Browned Butter Dark Chocolate Marshmallow Muffins #FoodieExtravaganza

Browned butter is the star ingredient in this sweet muffin but the brown sugar, dark chocolate and marshmallows add just the right amount of bitter and sweet.

The first time I ever heard the words browned butter, I was in college.  My younger sister was dating a young man whose mother was born and raised in Germany. I don’t remember whether it was a special occasion or just a random meal, but afterwards my mother raved about the fresh green beans his mother had cooked with browned butter.  They were apparently to die for.

Now, my mother is given to food superlatives so I took that accolade with a little grain of sea salt and forgot all about it. Or would have if she hadn't mentioned it several more times over the decades.

Fast forward more than 30 years and browned butter is all over the place.  In savory dishes and sweet. One of my favorite bloggers, Kayle, The Cooking Actress, has recipe after recipe devoted to this wonderful ingredient. I have been dutifully bookmarking and drooling over them but had yet to take plunge. I discovered, with this muffin, that browned butter is indeed fabulous in baked goods, to die for even, and I am thinking green beans for dinner tonight, à la Mrs. Bosarge.  Why did I wait so long? Are you still waiting? Dive right in!

Fair warning:  Do NOT taste the batter.  It's possible that you will not bother to bake muffins and your family will find you sitting in the kitchen, possessively hugging the mixing bowl and clutching a spoon, preheated oven abandoned.  And then *queue dramatic music*:  You will have to share.

Ingredients
1/2 cup or 115g unsalted butter, browned then cooled – Instructions here.
1/4 cup or 60g granulated sugar
1/2 cup or 100g dark brown sugar
2 cups or 250g all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons baking powder
2 eggs
3/4 cup or 180ml milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
6 1/3 oz or 180g dark chocolate  (or equivalent amount of good quality dark chocolate chips)
1 cup or 50g mini marshmallows

Method
Preheat your oven to 350°F or 180°C and prepare your 12-cup muffin pan by greasing lightly or lining with muffin papers.

Brown your butter, if you haven’t done so already.  Kayle has great instructions right here, so I refer you to her site.  Just follow this link:  How to brown butter.  

Chop the dark chocolate into little chunks and set aside a small handful for topping the muffins before baking.

In a large mixing bowl, whisk together your flour, salt, two sugars and baking powder.

Whisk the cooled browned butter, eggs, vanilla extract and milk in a smaller mixing bowl.  If your milk and eggs are quite cold, the butter will probably try to solidify again.  Just keep whisking and it will break into little bitty pieces and get rather fluffy.  This is not a big deal.

Browned butter is liquid gold.  Except brown.

Pour your wet ingredients into your dry ones and stir a couple of times.

Add in the dark chocolate and marshmallows and fold to combine.

Divide the batter between the muffin cups and top with the reserved chocolate bits.

Bake in your preheated oven for about 20-25 minutes or until the muffins are golden and a toothpick inserted comes out clean.

Allow the muffins to cool for a few minutes in the pan then remove them to a wire rack to cool completely.

Enjoy!

This recipe was muffin-fied from this fabulous cookie recipe from The Cooking Actress. 

Check out all the other lovely chocolate recipes my Foodie Extravaganza group is sharing today! Many thanks to our host, Ellen from Family Around the Table.

Brigadeiros by Caroline’s Cooking

Browned Butter Dark Chocolate Marshmallow Muffins by Food Lust People Love

Chocolate Dream Whoopie Pies by Jolene’s Recipe Journal

Chocolate Nonpareil Drops by Family Around the Table

Chocolate Tart with a Shortbread Crust by Karen’s Kitchen Stories

Double Chocolate Chip Banana Bread by Hardly A Goddess

Easy Homemade Chocolate Cupcakes by Our Good Life

German Chocolate Cake Macarons by A Kitchen Hoor’s Adventures

Healthy Chocolate Truffles by Simple and Savory

Homemade Chocolate Praline Easter Eggs by Sneha’s Recipe

Homemade White Chocolate with Strawberries and Rose Petals by Tara’s Multicultural Table

Sachertorte by A Day in the Life on the Farm

Salted Juniper-Dark Chocolate Panna Cotta by Culinary Adventures with Camilla

Slow-Cooker Sweet Potato Chocolate Mole Soup by Faith, Hope, Love and Luck Survive Despite a Whiskered Accomplice

Foodie Extravaganza celebrates obscure food holidays or shares recipes with the same ingredient or theme every month.

