Raspberry Muffins

Last weekend we had some "surprise" overnight weekend guests....well a surprise to me, anyhow. My wonderful husband had planned a surprise birthday party for me. Two of the out of town guests, Brooke and Jamie, had arranged with Jeremy to stay overnight at our house after the party on Saturday night. Naturally I was SUPER excited...Brooke is one of my dearest friends, however I was also a bit stressed...if you know me, you know I like to have control and order in my life, and this would include having an as-close-to-possible immaculate home if I have guests ;). Ok, immaculate is probably a bit strong ;). CLEAN, at least ;).

Thankfully, things weren't TOO bad around here ;). Just my "hoarding room" aka, the office, was REALLY bad...and I needed to last-minute scramble to clean up my bathroom (the bathroom they'd be using) to make it at least somewhat clean and presentable! :)

Sunday morning I got up before the three of them had gotten up and searched my kitchen for something acceptable to make for breakfast. I happened upon some delicious organic raspberries (had been on sale at our local Meijer that week) in my fridge and paired them up with a recipe in Carol Fenster's 1000 Gluten Free Recipes (which had been a gift from my sister about two years ago and is still my favorite gluten-free cookbook...go grab one if you don't already own this treasure!!). I basically used the recipe/adapted it a bit (I tend to take liberty with all recipes and adapt them to make them my own. This is a "skill" I learned from my mother, the great Sally ;)).

The muffins received rave reviews from my guests and Jeremy. Jamie ate three. The rest of us had one :). I also made some cheesy scrambled eggs to go along with the muffins (I think Brooke and I were the only ones who ate the eggs, though :). We are biiiig cheese aficionados ;).)

Here's what I did:

(based off of Carol's Raspberry Muffins with Streusel Topping on page 29 of the cookbook)

LIQUID INGREDIENTS

2 large eggs, at room temperature

1 cup milk (I used organic Horizon 2%, a staple in our home...but you may substitute with any kind of milk...rice, almond, etc.)

1/3 cup canola oil

1 tsp vanilla extract (make sure it's GF!)

(Carol also called for grated lemon zest, which I don't care for...so I omitted)

DRY INGREDIENTS

1 1/2 cups flour blend (I tried out my new GF Bisquick! Carol called for her Sorghum Blend)

1/4 cup sweet rice flour (Carol called for Expandex modified tapioca starch)

3/4 cup packed light brown sugar

1 tablespoon baking powder

1 1/2 teaspoons xanthan gum

1 tablespoon ground cinnamon (more than she called for)

1 teaspoon salt

1 6 ounce container fresh raspberries, gently washed and patted dry

3/4 cup Streusal Topping

(She has a recipe for this on page 566 of her cookbook...but I made up my own. I put 1/2 cup brown sugar in a bowl, along with 2 teaspoons of ground cinnamon, a large handful of crushed up corn Chex cereal, and 3 tablespoons of butter chopped up into little pieces. I mixed this all up with a fork)

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line muffin cups with papers.

2. Beat eggs with an electric mixer on low speed until light yellow and frothy, about 30 seconds. Add milk, oil, vanilla...beat on low speed until the batter is smooth and slightly thickened.

3. In a different bowl, mix together all dry ingredients except raspberries. With mixer on low speed, gradually beat dry ingredients into the liquid ingredients until the batter is smooth and slightly thickened. Gently stir in the fresh raspberries.

4. Spoon batter into muffin cups and sprinkle some Streusal Topping on each muffin, gently pressing down the topping into the batter slightly.

4. Bake 20-25 minutes or until the muffin tops are firm and the edges start to pull away from the pan.

5. Cool in pan 10 minutes, then remove from pan and cool on wire rack or plate for approximately five more minutes...serve warm!

YUMMY! :)

Enjoy! :)

Chocolate Chocolate-Chip Cookies

So yesterday I decided to "pretend" to be "domestic" again.

Don't get me wrong...I actually really do love all things "domestic." Cooking, cleaning, baking, laundry...it all gets me sorta high. (just don't show me an iron...I refuse to iron. Jeremy does the ironing around here....for real)

However, I just haven't had TIME lately to do many of those things.

This weekend, however...this weekend was a catch-up weekend. It was the first weekend we had been HOME since early March. Seriously.

So, among many, MANY other things...yesterday I baked!

I adapted a "new" (new to me) recipe from my 1000 Gluten-Free Recipes book (By Carol Fenster)....Double Chocolate Chip Cookies. What I did was inspired by her recipe, but I tweaked it, slightly. The result? AMAZINGLY delicious. Jeremy likes them, too! :) The cookies are totally soft and cake-like. Delectable, really! :)

Recipe....
Chocolate Chocolate-Chip Cookies
(the recipe in Carole's book is "Double Chocolate Chip Cookies)

3/4 cup Land O' Lakes butter, room temperature
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 cup packed brown sugar
2 large eggs
3 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
1 cup Bob's Red Mill Gluten Free flour blend
1/2 cup tapioca flour
3/4 cup sweet white rice flour
3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 1/2 teaspoons xanthan gum
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
sprinkling of salt
1 pkg (minus a few that prematurely made it to my mouth...haha!) chocolate chips

(as always, make sure that all of the ingredients you use are GF!!)

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.
Place baking mat on a baking sheet.

In a large mixing bowl, beat the butter and both sugars with an electric mixer on low speed until very smooth (approximately one minute). Beat in the eggs and vanilla. Gradually add the flours, cocoa, xanthan gum, baking soda, and salt. Continue beating on low speed just until blended. The batter will be rather thick. Stir in chocolate chips.

Drop 1 1/2 inch balls of dough at least 2 inches apart on the baking sheet.

Bake 13 minutes. Cool on baking sheet, then transfer to wire racks to cool completely.

Voila! They are soooo yummy, esp. when still warm and served with a glass of milk!

ENJOY!

Bad Attitude

Well, maybe I just have a bad attitude, but I have a feeling today is going to suck. Today we are having a Christmas dessert exchange over lunch. Yes, you guessed it...I won't be able to eat any of it. Let me reiterate that I feel like SUCH A FATTY when I get all sad about food...like the fat kid who is lamenting a donut s/he can't have. That's not it at all. Food is so social...it's a strange feeling to be the one sitting in a big group of people eating something different or not eating at all.

Maybe even more pressing than that issue, though, is the whole issue of baking. I love to bake. I am a more than competent baker, and I know it. (I am not the most confident person in most areas of my life, but I tend to be rather confident in the baking realm!) People eat my stuff and typically people LIKE it too. Not only do they say they like it (that is just being polite ;)), but they come back for seconds or request whatever it is that they had again. Those are the two true indicators of baking success :). Well, I made some of my Chocolate Andes Mint Cookies...non gluten free of course. I was scared they wouldn't turn out with the gluten-free flour, and I didn't really have time to experiement...so I was a pansy and just did it the old way. Nope, I didn't even lick the batter at ALL! Seriously. I made the dough last night, a huge double batch. I have the first tray of cookies in the oven right now. Hope I'm not late for work! ;) Jeremy needs to bring cookies to work tomorrow and he requested the same cookies, since he loves them and coworkers also talk about loving them. SO, I am going to bake his tonight with the remainder (probably the majority) of the dough.

Yeah, I probably should've made myself something gluten free so I could eat something during the exchange...but, like I said, I'm a pansy!