Comfort Food: Blueberry-Blackcurrant Muffins

It's nearing the end of summer here. In fact some say that the summer had already come and gone by the middle of August. Yesterday I had to put on a sweater and crank the heat in the car. This seems somehow... wrong. Unfair even. The only thing I had to make up for the dismal weather was a bowl of blackcurrants I had picked the day before. Yes, I am that weird woman in her short shorts, batman t-shirt and Lindsay Lohan shades holding a little white bucket, picking currants off the bushes in public parks. I'm doing the city a service. And you can't stop me!

Anyhow...

I decided that the currants would go pretty well inside muffins with some blueberries. What I didn't count on was how much of a pain it would be to de-stem each and every one of these finicky little berries. I think I sat through 2 episodes of Mad Men while cleaning and separating (I didn't miss much--Don Draper was dashing and intense, Peter Campbell was creepy and intense, Peggy Olsen was weird and intense, and Roger Sterling was busy getting syphilis).

In the end, I managed to produce these delicious cakey muffins adapted from Sur La Table that were all eaten while the berries inside were still molten hot. Always a good sign I think.


Easy Morning Muffins with Blueberries and Blackcurrants
Adapted from The Art and Soul of Baking by Cindy Mushet, page 148

2 cups all-purpose flour
2/3 cup plus 1 tbsp sugar
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
pinch of salt
3/4 stick of butter (unsalted)
finely grated zest of one lemon (I used 1 tsp lime oil instead and it was really yummy)
2/3 cup buttermilk
2 large eggs, at room temperature
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
6 oz fresh blueberries
4 oz fresh blackcurrants

1. Preheat oven to 400ºF. Prepare muffin tins. Blend together flour, 2/3 cup sugar, baking soda, baking powder, and salt in a large bowl. In a medium skillet, melt butter with the lemon zest. Turn off the heat. Add the buttermilk to the melted butter and let sit for 1 or 2 minutes. Add eggs and vanilla to butter and mix well.

2. Make a well in the centre of the dry ingredients. Pour the butter mixture into the well and stir gently. Mix only until there are no more streaks of flour or pools of liquid and the batter looks fairly smooth. Gently fold in berries until evenly distributed.

3. Divide batter evenly among muffin cups. Sprinkle remaining sugar over the tops of the muffins.

4. Bake for 18-20 minutes, until the tops feel firm and a toothpick inserted comes out clean.

Book Review: David Lebovitz's The Perfect Scoop

Since June, I have been on a mission to make every recipe in David Lebovitz's book on ice cream, The Perfect Scoop. I've made 16 recipes so far and... I really don't have anything to show for this other than a new respect for stretchy pants and a LOT of new friends.


From this, I have come to the conclusion that the one big problem with Lebovitz's book is that the ice creams in it are too good. I know, this isn't a very good review of the book. I should be unbiased and look at it from all angles like I would any book I was reviewing. But honestly, of the ice creams I've made from this book only two have lasted longer than hour. All the rest have been devoured within minutes of being scooped out of the ice cream maker. Even the ones that look more like ice cream soup than soft serve.

However, while I did fail by not taking any photos, I can say that I almost make up for it by scribbling notes in the margins throughout the book. SO, here is a list of the 16 or so recipes I completed from The Perfect Scoop and the notes (the ones I could read) in the margins:

Vanilla Ice Cream Philadelphia Style- My younger brother's favorite. Very creamy and easy to make.
Chocolate Raspberry Ice Cream (I added some blackberries too)- I really really liked this one. Chocolate and rasp/blackberries... best. thing. ever.
Anise Ice Cream-Super subtle, almost delicate. Grandparent's favorite.
Roasted Banana Ice Cream- My younger sister's favorite. Tasted fantastic with the Classic Hot Fudge Sauce.
Fresh Fig Ice Cream- Very very sweet. Almost a bit too sweet for me. Left me with a tingling tongue. Also, a bit crunchy.
Strawberry Frozen Yogurt- So simple, so good. The perfect tangy strawberry taste.
Raspberry Swirl Ice Cream- The Swirl was the best part. Decadent.
Raspberry Ice Cream- Mixed in left over swirl (from above) and made raspberry heaven.
Avocado Ice Cream- Odd. Tasted better in a milkshake, but overall... still in my freezer after two months.
Chocolate-Coconut Sorbet- I wanted more coconut. I wanted more chocolate. This one kind of fell short of both.
Mango Sorbet- OMFG so so so good. Seriously. I ate an entire quart in a sitting. Don't tell my doctor.
Cake-like Brownies- Disappointed. I like my brownies to be moist and light, and these were pretty dense and dry. Not quite what I expected in my brownies. To be fair, it could very well have been me.
Profiteroles- So simple, so light, so delicious. I made 30 of these and they were gone before I could even put ice cream inside them. I think that's a win.
Classic Hot Fudge- It was almost bizarre how good this sauce was. Better than anything I've ever bought in a store that's for sure.
Semi Sweet Hot Fudge- MMMmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm...

All idolizing and OMFGing!! aside, as far as cookbooks go, this is a gooder. Lebovitz creates recipes that are inventive and unique, but accessible enough for a home cook (I like to call myself a home chef... but let's not go there). The short anecdotes that go with each recipe are funny and eyeopening, if not down right cute. The new flavors and textures that you explore in this book (that aren't so bizarre as to being off-putting, but just different enough to keep you interested) guarantee that you will find a new favorite for everyone you know.

