Tag Archives: Recipes

Light & Fluffy Blueberry Muffins

This breakfast delight is another recipe from Kelsey Banfield’s book “The Naptime Chef: fitting great food into family life.” I’m not usually inclined to bake, but the indulgence of eating muffins for breakfast (kind of like dessert, in my book) was too powerful a call for me to resist.

And I can never say the word ‘fluffy’ without quoting from one of my favorite sources of funniness. Fluffity puffity sugar delights! Hand-puffed at the factory in Newconsin!

(I hate Marshie. But I love to hate him.)

I thought about calling these Fluffity Puffity Blueberry Muffins.

Or Perschmuffity Muffities.

But then I went for the more standard “light and fluffy.” It’s the Voice of Reason triumphing over silliness, and I can’t decide if the victory went to the right party in this matter.

Now I have recipe namer’s remorse . . . but thankfully I can take that out on my baby by giving her one of what will be many ridiculous nicknames.

Hi there little Pershmuffity Muffity!

You talkin’ to me?

Yes, Alice. You’re a hand-puffed sugar delight.

Noooooooo!

Wait Alice! Wait! That’s a good thing in my book! I love puffed babies! I love rolls and thighs and double chins! Now enough of this crying–can I get a hoo-rah hee-rah hubbah hubbah YAY!?

And can I have permission to squeeze every inch of baby roll I can find?

Okay . . . have at it, lady.

Why thank you. I believe I’ll start with these deliciously fat little feet.

I’ll proceed with kissing those dimples . . .

. . . and we can finish it out by a million kisses under your chinny-chin-chin.

Babies, muffins–they both cry out to be chomped.

So whip up a batch and chomp away, my friends.

Ingredients

(Makes 12 muffins)

2 cups all-purpose flour
¼ cup + 2 TBS sugar
½ tsp salt
4 tsp baking powder
Zest from 1 lemon
4 oz (1 stick) butter, chilled
1 large egg
¾ cup whole milk
1 ½ cups fresh blueberries

1. Heat oven to 425 F and prepare a muffin pan by buttering it, spraying it with baking spray, or lining it with paper liners.

2. Mix together flour, sugar, salt, baking powder and zest.

3. Cut the butter into small cubes and incorporate it into the dry ingredients using a pastry knife, until the mixture has the consistency of small pebbles.

4. Separately, whisk together the milk and egg; stir them into the dry ingredients. The batter will be very lumpy.

5. Gently fold in the blueberries with a spatula, taking care not to smash them.

6. Distribute the batter evenly into the 12 muffin cups.

7. Bake for 15-17 minutes, rotating the pan halfway through. The muffins are done when the tops are turning golden and have a little spring on top when touched. Serve hot!

And then tear them apart with your bare hands. That fluffiness has no business being anywhere but your mouth. Now.

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Perfect Pizza Dough

The quest for perfect homemade pizza dough–I thought–was over. Through a great recipe my sister Erica found on a food blog, I was under the impression that we had arrived. I posted the recipe here and called it a day. And then, Christmas happened . . . and I discovered that I couldn’t have been more wrong.

With all three of us girls staying at my parents’ house, spouses and children included, the burden of cooking couldn’t fall only on Mom and Dad. So just like we’ve done in family vacations past, we distributed days and each couple took a few turns at the stove. Erica and Dave announced that they were making pizza using a new recipe that Erica had discovered here, and folks, this pizza crust blew the other one far, far away. This pizza crust is hereby declared the Winner of Winners.

Erica and Dave are also declared the Winners of Winners.

The crust is chewy and bubbly and perfect. Here it is uncooked . . .

. . . and here it is after about 12 minutes on the pizza stone.

It has to be prepped the day before because it hangs out and rises for 18 hours. But don’t be intimidated by that! It rises all by its lonesome with no effort from you, and the results are so spectacular that even if it did require babysitting during its lengthy rising time, it would still be worth it.

(Speaking of babysitting, time to insert a random picture of me and Alice.)

Top that there with pepperoni if you have a pepperoni-obsessed husband like I do . . .

. . . or spread a thin layer of Boursin over the dough instead of tomato sauce, and toss on some ham and asparagus for a pizza that sends me to the moon.

I will now show you the lore of this genius who crafted the recipe. Jim Lahey, I owe you big time for sharing this with the world.

Ingredients

(Makes 6 pizzas)

7 ½ cups all-purpose flour
4 tsp salt
½ tsp active dry yeast
3 cups water

Making the dough

  1. Whisk together flour, salt and yeast. Stir with a wooden spoon and add 3 cups of water little by little.
  2. Mix dough with your hands and shape it into a rough ball. If the dough isn’t coming together, add 1 TBS of water at a time until it comes together.
  3. Put the ball of dough into a large clean bowl. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and let the dough rise for 18 hours at room temperature (about 72 F) in a draft free area. The dough should double in size and form tiny bubbles on the surface during this time.
  4. Lightly flour your work surface and dump the dough onto it. Shape it into a rough rectangle and divide it into 6 equal portions.
  5. Taking the portions one at a time, gather the 4 corners towards the center, creating a ball. Let the ball rest on your work surface seam-side down, dust the top with flour, and cover with a damp towel. Let all the portions rest in this way for 1 hour. (To make ahead: you can make the dough up to this point 3 days ahead. Wrap each portion of dough in plastic wrap and refrigerate. When ready to bake, unwrap the dough and let it rest at room temperature for 2-3 hours on a floured surface, covered with a damp towel.)

Making the pizzas

  1. When the dough has 1 hour of rest remaining, preheat a pizza stone in the oven at 450 F in the upper third of the oven. (If you’re using a baking sheet, keep the rack in the middle of the oven and don’t preheat the sheet).
  2. Taking the first portion of dough, lift the dough off the work surface and gently stretch it with your fingers into a 10-12’’ disk, moving the dough through your hands in a circular fashion and letting gravity help stretch it. Take care not to squash the air bubbles inside.

Here’s how I do it, gently pushing the air bubbles towards the edge of the circle:

 

    3. Place the dough on a sheet of parchment paper and gently stretch it a little further. Add desired toppings. (Note: don’t load it down too heavily—light on the toppings makes for a much better pizza.

    4. Slide the pizza still on the parchment paper onto the pizza stone or baking sheet and cook for 10-12 minutes, until dough is thoroughly baked and the cheese is bubbly. Remove from the oven, cut and serve!
    5. Let the pizza stone reheat for a few minutes between pizzas, and repeat with remaining portions of dough.

    Guys, if pizza even remotely appeals to you, you’ve got to try this one! Seriously. Jimmy-boy done did good.

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