Browned Butter Blueberry Muffins (w/ Dewberries!)

Dewberries are everywhere in East Texas. I know I've already blogged about them once, but I'm a little obsessed. They're delicious and I feel kind of like Laura Ingalls Wilder when I bake with them. Living off the fruit of the land...literally. Anyways, this is Joy's recipe. I don't actually know Joy, but after reading her blog, you feel like you are on a first name basis. She's great...and so are her recipes.

The only problem I have here is that my camera battery died, and being the almost-college graduate that I am, left the charger in Lubbock when I went home. My mom has a great camera, but she left it in her classroom the day I baked these. I'm sure you are like, "Nobody cares, just get to the muffins please" but I figured I should explain why I only have one picture. If you get a hankerin' for muffins, bake these. You can of course use blueberries, but if you live anywhere in the South you can probably find dewberries growing on the side of the road. :) Just make sure you wash them first.

Here's what you'll need:

7 Tablespoons unsalted butter


1/3 cup whole milk (I used 2%)
1 large egg

1 large egg yolk (just crack it open slightly and let all the white filter out. You can pass the yolk back and forth between the two sides of the egg shell until all of it's gone.)

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

3/4 cup sugar

1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

3/4 teaspoon salt
2 cups fresh blueberries (I used one cup of dewberries)


For the Topping

3 Tablespoons cold, unsalted butter, cut into 1/2-inch cubes

1/2 cup all-purpose flour

3 1/2 tablespoons sugar

Put your oven rack on the top third of your oven. This will ensure that your muffins have that delicious-slightly crunchy top. Preheat oven to 375.
Melt your butter in a small saucepan on medium heat. It will crackle for a while. It isn't ready until the bottom of the pan turns slightly brown and the crackling slows. Remove from the heat before it burns.
Whisk your milk, eggs, and vanilla until combined. Add the "brown" butter.
In another bowl, whisk the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt. Add the milk/ butter mixture all at once and stir until combined.
Fold in your blueberries/dewberries. Since dewberries are pretty fragile, they might be a little runny. Don't worry too much about it. Just make sure your batter is stirred well enough.
Line your muffin tin with liners. Spread the batter evenly.
For the topping, just combine the above ingredients with your hands You'll have to get a little messy! Sprinkle the topping on the muffins.
Bake your muffins for about 18 minutes. Use a toothpick to see if they're ready.

I don't know if you can tell from the pictures, but I had to make these using Christmas liners. It was all we had in the pantry, and I was too lazy to go to the store. haha Merry Christmas.

Homeade Pizza

I love pizza. Any kind. Frozen, fresh, cold, hot. LOVE it. The only kind of pizza I detest is the kind they make it Italy. That is only because I know Haleigh and Amy are eating pizza there and it's so scrumptious, but alas, I cannot have any.
If you were mad at my use of a Jiffy mix in my last post- just close the page. Because I used the Jiffy pizza crust mix. It was DELICIOUS! Not too crunchy, not too soft. Just right.


Here's the cast. You can use whatever toppings you want, but I love mushrooms and olives. I chopped up two cloves of fresh garlic and put that on top too.


First chop/slice your toppings if you need to. One thing I learned about mushrooms while making this. Slice them as shown in my picture. I'm sure to most this is a no-brainer, but they are much prettier this way.


Here's my dough. Sorry the picture is bad. To make the dough all you do is add hot water to the mix. I added oregano and garlic powder. It made the dough very flavorful.


The next step on the box was to "cover the dough and let sit for 5 minutes." They recommended the temperature be 85 degrees. That's why it's in my window sill. I didn't know where else to put it. haha


After it sits, knead it a couple times (it's so soft and fluffy!) and spread it into a greased cookie sheet. I spread my pesto, my sauce, my toppings and finally my cheese.


Toppings. A note about my olives. I accidentally bought the chopped kind but I would use sliced if i did it again.


Cheese.


Bake it for about 20 minutes (depending on your oven) at 450. I let mine go a little too long, but I like it to be pretty crunchy. I also added a tiny bit of fresh parmesan to the top for a little extra crunch.


Enjoy. :)

Jiffy Golden Yellow Cake Mix review/ Cupcakes

Even though I'm usually skeptical about trying new brands, Jiffy is definately a brand I trust. Since I was a wee little girl, my mom has been using their Apple Cinnamon muffin mix to make pancakes. They are SOOO heavenly and so easy. I've also made their blueberry muffins and of course (surprise, surprise) their cornbread mix. I promised my next door neighbors some delicious goodies, so I decided to make yellow cupcakes with chocolate frosting.

Jiffy makes delicious mixes but the BEST thing about is how cheap it is! This yellow cake mix costs 54 cents. You can't even buy a pack of gum for 54 cents!



I didn't take any step-by-step pictures, because the instructions on the box are pretty self-explanatory. It makes 12 cupcakes.



For the chocolate frosting I used a recipe I found in a Pillsbury cookbook we have in our apartment.

Chocolate Buttercream Frosting
from the "Pillsbury Complete cookbook"

-1/3 c unsweetened cocoa (or 2 oz unsweetened choc.) added to 2/3 c butter (softened)
-4 c powdered sugar
-1 tsp vanilla
- 2-4 tbsp half&half or milk (I used milk)

Mix the cocoa and butter until light and fluffy. Gradually add powdered sugar, beating well. (This takes awhile- be patient.)
Beat in the vanilla and enough half&half or milk until it's your desired consistency. Use a butter knife (my preference at least) and spread over cooled cupcakes.






