Pumpkin muffins!

One of the things I miss about living in St. Louis is that we don't really have seasons here. We just have hot and less hot. Part of the fun of the changing seasons was the different foods and flavors that came with it. Pumpkin is probably hands down my favorite fall flavor. When I was little I used to be able to eat an entire pumpkin pie by myself and it wouldn't really be a Thanksgiving if I didn't.
Another of my favorite things from St. Louis was the Bread Company (Panera). Their pumpkin muffins were always something I loved to eat every fall. Sadly I haven't been able to have a good pumpkin muffin for a long time. I was really excited when one of my friends suggested a pumpkin muffin recipe from Smitten Kitchen. I decided to give it a try this weekend when my craving for pumpkin had reached its peak this weekend. I was pleasantly surprised to find that it tasted really close to the Panera pumpkin muffins. I think next time I make it I'll try topping it with a little bit of sifted powdered sugar to make it that much closer to the real thing.


Pumpkin Muffins


Adapted from Smitten Kitchen

1 1/2 cup flour
1 15 oz can of pumpkin
1/3 cup vegetable oil
2 large eggs
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp ginger
1/4 tsp all spice
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1 cup sugar
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
For topping: 1 tbsp sugar and 1 tsp cinnamon


Preheat the oven to 350˚F. Put muffin cups into the muffin pan.
Place the pumpkin, oil, eggs, spices, sugar, baking soda, and salt in a large bowl. Whisk until combined. Add in the flour and whisk until it is just combined.
In a small bowl mix together the cinnamon and sugar.
Divide the batter evenly among the muffin cups.
Sprinkle the cinnamon-sugar mixture on top of the muffins.
Bake for 25 to 30 minutes or until a knife/skewer comes out clean.
Cool in the pan for 5 minutes and then transfer the muffins to a cooling rack.

Lemon Poppy Seed Muffins

Justin started nightfloat on Labor and Delivery last night which has left me pretty bored during the nights. This weekend I was trying to figure out what I could make that he could take with him, not need to be refrigerated, and could be eaten quickly. I decided on some muffins because those seem to hold up well and are less prone to being squished in a lunch box.

I've been craving lemons lately so I decided to try my hand at lemon poppy seed muffins. They've always been my favorite muffin, but I've never actually made them before. A while back I found a recipe for them from a cookbook my mom got me for either my birthday or Christmas. I had all the ingredients so I figured I might as well make them for breakfast!

I did a little twist on the lemon poppyseed muffins and added jam in the middle. Justin has been craving blueberry jam all week and this was the easiest/non-messy way of incorporating jam into his nightfloat lunch box. Since I was experimenting I decided to only make some of the muffins this way. It turned out to be amazing and I'd recommend filling all of the muffins with jam. We used raspberry jam (for mine) and blueberry jam (for Justin's). I used the different colored muffin cups to help me remember which ones had which jams in them.

Lemon Poppy Seed Muffins
Adapted from Baking: From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan

2/3 cup sugar

grated zest and juice of 1 lemon
2 cups all purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
3/4 cup sour cream
2 large eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 stick butter melted and cooled
2 Tbsp poppy seeds
Raspberry or blueberry jam/preserves

For the lemon glaze: 1 cup powdered sugar and 2-3 Tbsp lemon juice

Preheat oven to 400 ˚F. Line a 12 mold muffin tray with muffin cups (color coding if you are using different types of jam).
In a small bowl mix together flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. In a large bowl, mix together the sugar and lemon zest with your fingers. Make sure all of the lemon zest is incorporated and the sugar smells like lemons. Mix in the flour mixture.
In a medium bowl whisk together the eggs, sour cream, vanilla, butter, and lemon juice. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients bowl and fold together quickly. Mix in the poppy seeds.
Fill the muffin cups halfway with batter. Then put 1-2 tsp of jam in the middle of the muffins. Cover them with more batter.
Bake for 15-18 minutes or until a knife/toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean.
Let them cool in the pan for about 5 minutes before transferring them to a wire rack. Make sure they are cool before topping them with glaze.

