Orange Berry Muffins with Crumb Topping

In my continuing quest to bake every recipe from Baking From My Home to Yours, this week I'm catching up with the orange berry muffins. Practically every time I pick up this cookbook looking for something quick and spontaneous to bake, I look at these muffins, see the blueberries and turn the page. I've written before about the reason for my blueberry aversion here, but the time was here to put on my big girl apron and do it.

To get around my lack of true love for the blueberry, I also added some raspberries I froze last year when they were plentiful at the farmers markets, I included walnuts AND I topped them with a crumb topping. They were spectacular, and I didn't even care that they had blueberries in them.

This is not what I'd call a fast recipe, and you will dirty a few bowls, measuring cups, etc., but it will be totally worth it. It's much easier if you have the crumb topping pre-made in your freezer.

Orange Berry Muffins with Crumb Topping - adapted from Dorie Greenspan
Printer-friendly recipe

Crumb topping:

1 cup all-purpose flour
1/3 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup light brown sugar, lightly packed
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 pound (1 stick) cold unsalted butter, diced

Muffins:
Grated zest and juice of 1 orange
About 3/4 cup buttermilk
2 large eggs
3 Tablespoons honey

1/8 teaspoon Fiori di Sicilia extract (from King Arthur Flour, optional)
1 stick (8 Tablespoons) unsalted butter, melted and cooled
1/3 cup sugar
2 cups all-purpose flour
2-1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt

1 cup raspberries – fresh or frozen (not thawed)
1 cup blueberries – fresh or frozen (not thawed)

2/3 cup chopped walnuts

Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Butter or spray the 12 molds in a regular-size muffin pan or fit the molds with paper muffin cups. Place the muffin pan on a baking sheet.

Make the crumb topping:

Combine the flour, granulated sugar, brown sugar, salt, cinnamon, and the butter crumb topping ingredients in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment. Mix on low speed until the butter is the size of peas. Rub the mixture with your fingertips until it's in big crumbles, then set aside in the refrigerator, tightly covered, until ready to use.

Make the muffins:
Pour the orange juice into a large glass measuring cup or a bowl and pour in enough buttermilk to make 1 cup. Whisk in the eggs, honey, melted butter and Fiori di Sicilia (if using).

In a large bowl, rub the sugar and orange zest together with a spatula until the sugar is moist. Whisk in the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Pour the liquid ingredients over the dry ingredients and, with the whisk or a rubber spatula, gently but quickly stir to blend. Don’t worry about being thorough – the batter will be lumpy and bubbly, and that’s just the way it should be. Stir in the blueberries. Divide the batter evenly among the muffin cups. Sprinkle on the crumb mixture (you may have some leftover - just freeze if for another time).

Bake for 22 to 25 minutes (mine were done at 21 minutes). When fully baked, the crumb topping will be golden, the muffins springy to the touch and a thin knife inserted into the center of the muffins will come out clean. Transfer the pan to a rack and cool for 5 minutes before carefully removing each muffin from its mold.

Programming note: Check back tomorrow because I'm posting a cake that will amaze you and is a lot of fun to make. In a very tortured way that leads to a lot of dishes. 

Blueberry Cream Scones

Behold, the scone.  So few ingredients, so ethereal when executed well, so leaden when executed poorly. I speak from experience because my first batch was a comedy of errors. I was doubling the recipe, but forgot to double the flour until I was about to cut them out. Noting the dough was extremely wet, it dawned on me that I had left half the flour out. I mixed it in with golden raisins and all seemed fine. Knowing scones bake in the blink of an eye in my oven, I set the timer for 18 minutes, 2 less than the recipe called for. When my nose told me they were done, I peeked in at them, thought "but it's not 18 minutes yet" and left them in. Duh! They were browned and smelled done. Why didn't I pull them out??? When I did take them out, they were very brown and the golden raisins were little black knobby things. Accustomed to leaden coffee house scones, my coworkers thought they were pretty good. Tasting one, I knew all my errors cost me the fluffy, flakey texture I was seeking.

So even though I overslept yesterday morning, I was determined to make these scones again. I'd leave out the raisins, sub blueberries instead, add all the flour at the correct time, and take them out when they were done, no matter what the timer said.

This time, I was rewarded with the crispy outside and fluffy inside I was hoping for. These were fabulous, even to a non-blueberry lover like me. And who can beat a recipe you can prepare on a morning when you sleep an hour later than you planned and still make it to work in a respectable time?

