Recipe: Crackling Cheese-Chive Muffins

"Warm and plump as fresh baked muffins..." (Charlotte Pomerantz)

This morning called for something more than cereal or scrambled eggs. The day called for Muffins. So Sister-Bug and I whipped up a batch while Brother-Bug slept in.

Two other excellent reasons to make muffins:

1) You have sour milk. Like I wrote about here, sour milk has a magical effect on the consistency of baked goods like muffins, quick breads, and pancakes. And why waste that potential?

2) Mixing muffins is an easy project to do with a little kid. Muffin batter is very flexible and forgivable. Once you get a general recipe down you can add and subtract, and your toddler can pour in too much baking powder...and you can still save it and come out of the experience (usually) with something edible.

These are our favorite muffins, and a wonderfully flexible recipe. Because they are savory they make a good addition to any meal and I've seen them disappear at many potlucks. My mom made a similar muffin when I was young and I've kept it and adapted it for our days when we just need muffins for breakfast - like today.

I used Lonesome Whistle's Red-Fife Wheat Flour and Buckwheat Flour which gave this particular batch of muffins a particularly rich flavor and a wonderful crumb. The millet is for texture fun (as well as the wonderful nutrition found in millet). As the muffins bake, the millet softens a little and toasts which is what makes these muffins "crackling" - the millet pops while you chew which is really fun! You can use any flour combinations, but at least 1 cup must be a whole grain flour or the texture will be really strange. I like a sharp cheddar and chives best, but only fresh chives. However, any combination of cheese and herbs will work, and it's fun to play with flavor potential.

Sister-Bug considers the implicatons of muffin batter.

What else could you add? Bacon or ham bits? Blue cheese instead of cheddar? Roasted red pepper bits? Flax seeds, bran, wheat germ, or other nutritional delights? Rye flour and caraway seeds? So many possibilities.

It's the fresh chives that really make this recipe so good.

Crackling Cheese-Chive Muffins

2 cups flour (combined whole wheat, other whole grains, and a little white to keep it light)
4 tsp. baking powder
A pinch of salt
1 1/2 cups sour milk or thinned yogurt
2 eggs
1-3 tbl. fresh chives (or other herbs)
2/3 cup millet
1 cup grated cheese (sharp cheddar or ??)
3 tbl. melted butter (or vegetable oil)

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.

Mix the dry ingredients and make a well. Add the milk and eggs and beat throughly. Add the chives, millet, and cheese mixing till just combined. Stir in the butter.

Spoon into muffin tins and bake until a toothpick comes out clean - about 20 minutes. Eat warm, eat cold, eat plain, eat with butter... Just eat them quickly before your kids inhale them!

Just coming out of the oven...

Baking in Cast Iron? I always bake my muffins in my cast iron pans. They are a bit of an investment, but they are really worth it! Preheat the pans with the oven and use a basting brush to grease each muffin cup. Spoon in your batter and bake as usual. Because your muffin cups are hot iron, they bake the bottom of the muffin - making the whole muffin crisp around. And as long as you wipe them up right away and don't use soap on your cast iron (EVER), they are clean and back in the cupboard very quickly. 

CSA pick up number one and a quick dinner

I was so excited as I opened my bucket of goodies from Lonesome Whistle Farm; the kind of anticipation my kids are feeling about the impending holidays. Flour! Barley! Beans! Oats!

Thursday after delivery was an unusually busy Thursday, with us rolling in late from errands due to a birthday party. I knew we would be snacking and enjoying cake and coconut ice cream, so something simple for dinner was key.

Bread.
Beans.
Greens.

Brother-Bug chose the Vermont Cranberry beans and I set them in some warm water for a quick soak. Because the beans were so fresh they started to plump up right away.

Personal Disclaimer: I never remember to overnight soak my beans. I have, therefore, become adept at cooking dry beans fairly quickly without a pressure cooker. More about that in a future post.

A fuzzy picture of soaking beans.

After a couple of hours soaking, I rinsed the beans, added fresh water, and set them to boil, then simmer. They smelled divine and wonderfully bean-y while they cooked. I turned them off after about a half hour and left them. We ran errands and went to the birthday party. When we got home, while the bread was baking, I turned the stove back on and reheated the beans. Strained, mixed with olive oil, salt, pepper and thyme, they were ready to eat.

Onto the bread.

I like yeast breads better than quick breads, but I didn't have time for a long rise, punch down, and rise again. I was on a major time line. I adapted the Master Recipe from Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day as follows:

Measure 1 1/2 cups warm water, 1/4 cup honey, and about a tablespoon of yeast into a bowl and let sit till the yeast is going. If you've made bread before you will know what I mean.

