Caramel Apple Muffins #MuffinMonday

Apple muffins are wonderful plain, but they are kicked up several notches with the addition of caramel.  Add some cinnamon and you’ve got the perfect fall snack.

When I am counting my blessings, friends in Kuala Lumpur are right near the top of the list, along with family and health.  There are a few things in life that keep me sane, and getting together with folks who share my stories and complete my memory is among them.

I am fortunate to be staying with a dear friend and baking in her KL kitchen this week.  It was like old times as we discussed the muffin recipe and decided on caramel and apples.  She put out the paper muffin cups and I was delighted when I saw her choice because, now, I will always remember where I was and with whom I baked these lovely muffins when I see the photos.  Our friendship goes back to my arrival in KL almost 12 years ago, from the time my younger daughter was in third grade and I volunteered to help with the Girl Scout troop.  That baby girl is now finishing the first semester of her third year at university, to give you some perspective.  That’s a long, long time in a mother’s life!  We all did a lot of laughing and crying and loving and growing up in those many years.  It’s been wonderful to refresh our memories and tell stories on each other and to catch up on all the news.  And bake some muffins.

Ingredients
2 cups flour
1/2 cup sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 egg
1 cup or 240ml milk
1/4 cup or 60ml canola or other light oil
1 Granny Smith or other green tart apple
24 square or 200g caramels, divided

Method
Preheat your oven to 350°F or 180°C and prepare your 12-cup muffin pan by greasing it thoroughly or spraying with non-stick spray or lining it with paper muffin cups.

In a large bowl, mix together the flour, sugar, baking powder, salt and cinnamon and stir well.

In another bowl, whisk together the milk, oil and egg.

Cut half of your caramels into smaller pieces making sure to set aside 12 whole caramels.  Put the cut caramels into the flour mixture and mix so that the caramel pieces are coated with flour and won’t stick together.

Peel and chop your apple into small pieces.

Pour your wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and fold them together until just mixed.

Fold in the apple pieces.

Divide half of the batter evenly among the muffin cups.  Put one caramel in each and push down slightly.

Evenly divide the rest of the batter among the muffins cup, making sure to cover the caramel.

Bake in the preheated oven about 20-25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted just next to the middle comes out clean.  (The middle should have a sticky soft melted toffee, remember.)

Cool on a rack for a few minutes and then remove the muffins to cool completely.

These are the perfect snack or breakfast with a cup of coffee or tea.  Or even a cold glass of milk.

Enjoy!

I even have a helper dog here.  His name is Max. 

Shrimp with Fried Onion Dip Sauce

White wine, sour cream and caramelized onions do indeed make a fabulous dip.  They also make a delicious pasta sauce. 

I recently joined a Facebook group that has resolved to cook and bake from the wonderful cookbook, The New Midwestern Table by Amy Thielen.  Our noble leader asked Amy for permission that was kindly granted.  The first recipe chosen was for a great fried onion dip that will have you throwing your dried onion dip packets away!  The flavors are wonderful and, as I discovered on a recent evening, it also makes a fabulous sauce.  If you'd like to join us, just follow the Facebook link and ask.  You don't have to be a blogger to cook along, you just need to love Amy Theilen's new book.

This recipe has been adapted and expanded from Amy Thielen's Fried Onion Dip.

Ingredients, to serve four
For the dip/sauce:
3 tablespoons clarified butter (Follow these simple instructions here from the fabulous David Lebovitz – starting with 4 tablespoons unsalted butter)
1 onion (about 8 oz or 227g, unpeeled)
3/4 teaspoon sea salt flakes and more, if necessary, at the end
Few good grinds black pepper
1 teaspoon honey
3 cloves garlic
1 small red hot chili pepper
1/4 cup or 60ml dry white wine
3/4 cup or about 185g sour cream
1/4 cup or a little less than 60g cream cheese, at room temperature
1 tablespoon finely chopped fresh chives, plus more for garnish

For the shrimp:
1 1/3 lbs or 600g shrimp or prawns, peeled
Olive oil

For serving:
16 oz or 500g dried pasta

Method
Mince your garlic and chili pepper and chives.  Set aside.  Cut into your onion 1/2-inch or 1cm thick rings.

Heat the clarified butter in a non-stick skillet over medium-high heat.  Add the onions and sprinkle them with the salt and pepper.  Fry the onions on one side until they get brown and caramelized on the bottom then flip them carefully to the other side.

Cook till the other side is caramelized and then turn them over again.   They will probably break apart at this point but that’s okay.  Just keep frying and stirring till you have a nice deep color all over the onion pieces.