Posting day is always the first Wednesday of each month. If you are a blogger and would like to join our group and blog along with us, come join our Facebook group Foodie Extravaganza. We would love to have you!

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No-Churn Coffee Amaretto Ice Cream with Almond Marshmallows #IceCreamTuesday #MallowMadness

Creamy ice cream is so easy, even without an ice cream machine. This version uses whipping cream and dulce de leche, flavored with espresso powder and Amaretto. 

So here you have it, my first Ice Cream Tuesday post! At the instigation of the great Jenni Field of Pastry Chef Online, we are making ice cream that includes marshmallows in some form. You can find my own almond marshmallow recipe and instructions here.  

Make sure you scroll on down past the recipe to see all of the Ice Cream Tuesday Mallow Madness links! We are all posting today at different times so if a link isn’t live right now, please try back later in the day. 

The ice cream base recipe was adapted from one of Nigella Lawson’s on the BBC website. She makes it look so easy and it really is!  (You may need a VPN set to United Kingdom to watch.) But you can also find instructions here on Nigella.com.  

Ingredients

For the ice cream:

1 2/3 cups or 400ml whipping cream

1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar

2/3 cup or 200g dulce de leche or sweetened condensed milk

2 tablespoons instant espresso powder

2 tablespoons Amaretto liqueur

3 1/2 oz or 100g homemade almond marshmallows from this recipe. 

For the candied almonds:

2 2/3 oz or 75g almonds

1 tablespoon sugar

1 teaspoon butter

Method

In a small heavy saucepan, toast the almonds over a medium low flame until they start turn golden and smell toasted and lovely. Toss frequently to prevent scorching. Turn the fire off and sprinkle the sugar over the nuts.

Stir them around as the sugar melts to make sure they are all coated with the syrup that results. Add in the butter and stir again.

Pour the nuts out onto a greased baking pan, separate them and leave to cool. 

In your stand mixer or with electric beaters, whisk the cream, espresso powder and cream of tartar until the cream thickens.

Add the dulce de leche and whisk until stiff peaks form.

Add the liqueur and whisk again.

Reserve a few marshmallows and almonds to add on top of the ice cream.  Ever so gently, fold in the candied almonds and the marshmallows.

Put in airtight container.

Top with the reserved marshmallows and almonds and freeze for several hours or overnight.

Enjoy! 

Check out all the wonderful creamy, marshmallowy frozen treats we have for you today!

• Traverse City Cherry Cordial Frozen Yogurt from Kirsten of Comfortably Domestic
• Strawberry Marshmallow Ice Cream from Donna of Cookistry
• Horchata Ice Cream with Mocha Mallow Swirl from Allison of Decadent Philistines Save the World
• Kahlua Marshmallows and Marshmallow Sauce from Betsy of Desserts Required
• No-Churn Coffee Amaretto Ice Cream with Almond Marshmallows from Stacy of Food Lust People Love
• Blackberry Cheesecake Swirl Ice Cream from Jeanne of Inside Nana Bread’s Head
• Princess Badass Ice Cream from Sophia of NY Foodgasm
• Strawberry Cheesecake Key Lime Marshmallow Ice Cream from Jenni of Pastry Chef Online
• Frozen Coconut S’mores Bars from Karyn of Pint Sized Baker
• Fudge-Topped Marshmallow Ice Cream from Liz of That Skinny Chick Can Bake
• Strawberry Ice Cream with Marshmallow Swirl and Toasted Walnuts from Dionne of Try Anything Once

And for you visual folks, thanks to Karyn at Pint-sized Baker, we've got clickable photos!

An InLinkz Link-up

Easy Homemade Almond Marshmallows

Homemade marshmallows are actually quite easy to make but I have to warn you that they will spoil you for store-bought marshmallows forever, so wonderful are they. 