And another thing- when you go next door to deliver your cupcakes, do not leave leftover frosting unattended. Your roommate and her boyfriend will not be able to resist covering their faces in it. :)

Branching Out

My roommates have bought snacks that are the World Table brand made by Wal-mart before. It takes a lot for me to branch out and try something new because I'm afraid I won't like it. But you see, I've been going through this cornbread phase. I made homeade cornbread to go with the chili I made on one of our snow days, and am still obsessed with it. It's like a pregnant woman type obsession. Except I'm not pregnant. I LOVE CORNBREAD.

Anyways, I decided to try the World Table "Cornbread Squares" and much to my DE-LIGHT they were DE-LICIOUS!  I can't stop eating them...and with 130 calories in 16 pieces, they aren't a bad snack to munch on.

So- if you are stocking up on yummy winter comfort foods in the next few days I highly recommend Cornbread Squares. They were on the aisle with all the crackers and cookies. :)

For Amy and Haleigh

Amy and Haleigh miss me so much in Italy that they have asked me to post "personal" entries every now and then about what's been going on in the good 'ol LBK. I'll just mix these in with my other posts. If anyone is upset with this slight change.......you can just get over it.

Anyways, classes of course have begun and it's back to the grind. Most of my classes are pretty boring..err..I mean GREAT. The other day in my public policy class our professor asked if anyone had done anything fun the night before (a Wednesday night I might add) and a young man from the very back pipes back, "I'm still drunk from the night before!...I thought you had to chug everclear?" Professor: "No, you really don't." It was entertaining to say the least. I'm still curious to know how he is hasn't been kicked out of the university.

Let's see..what else has been going on? I went to Snyder last weekend to lead a DNow for FBC Snyder. Chelsea went too and we had a lot of fun. I had the freshmen girls and when they found out I had a brother who was also a freshman, they freaked. It was so funny. The whole weekend I just kept remembering when I was that age and the things that were important to me. Who liked who, who broke up with who, which guy was the cutest in the school, etc. The speaker was a guy named Chris Body from (drum roll please).... PINE COVE!!! Do you know him Haleigh?

I haven't been going to basketball games, but even though we stink, we are getting better! We should still fire Pat Knight of course. Oh, and we are getting some pretty cool football recruits for next year. Our new DC is from TCU. Sounds pretty legit.

I'm getting a new car at Spring Break! The next time you see me, the Impala will be no more. It will be sad, but at least there will be no more mysterious clicking noise, dead batteries, ghetto-fabulous-ness, lack of drink holders in the back...did I miss something??!! haha.

Sorry this was so long. I just miss ya'll and wanted to keep you updated on life in the South Plains. haa. Love you girls and hope you are having a splendid time in Firenze.

Snickerdoodle Cupcakes

Last Thanksgiving break I went home from school and decided I wanted to bake something. We didn't have a lot of ingredients to work with in the pantry, so I decided I would make some "snickerdoodle cupcakes" Haleigh had brought over one time. I found a delicious recipe over at Bakerella, and whipped them up. These really don't take very many ingredients that you don't already have, so keep them in mind next time you need a dessert. They weren't fancy, just cinnamon-y and cream cheese-y, but my ten year old brother must've loved them. This past Thanksgiving, a year later, I called and asked him what he wanted me to bake him. Out of every chocolate chip/brownie/fudge dessert out there, he asked for these cupcakes. Everybody in my family actually likes them too, so give 'em a try!

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour


1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons cinnamon

1/2 cup unsalted butter, room temp.

1 cup sugar

2 eggs, room temp.

1 teaspoon vanilla

3/4 cup milk, room temp.


Preheat your oven to 350. Mix together your dry ingredients (flour, baking pwdr, cinnamon) and set it aside.



With a mixer, cream your butter and sugar.


Add eggs, one at a time. Then, add your vanilla until everything is combined.


Add your dry mix to your wet mix in 3 parts. In between that, add your milk in two parts. Here's how it goes: dry, milk, dry, milk, dry.



Line a muffin tin with liners and fill 3/4 full.
**NOTE**: I used paper liners. That was a BAD idea. See how funky they look? Use ALUMINUM ones, and they'll be much prettier.



Bake for 15-20 minutes, or until they're slightly golden on top.


Bakerella actually got her recipe from Martha Stewart, who frosted these cupcakes with a meringue type frosting. I decided a cream cheese frosting would taste better. This is what I came up with. It's a combo of ideas I found on the web and my own tastes.

8 oz of cream cheese- soft
1/2 stick of butter at room temp
1 tsp vanilla
1 1/2-2 tsp cinnamon ( I like a lot of cinnamon)
2 1/2 c powdered sugar (more or less depending on how thick you want it)
First mix your cream cheese and butter. Then add vanilla and cinnamon and finally the powdered sugar.





I scooped all my frosting and put it in a plastic sandwhich bag. If you cut a small hole in the corner you can pipe it on the cupcakes really easily.

It's just me for awhile

It was really hard for Amy and I to cook together last semester since we didn't live together. And the times we did cook together, I usually forgot my camera or forgot to snap pictures.

But now, we are going to be separated by more than a few blocks.
Amy is going to study abroad in ITALY! If you're jealous, it's OK. I'm jealous too.

Even though I've been the main blogger, Amy will for real not be around this semester.
I hope you're OK being stuck with little ol' me.

Classes have started back up and hopefully I'll be around more often!