In a large mixing bowl combine:
3 cups flour (I did one of the Rye flour, one and a half of the Whole Wheat, and a half cup of organic white flour to lighten the texture a bit)
1/2 tbl. salt

Add the water/yeast/honey, beating vigorously with a wooden spoon. The dough will be very sticky. Don't knead it. Don't add more flour. I swear. Cover the bowl with a towel.

Let it sit until you are ready to preheat the over (to 400 degrees). At least an hour, longer is okay too. Once you set the oven to heat, flour your hands and form a quick round loaf. Don't try for anything super artistic, just make a basic loaf shape. Cut a couple of slashes in the top with a sharp knife. Let it rest while the oven finishes heating.

I bake my bread on a pizza stone, but a cookie sheet will work too. Make sure you set your resting loaf on coarse corn meal so you can move it around easily.

When the oven is hot, put the bread in and bake for... I forgot to look at the time. Darn it. I baked it till the crust was turning a little golden and the bread made a hollow thump when I tapped the bottom.

Cool and slice. Eat!

That was the bread.

As I stated, I re-warmed the beans and baked the bread when we got home. I sauteed some kale. That was it. And it was good. It was eaten up by all family members, even those who had recently gorged on cake.

The Vermont Cranberry beans are almost aromatic in flavor - the same way the nuttiness of an almond is aromatic and still nutty. They don't taste like almonds...it just struck me as the same kind of rich and subtle flavor, if not the actual same flavor. Their texture is smooth and starchy-creamy. Satisfying. Filling. And they are so rich in both flavor and texture that they didn't need more than the oil, thyme, salt, and pepper I tossed them in. Even that could have been too much. I am excited to try them in a recipe and see how they stand up to other flavors.

Papa-Bug expressed it best: 

"If beans were like this people would eat them."

Such a pretty, simple, satisfying meal...

And he's right. These beans are much more than just a burrito filler, to be covered over with other flavors. If I could always eat beans like these I would eat beans far more often. Thank goodness for the CSA!

The bread, the flavors of the flour... Wow. I wanted to keep eating it even after I was full. It was a dense bread due partly to the whole-ness of the flour and the short rise time, which was what I wanted for our dinner. It was a little sour and a little savory and rich of that nutty flavor that is an essential part of fresh wheat. Warm with butter... YUM!



===

A couple of nights later I threw together this recipe which was a hit with the whole family. I made this up out of a moment of indecision - wanting to cook with all the lovely things from Kasey and not knowing what to choose!

1 cup Arikara beans
1 cup Vt. Cranberry beans
1 cup purple barley
1/2 cup dried mushrooms (I used chantrelles - and if you soak them separately you can use the soaking water in your broth)

1 tbl. olive oil
1/2 onion
2 cloves garlic
2 bay leaves
3-4 cups broth (I used a mixture of water and chantrelle broth)
1- tsp. dried thyme or marjoram
1-2 cups frozen corn
Salt & Pepper

Soak the beans, barley and mushrooms for about an hour. In a soup pot, Saute the onion and garlic in the olive oil. Strain the beans and barley, add to the pot with the mushrooms, broth, bay, & thyme/marjoram. Bring to a boil and reduce to simmer till the beans and barley are done. Add the frozen corn and continue to cook till the corn is warm through. Salt and pepper to taste.

Enjoy!

Wordless Wednesday: Results of a Lesson in Yeast

12 Reasons to Frequent Your Local Farmers Market

Eugene, Oregon and the surrounding Willamette Valley is full of amazing farms that grow hugely diverse crops. We boast an amazing Farmers Market. What does your Local Market have?

Pink oyster mushrooms. We will be tasting these tonight...

Assorted fresh breads... not pictured are the amazing pastries these folks make.

Onions and tomatoes...

I never can decide what kind of berries I want to buy when they are all ripe at once...

Picked early this morning....

Just get near the basil and breathe deep...

These pepper plants have me eyeballing good sun spots for next year's garden...

Roasted hazlenuts... use in chocolate confections, pesto, or anywhere else.

It's all so bountiful - as through a huge cornucopia spilled out, covering these two blocks.

Melons are finally ripe and so sweet.

Fresh, raw honey...and the beeswax that comes with it.

And flowers. I love seeing people walking around market with an armful of flowers.

There was extra milk in my fridge, a whole gallon. Luckily the time was right, the weather was good, and the basil and tomatoes... well, you saw the pictures. With half an hour in the kitchen to make some mozzarella, as well as a drizzle of olive oil and balsamic vinegar...

Fresh mozzarella, tomatoes, and basil, drizzled with olive oil and balsamic vinegar and we are ready for dinner.

...we enjoyed a perfect Caprese Salad for dinner.

Do you shop at your Farmers Market? What is your favorite thing to get there?