Cinnamon and Brown Sugar Buttermilk Muffins #MuffinMonday

Simple, buttery cinnamon muffins, sweetened with dark brown sugar, smell gorgeous in the oven and taste even better once you get them out.

I gotta tell you. Summer’s hard. I want to be everywhere, see everyone, but it just doesn’t seem to happen like I’d like it to. A good friend from my Kuala Lumpur days was in Houston this week and things piled up and I completely forgot about her Facebook message and missed seeing her. Now I don’t even know how to apologize. Because I did dearly want to spend time with her and “I forgot” seems like the worst insult, however unintentional.

Houston is home base for a few weeks each summer, and I make sure that the whole family sees all the doctors and dentists, etc. for annual check ups. That way the medical records have continuity despite our expat status and many moves all around the world. Our girls have seen the same eye doctor since elder daughter was three years old and she is now 23. Same with the dentist and pediatrician (although they’ve moved on from the pediatrician) and I still see the OB/GYN who saw me through my pregnancy with her. And my own childhood dentist. It just makes sense, but it does make for a hectic few weeks, getting all the appointments scheduled, while trying to spend quality time with friends and family and doing the shopping for new clothes, shoes, etc.

So, to my friends in Houston: If I haven’t seen you yet, you are on the list! And if you don’t hear from me, don’t hesitate to call or send me a message. It’s not that I don’t love you. I’m just busy chasing my own tail.

And, on Mondays, I'm making muffins.

Ingredients
For the muffin batter:
2 cups or 250g all purpose flour
3/4 cup or 170g dark brown sugar
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
3/4 cup or 180ml buttermilk (or 2 teaspoons lemon juice or vinegar and top up to 3/4 cup with milk)
1/2 cup or 115g unsalted butter, melted and cooled
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 large eggs

For the topping:
3 tablespoons sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon

Method
Preheat your oven to 350°F or 180°C and grease your 12-cup muffin pan or line with muffin papers.

In a large bowl mix together your flour, dark brown sugar, baking powder, salt and cinnamon.

In another bowl, whisk your buttermilk, melted butter, vanilla and eggs.

Pour your wet ingredients into your dry ingredients and stir until just combined.

Using a scoop or a tablespoon, distribute the batter among the muffin cups.

Mix the three tablespoons of sugar with one teaspoon of cinnamon and sprinkle liberally over all of the muffin cups.

Bake for 20-25 minutes or until golden.

Remove from the oven and allow to cool for a few minutes.  Remove the muffins from the muffin pan and cool further on a rack.

Enjoy!  How do you spend your summer holidays?

Potato and Leek Bake

Side dishes that can be served straight from the baking pan are so easy to bring along to barbecues and potlucks. Best of all this creamy, cheesy dish with potatoes and leeks is as delicious at room temperature as it is piping hot. Just don’t leave it unrefrigerated too long before eating. 

Despite my years abroad as a child, in some ways I led a sheltered life. Vegetables that are staples and taken for granted in other countries, like parsnips, leeks and fresh artichokes didn’t cross my radar until I was a grown up of 24 years old, already married and living in Sydney, Australia. That said, my family ate quite a few things that were perhaps unfamiliar to other people, like mirleton, collard greens and sweet spaghetti. (Full disclosure: The grownups ate spaghetti with sweet cheese sauce, made with sugar and melted American cheese. I thought it was nasty but my mother, father and grandparents, aunts, uncles, etc. loved it.)

My food repertoire has expanded greatly since those days (although I still eschew the sweet spaghetti) and leeks have become one of my favorite things. Their mild oniony flavor makes them an excellent addition to any potato dish. I am going to give you approximate measures of what I use but know that one more potato or one more leek – or even if you want to hum a few other vegetables in with the leeks as they sauté – it’s all good.

