And the first of our Cook the Book recipes this week from The Sweet Melissa Baking Book is for sweet muffins. And with the variations here, you'll have at least three ways of making these treats, which are ideal for a quick breakfast snack.
Photograph by Alan Richardson
I’m still in Paris (yay!) and while I saw brilliant yellow forsythia when I was at the Sunday market, and while there are a few cherry blossoms out in the gardens that get full sun, it’s been cold and rainy all week—we even had snow for two seconds and a couple of hail showers—which means I’m still making hearty soups and substantial stews, one of which, a daube of red wine and beef cheeks, is simmering in the oven now. Between the chill outside and the breeze that comes through my ancient window frames, I don’t think my friends will find it unwelcome.
The daube will be familiar to my Parisian pals, but its accompaniment won’t—I’m going to serve the stew with a basketful of corn muffins. Of course, I’ll have to use frozen corn, but I can find really good cornmeal here, so it will be fine. And I might add a few herbs and a little bacon to the mix (the bacon here is fabulous), just to make it more savory and because there’s bacon in the daube. The way I see it, adding bacon to the muffins is like pulling an outfit together by wearing a scarf that picks up the color of your shoes. And besides, what isn’t better with bacon?
Everyone loves an excuse to eat muffins, and the cleverest among us know it's all about the tops. So on Black Friday morning, when you're full but the extra cranberry sauce is staring you in the face, consider that excuse enough. They're leftover-efficient, so basically you're doing something good for the environment. Pat yourself on the back and bake these oaty cranberry guys, which come from chef Michael Harr of Butterfield 9 in Washington, D.C. Harr realizes that the gang won't quite be ready for Thanksgiving sandwiches this early and that these are just what the tummy ordered.
When we talked to Bon Appétit editor in chief Barbara Fairchild about the November 2007 issue of the magazine, we asked her what her favorite Thanksgiving recipes from the issue were. These muffins, published here courtesy of Fairchild and Bon Appétit, were among them.
This recipe is fun, Fairchild says, "because everyone gets their own little cornbread muffins. I bet it would even work with a cornbread mix, though we never tested the recipe using a mix."
Muffins could be the poster child for a joy-of-baking campaign: Everyone loves them and everyone can make them. The basics of muffin-making are simple:
This week’s recipe is for cakey blueberry-lime muffins made with ricotta, but like so many of my recipes, this one’s very play-aroundable.
I also love muffins because they're ridiculously easy to bake, resulting in a high effort-to-deliciousness ratio. The next muffin I bake will be Dorie Greenspan's Corniest Corn Muffins from Baking: From My Home to Yours
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