the sandwich that inspires them.

Ingredients (makes about 12 muffins):
2 1/4 cups whole wheat pastry flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
2/3 cup brown sugar
6 tbsp smart balance, melted and cooled
1/2 cup reduced fat crunchy peanut butter
2 eggs
1 cup skim milk
about 1/3 cup jam or jelly

Instructions:
Preheat the oven to 375, line muffin pan with paper liners. In a large bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, salt and brown sugar. In a medium bowl, combine the smart balance, peanut butter, eggs and milk, and wisk them together until the mixture is smooth. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry mixture and stir into a batter. For each muffin, fill the tin halfway with batter, then add a heaping teaspoon of jelly, and fill to the top with more batter. Bake for about 17 minutes, or until a knife comes out clean. Serve warm with a tall glass of cold milk.

Roasted Chestnuts

Nothing says fall like _______.

I love this game. For me, it's caramel apples and wool socks and roasted chestnuts.

We picked up a bundle of them at Reading Terminal Market this weekend. Absolutely no skills are involved in preparing them, and though my fingers are torn to pieces from shelling, it's 100 percent worth it. They are sweet and the texture is great -- kind of fleshy and chewy. Also, they look like miniature brains.

We prepared them for post-dinner, pre-dessert snack, but they are really perfect for munching at any time. Recipes for the best way to roast them are all over the internet, but we performed the method described in our lovely Bittman book.

Ingredients:
Chestnuts

Instructions:
Preheat the oven to 450. Take a knife, and cut an "x" across the flat side of each chestnut, so that it doesn't explode when heated. Assemble the nuts on a baking sheet and roast for about 15 minutes. Serve warm. P.S. You have to peel the shell off first, this should be relatively easy once they are cooked.

Roasted chestnuts

Shelling

Peeled, like brains