holiday recipe: gingerbread muffins

LOOK! i still bake things and blog things! i once read this list of things bloggers should never, ever do, and #1 said, “don’t apologize for your absence, people get annoyed when you’re all, omg i’ve been gone for so long, i’m so sorry dear readers. but i don’t have very many dear readers, and WHATEVA, I DO WHAT I WANT, so, here’s my apology: life got away from me. dear god, it’s me, sarah, and it has been over 2 months since my last real blog post. i am here to confess my sins.

i really am hoping to talk to you guys, my faraway + internet friends, about what i’ve been doing the past few months, but that’s a story (or stories) for another post (posts).

we are gathered here today to talk about the deliciousness that is these gingerbread muffins. i adapted them from how sweet eats’ recipe (love her, want to be her), and by adapted i mean i didn’t have enough maple syrup, i was too lazy to walk the 2 blocks to the grocery store and i didn’t want to use the aunt jemima (ew) from the bodega across the street, so i used honey instead.

anywho, this recipe calls for LOTS of molasses, and i love anything with molasses. i always try to lick it out of the jar (TMI?), only to realize that while molasses makes other things taste GREAT, molasses itself tastes, well, bitter and gross and oh my god why did i put that in my mouth?!

i have the same issue with vanilla extract.

i made these muffins on sunday morning, and then i took a pretty picture of them on a pretty tea towel and marveled at my artistry and how perfectly baked they were. then i ate one on the way to soulcycle and resisted the urge to instagram my artistry, knowing that this here recipe would be a good one for the blog.

so here we are, folks. gingerbread muffins! OH MY HOLIDAY!

what you’ll need:

2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons ground ginger
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg (use fresh if you have it, i didn’t)
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon ground cloves
2/3 cup loosely packed brown sugar
1 large egg
1/2 cup molasses
1/3 cup maple syrup (substitute honey if you don’t have enough – that’s what i did)
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/2 cup unsalted butter, melted
2/3 cup milk
raw sugar for topping (i used THIS amazing vanilla bean sugar that in nashville last month and it is the BOMB DIGGITY. if you like to bake, ORDER IT)

what you’ll do:

preheat your oven to 350 degrees F. line your muffin tin with liners (pretty ones make all the difference).

whisk together your dry ingredients in a small bowl: flour, ginger, baking powder, cinnamon, nutmeg, salt, and cloves. set aside.

in a larger bowl (i used my kitchenaid mixer, also known as my BBF, my best baking friend), whisk together brown sugar and egg. once those are hanging out, getting to know one another, whisk in the molasses, maple syrup (or honey if that’s the path you chose) and vanilla extract. then, whisk in your melted butter until all is fully combined and right with the world.

stir in your dry ingredients until JUST combined. no overzealous mixing, please.

before they’re fully combined, stir in the milk. now you should have a smooth batter.

fill your muffin cups 3/4 of the way full, and top each with a big sprinkle of sugar. bake for approximately 20 minutes, or until your muffin tops are set. no one likes a jiggly muffin top.

(sorry, couldn’t resist).

now, eat, celebrate, share with friends, bring to your office, etc. most of all, ENJOY!

Perfectly Fluffy Easy as Pie Pancakes

i think i’ve mentioned here before that growing up, i wasn’t a huge breakfast fan. i mean, hello, someone pass me the beefaroni or the leftover chicken and rice pilaf, please. i think when i really fell in love with breakfast was, sadly, when i started drinking. you know, because when you’re hungover in college, all you want to do is run to the dining hall and stuff your face with an oversized omelette and greasy homefries. you all know i love homefries. can’t live without ’em. lord, don’t ever send me to a place where homefries are not a breakfast standard. anywho, as i’ve gotten older, and hence, matured into the wise lady i am today, i’ve come to realize that there’s really lots to love about breakfast – from eggs benedict (i really need to master hollandaise) to fluffy pancakes like the ones you see above.

