Mystery Live Blogging: Guess what's cooking!!!

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees with the muffin tin inside. Measure 1/3 cup polenta in a medium bowl.

Separate smaller bowl with 1/3 cup polenta and 1/3 cup cornmeal and all of the dry ingredients

Mix the polenta in the larger bowl with boiling water, then add 1/3 cup corn kernels

Add the buttermilk or thinned yogurt to the polenta mush

Whisk in the beaten egg

Add in the dry ingredients

Brush the muffin tin with melted butter

Divide the batter among the 12 muffin cups

Damn, our scientist Slaninka can spot, or should I say, smell a good thing from a 5 mile distance:)

Enjoy the pics below and I am going to dig into my lunch. Stay tuned for the full post later today.

Bittman, a copy cat??? Just kidding - Great minds think alike

Did any of you see the latest installment of Bittman's Minimalist column in the New York Times?

Whole Wheat Muffin, the Remix

Remember my rendition of Plodova Salata's blueberry muffins? Well, I swear he must have read my post and "borrowed" some of my ideas :) His tricks include "whole wheat pastry flour" and "a mashed fruit"...Hm ...

Blueberry Muffins Re-invented - Vegan Style

When I saw Plodova Salata's blueberry muffins this morning, I was...inspired and I wouldn't let the lack of eggs and milk prevent me from whipping up some good breakfast delights for SM.

A quick glance in the fridge revealed that I still had some almond milk on hand. The egg-replacement issue was a little harder to fix. I recalled an article in the New York Times that discussed replacing eggs with ground flax seed in a cookie recipe. As far as I could recall, the experiment yielded some pretty good results.

Here were my modifications to PS' Blueberry muffin recipe:

• Swapped regular milk for unsweetened low fat almond milk
• Replaced 1 egg with 1tbsp ground flax seed mixed with 3 tbsp water (read more on this here) - I placed the bowl with the mixture in the freezer for 5-10 minutes
• Used half a frozen banana instead of the blueberries
• Added a couple of tablespoons of dried cherries, almonds and pistachios
• Added some cinnamon and extra vanilla
• Used whole wheat pastry /cake flour which is really fine
• Usd only 3tbsp of sugar

I blended all of the liquid ingredients in my blender:

The consistency of the mixture was very thick (I think because of the banana addition...). Next time I need to add a bit more moisture or fat.

I think I could have baked the muffins for only 20 minutes (vs. 25)

The muffins were not sweet and definitely benefited from the confectioner's sugar. They paired very well with the sweet Lupicia Golden Honey Dew tea.

The muffins were very light = they definitely exceeded my expectations!

Curious about the nutritional info? Take a look below - 3g of fiber!!!

Easy, Fast and Light Muffins with Blueberries

This is a recipe for muffins, but if you don't have the cups, use fluted baking pan. It's really simple to make, with less calories and ready to eat in 40 min.

Ingredients:

1 cup milk
1/4 cup olive oil
1/2 tsp. vanilla
1 large egg
2 cups all-purpose or whole wheat flour
1/3 cup sugar
3 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1 cup blueberries - fresh, or frozen, but give them some time to warm up at room temperature

Step 1:

Heat oven to 400F. Grease bottom only of 12 muffin cups or baking pan.

Step 2:

Beat milk, oil, vanilla and egg in a mixing bowl. Stir in flour, sugar, baking powder and salt at once, just until flour is moistened (batter will be lumpy). Transfer the batter in the baking pan and put the blueberries on top of it. Stir batter gently around them until they are slightly covered.

Bake for 20 -25 min, until golden brown. Dust with vanilla sugar, or just powdered sugar.