That’s amore <3

I heart pizza. Tremendously. I love greasy, warm, gooey, thick fluffy-crusted pizza topped with artery-clogging cheese and pepperoni. I love thin, light, sparsely topped pizza with subtle flavours and interesting topping. And I love every kind of pizza in between.

Fortunately for my heart and adipose storage, I don’t get to eat pizza very often. But the cravings were too much to resist, and I gave in and made pizza on friday. Mmm…pizza.

The dough is possibly the easiest thing in the world to make, and a remnant recipe (unbelievably enough) from my grade 8 home ec classes. I think the seed was planted in that class for my baking obsession. I looked forward to it every week! The artichoke and tuna pizza is half-inspired from the artichoke pizza served at Leva. And the other one was a…let’s-throw-everything-in-the-fridge-that-I-feel-like kind of deal!

/drool.

Do you know the muffin…lady?

That is what my friend Paulfreund calls me, Muffin Lady. Even though he knows very well that I mostly specialize in cupcakes. BUT he can tell a cupcake apart from a muffin, so I forgive him.

Tomorrow we have review sessions for our Pediatric rotation final. I decided this warranted muffins. Fruity muffins, to pretend they’re good for you! Alas, I just can’t seem to get them quite right. I think it’s my need to make them healthier. I’ll have to add in oil next time. They’re just not quite the same with only applesauce instead of butter =(

Lemon Poppy Seed Muffins
(adapted from Baking From My Home To Yours)

2/3 cup sugar
grated zest and juice of 1 lemon
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup sour cream (I didn’t have sour cream, so I used berry yogurt)
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 stick (8 tablespoons) unsalted butter, melted and cooled (I substituted applesauce instead)
2 tablespoons poppy seeds

Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 400F. Butter or spray the 12 molds in a regular-size muffin pan or fit the molds with paper muffin cups.

In a large bowl, rub the sugar and lemon zest together with your fingertips until the sugar is moist and the fragrance of lemon strong. Whisk in the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. In a large glass measuring cup or another bowl, whisk the sour cream, eggs, vanilla, lemon juice and melted butter together until well blended. Pour the liquid ingredients over the dry ingredients and, with the whisk or a rubber spatula, gently but quickly stir to blend. Don’t worry about being thorough – a few lumps are better than over mixing the batter. Stir in the poppy seeds. Divide the batter evenly among the muffins cups.

Bake for 18 to 20 minutes, or until the tops are golden and a thin knife inserted into the center of the muffins comes out clean. Transfer the pan to a rack and cool for 5 minutes before carefully removing each muffin from its mold. I got 16 large muffins out of this!

Chunky Apple Muffins (adapted from Martha Stewart)

* 1 medium Granny Smith apple, peeled, cored, and quartered
* 1 cup sugar (I used 1/2 cup…you should probably use 1 cup though. they were not that sweet)
* 2 cups all-purpose flour (I used 1 cup AP, 1 cup whole wheat)
* 2 teaspoons baking soda
* 1/2 teaspoon plus 2 pinches salt
* 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
* 1/4 cup chopped walnuts (I used half walnuts, half pecans)
* 2 large eggs
* 1 cup buttermilk, room temperature (I used 1/2 cup butter milk, 1/2 cup vanilla yogurt)
* 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, melted

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Spray a 12-cup standard muffin tin with cooking spray; set aside. Cut 3 apple quarters into 1/4-inch dice; cut remaining apple quarter into 12 thin slices for garnish.
2. Whisk together sugar, flour, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon in a medium bowl. Add diced apple and walnuts, if using; toss to coat.Whisk together eggs, buttermilk, and butter in a small bowl. Gently fold buttermilk mixture into flour mixture until just combined; do not overmix. Divide batter among muffin cups, filling each about three-quarters full.Top each with an apple slice. Bake until muffins are brown around edges and spring back when touched, 16 to 18 minutes. Let muffins cool slightly, about 5 minutes, before turning out of tin onto a wire rack. Serve warm or at room temperature. Muffins can be stored in an airtight container at room temperature up to 2 days.

I made the mistake of not spraying these down =( They stuck to the paper. And were not very sweet, so I hacked em open and added jam to the middle of half of them and a lemony cream cheese frosting to the other half! I used the rest of the cream cheese on top of the lemon poppyseed muffins.

