Wednesday, January 23, 2008

Muffinks

Well, I heard a call for Pear-Hazelnut muffins over here, so I'm pleased to bring you the recipe. The professor and his brother like "muffinks" and sometimes have them for "brekky." Our families all have their own languages, they teach you this in Grad School linguistics seminars, and the professor's family words have become mine. Imagine our surprise when we were in Australia a few years ago and discovered THIS! A whole nation with our word in use! ... but I digress.

I based my muffins on Mollie Katzen's pear ginger muffins in her book, Sunlight Cafe. Then I went wild and changed things and the recipe seems to work anyway. Good book, by the way. Here's the muffink recipe. It lacks metric measurements, but if you could look past that? It's good!!
Pear Hazelnut Muffins
Makes 12 pretty big muffinks

Preheat your oven to 375. Oil a standard muffin pan (one with 12 muffins) or just use muffin cups instead.

Combine the following, in no particular order. Believe me, it's not too sensitive, this recipe!
-2 finely chopped ripe pears, equaling about 1.5 to 2 cups pear. (use the peel for added fiber, or use canned pear if that's what's convenient. It's flex.)
-1 tablespoon lemon juice, put that on the pears chunks right away so they don't turn brown.
-2 cups all-purpose flour
-1/2 teaspoon salt
-1.5 teaspoons baking soda
-1/2 cup sugar
-2 teaspoons vanilla extract
-1/4 to 1/2 cup of chopped hazelnuts (amount is flexible)
-1/2 teaspoon Cinnamon, or Penzey's mixed baking spices if you have it (optional)
-1 cup milk (I used whole milk, but you can use buttermilk, yogurt, cream, soymilk, whatever, it all works)
-1 large egg
-1/2 cup olive oil (I suspect that 4 tablespoons melted butter, or 1/2 cup of veggie oil would also work fine)

Mix it all together so there are no big floury parts. Fill up each muffin cup until it is practically full.

Bake in the oven for 25 minutes, or until it's brown and a toothpick stuck into the middle of a muffink comes out clean. Remove muffins from the pan and let cool on a rack. Use restraint. Try not to eat too many of these muffinks at once. ----
Sadly, we got a new scale yesterday and I discovered I weigh several pounds more than before. Or as Harry says, "Don't look at me! It's embarrassing!" So, I am now on the limited muffins, walk up and down the staircase more often diet.
I have concluded, in part, that knitting while I was sick did not use up enough calories, so I am back to spinning again now that I'm better AND I move both arms and legs while doing it! Here's the pair of socks I whipped up while travelling. (Information on yarn in a previous post.) They are destined for someone who thought the colors were pretty, and who has smaller feet than I do, so I am not modelling..and no, it's not my feet that gained weight.
Thanks so much for all the fun comments you've left lately, (booby, hahaha, thanks for the laughs) and your kind words, Cheryl, it came at a very good time. Some days one needs an extra dose of nice, and it appears that for me, my pear hazelnut muffin consumption is now limited, so I'll have to depend on good comments!

10 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Doesn't everybody call it brekky?!

And my apologies for not laughing at your post, I did laugh, just didn't comment. And I told Neil the joke and he laughed too - so that's two more people :-)

I will be more vocal in future.

January 24, 2008 at 3:03 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Pretty socks!

January 24, 2008 at 11:13 AM  
Blogger SueJ said...

Do we speak the same language????? Brekky -yes but Muffin cups?????Penzey's mixed baking spices ????? Pear ginger muffins? I have got some measuring cups though & can do 'cup measurements' though it feels strange for anything other than dry ingrediants. Sounds good though although I had best not try them at the moment as I have a few 'winter weight' issues to deal with!!!!! Perhaps I can try one if we ever meet up for that cup of tea!

January 24, 2008 at 11:15 AM  
Blogger LucyS said...

I have a request that is unrelated to this post, but I couldn't figure out where else to put it--In the rating/comments section on Blog Catalog, I mistakenly put my real name in after I left a comment. I don't really want my name on the internet. Is there a way that you might be able to delete it? I would very much appreciate it. Thanks.

January 24, 2008 at 11:56 AM  
Blogger Joanne said...

Hi Soul and Substance--I have checked out your review (it was nice, thank you!) and don't have any way of deleting it. I imagine you might have that capability, but I do not. Also, I've googled your name since I found it on the review, and it is listed in several other places. I wouldn't worry about this...having your name on the internet is not, in itself, a very big deal. Sorry I couldn't be of more help.

January 24, 2008 at 1:03 PM  
Blogger Joanne said...

"Brekky -yes but Muffin cups?????Penzey's mixed baking spices ?????"

Mrs. J, muffin cups are maybe muffin tins in British English? Those paper liners can sometimes be used instead of the muffin tin. Gosh, maybe I should just use lots of links?!

Penzey's is a spice brand in the USA and they make some sort of baking spice my mother gave me and I'm trying to use up. Cinnamon will do just as well!

January 24, 2008 at 1:07 PM  
Blogger SueJ said...

Thank you for the translation! I love the diversifications that have developed between 'british english' and 'american english'! Facinating!

January 24, 2008 at 3:38 PM  
Blogger LucyS said...

Thanks for your message, Joanne. Blog Catalog took care of the name thing for me. I don't mind my name being "out there" professionally, but I am trying to keep a low profile for the rest of life. On another note, these muffins sound delicious and I can't wait to make them. I am also a knitter, would-be-spinner, would-be-llama-owner, many-time-dog-owner, and sometime-writer. I look forward to spending more time on your web site.

January 24, 2008 at 4:44 PM  
Blogger Taueret said...

this comment is guaranteed NOT to make your butt look big. I laughed at your joke, but I'm usually a drive-by blog reader, shy about commenting on strangers' blogs, even when I read them avidly. Maybe I will try to be less so in 2008!

January 25, 2008 at 12:39 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Yum. The recipe and the socks. Those are gorgeous!

January 25, 2008 at 3:48 PM  

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