in my mind, there’s little that screams sunday morning like a pile o’ fluffy white pancakes. and ladies and gents, when i say pancakes, i don’t mean ihop, and i most certainly don’t mean bisquick. i can eat a bisquick pancake faster than you can say “from a box” – but with a recipe like the one below, there’s really no need for a box mix. pancakes are S-I-M-P-L-E, folks. as in, you barely need a recipe, and unless you’re the kind of person who stuffs their sweaters into their oven and owns only one pan (new yorkers, i’m looking at you), you likely have everything you need for these babies in your kitchen already.

this recipe (which i modified slightly) yields fluffy, light, melt in your mouth pancakes. i ate mine with melted butter and nothing else, but they’d be great with chocolate chips or berries mixed in, and even better with some spiked maple syrup. 

The Recipe

You’ll need:

• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 3 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 tablespoon white sugar
• 1 3/4 cups milk
• 1 egg
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 3 tablespoons butter, melted

the key to this recipe is that you don’t do the mixing with a plain old spoon or fork – you use a whisk. this releases a ton of air into your batter, making for the fluffy pancakes sunday morning dreams are made of. 

to make, sift together the flour, baking powder, salt and sugar in a large bowl. in a smaller bowl, beat the egg, then mix in the melted butter, vanilla and milk. make sure you give the butter a bit of time to cool after you melt it – you don’t want to cook the egg! make a well in the center of your dry ingredients, and pour in your wet ones. mix slightly with a wooden spoon, and then whip with a whisk to beat fully. 

your batter might be a bit thicker than the usual bisquick shiz, but don’t fret. this is to be expected. 

heat a lightly oiled griddle (i use canola oil spray from trader joe’s) over medium to high heat. scoop your batter onto the griddle, about 1/4 cup of batter for each pancake. cook a few minutes on each side, and serve hot.

breakfast is served. 

Easy as Pie Homemade Granola

today in things earthy crunchy people eat: GRANOLA. that’s right folks, i made granola! and it wasn’t even hard, not a little bit, not at all. here’s how it went down. the other day, as i was pouring my kashi cereal (7 whole grains, on a mission to keep me full ’till lunch!) into my yogurt, i had two thoughts. the first was, “i don’t even really like kashi. it kind of tastes like cardboard. i wish this was granola.” the second was, “granola is so expensive.” then i had a third thought: why don’t i make my own damn granola? i mean, i am a woman. in the words of miss carrie bradshaw, a WO-MAN! and a WO-MAN should not have to pay $7.99 for a tiny container of stale granola at an overpriced new york grocery store, especially when she has oats and honey and raisins at home. 

so i did a bit of googling, and then a bit of altering, and voila! i had homemade granola. want to make it for yourself? you should, it’s really quite yummy, and it tastes great with some vanilla chobani.

The Recipe

4 cups rolled oats

1 cup wheat germ

1 cup slivered almonds

1/3 cup sesame seeds

1/4 cup brown sugar

4 teaspoons cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/3 cup canola oil

1/3 cup agave nectar

1/3 cup water

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 cup raisins or other dried fruit

to make, heat the oven to 300 and line two rimmed baking sheets with aluminum foil. spritz with nonstick spray. in a large mixing bowl, combine the oats, wheat germ, sesame seeds, nuts, brown sugar, 1 teaspoon of cinnamon, and salt. make a little well in the middle of the dry ingredients, and add the wet ones: oil, agave, water and vanilla. toss until all the ingredients are evenly combined, then spread the mixture evenly on your cookie sheets.

bake the granola in increments of ten minutes – about 20-25 in total – tossing every ten to ensure even cooking. let cool completely, and then stir in your raisins or fruit (or chocolate chips if that strikes your fancy), as well as the remaining two teaspoons of cinnamon.

now, eat with yogurt, and get down with yo bad healthy self.