And the ones that you don't like... well, it's been three months since the avocado ice cream and everyone who tried it is still talking about it. Odd publicity is better than no publicity, right?

The Frog Cake

I did this cake a couple months ago and kind of forgot about it. The pictures lingered in my computer waiting to be posted and in the meantime I let the story behind them slip out of my mind. All I could really remember was that it was four layers of chocolate cake with vanilla butter cream and caramel sauce. But like any of the cakes that I do for (a teeny) profit, this one brought with it some drama.

For instance, the caramel dome that was supposed to contain the little frog shattered leaving me with dozens of shards of caramel and a frog with no where to go. Also, the little tadpoles ended up looking more like green mutant sperm than anything else... not really something you want to be thinking about while serving a two-year-old some birthday cake. Also, I think I made that caramel sauce for in the cake at least seven times.

If nothing else, I regret not going with my first instinct with this cake, which was to make the entire thing into a frog sculpture (kinda like this). I chickened out though, and instead tried to make something more like a little frog in some bulrushes with his little tadpoles (or mutant green sperms) beside him. The next one will be better, I promise!

My Macaron First

I've always thought of macaroons as being these impossibly delicate type-A little cookies that are designed only for those of us with infinite time, patience, and... insanity. But when you have eight left-over egg whites, a bag of ground almonds and a pint of fresh raspberries, you really don't have much choice. No more avoiding it-- there were macarons to be made.

Shockingly, they weren't impossible. In fact, I don't know whether it was beginner's luck or my own natural born talent (definitely the luck), but they turned out as perfect as I could have hoped! Little pink domes with bubbly feet that were crunchy on the outside and soft on the inside. The swiss meringue buttercream I doused with raspberries and lemon oil was delicious. Sweet and sour just like raspberry lemonade is supposed to be.

The only problem I had with these little treats was that once the cookies are sandwiched together with the buttercream, there are only about a dozen to pass around. And one really isn't enough. Not for me anyway.

So my advice for macarons is this: Do not be afraid, little ones. Go forth and create little monsters with tiny feet out of egg whites, sugar and almonds... Just be sure to grind the almonds fine enough. And let the beasts sit before going in the oven-they get cranky otherwise.

The Odyssey (or, Three Cakes of Gigantic Proportions)

Making cake is difficult. It doesn't look difficult, and even when you break it down into it's component parts, it almost doesn't seem difficult. But trust me--it is. Then add to the already difficult state of difficultness the fact that you don't have a vehicle (other than your own legs) and you're working completely alone. The level of difficulty is suddenly compounded by a factor of seven.

I always thought cake was easy. I figured that was why so many people went into the cake business instead of, say, French or Viennese pastry, which is notorious for being finicky and temperamental. Cake itself is simple: butter, flour, eggs, sugar, and flavour. Mix it together, stick it in the oven, and it's done. Swiss Meringue Buttercream, fairly strait forward: egg whites, sugar, heat and beat then add butter--it takes some practice and maybe somebody walks in and things you're actually a sailor with Tourette's, but once you get the hang of it, it's a walk in the park. You could even say that after finding your groove with sugar paste flowers and decoration that too becomes something you could do in your sleep.

However, what you don't take into account is the timing, organization and planning that is critical to making cake without feeling the need too cry in a corner and pull out your own hair. This I learned the hard way.

It seemed innocent enough: Lemon Cake for 70 people. No rolled fondant coating. No fancy pipe work. No tiers. Simply, three Lemon Cakes iced with Lemon-Vanilla Swiss Meringue Buttercream, each decorated with a spray of pink sugar paste roses and rose buds. Simplicity was the key.

Except for it wasn't. Without a vehicle, daily trips to the grocery store and back hauling my own weight in butter, sugar and eggs became a grueling task that I quickly grew to hate. Once home, I'd unload the bags from my aching arms, change into my purple short shorts, prepare my mise en place and get to work. Turns out that to make two 4 layer cakes that are eight inches in diameter and one 4 layer cake that's 14 inches in diameter takes two days, five pounds of butter 2 pounds of sugar and 4 dozen eggs. And those are just the easy numbers! Blood, sweat and tears baby. Because in the middle of the summer, baking cakes without air conditoning can be very hot. Sweaty. Kinda gross.

It's hard to plan for excessive heat, just like it's hard to plan for a burnt cake. You've got to work with what you've got and if you can't do that then... well then you've got to make another trip to that god awful grocery store. On foot.

And a word to the wise, don't think you're doing yourself a favor by buying that extra pound of butter at the Seven-11 around the corner instead of walking to the 12 blocks to Safeway. Seven-11 unsalted butter is $8.46/lb. Couple pounds of that and your net profit is definitely screwed.

In the end I can complain about all the little things that went wrong with these cakes. The buttercream that I had to triple; the cakeboards that I lost; the finger that I ripped open; and even the two pounds of desperate Seven-11 unsalted butter that cost me $16.92 (plus tax!); the fact that I made enough cake to feed about 200 people and still have some left over. But in the end, I'm so proud of how these cakes turned out--exactly the way I wanted them.

I think they tasted pretty good too.