Nuts | 20something cupcakes

whole lemon-nut muffins.

June 26, 2011 — 1 Comment

They’re called “whole” lemon muffins for a reason, you know.

I’ve been intrigued by these muffins since I first saw the recipe: A whole lemon, skin – everything except the seeds – and all, goes into this muffin batter. The end result was promised to be a deeper lemon flavor, and it was. I love this idea – as a matter of fact, I’m already thinking about making whole orange muffins.

These muffins are incredibly light and fluffy, and I even opted to replace one cup of regular flour with whole wheat, making for an even “whole-r” muffin. I also love that these muffins aren’t overly sweet. You have the option to add a simple glazer of confectioners’ sugar, lemon juice, and a touch of vanilla, and there you can control how much sweetness you want to add. If you do opt to use this glaze, I would be sure to add enough sugar to thicken it enough, or let it sit and harden a bit before you try to use the glaze.

The recipe says it yields 12 texas-sized muffins at the top of the page, but when you read the instructions, it says to use 8 muffin cups. I’m not sure which is supposed to be correct, but I used regular-sized muffin pans and I got 18. I also had a problem in one of the pans with getting the muffins out safely after baking – not sure if it was the pan, but you may want to use muffin liners to be safe.

Head over to Tara’s blog for the complete recipe!

In Weekend Brunch lemons, muffins, nuts, project pastry queen, whole wheat

homemade granola with apricots + cherries.

November 28, 2010 — 1 Comment

Once you learn how easy it is to make your own granola, you may never want to buy it from the box again.

I should let you know that this week, I’m cheating the Project Pastry Queen rules a bit. You see, when I first saw that Rebeca had picked breakfast granola for last week’s selection, I wasn’t excited in the least. As most of you know by now, I’m a dessert girl. Rich, luscious cakes filled with layer-upon-layer of chocolate truffle filling. Towering cheesecakes filled with pumpkin and spice and-everything-nice. That’s what I’m about. Granola? Breakfast granola?

Hmph.

But then I got to thinking – how exactly does one make granola? I checked out the recipe and the second I saw coconut, I was sold. It looked so easy to make, and since Daniel eats granola and yogurt almost daily for breakfast, I figured it was a sure bet.

I was right.

So, I had to break the rules a little. Instead of the orange muffins everyone else made today, I’m bringing you last week’s pick. It’s just that good.

Here’s how it all goes down… For the base, you’ll need some old-fashioned rolled oats, coconut, sliced almonds, honey, canola oil, brown sugar, vanilla, and a touch of salt.

First, you mix the oats with the almonds and coconut. If you wanted to use some other nuts, you could – and you could also omit the coconut if that’s not your thing. Next, you throw some oil, honey, brown sugar, vanilla, and salt into a pot, and cook over medium heat until the sugar is dissolved. Pour this hot mess over your oat mixture, and mix it all together. Spread this over a couple of sheet pans, bake it in the oven for about 20 minutes, and you’re almost there.

Now for the fun part. After it cools, you can add whatever delicious fixin’s you’d like. I went with dried apricots and cherries, as recommended in the original recipe – but really, the options are endless. You could add chocolate chips, any dried fruit of your choice, or any type of toasted nut. I love the addition of the coconut to the granola base, and I think adding more would be a brilliant idea. Oh, yes – some extra coconut, along with a few chocolate chips, and now you’ve got yourself some “Almond Joy” granola. I’m in.

Click here for the full recipe!

In Fabulously Simple, Healthy Eats dried fruit, granola, i heart breakfast, nuts, project pastry queen

spicy cocktail nuts.

October 7, 2010 — 2 Comments

These are some good nuts. Good as in, if these nuts are around, you may not be able to eat dinner.

True story.

I served these with cocktails at a dinner party and no one could even fathom dessert because we were all so stuffed. And everyone blamed the nuts.