Add the garlic and chili pepper with the white wine and the honey.

Simmer until the liquid thickens and just about disappears, which should take about three or four minutes.  Remove from the heat and let cool.

Chop your onion mixture finely with a knife and set aside.

In a medium mixing bowl, mix the sour cream and cream cheese together until they are completely mixed and smooth.  Add in the chopped onion mixture and most of the chives (reserving some for garnish) and mix well.  Check the seasoning and add a more salt, if necessary.

Transfer to a small serving bowl and refrigerate until you are ready to cook your prawns.  Resist the urge to eat the lovely dip with a spoon.

When you are ready to eat, boil your pasta according to package instructions.  While it is cooking, cut your shrimp into bite-sized pieces.

Pop them in a skillet with a little olive oil over medium heat and sauté until they are cooked and turn pinky orange.  This takes just a few minutes.

Add in the fried onion dip and let it melt into a sauce over a low heat.

Serve the shrimp and sauce over your drained pasta.  Garnish with the extra chives, if desired.

Enjoy! 

Indian Corn Pudding with Date Honey for #RandomRecipeChallenge

This simple cornmeal pudding is flavored with date honey but you could easily substitute any syrup you love.  Cooked in a crockpot or slow cooker, it makes an easy, belly-warming sweet finish to any meal.

I’m now in my second go-round of living in the Middle East, but the fact of the matter is that I fear I have barely touched the surface of the ingredients available here. Take date honey, for instance.  I first noticed date honey, or date syrup as it sometimes called, when we moved to Dubai back in November last year but I’d never bought it because I had no idea what to do with it.  Then, last May, on a holiday with my mother in the region, our hotel had a bowl of it out at breakfast.  I put it in my plain yogurt and everyone else was spreading it on buttered toast.  But I still never bought any of my own.  So I was delighted when Dom from Belleau Kitchen set using a local ingredient as our Random Recipe Challenge for this month.  I love Dom’s challenges because they are the impetus I need to try something new, even when sometimes it’s just a recipe in a book I’ve had for years so I bought a big bottle of date honey and prepared to use it in a recipe.

Unfortunately, an EatYourBooks search of date syrup and/or honey showed up zero recipes in my own cookbook collection.  It tastes more like molasses rather than honey or syrup, so I changed the search parameter to molasses and my chosen number lead me a recipe in a book I have never, ever cooked from, Lora Brody’s Slow Cooker Cooking.  I bought it online several years ago meaning for it to be a gift for my elder daughter, along with a crockpot, but she declined the gift idea, saying, quite rightly, that she didn’t need a heavy appliance to lug around.  So I was left with the book and I popped it on my shelf and forgot about it.  It’s actually quite a nice cookbook and I regret neglecting it.  That said, I halved the recipe because I wasn’t sure about a slow cooker sweet dish.  I shouldn’t have worried.  It was delicious, especially with a big slurp of pouring cream.  My husband declared it very good, in fact.  So go ahead and double everything and cook for nine hours.  Live large!  And try something local that is made or grown in YOUR neighborhood.

Click on the badge to see the Random Recipe Challenge rules.

Ingredients
1/4 cup or about 70g yellow cornmeal
2 cups or 275ml whole milk
1/4 cup or 60ml date honey or syrup (or sub molasses/treacle as in the original recipe)
1 tablespoon granulated sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1 tablespoon butter, cut into two pieces, plus extra for greasing slow cooker
1 egg, lightly beaten

Method
In a small mixing bowl, whisk your egg, a half cup of the milk and the date honey. Set aside.

Check out how dark this stuff is! 

Butter the inside of your slow cooker.  Do not turn it on yet.

Place the cornmeal in a medium heavy-bottomed saucepan.  Pour in a half cup of the milk; whisk constantly as you pour, so that the cornmeal does not form lumps.

Add your sugar, salt and baking soda to the egg/milk/molasses bowl and whisk again.  Add this mixture to the saucepan along with the butter and whisk well.

Set the saucepan over medium-high heat and cook the mixture, whisking constantly and making sure to reach into the corners of the pan, until small bubbles start to form on the surface and the mixture starts to thicken.  This takes just a few minutes.

Remove from the heat and immediately add the remaining cup of milk, whisking vigorously to dissolve any lumps.

Pour the mixture into the buttered insert of the slow cooker.

Cover and cook on LOW for about four and a half or five hours, or until the outer edges and top have darkened and the middle just jiggles a little.  Turn off the slow cooker and let the pudding cool slightly, uncovered.

Serve with vanilla ice cream or a good helping of thick pouring cream.

It rather makes its own sauce as well. 

Enjoy!