Chocolate and Zucchini Muffin Cakes

At last those muffins that I've been talking about since forever. Before we left for Hawai'i, I had a zucchini in the fridge that I needed to use so I thought 'what better place to find a recipe' than on Chocolate and Zucchini my favorite food blog. I found Clotilde's recipe for Chocolate and Zucchini cake and decided to make it. I made a few alterations to her recipe, as I wanted to make cupcakes since they would be easier to give away (and carry on the plane as a snack). I also upped the amount of whole wheat flour used, and added just a bit of extra zucchini as it seemed silly not to just grate the whole zucchini I had. I skipped the coffee granules (I can't imagine the look on Zach's face if I tried to bring home a jar of Nescafe crystals) and the hazelnut topping since Zach hates nuts (wow- this really makes it sound like I am totally pandering to Zach's tastes but I can assure you, I am not and that I do use ingredients that he doesn't really like on a regular basis).

Everything came together very quickly into a super thick batter. In fact, it looked like shredded zucchini with a thin coating of chocolate goo, but after spooning it into the muffin liners that I had sprayed with Bakers Joy and baking, the zucchini almost melted into the muffin cakes. Why I am calling them muffin cakes? Clotide calls it a cake on her post and the batter comes together like a cake by creaming the butter and the sugar, but the result is more in line with what Americans generally consider a muffin, even though it's not made with the muffin method. I thought of them as cupcakes, but everyone who tasted one commented that the 'muffins' were really good, hence my decision to call them muffin cakes.

Either way, they are delicious. The cocoa in the batter combined with the chocolate chips give the muffin cakes a really deep, rich chocolate flavor. (I did consider briefly not putting in the chips to make it a bit healthier but I'm glad I used them). The zucchini almost melts into the cake, giving it a subtle flavor and keeping them extremely moist. By using half whole wheat flour the muffin cakes are quite substantial and filling, even though they appear deceptively small as they don't rise much. They were really the perfect airplane snack food too. While everyone else was buying airline snack boxes or pulling out half-way smushed sandwiches, Zach and I pulled out fragrant muffins, carefully packed to avoid being pancaked. I think we may have gotten a jealous looks from other passengers.

Chocolate and Zucchini Muffin Cakes
Adapted from Chocolate and Zucchini
Makes 24

1 c. (120 g) AP flour
1 c. (112 g) whole wheat flour
1/2 c. (40 g) unsweetened cocoa powder
1 t. baking soda
1/2 t. baking powder
1/2 t. salt
1/2 c. (1 stick) butter, softened
1 c. brown sugar
1 t. vanilla extract
3 eggs, at room temp.
2 heaping cups shredded zucchini (300g)
1 c. chocolate chips

- Preheat the oven to 350. Prep muffin tins with paper liners and grease well using Baker's Joy spray or equivalent.

- In a large bowl mix: flours, cocoa, baking soda and powder and salt.

- Using and electric mixer, beat butter and sugar until fluffy and light in color. Add vanilla extract and one egg at a time, beating thoroughly after each addition.

- Add all but 1/2 c. of the flour mixture and stir well.

- Add the zucchini and chocolate chips to remaining flour mixture. Toss to coat. Fold the zucchini and chips into the batter- it will be really thick so don't worry to much about mixing firmly.

- Spoon into prepared muffin tins and bake for 20-25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

- Pop the muffin cakes out (careful- they're hot) and cool on a wire rack. Eat immediately or exercise your will power by wrapping them tightly in foil- they keep well for a few days on the counter.

Overnight Cinnamon Rolls

Zach and I were up in New Jersey visiting my parents this past weekend and as an added bonus, D- my best friend from high school and her boyfriend came to visit as well. After a weekend spent shopping, visiting the State Fair and hiking it was time to head back to the grind. I wanted our last breakfast to be a bit of a treat (not that the entire weekend wasn't) so I decided to make cinnamon rolls from a recipe I saw Alton Brown make on the Food Network. I did cheat a little bit by using the bread maker to mix and knead the dough, but I think that was ok considering it gave me more time to focus on the game of Squatter, the Australian sheep farming game, which we were playing.

