Tag Archives: baking

Greek Yogurt Muffins

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They say breakfast is the most important meal of the day…That is the mantra I try to live by, especially during school and work times. So sometimes I get it into my head that I must prepare things for breakfast so my husband and I would have no choice but to eat it. And I’ve tried many recipes some of which have been a major fail. For example, I’ve tried making those egg “McMuffins”…yeah…did not turn out so great. I’ve also tried making various muffins a few times. Some have been better than others. Until yesterday…I finally found a recipe for the most moist and healthy muffin. I actually had to combine two recipes and tweak them…one was too healthy for me and ended up not being moist enough. The second one called for butter, which I thought defeated the purpose of a “healthy” breakfast. So without further ado, here it is.

Greek Yogurt Muffins

2 cups flour

1 tsp baking soda

2 tsp baking powder

3/4 cup sugar

1 cup greek yogurt (I love Fage)

2/3 cup milk

1 egg

a splash of orange juice

1 cup cranberries

 

Preheat the oven to 350. (I really don’t know why people even say this. Of course you need the oven on 😀 )

Combine all the dry ingredients together and mix. Add in the egg, yogurt and milk and whisk until combined. If you feel that the batter is too thick, add in more milk, if you feel it’s too runny add in more flour. Pour in the orange juice and fold in the cranberries. I use the jumbo muffin pan because it’s easier to just make a one serving muffin for me. I also use an ice cream scooper to scoop in the batter into the pan. Don’t fill the batter up to the brim, because the muffins WILL RISE. Bake for about 25-30 mins or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean. Keep in mind that these muffins will be moist and the greek yogurt will make them more runny than the regular muffins, and the toothpick will not come out completely dry. Just use your judgment.

Note: the cranberries I used were tart. They made the muffins very tart. Which is ok by me, gives me an excuse to spread jam or Nutella on them. But if you’d like them sweet, I would suggest tossing the cranberries in with 1 tbs of sugar and setting aside for 30 mins or so. If you choose this route, I would reduce the sugar that will go into the batter.

Ready. Set. Eat.

Oh Cupcakes

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I love sweets, especially cupcakes. Perhaps a little too much…don’t judge me. And you know what’s the worst thing about me loving cupcakes? It’s that I cannot master them in the kitchen. No matter how hard I try to conquer the art of baking cupcakes, I fail each time. The failures range from substantial to minimal, but they are still failures in my eyes. It seems pretty straight forward, right? Just follow the recipe and voila, you have beautifully risen, decorated mini-cakes. But alas, that does not work with me. In vain I try to make them as perfect as can be, in vain I try different icings, creams and methods. My cupcakes just never look like the ones in the store, or even on the picture. As much as I love cooking, baking is too finicky for me.

So why did I think that taking two gourmet cupcakes recipes and merging them into one would work? Who knows. But I did. And of course, I failed yet again. They tasted good, but the shape and presentation just was not there…it was so disappointing that I did not even take a picture of them. Don’t get me wrong, they weren’t UGLY, they were just sad…sad cupcakes destined for greatness but failing at my hand.

The idea was to make a mango cupcake with a mango butter-cream. The cupcake recipe was simple enough, but I decided to spice it up by adding sour cream and butter instead of oil. The end result was too soft of a batter, it was just too wet with the mango puree in it as well. They baked, but did not rise as expected. Then the butter-cream was also too ‘wet’. I used powdered sugar, and butter and decided to add mango puree to that as well. The frosting wasn’t thick enough and had chunks of mango in it, which needless to say, did not look appetizing. But I was just feeling tired and stubborn, so I went ahead and made them anyways. Frosted, decorated, set aside, ate one. Again, the taste was great, I just wish they looked better.

There is no recipe, since I declare this a fail, but here is the link for this awesome cupcake website http://mingmakescupcakes.yolasite.com/
I made cupcake number 18, but with mango puree not apricot jam, and I took the frosting from cupcake number 9, but added mango puree. Please enjoy making them, and know that failure is OK (even if you want to keep a grudge)