Sticky Cinnamon Figs - Guest post for Magnolia Days

Figs are sweet all on their own but add a little butter, a little honey and a little heat and they turn even sweeter and syrupy, the perfect accompaniment to mascarpone and pistachios. 

Guest posts are hard.
I don’t know if it’s just me but when I am writing and cooking and taking photographs for someone else’s space, I feel a lot more pressure than when it’s just for me. Not that I don’t care about you, my own readers. I do! And I want the dish to be as tasty as possible, because we are going to eat it. And I want the photos to be wonderful and draw you in. But, if you are here reading, chances are you like what I make or write or the photos I post, or you at least forgive me my mistakes because you know I mean well. Or you are my mother and would love me anyway. (Hi, Mom!) But as a guest writer on another blog, I'll have new eyes on my work that don’t know me. And I’d hate to be found wanting. Call it the middle child syndrome, perhaps, but I want people to like me! I want to be good enough. Can anyone else relate?

So go read my guest post, okay? 
All this moaning is my way of telling you that I have a guest post up today on the wonderful blog Magnolia Days, for my friend and, dare I say, blogging mentor, Renee. Renee has been endlessly generous with her knowledge and advice and kindness over the past three years of my blogging journey. When she asked if I would guest post as she takes a dual milestone birthday celebration trip to Germany with her mother, I jumped at the chance. And then repented in leisure. (See paragraph one above, re: Guest posts are hard.) I made three different recipes because I couldn’t decide what was good enough for a guest post. And, fellow bloggers, just in case I’ve done a guest post for you, know that the anguish was the same. But this time I decided to come public. The chosen recipe is for sticky cinnamon figs and they made the cut because they are sweet and southern, just like Renee.

Check out the figgy honey syrup in the bottom of my baking pan!

Payback is only fair.
Renee has helped me so much that an emphatic “Sure!” was the only right answer. She is instrumental in the smooth running of Sunday Supper and is my partner in crime for Bread Bakers.  If you haven’t met her yet, I encourage you to browse through her extensive list of recipes. Everything I’ve made from Renee’s blog has been great but we especially enjoyed her sesame noodles from a couple of years back and more recently, her No-bake Bourbon Pecan Cookies and Asian Pork Lettuce Cups.

Seriously delicious sesame noodles!

Now please go visit my Sticky Cinnamon Figs and meet my friend, Renee!

Carrot Mascarpone Muffins with Mascarpone Filling

A philosophical question for you:  When is a muffin a muffin and not a cupcake?  I do declare that it is when you abstain from adding frosting to it.  Crumbles are acceptable.  And streusel toppings.  And even glaze, but a muffin cannot have thick icing or frosting or whatever you like to call the sweet whipped stuff made with butter and sugar.  Because then it is a cupcake.  I realize this may be pedantic of me, but there you are.  I’ll own it.

Which brings me to this week’s muffin.  My younger daughter requested a carrot muffin because our ingredient this week is mascarpone.  And nothing goes better with carrot cake than cream cheese icing.  But, she knows how I feel about icing on muffins.  (See above.)  So she suggested I add a mascarpone filling.  That girl is a genius and knows the way around her mother.  These were perfect!

Ingredients
6 oz or 170g carrots
1 1/2 cups or 190g flour
3/4 cup or 170g sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt + pinch for filling
8 oz or 226g mascarpone (Divided – half for muffins, half for filling)
1/2 cup or 120ml canola oil
1 egg
1/4 cup or about 30g powdered sugar (for filling)
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Method
Peel your carrots and cut them into short lengths.  Boil until tender.  Drain and mash with a potato masher until fairly smooth.  Set aside to cool.

Preheat your oven to 375°f or 190°C and prepare a 12-cup muffin pan by greasing it or lining the pan with muffin cups.

In a large mixing bowl, combine your flour, sugar, baking powder, cinnamon and salt.

In a small bowl, combine the egg, oil, cooled carrots and half of the mascarpone.  Mix thoroughly.  You will have to mash the mascarpone to get it mixed in.

Add the wet ingredients to the dry and stir until just mixed.

Divide the thick batter between the muffin cups in your prepared pan.

Bake for 15-20 minutes or until golden and a toothpick inserted comes out clean.

Remove from the oven and allow to cool.

Remove the muffins from the pan and cool completely on a rack.

Meanwhile, mix the other half of the mascarpone with the powdered sugar, vanilla and a pinch of salt.  Refrigerate the filling until the muffins are completely cool.

When your muffins are cool, use a sharp knife to cut a circle out of the middle of the muffin.

Lift the core out of the muffin and fill with a small spoonful of the sweetened mascarpone.

Cut the bottom off of the little muffin plug you removed and stuff the top in back on top of the filling.  Eat the pieces you cut off.  Baker’s privilege.  Remark to yourself that those are some fine bits of carrot mascarpone muffin.

Enjoy!  If you are really feeling the need for carrot cake with cream cheese icing, head over here.

Muffin Monday is an initiative by Baker Street, a culinary journey of sharing a wickedly delicious muffin recipe every week.  Drop Anuradha a quick line to join her on this journey to make the world smile and beat glum Monday mornings week after week.  Make sure to go and check out what my fellow bloggers have come up with this week!

Plus learn all you ever need to know about muffins, right here at Muffin 101.