I did increase the cayenne because we all know I like it spicy, but either way you go the end result will be a perfect marriage of spicy, sweet, and crunchy. The egg white coating binds everything together, almost like candied nuts. And the greatest part is that if you have the spices on hand and a big jar of nuts laying around, you can whip these bad boys up anytime.

A danger all in itself.

Spicy Cocktail Nuts

Adapted from Emeril Lagasse

1 large egg white
1 teaspoon water
4 cups assorted shelled nuts (walnuts, pecans, almonds, peanuts)
1/2 cup sugar
2 tablespoons Emeril’s Essence
1/4 teaspoon cayenne
1/4 teaspoon salt

Preheat the oven to 250 degrees F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper – this will make for easy cleanup.

In a large bowl, whisk together the egg white and water until frothy. Add the nuts and toss to coat. In a small bowl, combine the sugar, Essence, cayenne, and salt. Add to the nuts and stir to coat evenly. Spread the nuts on the prepared pan and bake until dry, about 45 minutes, stirring every 15 minutes. Remove from the oven and stir to separate. Let cool on the baking sheet. Serve warm or at room temperature.

In Dinner Party Worthy, Fabulously Simple, Starters easy appetizers, nuts, salty + sweet, spicy

If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.

{Except for when talking about the combination of marshmallows, brownies, and cupcakes, that is}

Over the weekend, we celebrated two very big birthdays: the 65th birthday of Daniel’s mom, Meg, and the 40th of his sister, Dina. And as these are two VERY special women in my life, a baking project was in order. I quickly realized that asking Dan for guidance here was pretty worthless (his response that “they like everything” = not a big help), so I moved onto his other sister, Tracy. She gave me brownies and ice cream for Dina, and either coconut or lemon meringue for Meg. In Dan’s defense, they do like pretty much everything…but this – this gave me something to work with.

I had just seen the *cutest* lemon meringue cupcakes, so I was kind of sold on doing those. And brownies are always great – but pretty easy and everyday. How could I make them more special? Well, I was taking the lemon meringue and spinning it into a cupcake, so how about doing the same with the brownie idea?

Perfect.

My next thought was Rocky Road. So, I googled “rocky road brownie” and “cupcake” and one of the first results that came up was this one. They were exactly what I had pictured: CUTEST.THINGS.EVER.

Rocky Road Brownie Cupcakes

Recipe adapted courtesy of Cookie Madness

8 tablespoons unsalted butter
1/4 cup unsweetened natural cocoa powder
2 large eggs
1 cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup all purpose flour
2/3 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips (I use Ghirardelli. Always.)
1/3 cup toasted pecan pieces or coarsely chopped pecans
2/3 cup mini marshmallows

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray the top of a 12 cup muffin pan with cooking spray (this way, any topping that falls off doesn’t stick!) and line the cups with paper liners.

Melt the butter in the microwave. Add cocoa to the melted butter and stir well. Set the mixture aside and let it cool slightly. Now, whisk the eggs, sugar, vanilla and salt together in a medium mixing bowl. Add the butter/cocoa mixture and stir until well mixed. Add flour, stirring just until blended. Mix in 1/3 cup of the chocolate chips. The batter is done! Spoon it into the cups, dividing evenly among all 12 (about halfway full).

Bake muffins for 18 minutes. While they are baking, stir together the remaining 1/3 cup chocolate chips, toasted pecans and mini marshmallows to make your topping. After the 18 minutes are up, take the pan out of the oven and sprinkle with the marshmallow mixture. Return them to the oven and bake for 2 more minutes (for a total bake time of 20 minutes). Let them cool in the tins for about 10 minutes, then carefully take them out and let cool completely before serving.

Makes 12.

{This recipe is great because it’s SO simple, but you can definitely play around with it. If you have a favorite brownie recipe already, you could easily use that for the batter, and then just add the topping the way we did here. And if you’re not weirdly obsessed with baking from scratch like I am, you could totally just use the boxed brownie mix!}