Peds love.

Argh, I have gotten so behind on the bake-sharing! Here are some of the latest yummies I have been stirring up. Picture to come later! I haven’t transferred yet! (Yes, I’m awful)

Oatmeal Banana Bread (Adapted from joythebaker.com)
- 1 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
- 1/2 cup packed brown sugar
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 1/4 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp cinnamon
- 1 tsp canola or walnut oil
- 2 tsp applesauce
- 2 large eggs, beaten
- 3 large bananas, ripe
- 1 cup uncooked old fashioned oats
- 1/2 cup dried cranberries

Preheat oven to 350°F. Grease and flour a loaf pan and set aside. In a large bowl, stir together dry ingredients including the oats and cinnamon.

In a smaller bowl, mash bananas with a potato masher or fork. Add oil, applesauce, and whole egg and mix thoroughly.

Add the wet ingredients to the dry and mix well. Batter will be fairly thick. Add cranberries (or nuts, or chocolate chips, or what-have-yous).

Pour batter into pan and bake until top of loaf is firm to touch, ~45 minutes. Remove from oven and allow to cool in pan for 5 minutes. Flip out and cool on a wire rack for another 10 minutes. I sliced it pretty thin and got about 15 slices. YUMMY! This lasted me breakfasty and snacky times for about a week and a half.

I have had a hankering to make these since the first time I laid eyes on this recipe. Finely chopped macadamia nuts. Coconut. Lime. WOW is all I have to say!! Unfortunately, I never seem to have limes in my house. We just don’t really use them. And so every time I’ve had time to bake…I’ve had to turn to other recipes and while longingly staring at these puppies…put the recipe aside. But the last time I went grocery shopping, they were having a sale on limes and I snatched some up right away. AT LONG LAST!!! and yum. They were definitely worth the wait. So amazing fragrant. And even though they’re butter thins…they have a light taste to them. I wish I took a picture of the lime and sugar being massaged together. That was my favourite part.

Coconut Butter Thins (adapted from barefootkitchenwitch.com)

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 cup cornstarch
1/4 teaspoon salt
Pinch of ground coriander
2/3 cup sugar
Grated zest of 1 lime
2 sticks (8 ounces) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
2/3 cup sweetened shredded coconut
1/2 cup finely chopped macademia nuts (don’t be afraid to use salted nuts)

Whisk together the flour, cornstarch, salt and coriander.

If you want to get a little more flavor out of the lime zest, put the sugar and zest in the mixer bowl and, using your fingertips, work the zest into the sugar until the sugar is moist and the mixture fragrant.

Working with a stand mixer, preferably fitted with a paddle attachment, or with a hand mixer in a large bowl, beat the butter, sugar and zest on medium speed for about 3 minutes, or until smooth. Beat in the vanilla extract. Reduce the mixer speed to low and add the flour mixture, mixing only until the dry ingredients disappear. Add the coconut and nuts and pulse to incorporate them. There will probably be some dry ingredients in the bottom of the bowl–don’t work them in with the mixer, just reach into the bowl and knead them in.

Transfer the soft, sticky dough to a gallon-size zipper-lock bag. Put the bag on a flat surface, leaving the top open, and roll the dough into a 9-x-10 1/2-inch rectangle that’s 1/4 inch thick. As you roll, turn the bag occasionally and lift the plastic from the dough so it doesn’t cause creases. When you get the right size and thickness, seal the bag, pressing out as much air as possible, and refrigerate the dough for at least 2 hours or for up to 2 days.

GETTING READY TO BAKE: Position the racks to divide the oven into thirds and preheat the oven to 325 degrees F. Line two baking sheets with parchment or silicone mats.

Put the plastic bag on a cutting board and slit it open. Turn the dough out onto the board (discard the bag), and, using a ruler as a guide and a sharp knife, cut it into 32 squares, each roughly 1 1/2 inches on a side. Transfer the squares to the baking sheets, leaving about 2 inches between them, and carefully prick each one twice with a fork, gently pushing the tines through the cookies to the sheet.

Bake for 18 to 20 minutes, rotating the sheets from top to bottom and fromt to back at the midway point. The shortbreads will be very pale–they shouldn’t take on much color. Transfer the cookies to a rack and cool to room temperature.