I have a few things on my bucket list that I want to make some day. Real puff pastry, ice cream, my friend Ishita’s mustard fish, marshmallows and Jamie Oliver’s wine-braised chicken with grapes, just to name a few. My friend Jenni Field, of Pastry Chef Online, dreamed up an ice cream challenge that would take care of two of those in one fell swoop. She wanted to take her Ice Cream Tuesdays to another level by adding marshmallow in some form and invited a group of us to join her. I could have taken the easy way out and used store bought but I figured it was time to step up and do the marshmallows myself.

Store bought marshmallows are light morsels best set aflame and eaten in front of a campfire, with sticky fingers and ash. These homemade ones are their distant ethereal cousin, the one that shows up at the wedding and makes the groom reconsider his commitment to the bride. The groomsmen fall all over themselves to seat her and the bridesmaids all want to be her. Elderly relatives all nudge each other and remark with awe, how she has grown and blossomed since they last saw her as a gangly, awkward preteen at the family reunion years ago! But you know what? She’s sweet and unassuming, not brash or overbearing, a genuinely nice person that everyone can’t help but like. May I introduce my almond marshmallows? I think you are going to like them.

Ingredients
4 1/2 oz or 125g whole raw almonds
2 tablespoons powdered gelatin
1/2 cup plus 1 tablespoon or 133ml cold water
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon almond extract
1 1/2 cups 0r 340g sugar
1 cup or 240ml corn syrup
1 1/2 tablespoons water
1 cup or 125g powdered sugar
1 cup or 135g cornstarch

Method
Toast your almonds in a small heavy skillet over a medium low flame. Toss or stir the nuts frequently to prevent scorching. The almonds are properly toasted when they are light brown and smell wonderfully nutty. Set aside to cool for a few minutes and then pulse in a food processor until you have small toasted almond crumbs.

Dissolve your gelatin in the cold water in the bowl of your stand mixer or another mixing bowl if using a hand held mixer.

(If your gelatin instructions say to dissolve in hot water, like mine do, heat three of tablespoons of the water and dissolve the gelatin in that. Allow to cool and then gradually add the cold water to your gelatin mixture, stirring continually so it doesn’t lump up on you, then put the gelatin mixture in your mixing bowl and continue as follows.)

My gelatin was made in New Zealand. I have no idea why it is brown but when dissolved, it turned clear. Whew.

Add the salt and almond extract to the mixing bowl with the water and gelatin. Stir well.

Meanwhile, mix your powdered sugar with your cornstarch and set aside.

Spray a half-sheet pan with non-stick spray. Line the pan with cling film, making sure it goes up the sides of the pan as well. Make sure you don’t have any bubbles under the cling film. You want the cling film stuck tight all over the pan.

Now spray the cling film with more non-stick spray and put it on thick. Use a sifter or strainer to cover the whole pan with a good layer of the powdered sugar/cornstarch mixture.

Sprinkle half of the ground almonds over the cornstarch/sugar mixture. Set the pan aside.

In a medium sized heavy bottomed pot, Stir your sugar and corn syrup with about a tablespoon and a half of water and bring to a low boil. Put the lid on and cook for two or three minutes more. Remove the lid and put your candy thermometer in the liquid. Heat till 244°F or 118°C.

When your syrup reaches temperature, pour it carefully down the inside of your mixing bowl.

If you are using a stand mixer, use the whisk attachment or beat on medium for a few minutes.

That's steam, people!

Once it’s all mixed together, turn the knob to high and beat until the mixture triples in volume. This is such fun to watch, as the clear liquid turns to fluffy white stuff.

Use non-stick spray to coat a rubber spatula and use it to scrape the beautiful sticky white stuff into your prepared pan.

Spread the marshmallow cream evenly around the pan, using more spray on your spatula whenever necessary.

Now spray the top of your marshmallow cream liberally.

Sprinkle on the rest of your toasted almond crumbs.  Now use your sifter or strainer again to cover the top of the marshmallow cream with a thick layer of the powdered sugar/ cornstarch mixture. No shiny marshmallow should peek out.  Put it on THICK! Don't be shy.

Set aside, uncovered, for several hours in a cool dry place to set.

When the marshmallow feels spongy yet firm, cut it into squares with a greased knife and coat all the sides in more powdered sugar/cornstarch to stop the pieces from sticking together.

A little tip: After you have cut a few slices and removed them to a big bowl with powdered sugar/cornstarch, you can cut the following slices and roll them over and over on the cling film, which will coat the long cut sides. Since you put a healthy layer of that stuff in the pan, right? Then you just have to coat the short sides as you cut the long pieces into squares.

