Muffin Act 2: Back in the Oven

My sister's family came to visit me in Boston, so it was the perfect occasion to make some muffins. My sister is an amazing cook, and all of her food is delicious and creative. Her family is used to her cooking, so I needed to whip up something that could meet those standards! These fluffy, super-chocolatey muffins were a big hit.

Autumn in Summer Cocoa Pumpkin Muffins

Ingredients:

3/4 cup sugar

1/4 cup Canola oil

2 eggs (or 1/3 cup egg whites)

3/4 cup canned pumpkin

1/4 cup water

1 1/2 cups all-purpose whole wheat flour

3/4 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1 1/4 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice

1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

2/3 cup baking cocoa

Directions:

Step 1: Preheat oven to 400°F.

Step 2: In a large bowl, mix sugar, oil, eggs, pumpkin, and water.

Step 3: In a different bowl, mix flour, baking powder, baking soda, pumpkin pie spice, and MOST IMPORTANTLY, your cocoa.

Step 4: Add dry mixture to wet mixture. Stir until the concoction is smooth. Stir in chocolate chips.

Step 5: Lick spoon.

Step 6: Think about chocolate for a few minutes.

Step 7: Mmm, chocolate.

Step 8: Snap out of it! Put your muffins in a lined muffin tin, and bake for 23-25 minutes or until springy and chocolatey and delicious.

Makes 12 muffins.

Check out my handsome nephew slash muffin model:

Chag Sameach!

I don't know about you guys, but I am really tired of matzoh. Moreover, I am really tired of those styrofoam diskettes they try to pass for cookies on this never-ending holiday. Things are different this year, though. The other day when I was going for a walk, I passed a burning bush and it spoke to me. "Sonja," it bellowed, "you must bring delicious pareve chocolate brownies to the good people of New England, more specifically those who are gong to be at seder with you!" Then my iPod turned into a snake and there were frogs EVERYWHERE.

Anyway I found the original recipe here. Thanks to epicurious for being so awesome all the time.

Chocolate Relief Passover Brownies

Ingredients:

• 2 cups brown sugar
• 1 cup ( 2 sticks) unsalted butter melted and cooled
• 1 cup chopped strawberries
• 1 cup chocolate chips
• 3 eggs
• 3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup matzoh cake meal

Step 1: Preheat the oven to 350°F.

Step 2: Lightly grease a 7 by 10-inch rectangular baking pan, a 9-inch square pan, or anything else you feel would be a good venue for your brownies.

Step 3: Mix the salt, cocoa powder, and matzoh cake meal together.

Step 4: Add the strawberries, making sure they are completely coated in the dry mixture.

Step 5: In a separate bowl, mix together the butter, eggs, and sugar.

Step 6: Add the wet mix to the dry mix. Stir in the chocolate chips.

Step 7: Taste the batter. Sam says the batter is more delicious than the actual brownies, and he might be right.

Step 8: Bake for 25 minutes. Let cool in pan.

The lovely and charming Emma Gunuey moonlights as a brownie model.

p.s. I hope all 2.5 of you appreciate how hard it was writing a blog post wth a broken keyboard. I had to do so much copying and pasting! This is my devotion to your Passover chocolate-consumption needs.

p.p.s. A bonus recipe: MACHOS (matzoh nachos)

Step 1: Pretend that you're making nachos but use matzoh instead of tortilla chps.

Yes, that is brisket on Sam's machos and yes, we also eat ham and cheese on matzoh and yes, we are "those" kinds of Jews.

STAMPEDE!!!

Check out these awesome dinosaur cookies I made:

And they were super easy! The original sugar cookie recipe is from here.

Faux-Gingerbread Dinosaur Sugar Cookies

Ingredients:

• 2/3 cup and 1 teaspoon whole wheat flour
• 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/8 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 cup butter, softened
• 1/4 cup and 2 tablespoons white sugar
• 1/4 egg
• 1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 1/2 TBSP pumpkin pie spice

Step 1: Preheat the oven to 375°F.

Step 2: Mix the dry ingredients together in a small bowl.

Step 3: In a large bowl, cream the butter and sugar until smooth.

Step 4: Beat in vanilla and egg.

Step 5: Gradually mix in the dry mixture.

Step 6: Using a rolling pin, flatten your dough. Use an awesome cookie cutter or this awesome dinosaur sandwich cutter (that also removes crusts!!).

Step 7: Bake for 8-15 minutes, depending on the size of your desired cookies. Mine were about medium-sized (8 per cookie sheet) and took 12 minutes in the oven. Let cool before attempting to move.

Rawrrr!!!

The return of the muffin pan

After a brief tryst with cookies, muffins have recaptured my heart, and therefore, my blog. However, lemon poppy seed muffins are SO 2009. In this blog post, I'm taking it to the next level, which I guess logically would be 2010. That makes these muffins super appropriate for this WHOLE ENTIRE YEAR...and eating them is a resolution you can totally, realistically keep.















I used this lemon poppy seed muffin recipe for the basis of my muffins.

Citrus Poppy Seed Muffins

Ingredients:

• 3 cups whole wheat flour
• 1/3 cup poppy seeds
• 1 tablespoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup melted butter or margarine/5 tbsp canola oil
  
• 1 cup sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 1 tablespoon grated lemon peel
• 1 tablespoon grate orange peel
  
• 1/3 cup lemon juice and orange juice (feel free to just use lemon juice for a more traditional taste)
  
• 2/3 cup skim milk
• 1/2 cup white chocolate chips (optional)
• 1/2 cup powdered sugar
• 1/2 tsp vanilla
• 1 tbsp grapefruit juice
• 1 tbsp lemon juice
  

Step 1: Preheat the oven to 350°F.

Step 2: Mix whole wheat flour, poppy seeds, baking soda, and salt.

Step 3: Beat butter and sugar together, then add eggs. Add citrus zests and juices, and beat the mixture until all ingredients are incorporated.

Step 4: Add half the dry mixture. Add milk, then add the rest of the dry mixture.

Step 5: Mix in white chocolate chips.

Step 6: Spoon into muffin cups.

Step 7: Bake for 15-18 minutes. Cool for 5.

Step 8: Dip the tops of the muffins in your citrus glaze. "What glaze is that?" you may be wondering. Well I'll tell you! It's this glaze!

Mix 1/2 cup powdered sugar, 1 tablespoon lemon juice, 1 tablespoon grapefruit juice, and 1/2 teaspoon vanilla until smooth. You should use this right away, so you might want to prepare it while your muffins are in the oven.















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