I was so focused on my severe financial distress after having to pay income tax two turns in a row, that I failed to completely read Alton's instructions and ended up dumping all 20 ounces of flour into the bread machine, instead of reserving 3/4 C. to be added only if the dough was too wet, as the recipe called for. Luckily my dad is rather handy with the bread maker and kept adding spoonfulls of buttermilk and water until the dough reached the right consistency while I went back to sheep trading. By the time the dough had risen and it was time to roll out and shape the rolls, I had lost nearly all of my sheep and money and decided to abandon the game for baking as it was clear that I had absolutely no "aptitude for a rural career" as it states in the game instructions.

Then I realized that there was no ground cinnamon in the cupboard (I hadn't even though to check- it seems like one of those things that everyone always has on hand, doesn't it?) so my dad came to the rescue again by taking out his old coffee grinder and grinding up a few cinnamon sticks for me (why he had sticks and not powder on hand, I don't really know) and the recipe was saved. I rolled out the dough to the 12x18in rectangle called for in the recipe (I even used a measuring tape on it), spread the melted butter over it, than patted on the sugar and cinnamon mixture. Rolling the dough up wasn't as bad as I expected and I cut it into 12 mostly even pieces. The dough rose overnight in the fridge and then the next morning I 'woke' the dough up by placing it in an oven with a small pot of boiling water for about 20 minutes, then baked it at 350 until the rolls were a deep golden and we were all salivating from the cinnamony smell wafting through the air.

The rolls came out looking so good I took a picture right away and liked this photos of the naked rolls even better than the ones I took after their topping of cream cheese frosting. The rolls came out much better than I had expected (given the extra flour I had put in) and I might even say better than those at a certain chain whose smell always seems better than their taste. The roll itself was slightly less tender than the chain ones, but the overall taste had just the right balance of sweet to cinnamon to warm bread and judging by the immediate silence which fell over the table when we started eating, everyone else liked them two.

Since I made Alton Brown's recipe exactly (with the help of the bread machine) I won't post the recipe here but you can get it from the Food Network website.

Focaccia

Confession- I have a bread machine. I love my bread machine. Sometimes it's just really convenient to put all the ingredients into the silver bucket and hit start and have a fresh bread a few hours later. This past weekend I had a bit of extra time (no classes on Monday so no reading to do) and decided to make bread by hand. Some people seem scared of making bread- like it is a cursed activity that can only lead to ruination. I haven't ever really felt like that, which may have something to do with 7th grade home ec. class. My group made a bread that turned out so beautifully our teacher took a picture of it so we could show our parents. I remember we were so proud of that little loaf, with its golden brown crust. It's sort of a triumphant feeling, having a bread turn out, definitely something I don't get making cookies or even using the BreadmanPlus.

This weekend I decided to make Alton Brown's foccacia recipe from I'm Just Here for More Food, his baking book. Alton (after so many years of watching 'Good Eats' calling him by his last name just seems too formal) gives clear, concise instructions that make this bread a great one for first time bread bakers, but the result is so delicious that even baking pros will come back to it. The foccacia has a light, slightly chewy texture and is the perfect size to split in half for sandwich making, or to just cut up and put out with a dish of olive oil. I should be able to post the recipe for it tonight so you can give it a try...

Okay- here's the recipe, re-written by me to try to make things super clear (and avoid any copyright violations)

Focaccia

Adapted from Alton Brown's I'm Just Here for More Food

Cornmeal Base

1 c. water

1/2 c. cornmeal (coarse of fine ground)

2 1/3 c. water

1/4 c. olive oil 

Dry Ingredients

879g/1 lb, 15oz/6.5 c. all purpose flour (can substitute bread flour if you have it)

1.5 T. instant yeast

1 T plus 1 t. salt

Olive oil and salt for topping.

- Make the cornmeal base by bring 1 c. water to a boil, wisk in cornmeal and cook until thickened (for fine ground probably a minute, for coarse ground 4 or 5 minutes).  Add additional water and oil to pan and heat to 110F.  You can check with a thermometer but it you don't have one, carefully check the temperature with your finger- it should be quite warm but not hot.

