52 weeks of baking: 44 - lemon gingerbread muffins

Pumpkin month is over! On to the next holiday season! I found this recipe over the summer on Sally's Baking Addiction and was like omg these sound heavenly, I must make them. So on the first day that it was officially kind of okay to bake something gingerbready, Novemeber 1st, I made them. Specifically because I was holding a holiday meeting at my store and needed a "holiday" treat for a snack. I thought these would be perfect!

I was a tad disappointed in these muffins. This will be the first recipe of Sally's that I raise my eyebrow at. I'm not sure if I screwed something up or what, but these babies are dry. The flavor is great, the lemon and gingerbread combo is phenomenal, but these were extra dry. Maybe they cooked too long? They're very pretty and smell heavenly, but when you bite into it, it's just not what you want in a muffin. Maybe the cook time/temperature just needs a little tweaking on my end. Although something must be said for how high they rose. Sally has this trick where you bake them at high heat (450) for five minutes to get them to rise and then you lower the heat (375) and bake them for the rest of the time. Worked like a charm.

I think they'd be wicked dunked in tea. Chai tea for you spice loving folks or plain black tea like English breakfast for the simpler folks like me. It sounds divine. Anyway, big shout out to my staff for eating them up like champs. I think it was out of politeness, but whatever, I'll take it. ;)

Orange Chocolate Chip Muffins

You know when you're cooking something and you figure out half way through that you're out of something crucial? That happens to me, a lot. But sometimes it's a good thing. I was making chocolate chip muffins yesterday and went to add the milk and BOOM, I only had like an 1/8th of a cup and I needed 1/2. So I brain stormed all the liquids I had on hand, and decided to substitute the rest with orange juice. And thus, orange chocolate chip muffins were born. And these babies are yummy.

I used this blueberry muffin recipe but instead of blueberries I used a 12oz bag of chocolate chips and subbed orange juice for most of the milk. Orange and chocolate are a pretty yummy combo. It's not overwhelmingly orange-y, but it's got a nice subtle citrus flavor. Plus chocolate chips, you can't go wrong there.

For some reason the second batch came out waaay better than the first, and although the first are still yummy, they don't look nearly as good. You can see a couple of them in the back in the picture. I think it had to do with the fact that the second batch batter was able to "sit" while the first batch was cooking. I think it gives the baking powder time do it's job. Who knows. But that batter was DELISH. I ate so much of it raw. I know, I know, bad news bears. BUT IT WAS SO GOOD.

Champion muffins

These are the best blueberry muffins ever. I'm just going to go ahead and say it. And I made them. And I don't even like blueberries. The recipe is here, aptly called The Best Blueberry Muffins Recipe. The only thing I'd change would be the amount of blueberries. It calls for 2 and a half cups, I only used 2 cups because it was all I had, but it was also two cups of the biggest blueberries ever. But that's from someone who doesn't like blueberries, so you can disregard that statement. Oh and I only used a pinch of nutmeg in the topping, because I don't care too much for nutmeg. Disregard this also if you love nutmeg. Brendon is a fan.

 

My delish breakfast this morning. Check out those massive blueberries! HEB, your produce is impressive.

Also this morning Sophie has been insane. She has her crazy pants on for sure. She's been following me around the house, meowing, rolling around, and getting onto every surface she shouldn't be. She careened onto the bathroom counter this morning knocking down all my beauty supplies (aka deoderant and toothpaste), and she also was all over the kitchen counter investigating my breakfast photoshoot. Evidence:

What a freak! She's probably all riled up because this is the latest I've slept in ages. I got up at 10:27 y'all! That's a big accomplishment. Usually on my days off I get up at 8 something, and that's after a lot of tossing and turning. Today I forced myself to sleep in and thus, Sophie was bored.

Brendon starts pharmacy school in less than a week!!! Craziness. After all these years, it's finally happening! It seems like just yesterday we were researching schools that have pharmacy programs. And Brendon, the silly boy, put UT at the bottom of the list because he thought he couldn't get in. Obviously I convinced him otherwise, he applied and how wrong was he?! Can I brag for a second? Have I mentioned that he got into every school he applied to?! BAAAAHHH I'm so proud. And I am so excited for him to start school, but I think he's a little nervous. He has no reason to be, he's such a badass and a charmer and a genius. He's going to wreck shop and UT wont know what hit them. I am really super duper excited about him being close to me at work. Now we can hang out on breaks and after work/class on campus and I can pretend I'm a longhorn! Jk y'all. You know I'm a mean green eagle all the way. Speaking of which I want to check out that new stadium at UNT but I've heard the tickets are ridiculous. Guess they have to pay for it somehow. I think we're going to try to go to a longhorn game this fall. Hook 'em?