Here's what I did that made these such a success this time:

• I cut the butter into small cubes and stuck in the freezer for 10 minutes.
• Add the butter to the dry ingredients and turn your mixer on to the lowest setting. When your mixture looks partly like small peas and partly like oats, pour in the cream mixture.
• When mixture still looks wet and floury, remove bowl from the mixer, and using a spatula, gently mix in the berries
• My triangular scones are never the same size, so I cut mine with a biscuit cutter.

These fabulous cream scones were chosen by Lynne of Cafe LynnyLu as this week's Tuesdays with Dorie recipe. I'm so glad I gave these another try because if I hadn't I never would have found the perfect scone recipe. Thanks so much, Lynne! Here's my version of the recipe, but if you want the original as Dorie wrote it, Lynne has it for you here. You can find the other TWD bakers and what they thought of these here.

Cream Scones with Blueberries - adapted from Baking From My Home to Yours
Printer-friendly recipe
3 tablespoons sugar

Grated zest of one lemon

1 large egg
2/3 cup/155 grams heavy whipping cream
2 cups/280 grams all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
5 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into small pieces and frozen for about ten minutes
3/4 cup blueberries (or raspberries, chopped cherries, strawberries, or peaches, etc.)

Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 400°F. Line a baking sheet with parchment or a silicone mat.

In a small bowl, add the zest to the sugar and with your fingers or a spoon, rub the zest and sugar together to bring out the oils from the zest. 

In a measuring cup or small bowl, stir the egg and cream together.

Add the flour, baking powder, salt and the zest and sugar mixture to the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment and turn it on to the very lowest setting. Drop in the butter and mix until the mixture is a combination of pea sized pieces and pieces the size of oats.

Pour the cream mixture over the dry ingredients and when there is still both liquid and flour visible, stop the mixer. Remove the bowl from the mixer and add the blueberries. Gently mix them in with a rubber spatula. Your mixture should have bits of flour peeking out and look pretty shaggy.

Lightly dust a work surface with flour and turn out the dough. Pat the dough into a rough circle that's about 1 1/4 inches in high, and using a biscuit cutter dipped in flour, cut as many scones as you can, keeping the cuts as close as possible (a little divit on one side will disappear in the oven) and place each scone on the baking sheet. (At this point, the scones can be frozen on the baking sheet, then wrapped airtight. Don't defrost before baking- just add about 2 minutes to the baking time.)

Bake the scones for 16 to 19 minutes, or until their tops are golden brown and firm. Transfer them to a rack and cool for 10 minutes before serving, or wait for them to cool to room temperature.

Makes about 12 scones

Blueberry Brown Sugar Bundt Cake

Blueberries and I have a uneasy peace. Ever since I was a little girl on vacation with her parents in Mexico, we've not been on great terms. I know they're good for me, high in anti-oxidants, etc. But I can't help remember how violently ill I was after eating blueberry pancakes at IHOP, something I've never forgiven them for.

So this week's Tuesdays with Dorie recipe, chosen by Cindy of Everyday Insanity, had me skeptical. And something as straightforward as a "plain" blueberry cake had to do cartwheels to get my attention. So it did.

Made in a bundt pan, it was just so beautiful I shamelessly showed it off to a few coworkers, hoping to elicit enough oohs and ahhs to lure me into tasting it. It worked. It was so lovely (not that you can tell with my iPhone photos) that I broke down and ate a slice.

The verdict? The brown sugar lent a caramel note to the cinnamon scented cake, and it was incredibly moist. It didn't turn me into a blueberry lover, but it did turn me into a brown sugar bundt cake lover. I will definitely make this one again, but will probably skip the blueberries in favor of another fruit.

If you'd like the recipe, Cindy has it for you here. Just double the recipe if you want to bake it in a standard bundt cake pan. It will bake for 55-60 minutes.

Blueberry Streusel Muffins

When I was 8 and on vacation with my family in Mexico City, I became violently ill shortly after eating blueberry pancakes at IHOP. Since that day, blueberries and I have had a shaky truce. I eat them fresh in small amounts, but never as the star in a recipe. I will never arm wrestle you for the last blueberry muffin. I rarely make blueberry anything (except for a slammin' blueberry buttermilk tart), so today's blueberry streusel muffins were quite the event.

I figure if anyone can make me like blueberries, it's the queen of all things delicious, Ina Garten. So I was excited when Maria of Close to Home selected blueberry muffins for the first Barefoot Bloggers recipe for July (thanks, Maria!). And these muffins were good (especially since I upped the amount of streusel), but not great enough to make me rethink my tendency to avoid blueberry muffins. They lasted for hours at work, but it was a week when a lot of people were out of the office. If you'd like the recipe, you can find it here.

