Raspberries.

Blackberries.

Fresh lemon zest.

Packed into a light fluffy muffin flavored with cinnamon and nutmeg.

Interest you yet?  Made these fellas last night and I have to say they were pretty darn yummy.

Ingredients

• 2 1/2 Cups All Purpose Flour
• 2 Tbsp. Baking Powder
• 1 Tsp. Nutmeg
• 1 Tsp. Cinnamon
• 1 Tsp. Lemon zest
• 1/2 Tsp. Salt
• 4 Eggs
• 1 Cup Brown sugar
• 1 Cup Milk
• 1 Cup melted butter
• 1 Tbsp. Vanilla
• 1 Cup Raspberries, frozen or fresh
• 1 Cup blackberries, frozen or fresh
• 1/4 Cup White sugar

Method

1. Preheat oven to 400 F.  Light oil or butter the cups and top surface of a standard 12 – muffin pan
2. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, nutmeg and salt.  In a separate bowl add the eggs, brown sugar, milk, butter and vanilla.
3. Pour the wet into the dry mixture.  Stir together with a few quick strokes until a lump batter forms.
4. Add in the blackberries and raspberries
5. Spoon the mixture into the muffin cups and top with some white sugar.
6. Bake for 20-25 minutes or until golden brown and a toothpick comes out clean after insertion.
7. Rest on a rack for a few minutes.  Serve with butter and your favorite liquid.
8. ENJOY!

Zesty Tip: Beating a batter until a form of smoothness develops strong gluten in the flour.  This will cause your muffins to be tough.  By just applying a few strokes and leaving the batter lumpy, this will allow the muffins to be tender.

Have a super Wednesday.  I was just outside and the sun is blazing and the birds are chirping.  Come on spring – get over here.  Talk to you at the end of the week.

Take care

zesty

Download my Free Recipe Book: Simply Zesty

Middle of the week is here.  Can you believe it?  The basement renovation is coming along quite nicely with really no hiccups in sight.  Floor is almost completed and we are moving on to trimming out the windows and doors today.  Yesterday was a snow day around here with school cancelled and what better thing to do on a snow day than bake cookies.

Not just any cookies I might add, a chewy chocolate chip cookie.  I was perusing Jenna’s blog, Eat Live Run, and I came across her favorite chocolate chip cookie.  I quickly looked at one of my chewy chocolate chip cookie and compared the ingredients and thought…. Heck I am going to try hers.  There were a couple of slight variations that definitely warranted a test in the kitchen.  I knew the builders would eat the cookies so I would not  have to eat the whole batch.

The big difference that I noted was “DARK” brown sugar.  This created a complex deep sweetness and ensures the cookies stays soft and chewy.  It really does!

Ingredients

• 21/2 Cups all purpose flour
• 1 Tsp. baking soda
• 1 Tsp. sea salt
• 1 Tsp. vanilla extract
• 2 Cups packed dark brown sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 Cup butter, softened
• 1 bag semi-sweet chocolate chips

Method

1. Whisk together the flour, baking soda and salt. Set aside.
2. Cream together the butter and sugar. Add the eggs one at a time, beating after each one. Add the vanilla and mix gently to combine.
3. Add the flour to the butter and mix.
4. Carefully stir in the chocolate chips.
5. Bake at 350 for about twelve minutes, or until golden.
6. ENJOY!

Zesty Tip:  Do not over cream the butter and sugar… there is no need as the cookie will smear all over the pan and you will make pancakes.

Alright, so the end results were astonishing.  I am not sure if I ever baked a better chocolate chip cookie before.  My hat goes off to Jenna for sharing this recipe and forcing me to buy dark brown sugar.  These are a definite keeper.  A slight variation if you were so adventurous would be to toss in a bag of dark chocolate chips and you could almost call them healthy.

Have an awesome Wednesday.  Stay tuned for some basement pics in the coming week.

Take care

zesty

Download my Free Recipe Book: Simply Zesty

Happy Friday! I was thinking about what to write about today last night and debating whether to go sweet tooth or savory, tell you more about my life (winks), maybe do a how-to post, or maybe even shoot a video. After much contemplation ( about 45 seconds), I thought I would go with a sweet treat but very much a winter sweet treat.

I want to share with you one of my favorite soft chewy molasses cookies. As I have mentioned before, I love soft and chewy cookies similar to the chewy chocolate chip cookies and white macadamia nut cookies. However, I also love MOLASSES and everything about it.

These molasses cookies have a soft chewy texture. When nobody is looking I may also put a little butter on the underside of the cookie.  I love that!

These take no time to make and use pretty generic baking ingredients. They are also very easy to flip to Vegan cookies as well.

Ingredients

• 3/4 Cup butter
• 1 Cup packed brown sugar
• 1 Large egg
• 1/2 Cup molasses
• 2 1/2 Cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 Tsp. salt
• 2 Tsp. baking soda
• 1 Tsp. ground cinnamon
• 1 Tsp. ground ginger
• 1 Tsp. allspice
• 1 Tsp. nutmeg

Method

1. Preheat oven to 350°.
2. Cream together butter and brown sugar.
3. Add egg and molasses and mix well.
4. Fold in dry ingredients and mix thoroughly.
5. Cover and chill for about an hour to firm up the batter.
6. Take small amounts of dough and roll them in your hand to form small balls.
7. Place on lightly greased cookie sheet.
8. Bake at 350° for 9-10 minutes.
9. Leave on sheet one minute until set.
10. Cool on rack.

1. ENJOY!

Zesty Tip: when baking cookies in large batches, keep the dough chilled in between batches. To store soft chewy cookies, I keep them in a container with a lid to prevent them from drying out. You can also add a slice of apple in the container to keep them moist.

Have a great weekend and I will see you all on Monday!

Take care

zesty

Download my Free Recipe Book: Simply Zesty