Blueberry Muffins

Alternative BakingOK, I get a few complaints: Does everything have to be crazy and have wild things like jalapenas or srirachi or beets? Can’t you just cook sweet, normal things?
Hey: some people appreciate a mad genius baker.
Still, I guess the critics have their point, so this one is for the folks who don’t want everything they eat to be some sort of experiment.

Ingredients:

  • 2 cups flour (Whole wheat, white, both, as you wish)Blueberry Muffins (1)
  • ½ cup of sugar
  • 2 tsp baking soda
  • ½ tsp salt
  • ½ cup brown sugar
  • ½ tsp ginger
  • ¼ tsp cloves
  • ¼ tsp nutmeg
  • 1 ½ cup blueberries (one would think fresh are better, but I think frozen might be)
  • ½ cup almonds
  • ½ cup apple sauce
  • 2 tsp. vanilla
  • 3 eggs
  • ½ cup buttermilk or Greek yoghurt or sour cream
  • ½ cup oil (it might work without this, especially since there is apple sauce; I liked making it with coconut oil.)

Step 1, Prepare Ye the way: Preheat the oven to 350°, either grease the muffin tins or put in the cupcake liners (I usually spray a little canola oil in the bottom of these to make things come out easier). I get 2 dozen medium sized muffins out of this mix.

Blueberry Muffins (3)Step 2, sifting the dry ingredients: In one bowl crumble up the brown sugar, then sift (mix if you don’t have a sifter) in the flour, white sugar, ginger, baking soda, and salt. Mix thoroughly.

Step 3, mixing the wet ingredients: In another bowl, mix the blueberries, almonds, apple sauce, vanilla, eggs, buttermilk, and oil.Blueberry Muffins (6)

Step 4, combining the big mess: Add the dry ingredients to the wet ones and mix well. You want to make sure the individual bits of apple are each coated to keep them from getting too clumpy.  The consistency should be much firmer than batter, but a little more liquid than cookie dough.

Blueberry Muffins (7)

 

Step 5, baking: Fill two dozen or so muffin tins. Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes. See how they look. Stick a toothpick in one and see if it comes out battery.

 

Step 6, sharing: As always, these are great for breakfast, or for a Blueberry Muffins (8)gentle afternoon tea. If you have to work Labor Day while everybody else gets to go have fun, share them with your crew. Randomly plant them for friends to find.

Biscuits & Gravy

I had never tasted biscuits and gravy until I was in my teens.
Biscuits and GravyWhen I finally did, I believed I had discovered ambrosia, the food of the gods (there is a dish commonly served up as “ambrosia,” but it is a sickening, gloopy abomination). In fact, one of the reasons I originally chose to move to the South was that it was a place that I could get biscuits and gravy.
If done right, the biscuits are crisp and buttery on the outside, but soft and either flakey or cake-like on the inside, and the gravy is creamy and warm, but also spicy.

When my daughter became a vegetarian, the gravy had to be re-invented.
One of my proudest moments came one Easter a few years back. A friend of ours, Tyler, had given up meat for Lent, and piled up a big plate full of my biscuits and gravy and was digging into them talking about how glad he was to finally be able to eat meat again. We had to tell him he was still keeping his Lenten vows.

The key to biscuits is several things: Don’t over-work the dough, and have a good blend of baking soda or power, fat, and a little bit of something acidic.

Ingredients:

  • 2 cups TVP (texturized vegetable protein)
  • 2 tsp. Onion Powder
  • 2 tsp. Garlic Powder
  • 1Tbsp Sage
  • 1 tsp. Paprika
  • 1 tsp. Worcester Sauce
  • 2 tsp. Soy Sauce
  • 1/2 cup Red Wine
  • a bit of Vinegar
  • 1/4 cup Oil
  • 1 cup Yogurt (this began as buttermilk, but I like the viscosity of yogurt better; if you are vegan, use some substitute, but add a dash of an acidic, like vinegar or lemon juice; if it is a liquid, use less)
  • 1 tsp. Baking Soda
  • 2 cups Flour (pastry flour might actually be better, but suit yourself)
  • 1Tbsp Baking Powder
  • 1  tsp. Salt
  • 6 Tbsp cup cold Vegetable Shortening
  • a bit of cold butter
  • Extra Oil
  • Extra Flour (maybe half a cup?)
  • Extra Milk (maybe 2 cups, maybe more)

Step 1, gentleman, start your sausages: In a jar or bowl, combine the TVP, seasonings, wine, vinegar, oil, and whatever else suits your fancy. Leave it to soak a bit, you that the TVP absorbs the moisture.