Homemade Hangover Recovery: Homefries

going out dancing with your friends ’till the wee hours of the morning is a wonderful thing. as is bringing your own bottles of cheap wine to a rooftop party and proceeding to down them alongside multiple cranberry vodkas. but you know what’s not so wonderful?

waking up the next morning with a pounding head and sunlight streaming through your curtains. and a cat that’s repeatedly pawing your head wanting to be fed. in my dreams, my hangovers are aided/abated by the beautifully hot guy sleeping next to me, reminding me that my bad choices (drinking too much) are okay because they lead to good choices (bringing home a hottie). in reality, what happens is that i stumble home to my apartment after throwing my cabbie a $10, heat up some leftover pasta and sit in my bed watching house hunters until i’ve drank a full two cups of water and consumed everything in my bowl. the next morning, all i wake up to is a dirty bowl and my hungry cat.

i’m still waiting for the morning i wake up with the hottie in tow and can cook both of us a spectacular breakfast that makes him fall madly in love with me. but in the meantime, i’m just cooking for myself – which is by no means a reason to skimp on the details.

it’s my personal belief that hangovers are remedied by one thing and one thing only: grease. maybe that grease comes in the form of bacon, maybe it’s in your fried eggs, maybe it’s in your homefries, maybe it’s in all three. that, combined with a little hair of the dog (if you can stomach it) and some coffee, and you should be good to go. since i don’t want to pay to go out to breakfast every time i’m hungover, i’ve developed a pretty delicious and grease-filled recipe for homefries that has worked pretty darn well as a homemade hangover remedy. remember in this post, when i told you i was obsessed with homefries? well, i am. and it turns out, i make a pretty mean batch myself.

so, tomorrow morning, when your head is throbbing, and you’re regretting those drunk texts you sent last night  and you feel like you might barf if you have to put on clothes, pop a few aspirin and whip these babies up. then throw on some john mayer or damien rice in the background. something about a guy crooning with a soothing guitar makes all your worries melt away, if you ask me.

Homemade Hangover Remedy: Homefries

1/2 cup chopped yellow onions

1/2 cup chopped mushrooms

2 cloves fresh garlic, diced

2 tsp fresh herbs of your choice (i used thyme and a little bit of basil)

2-4 tsp of smoked paprika (add this to taste – i like a lot of paprika in mine)

1 tsp garlic powder

3 medium sized potatoes, cute into bite sized pieces

3 tbs butter, maybe a few more to taste

to make, chop all your chop-able ingredients and set them aside. you want to have things ready to throw in as you go. heat a large skillet with your butter and maybe a tiny bit of canola oil. you want to get that grease in there – it’s what’s going to soak up all the alcohol in your tummy. once the pan is warmed and the butter is melted, add your mushrooms, onions, and garlic and turn head down to medium. you want to cook these babies until soft. also, if you’ve got some green pepper on hand (i don’t usually buy peppers, but if you do), dice it up and toss about 1/4 cup of it in there as well.

once your onions and shrooms are softened, throw your potatoes in there as well. season with paprika and garlic powder, and smell. if you can’t smell the paprika, add more. you want to smell something strong, fragrant, and paprika garlic-y. if you can’t smell it yet, you need more spices. also add salt and pepper to taste. a few grinds of pepper should do, as well as about a tsp or two of salt. now add your fresh spices, and toss. cover your skillet and cook for ten minutes or so, covered. the cover will help cook the potatoes quickly by keeping the heat and steam inside the pan.

after ten minutes, stir again, and consider adding more seasoning if need be. the measurements above are estimates – you might want more, depending on how flavorful you like your homefries. remove the top and add a bit more butter. remember, grease is the word. cook a few more minutes, uncovered, to really cement the flavors in there. your homefries should be soft on the inside, and crunchy on the outside, much like a great cookie.

if you want to add more garlic, or more onions, or any of the above, go for it. homefries are great, because you’re really just throwing a bunch of stuff into a pan and hoping for the best. these came out delicious, hence my sharing them with you, but feel free to add or subtract as you see fit.

now, serve them up with some fruit salad (bananas are also good for hangovers) and some fried eggs.