Addicted to food blogs & blogging, that’s what I am! Try it & I’m sure you’ll have one happy family, happy in the foodie way anyway. They might whinge at the amount of time you spend on the net, but ‘up’ always comes with ‘down’, somewhat like yin-yang! I often strive to balance it, & bring in some sort of harmony! Foodie blogs are a-bursting with good food & good ideas. Never at a loss of ideas as to what to make, there are temptations that are doable some of the time; at other times, there’s plenty of eye candy. The good thing behind all this is the personal touch; the feeling that you know the person behind the blog, & can touch base at the drop of a line! YAY for BLOGGING!!One such stopover at Peabody’sCulinary Concoctions had me hook, line & sinker. She made the most delicious looking Coffee Cake Cupcakes , frosted beautifully, & I dreamt of them all night. The idea was brilliant!The first thing the next morning, waved goodbye to the kids, & headed off to chop walnuts! Many happy moments later, these muffins were born! Made them from this Streusel Coffee Cake I had posted AGES ago, adapted from the ‘Joy of Baking‘. The only thing I left out was the orange rind, because I didn’t have an orange on hand. Frosted them with a Caramelized Brown Butter Frosting, recipe from an earlier DB challenge … a recipe I have come to love & use more often than I really should. The ease of this frosting, & the speed at which it gets whipped up continues to win me over! The original recipe was a Shuna Fish Lydon @ Eggbeaters, one which was part of a DB challenge for her signature Caramel Cake some time ago! The original frosting was a tad TOO sweet, & I’ve learnt to play around with the ingredients on this one. The sea salt tends to cut the sweetness.It has a great flavour, unique in it’s own delicious way, & I am always happy to use some caramel which is still stored in my fridge. Very handy indeed (the recipe can be found in this post here). I eyeball the amounts for the frosting, generally throwing in a bit of each & tasting it as I go along.
I got 12 regular sized coffee cake muffins & 2 mini bundt cakes out of this batter Ingredients: 1 ¾ cups Flour 1 tsp Baking powder
½ tsp Baking soda 3/4 cup Butter 2/3 cup Sugar (theoriginal recipe has 3/4 cup) 2 Eggs ; large 1 tsp Vanilla Extract
4 tbsp Yogurt; thick
2 tbsp Cream (25% fat) Juice of ½ lime Streusel: 1 tbsp Flour
¼ cup Brown sugar
½ cup Toasted walnuts
½ cup Chocolate chips Method:
Line the muffin tray. (Grease & flour the tray if you are not using muffin liners) . Preheat the oven to 180 degrees C.
Prepare the streusel by mixing the 1 tbsp of flour + brown sugar + toasted walnuts + chocolate chips in a bowl. Divide into 2 bowls & set aside.
Stir together the flour + baking powder + baking soda in a bowl. Mix the yogurt + cream + lime juice in a small bowl. (You can use sour cream instead)
Beat the butter + sugar until light, followed by the eggs, beaten in 1 by 1, & then the extract.
Beat in the 1/3 of the flour mixture; then 1/3 of the yogurt/cream mixture. Repeat twice & beat until just mixed in properly.
Fill a 1/4 of the muffin cup, sprinkle with 1 tbsp of streusel mix, top with more batter & sprinkle streusel mix over the top again.
Bake for approximately 20 minutes / till done.
Serve warm as they are because they taste wonderful…OR top with this delectable brown butter caramel frosting once cooled, & enjoy!
Did I tell you this frosting was positivelyA D D I C T I V E? Try it at your own risk!! BROWN BUTTER CARAMEL FROSTING Adapted from the Daring Bakers challenge here Ingredients: 1/2 cup browned butter (I use clarified butter or ghee) ; at room temperature/soft 1/4 cup cream (25% fat) 1/2 cup – 3/4 cup powdered sugar 2 Tbsp caramel syrup Pinch of sea salt Method:
Beat them all together until thick. Adjust for sweetness. Pipe onto muffins!