Step 2, start leavening: In a bowl with some extra room (it could expand), combine the yogurt and the baking soda. Let this sit.

Step 4, turn on the heat: Pre-heat the oven to 475 degrees.

Step 5, sift & cut: Sift the flour, the baking powder, and the salt together. Cut in the shortening and the butter, allowing it to form a crumbly mixture.

Step 6, mix: Add the yogurt to the flour, just enough to get it to all stick together; mix it to get this, but as little as possible–only enough to get it all moist & sticking together.

Biscuits 1Step 7, roll & cut: Roll the dough out on a floured surface until it is a half an inch or so thick. fold it over, and roll it just a bit. Cut into biscuits with a biscuit cutter, or a juice glass, or a cookie cutter, or a cutlass, or whatever you prefer.

Step 8, bake: Place the biscuits on a greased cookie sheet and bake for 12 minutes, more if necessary.

Biscuits & Gravy 3Step 9, the gravy: In a big ol’ skillet with some oil (be generous!), fry the TVP mixture until it gets a bit of texture and brown. Add a few tablespoons of flour and let them absorb some of the oil. Slowly add milk, while stirring, and let simmer.

Step 10, monkey with the recipe: If it is too thin, dissolve some flour in some more milk and add it too it; if it is too thick, add some milk. If it is too bland, add more salt or sage, or pepper; if it is too spicey, add more milk. when it is fine, turn off the heat or put on low.

Final step, serve: The gravy is traditionally served over a split biscuit, Biscuits 2so that it absorbs the gravy, but adds some texture. You can add eggs on the side, or sausage, or whatever you like. You can have extra biscuits to sop up the gravy, or for apple butter. Go out and face the day.

Improvised Oatmeal

It recently occurred to me how odd my recipe collection here in my posts is. From reading here, one would get the impression that I cook mostly muffins; that is not the case. The recipes that I post are for things that I actually bother to follow a recipe for; most of the things I cook–the stews, pastas, potatoes & rice dishes that make up my day-to-day life aren’t necessarily planned, and certainly aren’t measured–and this is what most cooking, as well as most of my life, is like: I look at what’s available, and I make the best of it.
Oatmeal (4)Among the best is this breakfast oatmeal, which my daughter and I started making after having some incredible oatmeal at the Tiny Cup Café in Brooklyn. The inspiration was theirs, but the genius behind it is probably my daughter’s.

 

Ingredients:

  • Oatmeal
  • Milk or something like it (I use some unsweetened almond milk and a little sweetened)
  • Salt
  • Nuts
  • Dried Fruit
  • Fresh Fruit
  • Pumpkin Seeds
  • Sunflower Seeds
  • Coconut
  • Chocolate Chips
  • Peanut Butter
  • Whatever else you can think ofOatmeal (1)

Step 1, Heat the liquid: It doesn’t matter how much, but I would advise about a cup per serving, I like to get it boiling first, then add a dash of cinnamon and salt, but you can do what you have to.

Step 2, Add the dry ingredients and stir, let simmer: Half Oatmeal (2)the amount of oatmeal that you added of liquid. If you are adding dried fruit (or fresh), I like to add it next so it softens, but you might like it firmer. At this point, I am digging through my nut drawers and seeing what there is to add. I love dried cherries, almonds, sunflower and pumpkin seeds, but I make do with what is in the drawer.

Step 3, Simmer: Until it gets firm and lumpy, maybe 20Oatmeal (3) minutes; usually, I am ironing a shirt at this pint, so I don’t really know how long it takes.

Step 4, Serve: I like a pat of butter on it, and maybe some brown sugar, but some people like a little more milk or cream.