BakeItUp

Because sometimes you are simply quarantined with a large bag of miller's bran! And muffins use up so few precious eggs! And if you're going to be weeping over your breakfast-for-dinner, it should at least have a vaguely 1980s healthfulness that is as comforting as it is fragrant. Both recipes from Elizabeth Alston's Muffins, which has morphed into my quarantine project, more or less.

( Accessibility Notes )

( Allergy Issues )

( Banana Bran Muffin Recipe )

( Honey Bran Muffin Recipe )

I made this as a combination Shabbat challah-birthday cake for myself, and my god, it was good. Adapted from this Molly Yeh recipe; changes marked below. Truly delicious.

( Accessibility Notes )

( Allergy Issues )

( One Loaf Recipe )

Another one from the marvelous Elizabeth Alston book Muffins, which she in turn acquired from the Salt Lake Tribune sometime in the Paleolithic. These taste essentially like giant muffiny snickerdoodles, which is a flavor profile I'm here for. They are also almost obscenely fluffy. These are NOT English muffins, the little bubbly crumpet-like things, nor is tea involved in their making. I do think the raisins add interest and textural contest; if you're a raisin-hater, perhaps nuts? Furthermore, 1/2 cup brown sugar, as listed in the book and reproduced here, makes way too much topping; I suggest halving that measurement.

( Accessibility Notes )

( Allergy Issues )

Ingredients:
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup butter, room temperature
1 egg
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp cinnamon
2 tsp baking powder
2 cups all-purpose wheat flour
1 cup milk
3/4 cup raisins

Topping:
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 tsp cinnamon
1/4 cup chopped pecans

Instructions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees if baking any muffins right after making the batter. Line or grease muffin tins for the number of muffins desired. The recipe makes 18 muffins total (or 12 rather large ones).

In a bowl, cream butter and sugar together with a mixer. Add in egg and beat to combine.

In another bowl, whisk together the salt, cinnamon, baking powder, and flour.

Add to the flour mixture alternately into the wet mixture with milk, ending with the flour, until combined. Fold in raisins if desired. If not using immediately store covered in the fridge for up to two weeks.

In a bowl, add the topping ingredients and stir until combined.

Fill muffin tins. Sprinkle with a spoonful of the topping mixture. Bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes until fully cooked.

These are lightly adapted from the recipe in Alice Medrich's Chewy Gooey Crispy Crunchy Melt-In-Your-Mouth Cookies, which has tendered me many a standby recipe.

The things I like best about these snickerdoodles, which are possibly my favorite cookie, period, are: how incredibly soft and cake-like you can make them when you give them a shorter bake time, the flexibility of the dough for adapting to other kinds of cookies (snickerdoodle jam thumbprints, anyone?), and how long and beautifully the dough keeps in the fridge or freezer. Also, since the cinnamon is on the outside, it's a great opportunity/excuse to use the Really Good Cinnamon.

( Accessibility Notes )

( Allergy Issues )

( Recipe below cut )