Monday, May 11, 2015

Blackberry Cream Cheese Muffins #MuffinMonday

Blackberry Cream Cheese Muffins are sweet muffins made with fresh blackberries, small chunks of cream cheese and lemon zest. They are perfect for breakfast or snack time. You wanna put a glaze on ‘em, go ahead, but they don’t need it.

Food Lust People Love: Blackberry Cream Cheese Muffins are sweet muffins made with fresh blackberries, small chunks of cream cheese and lemon zest. They are perfect for breakfast or snack time. You wanna put a glaze on ‘em, go ahead, but they don’t need it.



The last time I made blackberry muffins with cheese, we were still living in Egypt and they were savory with goat’s cheese and thyme. The blackberries added little bites of sweet that were very welcome and worked beautifully with the goat’s cheese.

This time I decided to go sweet, but not too sweet since, remember, these are muffins, not cupcakes. But I still felt the need to add a little something extra and cream cheese is perfect. We put it in savory dishes; we add it to cheesecakes and other desserts. Delicious either way.

Ingredients
2 cups or 250g flour
1/2 cup or 100g sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt
3/4 cup or 180ml milk
1/2 cup or 120ml canola or other light oil
2 eggs
Zest 1 lemon
3 1/2 oz or 100g cream cheese
3 1/2 oz or 100g fresh blackberries

Method
Preheat your oven to 350°F or 180°C and prepare your 12-cup muffin tin by lightly rubbing it with oil or use non-stick spray to coat or lining it with paper liners.  When I am baking with cheese, I tend to forgo the papers because the cheese can stick to it.

In a large mixing bowl, whisk together your flour, sugar, baking powder and salt. Then whisk the milk, oil and eggs together in a smaller mixing bowl.

Cut the cream cheese into cubes and add them to the flour mixture. Stir well to coat.


Cut the large blackberries in half or thirds, leaving any little ones whole.

Set aside 12 pieces for popping on top of the muffins before baking and put the rest in the flour bowl. Once again, stir well to make sure the blackberries are coated with flour.



Add your lemon zest to the dry ingredients and stir again.


Pour your wet ingredients into your dry ones and fold until just combined.



Divide the batter between the muffin cups and top with the reserved blackberry pieces.



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

Food Lust People Love: Blackberry Cream Cheese Muffins are sweet muffins made with fresh blackberries, small chunks of cream cheese and lemon zest. They are perfect for breakfast or snack time. You wanna put a glaze on ‘em, go ahead, but they don’t need it.


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

Food Lust People Love: Blackberry Cream Cheese Muffins are sweet muffins made with fresh blackberries, small chunks of cream cheese and lemon zest. They are perfect for breakfast or snack time. You wanna put a glaze on ‘em, go ahead, but they don’t need it.


Enjoy!

Pin Blackberry Cream Cheese Muffins!

Food Lust People Love: Blackberry Cream Cheese Muffins are sweet muffins made with fresh blackberries, small chunks of cream cheese and lemon zest. They are perfect for breakfast or snack time. You wanna put a glaze on ‘em, go ahead, but they don’t need it.
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Sunday, May 10, 2015

Bourbon Peach Frozen Yogurt


Creamy Greek-style yogurt and canned peaches, blended together with sugar, fresh lemon juice and a touch of bourbon make a wonderful frozen treat everyone will enjoy! Especially my mother. 

My mom is on my subscribers list so she gets every new post by email. (Hi, Mom!) She doesn’t comment here on the blog much but she sends me her thoughts by return email and those often include the request that I make the recipe for her next time we are together. Or some additional family history is that is pertinent to my story. I love that this space is a place we can connect, even when I live so far away. And, because she is subscribed to the feed from other blogs as well, sometimes she shares those posts with me, which brings to mind a quote from Nobel laureate, François Mauriac:

“’Tell me what you read and I'll tell you who you are’ is true enough, but I'd know you better if you told me what you reread.”

In this new day and age, I’d change that to say, “I'd know you better if you told me what you share.”

I’ve gotten to know my mother better from what she shares. And she has made it amply clear that peach is her favorite fruit. Also, she adores thick Greek yogurt. So, for Sunday Supper’s Mother’s Day event, I decided to create a frozen peach yogurt in her honor. It’s creamy, it’s peachy and I know she’d love it. And I’ll be making it again next month when we are together again! (You don’t even need to ask, Mom. Happy Mother’s Day! I love you!)

Note: The bourbon flavor is extremely subtle but the alcohol does help the frozen yogurt stay creamy.

Ingredients
1 large can (29 oz or 825g, drained weight 16.9 oz or 480g) peach halves in light syrup
2 1/2 cups or 625g plain whole milk Greek yogurt
1/2 cup or 100g sugar
1/4 cup or 60ml fresh lemon juice
2 tablespoons bourbon

Method
Drain the peaches well and discard the light syrup. (Or use it to sweeten iced tea!)