We have a relaxed posting deadline for Barefoot Bloggers in July and August, so I hope I'm not the only one posting these later in the month than normal. I'll be skipping the Greek panzanella salad (chosen by Tara of Smells Like Home). Sorry, Tara!

Orange Blueberry Muffins with Pecan Crumble

These muffins, selected by Chaya of My Sweet and Savory, sound perfect for a Mother's Day breakfast treat. I was cautious about making them as the Sweet Melissa Sundays P&Q had numerous comments from bakers who found them dense, dry, doughy and heavy, not good qualities for a muffin. I was making 1/4th of the recipe and I was determined that my muffins would be moist and light. Here's how I did it.

First of all, I decided that I would have to increase the moisture by the use of additional fat so that all of the flour would be adequately hydrated. To do this, I increased the butter and used all heavy cream (the recipe combines heavy cream and milk).

As blueberries are not in season yet, I used Trader Joe's frozen wild blueberries. They'd been in the freezer for several months and had a lot of ice crystals so I did something you're not supposed to do...I rinsed and dried my berries. I didn't want purple muffins and they were definitely going to be purple with all those ice crystals. I also used additional orange zest to boost the orange flavor.

The comments I read said that the pecan crumble really makes these muffins and I couldn't agree more. I doubled the amount of crumble for the number of muffins I made, and it made them even more delicious.

My muffins ended up moist and tender. The crumble gave them a great nutty flavor boost and terrific crunch. We enjoyed these a lot, and I'll definitely make them again because of the wonderful taste. And I'll be adding the pecan crumble to other muffins and baked goods...it's a keeper.

If you'd like the original recipe, you can find it here. Thanks, Chaya, for hosting us this week and choosing such a terrific recipe!

Orange Blueberry Muffins with Pecan Crumble (adapted from The Sweet Melissa Baking Book)

Printable recipe

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 Tbsp plus 1 tsp baking powder
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 tsp kosher salt
1/8 tsp freshly ground nutmeg
11 Tbsp unsalted butter, melted
1/3 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
2 large eggs, at room temperature
2/3 cup heavy cream, at room temperature
Freshly grated zest from 1 orange
1 cup fresh or frozen blueberries

Pecan Crumble
3/4 cups pecan pieces
3/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons all purpose flour
3/4 cup packed light brown sugar
3/4 teaspoon salt
8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter, melted and cooled slightly

Position a rack in the center of your oven. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line a standard 12-cup muffin tin with muffin papers (or butter and flour the cups or spray with nonstick vegetable cooking spray).

Make the pecan crumble:
In a large bowl, stir together the pecans, flour, brown sugar, salt, and nutmeg. Stir in melted butter. If mixture seems dry, add a little more melted butter. Set aside.

Make the muffins:
In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, granulated sugar, and salt. In a medium bowl, whisk together the melted butter, brown sugar, and eggs until smooth. Stir in the heavy cream.

Add the orange zest to the flour mixture and gently rub the mixture together with your fingers. Add the blueberries and gently combine. Pour the butter mixture over the dry ingredients and gently mix with a spoon until just combined. If the mixture seems dry, add additional heavy cream until it's the appropriate consistency for a muffin.

Divide the batter evenly among the prepared muffin cups, filling each cup until full and top with pecan crumble. Bake for 25-30 minutes, or until lightly golden and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Remove to a wire rack to cool.

Makes 12-14 muffins

TWD - Blueberry (and Candied Apple, and Chocolate Chip) Crumb Cakes

Yes, you read that right. This was the day I lost my mind.

First of all, I promise this won't be a marathon TWD post like last week's Yogurt Cake. Because, truly, I'm exhausted from this week's assignment. Oh, it's an easy cake to put together and all that. But when you're crazy like I am, and the voices in your head refuse to be silenced, it can get a little out of control. Especially when you decide to make all three versions you've been considering. On the same morning. On a weekday. Before work. Let's just say that even if I round down, I was still half an hour late for work.

My three ideas were Dorie's original blueberry, a vanilla bean version with chocolate chips, and one that I'm calling candy apple. I did almost all the prep work the night before, including making a triple batch of the crumb topping. I left the apple prep and making 3 batches of the batter for the morning. My plan was to caramelize the apples in a saute pan with butter and sugar. I have used this technique for apple pies since I read about it in the New York Times several years ago, and I love how the deeply browned apples absorb the cinnamon that is stirred in at the end. Pink Stripes had the same idea and offered it up in the P&Q.