Ingredients
2 large leeks, hard green parts removed (about 10 oz or 285g)

1 large knob butter (about one heaping tablespoon)
Drizzle olive oil
4 medium potatoes (about 10oz or 285g)
3/4 cup  or 180ml heavy cream
1 egg yolk
Sea salt
Freshly ground black pepper
3/4-1 oz or 25-30g Parmesan, freshly grated

Method
Wash your leeks thoroughly and then dry them as best you can in a colander or on a towel. Slice off and discard the ends with the roots. Cut them into lengths of about 1 inch or 2 centimeters.

Peel your potatoes, cut them in chunks.

Preheat your oven to 350°F or 180°C and grease a casserole dish big enough to hold your leeks and potatoes in a single layer.  Set aside.

Put your butter in a skillet with a drizzle of olive oil and add the leeks. Sauté over a medium flame until they are turning golden in places. This will get rid of any extra water from the washing.

Now add the potatoes to the skillet and sauté for a few minutes until they are also turning golden in places.

Spoon the leeks and potatoes into your prepared baking dish.

Whisk your egg yolk into the cream and season with a good sprinkle of sea salt and freshly ground black pepper.

Pour the cream/yolk mixture over the potatoes and leeks.

Top with the Parmesan and another sprinkle of black pepper.

Bake for about 20-25 minutes in your preheated oven or until the cheese is well browned and the dish is bubbling.

Enjoy! Hope this rich side dish becomes your family favorite as well.

Cherry Sweet Bread Twist for #TwelveLoaves

Sweet yeast dough filled with cherry jam and fresh cherries and baked into a golden twist is great for breakfast, brunch or tea time. In fact, anytime at all.

I’ve spoken here before about my love of cherries and summer and Paris so it won’t come as a surprise to a lot of you, but one of the things I most look forward to when I am back in the States for summer holidays, is cherries. I pick up big boxes of them at Costco and eat and eat and eat cherries till I just can’t eat any more. Then I eat some more. In the non-cherry growing places that we have been living lately, they are crazy expensive and I can’t bring myself to pay the price, even as a treat. The point of this whole long story is that I was thrilled when cherries were chosen as the Twelve Loaves theme/ingredient for June. Because I would be in Houston and could buy fresh cherries. HA! I guess I am too early because Costco doesn’t have them. And I made the rounds of my local supermarkets and kept coming up empty handed. Things were starting to get desperate and my Twelve Loaves deadline was looming, not to mention my growing depression over no summer cherries. Finally, on Sunday night we were at my sister’s for my mother’s birthday celebration and I was telling my woeful cherry-bereft tale (My family is very kind to put up with my food blogger problems.) when my sister said that HER nearby grocery store had cherries. Score! (Just don’t ask me what I had to pay for them. Desperate times, people!)

Ingredients
1 packet (1/4oz or 7g) active dry yeast
1/3 cup or 70g sugar
3/4 cup or 180ml very warm water
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon salt
3 – 3 1/2 cups or 375-440g flour plus more for kneading and sprinkling on your work surface
1 egg
1/4 cup or 60g butter, melted then cooled
1 cup or 310g good quality cherry preserves
12 oz or 340g ripe cherries

Method
Put yeast in a large mixing bowl with one teaspoon of the sugar and pour in the warm water. Let stand until foamy, about five minutes. If your yeast doesn't foam, discard and start over with new yeast.

Add in the vanilla, one cup or 125g of the flour and the rest of the sugar.  Beat until thoroughly mixed and you have a thin batter.

See that stuff on the left? Foamy yeast.

Add the cooled melted butter and the egg to the batter. Beat again.

Add in the next two cups of flour, one at a time, mixing with each addition.

When the dough gets too stiff to use beaters, switch to the bread hook or turn it out onto the counter top and knead by hand.

Continue kneading until the dough is elastic and supple.  Roll it into a ball and put it in a greased bowl (use butter or canola oil) and let rise in a warm, draft-free place until doubled in bulk, 30 minutes - one hour.

Meanwhile, stem and pit your cherries and chop them roughly.

I looked like someone had been slashing at my hands with a big knife. It was a blood bath!