To make the glaze: Sift the powdered sugar into a small bowl. Mix in 1 1/2 Tbsp of lemon juice. Then keep adding small amounts of lemon juice until the glaze can drizzle off the edge of the spoon. Pour glaze over the muffins.

Guilty Pleasures

It was another rainy day in New Orleans. I was super productive this morning so I figured it was okay for me to veg out on TV for the rest of the afternoon. I ended up spending a huge amount of time watching Mad Men on Netflix. It's probably one of my guiltiest pleasures (next to watching Frasier marathons on Hallmark). It makes me want to channel my own inner Joan and dress in fantastic outfits that highlight my curves. Unfortunately we don't have the funds for me to revamp my entire wardrobe so I guess I'll have to wait until I become an amazing Pathologist.
Of course I had to pair it with another one of my guilty pleasures- baking chocolate chip cookies. I found a recipe last week for what seemed like the best cookie idea ever. The recipe was for chocolate chip stuffed cookies by What's Gaby Cooking. You basically take chocolate chip cookie dough and make a small little pocket. You fill the pocket with chocolate chips and then cover it with another piece of dough. It ends up melting a small little pocket of chocolate chips in the middle of the cookie. My husband described it as a "chocolate surprise". It is probably one of the best chocolate cookie recipes I've made in a while!

Chocolate Chip Surprise Cookies
Adapted from What's Gaby Cooking
2 sticks of unsalted butter
1 1/2 cup of light brown sugar
2 eggs
2 cups of flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp sea salt
1/2 tsp baking powder
2 cups plus 4 tbsp of chocolate chips

Combine the flour, baking soda, salt, and baking powder in a small bowl.
In a large bowl combine the butter and sugar until creamy. Add the eggs one at a time, scraping the bowl after each addition. Mix in the vanilla. Gradually add in the flour. Stir in the chocolate chips. Refrigerate the mixture for 1 hour.
Pre-heat oven to 350˚F.
Using a tablespoon scoop out the cookies onto the baking sheet. Using your thumb or the back of the tablespoon indent the ball of cookie. Fill the ball of cookie with chocolate chips and then cover it with a second piece of cookie dough. Make sure to seal the edges so that the chocolate chips can't escape.

Bake for 10-12 minutes until the edges of the cookies are golden brown. Transfer the cookies to the cooling rack.

Eat warm with a cold glass of milk.

Tropical Storm Lee

Well it looks like Justin and I will be spending this Labor Day weekend indoors. Tropical storm Lee decided to put a damper on our weekend by sitting on top of New Orleans for a couple of days. Thankfully we haven't had too much flooding yet. We're just waiting for it all to pass at this point. Hopefully the power won't go out, but we're prepared for pretty much anything.

Of course I did what any normal person would do when faced with the impending doom of a tropical storm. I made M&M cookies. I had plenty of M&Ms on hand and a hungry husband. Normally my experiments in the realm of sugar cookies goes horribly awry. They end up too dry, too under-baked, or too sweet. This time I was pleasantly surprised with the results. Justin was also very pleased with them. He rarely enjoys sweets, but this time he ate 4 cookies before I had even put the second batch in the oven! (Please excuse the super saturated photo- we have no natural lighting at this time).

Tropical Storm M&M Cookies
Adapted from What's Gaby Cooking

2 sticks unsalted butter
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 1/2 cup granulated sugar
2 eggs
2 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
2 1/2 cup flour
1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
Half a bag of M&Ms

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.
Mix flour, salt, baking soda, and baking powder in a small bowl.
Cream together butter and both sugars. Next add the egg and vanilla extract. Beat until combined. Turn mixer down to low and gradually mix in the flour mixture. Stir in the M&Ms.
Chill the dough in the refrigerator for about 2 hours.
Using a tablespoon scrape out the dough and form into balls. Place on baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Only put 6 balls per baking sheet because they will spread out a lot while baking.
Bake for 12-14 minutes. Take the cookies out when the edges are golden brown and the middle looks slightly undercooked. Leave them on the baking sheet for about 8-10 minutes until they have cooled slightly. Transfer them to a cooling rack or plate.