I did the blueberry version first, and it looked like Smurf cake when I put it in the oven. I used frozen berries since fresh really aren't in season yet, and they colored the batter a lot. Mentally, I figured it was good I was making two other cakes since purple isn't the most appetizing color for a crumb cake. Then I sliced and sauteed the apples with butter and sugar and set them aside to cool. For the chocolate chip version, I added the contents of 1/2 a vanilla bean to the batter. I tossed the crumb topping on there and put it in the oven. Lastly, I added the cooled caramelized apples to the batter and put that in a pan, throwing all the remaining crumb mixture on top, smoothing it some and putting it in the oven.



During all of this, the crumb topping mix was sitting out on the counter.

The first cake baked uneventfully for 65 minutes before it tested done. It puffed up uniformly and the crumb topping browned beautifully. Success! When I was fetching it from the oven, I noticed the other two had butter slicks of varying sizes. Uh oh.

It took FOREVER for the chocolate chip version (which had been the second cake to go in the oven) to test done, and by that time, it was overdone. This was distressing, not just because I was late for work, but because the knife kept coming out with wet goo on it when I tested it. I realized that the crumb topping had somehow separated and the butter slick made it seem like the cake wasn't done even though it was. It was the butter slick that wasn't testing done.

We discussed the pool of butter problem on the P&Q, and we're still in the dark about why it happened. I thought leaving the crumb mixture out on the counter meant it wasn't cold enough to set properly, but Barbara took hers out of the fridge and put it on her cake and into the oven immediately, and she had a small pool of butter. So it's a mystery for all you food scientists out there.

After all the drama (less than last week, but still not uneventful), all three cakes were a hit. The chocolate chip version was in the oven for about 85 minutes, so its bottom was a little too brown, but it still got raves (I couldn't really taste the vanilla, so maybe I need to add more). The blueberry was the first to disappear, and the purple color didn't show in the finished product (magic!). The apple was amazing, the caramelization adding both sweetness and bite to the meltingly tender apples. If you'd like to try this version, here's how you do the apples (they're also great on top of vanilla ice cream):

Caramelized apples (adapted from the New York Times)

5 Gala apples, cored, peeled, sliced lengthwise into 6 pieces, each piece sliced crosswise 1/4" thick
4 T butter
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

Melt the butter in a large skillet (not non-stick) over medium heat, then add the apples. Overcrowding the apples will keep them from browning properly. Sprinkle with the sugar and stir to distribute. Cook, stirring only occasionally, until the apples have taken on a deep caramel color. As the apples brown more, they require more attention. If they get a little sticky or the pan seems unusually hot, add a pat of butter. Once the apples are well-browned and tender, remove pan from the heat. Stir in cinnamon. Set aside to cool before adding to the batter.

To use these apples in Dorie's recipe, eliminate the extra 2 teaspoons of flour, the blueberries and the lemon zest. The cinnamon for the apples is in addition to what is called for in the cake.

We have Sihan of Fundamentally-Flawed to thank for this versatile and delicious recipe. Check out what the other TWD bakers did here. I can't wait to see how they interpreted Dorie's recipe!

It's all about the pie

Alan managed to get the appliances hooked up, the lights working, the plumbing...plumbed, and when I came home on Wednesday, he had cleared away the cardboard and drop cloths, vacuumed, cleaned the floors and hooked up an extension cord so I had outlets for the food processor, etc. With all visible signs of construction cleared away, the kitchen was breathtaking:

Unlike past years, I had done zero prep for my pie baking, because I wasn't sure it would happen. I got up early Thanksgiving morning and started  prepping:

The past few years, I have cut down on the number of pies I bake (I used to bake "extras" in case anyone wanted to take some home), so I was planning on four pies: apple, cherry, pecan and pumpkin. I'm not a fan of pumpkin pie, though I love pumpkin in other things, but I have grown to accept that others equate pumpkin pie with Thanksgiving to such an extent they may walk out if one isn't on the dessert table. 

I discovered that even though I had a special box labeled "PIES," it didn't hold nearly everything I needed for the pie process. So I made repeated visits to the pile of boxes in the living room to look for sauce pans, saute pans, my favorite rolling pin, etc. It was kinda like a treasure hunt, but one where the prize was something you already owned.