When the rising time is up, punch down the dough and roll it out on a lightly floured surface, into a rectangle about 12 x 16 inches or 30 x 40cm.

Spread the preserves all over the dough with the back of a spoon.  Sprinkle on the chopped cherries.

Now roll the dough up from the long side.

Using a sharp knife, cut the roll in half lengthwise. Here’s where it gets messy because we are going to twist the two lengths together.

Turn the half rolls so the cut sides face up and twist the dough ends together on one side. Tuck them under. Gently lift one half and place it over its neighbor.

Then lift the other half and place it over its neighbor. Poke cherries back in where they try to escape as you go along. And they will try. I like to think mine would have turned out neater if I didn’t stop and wash my hands and take a photo between each maneuver, which gave it time to slump and open and release cherries.

Continue until you reach the end of the two halves, then pinch the ends together and turn them under.

Carefully transfer the whole thing to a sheet of parchment paper cut to fit your baking pan, then slide it into your pan.

Tidy up by putting escaping cherries back in the folds and using a paper towel or kitchen roll to wipe the parchment clean of jam around the dough. More is going to leak out while it bakes but we can’t worry about that.

Put in a warm place for the second rise of about 45 minutes.

When the time is almost up, preheat your oven to 375°F or 190°C.

Bake your loaf in the preheated oven about 35-40 minutes or until it is golden brown. Check it about halfway through. If it’s browning too fast, cover with foil for the remainder of the baking time. Do as I say, not as I do. As you can see, mine’s a bit too brown. Ironically, I was busy writing these instructions while I let it overbake.

Enjoy! My mother and younger daughter assured me that, looks aside, it was still delicious.

If you love cherries like I love cherries, this month’s Twelve Loaves is for you! Check out all the gorgeous cherry recipes from my fellow bakers:

• Buns with Cherries and Beetroot wrapped in Bacon from Luisa of Rise of the Sourdough Preacher
• Cherry-Almond Focaccia from Lora of Cake Duchess
• Cherry Almond Sweet Rolls from Renee of Magnolia Days
• Cherry Almond Twists from Dionne of Try Anything Once Culinary
• Cherry English Muffins from Karen of Karen's Kitchen Stories
• Cherry Chocolate Hazelnut Muffins from Alice of Hip Foodie Mom
• Cherry Cream Cheese Danish from Heather of girlichef
• Cherry Oatmeal Muffins from Kathya of Basic N Delicious
• Cherry Quick Bread from Holly of A Baker's House
• Cherry Sweet Bread Twist from Stacy of Food Lust People Love
• Cherry Swirl Overnight Sweet Rolls from Donna of Cookistry
• Double Cherry Muffins from Liz of That Skinny Chick Can Bake
• Gluten Free Cherry Almond Muffins with Streusel Topping from Sherron of Simply Gourmet
• Dried Cherry and Mahlab Scones from Felice of All That's Left Are the Crumbs
• Sweet Cherry Rolls with Almond Cream Cheese Glaze from Renee of Kudos Kitchen by Reneé

Would you like to join us this month? Choose a recipe featuring cherries of any kind - fresh, dried, canned, jam, or preserves. Whatever you bake (yeasted, quick bread, crackers, muffins, grissini, braids, flatbreads, etc.) have fun and let's have a delicious month of bread with cherries. Let's get baking!

If you’d like to add your recipe to the collection with the Linky Tool this month, here’s what you need to do!

1. When you post your Twelve Loaves bread on your blog, make sure that you mention the Twelve Loaves challenge in your blog post; this helps us to get more members as well as share everyone's posts. Please make sure that your bread is inspired by the theme!

2. Please link your post to the linky tool at the bottom of my blog. It must be a bread baked to the Twelve Loaves theme.

3. Have your Twelve Loaves bread that you baked this June 2014, posted on your blog by June 30, 2014.

#TwelveLoaves is a monthly bread baking party created by Lora from Cake Duchess.  #TwelveLoaves runs so smoothly thanks to Renee from Magnolia Days and Liz from That Skinny Chick Can Bake.