Jenni was right. These marshmallows are like a whole different thing, compared to store-bought marshmallows. They are soooo good. And soft and fluffy and nutty and divine. She's made a wonderful video of her making marshmallows live that you should watch too.

Check back this Tuesday when I’ll be putting some of them in homemade no-churn (no ice cream machine needed!) coffee Amaretto ice cream, along with some candied almonds.

But don’t worry, this makes plenty enough marshmallows just to eat straight.

Enjoy!

If it just happens to be your helper's seventh birthday when you are making these, share a couple with him.

Pumpkin Hazelnut Marshmallow Muffins #MuffinMonday

This week’s Muffin Monday recipe was left WIDE OPEN.  No specific recipe to recreate, just a main ingredient to include: Pumpkin.  I think the point was Halloween but I decided to go all Southern Christmas on you.

You know those baked yams or sweet potatoes we make for the holidays down south?  You’ve had them:  Baked with brown sugar and cinnamon and nuts?  Plus mini marshmallows sprinkled all over?  (If you haven’t had them, my condolences.) Anyhoo, here they are in muffin form but made much easier because you just have to open a can of pumpkin, which is an excellent substitute for sweet potato, and you are ready to mix it up and bake.

Then again, sometimes the hardest part is opening the can.

Guess whose can opener went in the airfreight shipment to Dubai?  Thank God for my handy husband and his hacksaw.

The whole house smelled like Christmas.  Is it too early for your house to smell like Christmas?  I thought not.

Ingredients
For the muffins
2 cups or 250g plain flour
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup or 95g light brown sugar
1/3 cup or 80ml buttermilk (You can substitute 1 teaspoon of white vinegar and enough milk to make up 1/3 cup or 80ml - which I did.)
2 medium eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/3 cup or 80g unsalted butter, melted and cooled
11 1/2 oz or 330g canned pumpkin (about 3/4 of the regular sized can)
3/4 cup or 120g hazelnuts or pecans (Set aside 12 for the tops of the muffins after roasting)  I used hazelnuts.
1/2 cup or 25g mini marshmallows

For the topping:  About 1/4 cup or 55g sugar mixed with 2 teaspoons cinnamon plus one nut per muffin.  You may not use all the cinnamon sugar but save the balance in a Ziploc for cinnamon toast.  Your family will thank you.

Method
Preheat the oven to 375°F or 190°C and grease your muffin tin well or line with papers.

Pop the nuts in a baking pan and put them in the preheating oven.  Set a timer for three minutes.

Put flour, brown sugar, salt, baking powder, cinnamon and ginger into a large bowl.  Mix and mash the lumps of brown sugar until you have a lovely homogeneous mixture.

Yeah, the cinnamon and ginger aren't there in the photo but they got in the muffins. 

Shake the nuts when the timer goes off and reset it.

In a small bowl, whisk the eggs, buttermilk (or substitute), vanilla and butter together.

Shake the nuts when the timer goes off and reset it.  The brown skins should start coming off as your oven gets up to speed and the nuts start actually toasting.  (If you are using pecans, just remove them from the oven at this point or after they have browned slightly.)

Add the pumpkin to the wet ingredients and whisk to incorporate.

Shake the nuts when the timer goes off.  If they smell like they are toasted and the skins are mostly starting to fall off when you shake the pan, they are probably done.

Pour the nuts into a clean dry tea cloth or towel and rub them until the peels are off and you can pick out the clean nuts.  Keep rubbing until the hazelnuts are all (mostly) peeled.  A little skin won’t kill you, as far as I know.

Set aside 12 nuts to top the muffins and chop the rest roughly.

Pour the wet ingredients into the dry and fold until just mixed through.

Fold in the marshmallows and chopped hazelnuts.

Divide the batter between your muffin cups and then top with a generous sprinkling of cinnamon sugar and one toasted hazelnut each.

Bake in the preheated oven for around 20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean.

Remove and allow to cool for a few minutes before removing the muffins from the tin and cooling further on rack.

May I be the first to say to you, Merry Christmas!   If I am not the first, you need to find some less crazy friends to hang around with.  It’s not even Halloween, for goodness sake!

Enjoy!