King Arthur's Chocolate Breakfast Muffins and Baking Day

James was out of quick breakfasts so I had a baking session this morning.  I made banana bread, orange cranberry muffins, lemon blueberry muffins, and King Arthur's Chocolate Breakfast Muffins.

I have posted the recipes for the first three, but today was the first time I tried the chocolate breakfast muffin recipe.

 



King Arthur is a brand name flour maker.  I like their products, but can usually find a comparable brand for a better price.  I was browsing recipes on their website one day when I came across this recipe.  I thought..."Chocolate for breakfast, hmmm."  Of course, I bookmarked it and it has been sitting in that little folder for a long time.  Since I don't eat any of the fruit items, I thought I would try making these for a quick snack or breakfast for me.  As usual, I made a few changes to the recipe.  I made a half batch, sifted the dry ingredients together, substituted a mix of heavy cream and 2% milk for the 3/4 cup of milk, used the brand of unbleached, organic flour I had in the house, did not fill the muffin tins as much as indicated, and did not top them with sugar.  These were super tasty and very moist.  I loved the little bites of chocolate chips in the muffin (I used these yummy chocolate chips.)  These were the first "chocolate" muffins I have made that tasted more like a muffin than a cupcake.  I will definitely be keeping this one in my repertoire.

** Click on the link above for the recipe.**

All You's Chocolate Marble Cake Review

In the February issue of All You magazine there was a section titled, "Show Your Love with Valentine's Desserts".  The opening recipe was for a Chocolate Marble Cake.  The cake looked yummy and since I had the ingredients I decided to try making it.

Sorry for the bad pictures, I didn't use my good camera and the lighting wasn't the greatest.

Here's a picture of what it looks like sliced.  Yes, the plate is dirty, we just used our dinner plates for dessert as well.  Keeping it real.

 

 

Here's what we can say about the cake:  It isn't a bad cake but it isn't the best cake either.  We thought it would be better with ice cream and that it wasn't sweet enough.  Kind of tasted like a chocolate bread with chocolate ganache on top.  If I make it again, I will add another 1/4 cup sugar and switch to milk chocolate for the ganache. 

 

The other thing I did not like about this recipe was that it used so many bowls.  I felt like every sentence used a new bowl.

 

Chocolate Marble Cake

 

1-3/4 cups cake flour

2 t baking powder

1/4 t salt

2/3 c plain, whole-milk yogurt (I substituted sour cream)

2 T whole milk (I used 2%)

1/2 t vanilla

8 T unsalted butter, at room temp

3/4 c sugar

3 large eggs, at room temp

1/4 c unsweetened cocoa powder

1 t instant coffee powder

1/4 c heavy cream

1/2 c semi-sweet chocolate chips

 

1.  Preheat oven to 325 degrees.  Mist a 9x5 inch loaf pan with cooking spray.  In a small bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt.  In a separate small bowl, whisk yogurt, milk and vanilla.

 

2.  In a large bowl (up to 3 bowls now), using an electric mixer, beat butter with sugar until light and fluffy.  Beat in eggs one at a time.  Add half of the flour mixture, then yogurt mixture, then remaining flour mixture, beating after each addition until nearly combined.  Remove 1 cup of batter to a medium bowl (4th bowl).

 

3.  Pour 1/4 cup boiling water into a small bowl (5th bowl).  Whisk in cocoa and instant coffee until smooth; let cool slightly.  Add to batter in medium bowl; stir to combine.

 

4.  Alternate spoonfuls of vanilla and chocolate batters in loaf pan.  Draw a knife through batters for a marbled effect.  Bake cake until a toothpick inserted in center comes out clean, about 50 minutes.  Cool on rack 15 minutes, then remove from pan and cool completely.

 

5.  Place cream in a microwavable cup or bowl (I used a measuring cup otherwise this would have been the sixth bowl).  Microwave until hot, about 25 seconds.  Add chocolate chips.  Let stand for 2 minutes; stir until smooth.  Let cool to room temp and then drizzle over cake.

 

Do you see what I mean about the number of bowls...crazy!  Happy eating!



Yummy Bread Machine Breadsticks

I read a blog called Money Saving Mom regularly, despite the fact that I am not a mom.  The blog has a bunch of interesting reads and I like her realistic view of life.  Awhile ago she had a recipe for homemade bread machine bread sticks and I bookmarked it.  Then the torn calf muscle happened and I haven't been able to cook.  Last night we  had meal planned for pasta Alfredo with roasted chicken and I thought the bread sticks would go great with them.

Of course, it was the end of the day and my leg hurt from the exercises I had done so I forgot to take a picture of the bread sticks, but they look a lot like they do in the link's pictures.  These bread sticks were so delicious.  Light, fluffy, sort of sweet but not overly so, and the melted butter on top was the right finishing touch.  Give them a try!

We are having Tritip steak and potatoes for dinner with some of the leftover bread sticks, so hopefully I will remember to take a picture tonight and add it on. 

Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Muffins



I was finally able to cook/bake for the first time since tearing my calf muscle...over a month and a half ago.  Since I tweaked my calf a little yesterday tripping over my dogs, I just took it easy with a muffin recipe I found on allrecipes.com.  These Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Muffins were so yummy and delicious.

 



 

 I changed the recipe a little by omitting the pecans since we didn't have any and adding about a teaspoon of homemade vanilla extract.  I also added vanilla sugar to the top of the muffins before baking them.

 

These muffins were moist, flavorful and light.  Now I will need to play with them a little and try to use some white whole wheat flour.  Happy Eating!