-  Pour the cornmeal mixture into your work bowl and add half of the flour and the yeast.  Mix well and let the dough rest for 10 minutes.

-  At this point the dough should be bubbly and have a greater volume than when you started out.  If it does not that means you yeast has kicked the bucket.  Do not pass go here- you need to start out again.  The two possibilities are that 1) your yeast is dead 2) you killed the yeast with water than was too hot.  If you think it's option 2, just try again with cooler water.

-  Now work in the remaining flour and salt.  You may need an assistant to help you with this one as it does get hard to mix.  You want the dough to form a ball that pulls away from the side of the bowl quite cleanly, but is still a bit tacky to the touch (think the feeling of that blue goo you use to put up posters in college dorm rooms).  You may not need to add all the flour, or you may need to add more than the recipe calls for. 

-  Kneed the bread for about 10 minutes.  At the end, it should be pretty elastic and not easily ripped.

-  Roll the dough into a ball and then put it in a greased bowl and top with a clean kitchen towel, let rise for 1 hour.

-  Spread the dough out on a half sheet pan (you'll need to squish and pull it to make one even layer).  Top with the clean towel again and let rise for about 1.5 hours.

-  20 minutes before the rise is done, preheat your oven to 450F, making sure you have a rack in the bottom third of the oven.

-  10 minutes before the rise is done, use your fingers to make little dimples all over the bread (tip- have someone without very long finger nails to this).  They can be fairly deep but shouldn't go all the way to the bottom of the dough.

-  Drizzle the top with olive oil (a few tablespoons) and sprinkle with kosher salt (around a tablespoon).

-  Bake the bread for 20 to 25 minutes or until the top gets a nice golden brown color.

-  Carefully turn the bread out onto a cutting board and serve warm.  It also hold up great for about a day on the counter without getting to stale and freezes really well.  Just cut into individual portions and wrap in foil or saran wrap, then put in a freezer bag.

Bravo Thomas

For the past few months I have had a strange obsession with English muffins. Something about them, maybe their perfect size for a snack, the fact that you can put jam on one half and butter on another, and/or their slightly chewy texture and nobbly appearance just call to me. I have been buying packages somewhat guiltily for while Thomas doesn't put transfats in their muffins, they do use high fructose corn syrup,* or so I thought.

At the grocery store last week I saw that siren song sign 'buy one get one free' under the English muffins. I couldn't resist and promptly pulled two plain packages (the sign expressly said 'plain variety only' or else cinnamon raisin and honey oat would have been my choices) off the shelf. I was shocked- but in a really good way- to see "now with no high fructose corn syrup" proclaimed in bold letters next to the Thomas logo! Now I can finally eat English muffins guilt free. It also gives me hope that if a huge company like Thomas can get rid of the high fructose, other companies might follow.

On a sidenote- does anyway have an English muffin recipe? I'm always wanted to try making them myself.

*High fructose corn syrup is a sugar syrup made from corn that has undergone processing to increase its fructose to glucose ratio and has a variety of industrial food uses including in soft drinks, candy and baked goods. It is much more prevalent in the US and Canada than other countries because of sugar prices supports and quotas on the ammount of sugar allowed into these two markets. This results in an increase in the price of cane sugar and as a result many manufacturers have turned to corn syrup because it is cheaper than cane sugar/syrup (because of the sugar quotas and agricultural subsides given to corn farmers in the US-- can you tell I'm taking an econ class this semester?).

What the problem with high fructose corn syrup? Well, according to which source you read maybe none, but it may make your blood sugar rise faster after consumption than sugar and could increase obesity. The research on these potential negative effects has been limited. My feeling- high fructose corn syrup is a heavily modified sweetener. I try to consume things in as close to their natural form as possible so I avoid it. No matter what your feeling on the matter, I think it's important to know the facts about what you're eating. A good place to start if you're more interested in this topic is (and I can't believe I'm citing this- Zach may actually drop dead- but it is actually a decently written article with citations and sourcing that seem legitimate) Wikipedia's article on the subject.