Good morning! Angus and I had a late night last night because we drove to visit my mother and sister again (and were once again completely spoiled by being served another fantastic lobster dinner), so I didn’t have the energy to post on my day.
A quicky summary of last night. From left to right: corn and tomato salad with cilantro, roasted brussel sprouts, and the remains of our lobster.
There’s a dairy farm out there that has ice cream that I fantasize about constantly. To say that I think about this place often would be a gross understatement. I wax poetic about the creamy, fresh ice cream, the creative flavors, the warm, freshly pressed waffle cones that they get served in…in fact, I think the freshly made waffle cones are my favorite part. But the farm is about 40 minutes away from my mom’s house out there and they tend to close too early for me to make it in time after dinner. As a result, it turns out to be a once or twice a year treat that I need to plan. I was on a mission last night. We were going to get there before they closed.
And we did! But only ten minutes before they closed, and at that time they had already turned off and cleaned up the waffle cone machines. I almost cried. I had to settle for eating the tastiest ice cream in the world in just a simple, pedestrian, styrofoam cup.
The two flavors were: chocolate with almonds and white chocolate chips and coffee with oreos. I also finished off Angus’s mint chocolate chip.
It was still delicious. Also, still a let down.
This morning I woke up still half dreaming about blueberry muffins and runny eggs. Angus’s reaction was, to put delicately, “ew,” but he agreed to give it a try. I whipped up the blueberry muffins (in an effort to provide a descriptive title, let’s call them Undercover Healthy Blueberry Muffins, because even though they are very healthy, I used The Almost Unforgettable Blueberry Bread recipe as an inspiration, which is possibly the most delicious blueberry bread I’ve ever had).
fresh out of the oven!
Undercover Healthy Blueberry Muffins
Prep Time: 30 minutes
Active Time: 10 minutes
Servings: 10 muffins, in my hands.
Ingredients
- 1c whole wheat white flour
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp cinnamon
- pinch salt
- 1/4c white sugar
- 1 large, overripe banana
- 4 tbsp buttery spread (I used Earth balance; as always, butter is also fine)
- 1 egg
- 1 tsp vanilla
- 1/2c nonfat plain greek yogurt
- 1c frozen wild blueberries
- 1/3c chopped walnuts
1) Preheat the oven to 350. Grease a muffin tin.
2) Mix together the flour, baking powder, and cinnamon. Set aside.
3) Cream together the butter/buttery spread with the sugar and banana. You can use either a standing mixer or a hand mixer, or just your muscles if you’re up for a work out. It’s okay if there are a few banana chunks left, but try to get most of it mashed.
4) Mix in the egg, then the vanilla, and finally the yogurt. Mix until very homogenous.
5) Add all but a couple of tablespoons of the flour mixture to the wet mixture and stir well. Add the frozen blueberries (keep them frozen to prevent streaking) and walnuts to the reserved flour mixture and mix to coat well. Then add this to the rest of the batter, stirring until just combined (once again, to prevent streaking).
6) Bake for 15-20 minutes, until they’re set on top and a toothpick comes out clean.
7) When they’re done, let them rest in the muffin tin for 5 minutes before moving to cooling racks if you have the luxury (I did not have the luxury because Angus’s oven bakes very unevenly, so I was removing the muffins in batches).
They have a lovely texture, very moist.
These muffins turned out great. The banana flavor was very, very subtle, which is why I didn’t include it in the title; in Angus’s words, the major effect of the banana was in the texture; the mouth feel was very similar to that of banana muffins. The yogurt gave a very subtle sour accent. The walnuts added a great crunch.
Not for everyone, but it was definitely right for me!
Eating them with runny eggs won’t be for everyone. They were fantastic on their own too; I had two with runny eggs and three just plain (yes, I’ve already eaten half the batch. W/e. Portion control isn’t my thing).
I will try to post later today with a science article, but for now I’m giving my brain the morning off!
Jess @ JessieBear What Will You Wear
/ August 18, 2012ooooh yum. i can seriously almost smell the blueberry muffins from your description. Also, eating them with runny eggs?? Must try! I used to make this quick sweet bread and I would always dip it in my eggs, but I never thought to do that with muffins. Genius! (Also, there are tons of people who would probably say ‘ew’ like you bf, but it sounds fantastic to me haha. Did he end up trying it that way?)
thescientistandthehealthnut
/ August 18, 2012Yes he did try them! And he sort of liked it. I actually also like sweet breads with egg yolks so it’s probably where I got the idea! I would have done that today but we don’t have bread pans here (Providence this weekend).
Vamp Christine
/ August 18, 2012This whole journal made me drool. That ice cream even in styrofoam looks like it was worth the trip but those waffle cones are essential, I agree. Zounds…lobster twice in week…that is living!! Now about runny eggs. I used to be one of those cooks who adored making fresh mayonnaise, among other things, which requires raw eggs. I stopped this practice several years ago because of the salmonella problem we get from time to time in the US…..I’m wondering, as a scientist, what your “take” is on this since clearly runny eggs are close to “raw”. My European friends laugh at me for asking for well-done eggs abroad. They always say there is no problem whatsover and in France, for example, I think there is not. P.S. I thought at first the reference to “sweetbreads” was to offal which I find yummy but of course it is not bread but a calf’s thymus gland.
thescientistandthehealthnut
/ August 18, 2012Raw egg yolks are definitely always going to carry a salmonella risk, and if you’re worried about contracting it you definitely should be getting your eggs cooked through. But I don’t worry about it…by all means, if I were thinking logically about it I would never eat them raw or runny, the same way I would never eat undercooked beef. But I’m not thinking about it with my brain, I’m thinking about it with my mouth, and my tastebuds just love runny eggs and I love rare meat.
Now raw egg whites are a different story…they contain high levels of avidin, a protein that when uncooked will bind up all of your biotin, or as it’s more commonly known, vitamin B7, and will cause a deficiency problem. So I do try to avoid raw egg whites. Except in batters. I love to eat batter (which is one of the reasons I like to do vegan baking recipes so much! No raw eggs to worry about).
And yes, Angus always gets frustrated when I talk about baking a sweet bread because he also thinks of sweetbreads, and gets excited thinking that I’m about to get adventurous with the animal products I’ll eat.
Vamp Christine
/ August 18, 2012So interesting especially about the whites. Thanks much. I do love my meat rare or medium rare especially lamb. beef and dare I say veal but I definitely got out of the runny egg habit. My family always had exotic culinary tastes so we did have sweetbreads growing up. And now good restaurants do such a great job with them. John becomes as blanched as the sweetbread if I so much as mention the idea of cooking them.