Set aside three or four peach halves and chop the rest into chunks.



Put the chopped peaches, yogurt, sugar, lemon juice and bourbon in a food processor or blender and purée till the peaches are in tiny, tiny pieces.



Slice the reserved peaches.



Pour the creamy mixture into a bowl or plastic container and chill it in the refrigerator or freezer until very cold but still pourable.

Scrape it into your ice cream maker and follow manufacturer’s instructions.



Put the frozen yogurt in a freezer friendly sealable container and stir in a little more than half of the sliced peaches.



Top the mixture with the rest of the sliced peaches and put the container in the freezer.

Remove from the freezer about 10 minutes before you are ready to serve.



Once it has thawed slightly, scoop into bowls or pretty glasses to serve.



Enjoy!

Many thanks to Camilla of Culinary Adventures with Camilla for hosting today’s great Sunday Supper theme. If you are still looking for Mother’s Day menu inspiration, you’ve come to the right place! And Happy Mother's Day, everyone!

Celebratory Sips
Starters and Salads
Hearty Mains
Treats and Sweets



Wednesday, May 6, 2015

Zucchini-Wrapped Cheesy Pea Burgers #FoodieExtravaganza

Fresh peas, goat cheese and Parmesan seasoned with garlic, lemon zest and loads of fresh basil make a flavorful patty, even before wrapping in zucchini and grilling!

This month I am hosting the Foodie Extravaganza party and so I have the privilege of choosing the food holiday we are going to celebrate. I had a look at the calendar and couldn’t even consider any of the other options when I saw that May is National Hamburger Month! Perfect for writing about a great recipe that I made last summer and have just been itching to share. Finally, it’s getting to be grilling weather again in the rest of the northern hemisphere!

Now burgers don’t have to be beef! Or even meat. There are a lot of wonderful tasty vegetables and legumes that can be made into patties, grilled and popped on a bun. I make a mean lentil burger, for instance, with cooked Puy lentils, mozzarella and smoked paprika. But this recipe is pretty much straight out of the Waitrose supermarket magazine which they were giving out free at the checkout when we were in the Channel Islands. The original ingredient list called for specific store products, like Waitrose British Blacktail eggs. Well, I don’t know my laying hen varieties but I figure, when it comes to eggs, any fresh one, preferably free range, will do.


Make sure to scroll on down to the bottom of my recipe to see all the great hamburger recipes we have for you today! And happy National Hamburger Month!

Ingredients - makes four patties
5 1/3 oz or 150g fresh hulled peas, blanched
2 1/2 oz or 70g soft goat's cheese
1 egg
1 clove garlic
Good bunch fresh basil, leaves picked from the stems
3 1/2 oz or 100g fresh breadcrumbs
1 oz or 30g Parmigiano Reggiano, grated
Grated zest 1 lemon
8 oz or 2 medium zucchini or courgettes
Olive oil, for brushing on before grilling

To serve: four buns, tomato, mayonnaise, sliced purple onion or any of your other favorite burger toppings

Method
Put your peas, goat cheese, egg and garlic and in a big bowl and blend it all together until smooth with a hand blender. Or use a food processor.



Add in the fresh breadcrumbs and blend (or process) again.


Next the basil leaves go in.



Then the Parmesan and lemon zest.



Thinly slice the zucchini with a potato peeler.

Arrange them into crosses on a large piece of parchment paper on your work surface. My zucchini must have been shorter than the ones they used in the magazine because I had to overlap them in the middle to wrap all the way around.

Form your cheesy pea mixture into four patties and lay one on each of zucchini crosses. Lay a final slice of zucchini on each one and fold the ends under the patty.



Fold the rest of the slices up and over the patty. They may not be pretty but they will be tasty.



Put these, covered in cling film, into the refrigerator until you are ready to grill.

When you are ready to grill, light the charcoal and leave it until the coals are white and heat is uniform.

Brush one side of the patties with olive oil and lay each patty, oil side down, on a small square of aluminum foil. Brush the tops with oil.



Place these on the grill and cook for about four or five minutes.

Check that the underside of the patties are browning nicely.

Turn the patties over and carefully peel off the foil.

Cook on that side until the patties are nicely browned.

Turn the patties a couple of more times to make sure they are browned evenly and are cooked through.

Serve on toasted buns with mayonnaise, sliced tomato and onion.



Enjoy!

And my husband is so good on the Weber that I asked him to grill baby gem lettuces and I made this salad to go along side the burger. Isn't it pretty?



Check out all the delicious burgers we have for you today!


Foodie Extravaganza is where we celebrate obscure food holidays or cook and bake together with the same ingredient or theme each month. This month we celebrate National Hamburger Month by serving up burgers of all kinds.

Posting day is always the first Wednesday of each month. If you are a blogger and would like to participate in the next Foodie Extravaganza, just go to our Facebook page to join. We would love to have you!

Follow our Foodie Extravaganza Pinterest board for past events and more deliciousness!