French breakfast muffins

It's been approximately three months since my last post.  Life has just gotten in the way as it has a tendency of doing.  Change can be very hard to adapt to but it is worth it.  I am currently going through a divorce, and my life has changed significantly.  One thing I found is that divorce causes huge amounts of stress!  My appetite was gone and I was just floating through every day just trying to keep it all together.  I have always lived well within my means and money problems has never been a big issue in my life, suddenly it's all I think about.  I struggle every month to make the full mortgage payment and keep food in the house.  Of course I'm not completely alone.  My sister moved in which has been a big help, maybe not on the financial level too much (although she helps were she can) but on the emotional level.  If she were not in my house with me I would be left staring at a wall with no one to talk to.  Another big help has been my pups who give loads of unconditional love on a daily basis.  My huge bed is not so empty with one 90 lb dog and one 30 lb dog sleeping next to me every night.


Since the new year began, I have heard many people state that they are glad this last year is over and they have nothing good to say about it.  Looking back on my last year I see how I could easily keep with that atitude but I would not benefit from it, and I would be lying.  Even though I feel I've lost a family whom I adore and ended a relationship of almost five years I can still find many awesome things that happened to me this past year.
-I met Leo my little red heeler whose face could melt your heart
-I made the SWAT team...an acheivement I've been working on since I became a cop over three years ago
-I made many mistakes in the kitchen and learned from them haha
-I gave my kitchen a make-over with the help of my dad and got my dream stove!

I've also met many awesome people and developed a lot of freindships.  I look forward to this year and am curious how it will all turn out.  Here is to new beginings!  And without further ado....onto the food!

This recipe is brought to you by Betty Crocker who featured Merry Graham as the creator of this awesome recipe!

 French Breakfast Muffins

muffins:
1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup sugar
2 eggs
3/4 cup milk
2 cups unbleached flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
topping:
3/4 cup butter melted
3/4 cup sugar
1 1/2 tsp cinnamon


First pre heat your oven to 375 degrees F, if you have a convection oven.....which I do yay!!....pre heat to 350.

In a large bowl, beat 1.2 cup butter, 1./2 cup sugar,  the eggs and milk with an electric mixer on low speed.  I took this picture cause it looks like a face haha!

Your mixture will appear curdled..nasty!  This means you did it right don't worry about making a nice beautiful smooth mixture because that would be wrong.  I know it's hard to have a chunky mixture I had to use all my will power to not smash up all the butter and create a smooth mix.  Refrain my friends for the chemistry that makes up this yummy muffin requires the chunkiness!

Next throw in the rest of the ingredients...remember if you are in Utah or any other high altitude cut out a bit of your baking powder.  I put in about 1 1/4 tsp.  When mixing this don't use an electric mixture, use a spatula.  Mix until everything is moistened...don't over mix!

fill your muffin cups about 2/3 of the wall full.  The recipe calls for 18 but I was only able to make 15.  It is important to put a bit of water into each muffin cup that you do not fill.  This helps protect your muffin tin from getting damaged from the heat.
Cook for about 20-25 minutes.

After the muffins have cooled for about 5 minutes, carefully remove the paper muffin cup.  Set up your coating station.  Make the cinnamon sugar mixture and get a spoon to help with the coating.  Melt your butter and get a pastry brush...if you do not have a brush get a spoon to help cover the muffins with butter.

Coat each muffin with butter...do not soak just enough to allow the cinnamon sugar to stick to the muffin.

Shower the butter coated muffin with cinnamon sugar....make sure the whole muffin is completely coated to ensure cinnamon tastiness.

Serve warm.......but they are still super tasty cold :) LOVE!!!!

Cream puffs with vanilla and chocolate pastry cream

I mad these for my sister for her 18th bday.  Though they are a bit time consuming, they are really easy to make.  You can make the pastry cream ahead of time but I suggest making your choux pastry the day ahead because pastry always tastes better the fresher it is.  I made two different kinds and then garnished the chocolate ones with melted chocolate so I could tell the difference between the two.  The recipe below will make more than enough pastry cream, and you will probably have a little bit left over.  I think it is better to have more than less so you don't feel like you have to ration the amount of cream you are putting into these puffs.  With cream puffs, the more cream the better I say!
I got this recipe out of a book called "The Golden Book of Desserts" edited by Ann McRae.
Choux pastry
1 Cup water
1/3 cup butter
1 cup unbleached flour
2 tsp sugar
1/4 tsp salt
4 large eggs

Vanilla Pastry cream
5 large egg yolks
3/4 cup sugar
2 tbsp corn starch
pinch of salt
2 cups milk
2 tsp vanilla

Chocolate pastry cream
5 large egg yolks
3/4 cups sugar
2 tbsp corn starch
pinch of salt
2 cups milk
2 tsp vanilla
5 oz of chocolate

First make the pastry cream.  Beat the egg yolks until the are pale and creamy.  Next add the corn starch and salt, beat until completely mixed and set aside.  In a sauce pan bring the milk to a boil on a medium heat occasionally stirring.  When the milk is boiling slowly pour it into your egg mixture and stir.  Return everything to the stove and cook on low heat continuously stirring with a wooden spoon.  If you are unable to break up the lumps that form use a whisk.  Boil for a full minute or until mixture has thickened.  Remove from the heat and add the vanilla.

When you are done place in a bowl and cover with plastic wrap.  gently push the plastic down until it is touching the top of the cream, this will prevent a skin from forming as it cools.  To make the chocolate cream, follow every step except for add the chocolate to the milk as you are bring it to a boil.  When the milk is boiling and all of the chocolate has melted add it to your egg mixture.  Allow both creams to cool on the counter top for about half an hour.  Place in the refrigerator until you are ready to use it.

For the Choux pastry, preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.  In a saucepan bring the water and the butter to a boil on low heat.  Make sure you don't cook it to long or on a high heat otherwise your butter will brown.  Will the butter is heating up combine the sugar, flour, and salt in a small bowl.  When your butter mixture is boiling, add the flour mixture to it stirring constantly until it comes away from the sides of the pan and starts looking like a soft dough.  Remove from heat, and let cool for five minutes.

Beat the eggs in one at a time.  When you are done the mixture will be a sticky glossy dough.

Fit your pastry bag with a plain nozzle and fill it up half way with the choux pastry.

On pastry lined baking sheets pipe walnut sized balls about about 2 inches apart.  Place in the oven   Bake for about 20- 25 minutes or until golden brown.  When done poke with a skewer or a small knife on the bottem of each puff to release steam.  Turn your oven off and leave it slightly ajar with the pastries still inside for about 15 minutes, then transfer them to a rack.  Turn the oven back on, when it is back to 350 degrees F, place your second batch in.  This is the most time consuming part!

 

Wait until your pastries are completely cool until moving on to the next part.  Fit a pastry bag with a small plain tip and fill half way with either the chocolate cream.  Using the holes you made earlier to realease steam, fill half of the puffs with the chocolate cream.  Do the same with the other half and the vanilla cream.  Garnish with powdered sugar, melted chocolate, and whipped cream.  I made these for seven people and they were gone withing a couple of minutes.  Even though we each had enough we could have eaten more.  I would say this recipe fully satisfies five people, the recipe makes forty small cream puffs so that would be eight per person.  This seems like a lot but the are so light and creamy that eight seems like a reasonable serving to me ha ha!

P.S. This was my attempt at a swan, it was a lot harder then I thought it would be!