Blueberries and Cream Muffins

To start it off these muffins have the perfect amount of blueberries. There is also an extra citrus snap that keeps them interesting and flavorful.

The texture is so so light and moist and so it falls apart in your mouth effortlessly. I know there is nothing worse then eating a dry muffin, but these are so far from dry while still being a muffin, its unbelievable. 

Adapted from S.O. Corriher’s BakeWise: the Hows and Whys of Successful Baking Yield: (makes 12 medium (2 3/4 x 1 1/8 inch/7 x 2.8 cm) muffins)

Ingredients

2 cups (8.8 oz/249 g) spooned and leveled bleached all-purpose flour

2 teaspoons (9g) baking powder

1/2 teaspoon (3g) salt

1 1/4 cups (12.3 oz/349 g) sugar

1 large egg (1.75 oz/50g)

1/2 cup (118 ml) canola oil

1/3 cup (79 ml) buttermilk

2 teaspoon (5ml) pure vanilla extract

2 teaspoon (5 ml) lemon zest (grated peel)

1/2 cup minus 2 tablespoons (118 ml) heavy cream

1 1/2 cups (7.4 oz/208 g) fresh blueberries

nonstick cooking spray

1/4 cup (1.8 oz/52 g) coarse sugar or granulated sugar, for topping

 Directions

Arrange a shelf in the lower third of the oven, place a baking stone on it, and preheat the oven to 425°F/218°C.

In a large mixing bowl, beat together the flour, baking powder, salt and sugar for a full 30 seconds

In a medium mixing bowl, beat the egg with a few strokes, then beat in the oil, buttermilk, vanilla and lemon zest

Make a well in the dry ingredients and pour in the wet ingredients. Beat together with a hand mixer or by hand. Stir or beat well. This batter is almost too tender, so do not hesitate to stir vigorously.

In a cold bowl with cold beaters, whip the cream until soft peaks form when the beater is lifted. Beat just a little beyond this soft peak stage. Stir about one-quarter of the whipped cream in to lighten the batter. Then, fold the rest of the whipped cream into the batter. Fold the blueberries into the batter.

Spray two 6-cup medium (2 3/4 x 1 1/8 inch/7 x 2.8 cm) muffin pans with nonstick cooking spray.

Fill muffin pans almost to the top. Sprinkle the muffins with coarse sugar. Turn the oven down to 400°F/204°C and leave the oven door open for about 10 seconds. 

Place pans in the oven on the stone and close the oven door. Bake until well-risen and lightly browned, about 20 minutes.

Cool the muffins in the pans for about 5 minutes. Jar the edges of the pans on the counter to loosen the muffins, and carefully remove them to a cooling rack.

Homemade Oreos

I'm obsessed with Oreos! When I was little I would get in trouble for eating a whole box in a sitting- my family still makes fun of me for it. Baking them homemade makes them even that that much better!

The texture of the filling of these is scary similar to the real deal- it is so vanillay, sweet, and thick. These cookies are slightly more chewy than Oreos which is actually a good thing. I think the key to the recipe is finding the right ratio between filling and cookie.

(Adapted from Martha Stewart Holiday Baking 2002, Special Issue Holiday 2002)

Yield-Makes about 30

Ingredients

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

3/4 cup Dutch-process cocoa powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon baking powder

1 1/2 cups sugar, plus more for flattening cookies

10 tablespoons (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature

1 large egg, room temperature 

Vanilla Cream Filling (recipe below)

Directions

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Into a medium-size bowl, sift together flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder, and salt; set aside.

In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream sugar and butter until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Add egg; beat to combine. With mixer on low speed, gradually add the flour mixture; continue beating until dough is well combined.

Roll out the dough until a 1/4-inch thick. Use a 3-inch cookie cutter and cut as many circles as possible. spread the circles at least 2 inches apart on the baking sheet. 

Transfer to oven, and bake until cookies are firm, about 10 to 12 minutes, rotating baking sheets halfway through. Transfer baking sheets to wire racks to cool completely.

Place cream filling in a pastry bag fitted with a coupler(or use a plastic bag and cut small opening on the corner to squeeze out the icing), and pipe about 1 tablespoon filling onto the flat side of half the cookies. Place remaining cookies on top, and gently press on each to squeeze filling to edges. Filled cookies can be stored in airtight containers at room temperature up to 2 days.

Vanilla Cream Filling

Yield
-Makes about 1 cup

 Ingredients

1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature

1/2 cup solid vegetable shortening

3 1/2 cups confectioners' sugar

2 tablespoon pure vanilla extract

1/2 tablespoon salt

Directions 

In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream butter and shortening until well combined. With mixer on low speed, gradually add the confectioners' sugar, and continue beating until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Add the vanilla and salt, and beat to combine. Set aside at room temperature until ready to use.

Biscoff Spread (Cookie Spread)

 I’ve been starting to see it more and more in the spread isle of grocery stores. It’s practically a joke it’s so good.

It’s one of those things where it’s almost too obviously going to be good it’s not even worth trying (like the cookie dough brownies I made over spring break). I mean come on its crushed up cookies turned into a spread in a jar. It doesn’t get better than that… you might as well call it cookie dough.

Spread it on a banana or on a piece of toast or do what I do and just grab a spoon and dive in. 

The Best Thin and Crunchy Chocolate Chip Cookies "Belly Buttons"

“Belly Button Cookies” from Stahls Bakery in New Baltimore, Michigan are the only non-chewy cookies I crave. 

They are right up there with Toms Moms Cookies and I would pass up a regular chewy cookie for a Belly Button any day. These cookies are thin as a crisp and at the same time melt in your mouth buttery.

 So thin you can break them between your fingers, while small chunks of walnuts and semisweet chocolate add body and a change of texture in every bite. 

If you think you're only a thick and chewy cookie person you've never had a “Belly Button.”  http://store.stahlsbakery.com/index.html

The Best Thick and Chewy (Store bought) Cookies Ever

I'm not going to kid anyone... the best cookies are homemade cookies. There is something about whipping them up from scratch in your own kitchen and eating them right out of the oven that makes them incomparable to anything store bought. Tom's Mom's Cookies are the exception... they have the best thick and chewy cookies in the world.

They are cookie perfection at your finger tips. Tom's Mom's Cookies is an adorable tiny cookie shop located in the remote town of Harbor Springs, MI.

My personal favorite is their cinnamon sugar cookie because it so so moist, so chewy, and literally tastes like dough. Their "Originals" or chocolate chip cookies are the store's best seller. For these cookies they use huge semi-sweet chocolate chunks... the chocolate they use is so amazing you could eat a straight bar of it and be happy but when added to their perfect dough it is to die for!! I'm not a huge fan of oatmeal raisin cookies but my friends say that Tom's Mom's are the best and considering they eat them by the dozen I take their word for it. http://www.tomsmomscookies.com