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I found a not overly sweet zucchini muffin recipe, “Zucchini Muffins with Lemon Thyme,” in a cookbook, Herbs Love Tomatoes, Pepper, Onions and Zucchini, by Ruth Bass (p. 169). KAF recently featured a lemon-zucchini muffin recipe as well. I compared the two, and overall quantity of ingredients were about the same although ingredients varied. In addition to using lemon zest, the KAF recipe used regular milk rather than buttermilk, granulated rather than brown sugar, more baking powder. 4x the salt (!), slightly less oil, no ginger, and no lemon thyme.
After reading the reviews of the KAF recipe, I used Bass’s recipe as my base. I substituted half whole wheat flour, reduced the oil from ½ to 1/3 cup. I do not have lemon thyme. I considered using lemon extract, but I decided not to do so and to delete the ginger. I added ½ cup of KAF cinnamon chips from my stash (KAF sells something different now.). I baked these as six large muffins, in part because I realized that my regular muffin pans have yet to be unpacked. I sprinkled them with demerara sugar. I had used THE grease on the pan, and they popped out just fine. They are a bit flat on the top. Next time, I will add ¼ tsp. baking soda to offset the buttermilk; I'll leave the baking powder as is.
I baked these for a quick grab-and-go breakfast for tomorrow, as my husband and younger stepson need to leave here at 6 a.m. in order to drive to Michigan City, so my stepson can take the bus to the airport. He can also take one to have as a snack while he is waiting for his plane. If the taste is good--as the aroma promises--I will bake another batch tomorrow and freeze some, since I have leftover grated zucchini.
Next Morning Tasting Note: The muffins are very good, although slightly dense. I'll try another batch with added baking soda.
I baked my variation of Ellen's (once Moomie) Famous Buns on Thursday afternoon. My husband will grill hamburgers this evening. I made the recipe as ten buns, rather than eight, which are large enough for us. I usually use this recipe for rolls when we are traveling, so I look forward to sampling them with hamburgers. Added Note: I really like the softness of these buns with hamburgers.
I'm very pleased with my blueberry pie. I have started using all butter in my buttermilk crust rather than using Crisco and adding 2 Tbs. sugar to the crust for a fruit pie. Instead of brushing the crust with beaten egg, I've been brushing it with heavy cream. That gives the crust a lovely golden color, and it also seems to help with flakiness.
On Tuesday evening, I experimented with the KAF recipe, “Cranberry Orange Rolls.” I made it once a couple of years ago with cranberry-orange sauce as the filling and liked it. I have about 1/2 Cup of blueberry pie filling left over from canning, and I needed a recipe to use it up, so I decided to experiment to see how the filling would work with this dough. I substituted in 2/3 Cup whole wheat flour, added 2 Tbs. flax meal, used buttermilk in place of the orange juice, and deleted the Fiori de Sicilia. I used the bread machine to mix and knead the dough, but I let it rise, as always, in a greased bowl. I actually own the 9-inch square ceramic baker that was featured in the catalog with the recipe, so I baked the rolls in it. I will add the glaze/frosting to the cooled rolls tomorrow.
Note: The dough recipe is great. The sweet rolls could have used some additional filling, but they are tasty and were a hit at breakfast.
I realized yesterday that I am not going to get any more blackberries. The five weeks we had without rain hit them hard, and the critters started eating any ripe ones before we could get them. I seeded the blackberries I had, and the pulp came to ½ cup. I bought some frozen Dole strawberries (12 oz.) and mashed them up, which got me to 2 cups of fruit. (I reasoned that the frozen strawberries would have more flavor than the fresh, "red outside but unripe within" ones shipped from wherever to the store.) I mashed enough of the blueberries we picked to get to the 3 ½ cups of fruit I needed. After the jam maker finished its cycle, I stirred in the grated zest and juice of one lime before filling jars and processing. The yield was three 1-cup jars and one 1/2-cup jar jar. I refrigerated another scant ½-cup jar that we will go ahead and use. I tasted a bit, and the flavor is good.
Note: I have corrected the yields.
Note: For some reason the 1/2 cup jar did not seal, so that one has been refrigerated to be eaten soon.
