Brown Sugar Browned Butter Maple Muffins

Browned butter and brown sugar add a depth and richness to these maple syrup muffins that make them perfect for a Sunday morning brunch or midmorning snack. 

Here’s a confession guaranteed to get me disowned by any Canadians that may have once loved me:  At our house, we use Aunt Jemima Butter Lite syrup on waffles and pancakes and French toast.  In fact, on anything that would normally require maple syrup.  Truth is, I’ve never done a side-by-side taste comparison with the real thing because we love our Aunt Jemima.  It's one of things I've hauled in great quantities to the various countries we've lived over the last 26 years. It tastes like home.  It’s sweet but not too sweet, and that added butter flavor (Yeah, I know it doesn’t have real butter and the flavoring will probably be found to cause horrible cell mutations someday but for now, we are blissful in our ignorance.) makes adding butter optional.  If anyone wants to give me a bottle of the real stuff, I promise to keep an open mind and perform a blindfolded taste test.  But just know that until then, when I say “maple,” I really mean Aunt Jemima Butter Lite.  Feel free to substitute your favorite syrup.

Ingredients
2 cups or 250g flour
1/2 cup, packed, or 100g dark brown sugar
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup or 120ml milk
1/3 cup browned butter, at room temperature (Start with 7 tablespoons or 100g of butter and follow these easy instructions.)
3/4 cup or 180ml maple syrup
1 large egg

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, brown sugar, baking powder and salt and stir well.

In another bowl, whisk together the milk, browned butter, syrup and egg.

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

Bake in the preheated oven about 20-25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean.

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

Enjoy!

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Roasted Butternut Squash with Balsamic Vinegar Honey Butter

Lots of recipes call for butternut squash to be peeled before roasting but I have found that the peel is actually quite tender and deliciously edible so I like to leave it on.  It adds fiber as well as flavor. 

After the indulgent recipes of Cookie Week, I am delighted to tell you that I’ve got an easy, healthy dish for you.  #SundaySupper is celebrating winter squash so I made one of our family favorites.  I’ve been roasting pumpkin and butternut squash for several years now, sometimes just drizzled with olive oil and a pinch of sea salt, and sometimes fancied up with spices (Cumin and/or cinnamon work beautifully!) or sprinkled with minced garlic with a pat of butter in the hole.  No matter the additions, it is always delicious.  And nutritious.  I hope you give it a try!

Ingredients to serve four
2 tablespoons butter
1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
1 teaspoon olive oil
1 teaspoon honey
2 small butternut squash (About 15 1/2oz or 440g each)
Sprinkle of sea salt flakes
Green onion tops for garnish, if desired

Method
Preheat your oven to 400°F or 200°C.

In a microwave-safe bowl, combine the vinegar, olive oil and honey with your two tablespoons of butter.  Melt your butter with a quick couple of zaps of perhaps 10 seconds each in the microwave and stir well to combine.

Cut the stem off of your butternut squash and then cut the squash in half and scoop out the seeds.

Put your four halves in a baking pan and drizzle the vinegar honey butter mixture all over the squash.  Divide the remaining mixture between the wells in the squash.

Roast in the preheated oven until a fork goes in the thickest part quite easily.  This should take between 45 and 60 minutes.

Remove from the oven and sprinkle each butternut squash half with sea salt flakes.  Garnish with green onion tops, if desired.

Enjoy!

Ginger Lemon Snaps with Ginger Glaze

Ginger and lemon are best mates, as the lovely Jamie Oliver would say. The warmth of the fresh ginger is enhanced in this pretty cookie by the addition of bits of crystallized ginger and a bitey ginger glaze on top and brightened beautifully by the sharp fresh lemon juice and zest.

Ginger Lemon Snaps with Ginger Glaze - Click here to print recipe

Ingredients
For two and a half dozen cookies:
3 1/2 cups or 440g flour
2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
Zest of one medium lemon
4 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
1 small knob fresh ginger (about 1 oz or 15g after peeling)
1/3 cup or 75g unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 cup or 200g light brown sugar
2 eggs

For decorating: About 2 oz or 60g crystallized ginger plus 1 1/2 tablespoons sugar to separate the sticky bits when chopped

For the ginger glaze:
2/3 cup or about 85g powdered sugar
1 teaspoon ground ginger
Pinch salt
1 1/2 - 3 teaspoons milk

Method
Preheat oven to 375°F or 190°C and prepare your baking pan by greasing lightly or lining with parchment paper. A dab of butter or a quick shot of non-stick spray under the paper will keep it from sliding around on the pan.

In a medium-sized bowl, combine your flour, baking powder, soda, salt and lemon zest.  Set aside.

Chop your crystallized ginger into little bits and put them in a small bowl with the 1 1/2 tablespoons sugar. Rub the ginger and sugar between your fingers until all the bits are coated with the sugar and no longer stick together. Set aside.

Peel and grate your fresh ginger.

With electric beaters or in your stand mixer, beat the sugar and brown sugar until light and fluffy. This takes just a couple of minutes.

Add in the eggs and beat again. 

Your grated ginger and lemon juice should go in now. Beat again for just a few seconds. 

Add the flour mixture in TWO lots, mixing well in between.

Scoop one tablespoon of dough out onto your prepared cookie sheet for each cookie. If you are using an actual tablespoon, you can roll them into balls and then flatten them for a more uniform appearance.

Sprinkle the top of each dough disk with crystallized ginger bits and sugar.  Press them down a little bit into the dough to stop them falling off after baking. 

Bake for 10-12 minutes or until the cookies are golden on the bottom and set on top. 

Remove from the oven and allow to cool for a few minutes in the pan and them put them on a wire rack to cool completely.  

Meanwhile, make your glaze by combining the powdered sugar, ground ginger and the pinch of salt.  Add milk a tiny bit at a time, stirring very well in between, until you reach drizzling consistency.  You may not use all the milk. 

I like to use a piping bag for more uniform drizzling of glaze but you can also put your glaze in a plastic bag and cut off one tiny corner for the same effect.  When the cookies are completely cool, drizzle on the glaze.

Enjoy! 

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