Now, I used to drag out a large piece of marble I bought for $40 twenty years ago at Williams-Sonoma (they now sell for $129!) With the granite countertops, this is no longer necessary. I rolled out the pie crusts (I'm partial to all butter, better flavor and not hard to work with) really quickly and with no sticking or tearing (thanks to Deb at Smitten Kitchen for her Pie Crust 103 post!) I use a technique from the cookbook "Baking with Jim Dodge." It calls for freezing the flour for 15 minutes, then adding the butter in large chunks and freezing for another 15 minutes. Then you roll the butter and flour together, creating long, wide layers of butter in the flour that create steam in the oven. It's that steam that makes the pie crust flaky. 

After the crusts were rolled out, I turned to the fillings, starting with the apple pie. I use a technique the New York Times ran a couple of years ago, namely, sautéing and caramelizing the apples with butter and sugar before they go in the pie crust. It does away with the domed crust with the cooked down apples, and the resulting need for thickeners to absorb the excess juice. I was going to link to the recipe but it isn't working. Sorry! After that one was in the oven, I quickly made the pecan pie (I replace the dark corn syrup with maple syrup, an idea from the same NYT article) and put it in the oven. The apple came out of the oven. That first pie coming out of the oven makes me so happy. Pies really don't take a super baker and they taste so much better than store bought.

The pecan smells amazing in the oven, which just makes me happier. After that one, I worked on the pumpkin and cherry at the same time.  Both are Cook's Illustrated recipes (the pumpkin can be found on their website and it and the cherry are in the New Best Recipe cookbook). The pumpkin calls for a little planning since you pour the filling into the hot (blind baked) pie crust. My pie crust shrank like crazy (I wonder if I shouldn't be baking this one in my favorite Pyrex pie plates??) The filling kinda ran over under the crust and burned on the bottom. Not a yummy smell (but fortunately it didn't set off the smoke detectors).

I wanted to give the cherry pie a lattice crust (not very practical when the day has practically evaporated and you're due, with pies, at your friend's house in 90 minutes). But I figured I could miss the appetizers and would be forgiven as long as I brought pie. So I made the lattice crust, tucked the cherry filling in the pie plate and sealed it up. It baked in about 55 minutes, but was VERY runny when I pulled it out of the oven. I took a couple of rushed photos before the trip to my friend Susan's house.

Susan LOVES LOVES LOVES Thanksgiving. She'll be the first to admit cooking is not her number one hobby, but for years she has cooked Thanksgiving dinner for all her friends and as many family members as she can convince to come to California. She had 16 for Thanksgiving this year, and her home is smallish. She plans carefully to accommodate the crowd, and she cooks this huge dinner in a microscopic kitchen. She allows others to bring side dishes, but she does the turkey, dressing, cranberry sauce, mashed potatoes and gravy, and she does a great job. My thing, in case you dozed off during my rambling account, is the pies, and I love not having to take my focus off of them to make an actual meal. I love that people try different ones, some have their favorites, and we have leftovers for a snack the next day. M loves pie, too, and every year he tells me this year's pies were the best ever, no really. So sweet.

The star of the pie evening was cherry, and the filling had firmed up and wasn't runny. It was a struggle to save a slice for the next day's snack. M doesn't like pumpkin pie either, so we snarfed down pecan, apple and cherry for dinner last night. Maybe my diet starts again on Monday...

If you've never made a pie, it's a skill worth learning. Find a recipe that speaks to you. That's how I felt about the Jim Dodge method. It made sense to me, and it's near impossible to overwork it (like I always did in the food processor or Kitchen Aid). And then buy a lot of unsalted butter, and start experimenting. Do it till you get it right. Practice rolling it out (you can do it on a wooden cutting board, or even a glass table). When you have a crust you feel good about, bake a flavor of pie you really like (if blueberry is your thing, do it!) You'll be more likely to do the trial and error if it's something you want to eat. Then get ready to wow your coworkers (or whoever you choose to share with), because a home made pie is like nothing you've ever tried.

On Friday, the kitchen reverted to being a construction zone. They repaired the area where there was no hardwood, and put the first layer of varnish on it. I can still use the oven and cooktop until Monday; after that, the whole kitchen will again be off limits. They'll be putting layers of varnish on the whole floor and it takes time to dry. I'm OK with it. I got to test drive it and loved how it worked and how it felt. I can be patient until it's done. My worst fears were unfounded: it bakes well and the layout works, so I can wait for it to be ready for its close up.