Cream Cheese Coffee Muffins #MuffinMonday

Cream cheese coffee muffins are made with espresso granules for great coffee flavor but even better, they have espresso morsels, my new favorite chip!

During most of the pandemic, my only outing was a once-a-week trip to the grocery store. Sometimes it was a quick get-in get-out and no one gets hurt sortie. Other weeks, I took my time and really looked at the options on the shelves. It was one of those second times that I found the Nestlé Tollhouse espresso morsels. 

Maybe they’ve been around a while but they were new to me. I love coffee so how could a coffee chip be anything but good? I’m here to report that they are fabulous! The package says, and I quote: Made with real coffee, no preservatives, no artificial flavors or colors. 

They have the texture of semi-sweet chocolate chips but are full-on coffee flavor instead! If you love coffee, you are going to love these too. 

Cream Cheese Coffee Muffins 

These muffins are the perfect breakfast or snack time treat. Serve them with a cup of coffee, tea or a cold glass of milk.

Ingredients

2 cups or 250g flour

3/4 cup or 150g sugar

2 teaspoons instant espresso granules

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 cup or 170g espresso morsels

2 eggs, at room temperature

8 oz or 227g cream cheese, at room temperature

3/4 cup or 180ml milk

Method

Preheat oven to 350°F or 180°C. Prepare a 12-cup muffin pan by lining it with paper muffin liners.

In a large bowl, whisk the flour, sugar, espresso granules, baking powder and salt together. Set aside 24 espresso morsels and add the rest of them to the dry ingredients and stir to coat the morsels with flour. 

Whisk the eggs in a large bowl then add the cream cheese. Use a whisk to chop the cream cheese into smaller pieces then whisk until smooth and creamy. 

Add in the milk and whisk again to combine. 

Fold the wet ingredients into the dry until just combined. 

Divide the batter between the muffin cups. Top with the reserved coffee morsels.

Bake the muffins for 20-25 minutes or until golden and well-risen.

Remove muffins from muffin pan and leave to cool on a wire rack. 

Enjoy!

It’s Muffin Monday! Check out all the lovely muffins my baking friends are sharing below. 

• Buttermilk Rhubarb Muffins from Jolene's Recipe Journal
• Cream Cheese Coffee Muffins from Food Lust People Love
• Lemon Poppy Seed Muffins from Making Miracles
• Lemon Strawberry Muffins from Magical Ingredients
• Sourdough Cherry Almond Muffins from Zesty South Indian Kitchen
• Strawberry Rhubarb Muffins from A Day in the Life on the Farm

 

#MuffinMonday is a group of muffin loving bakers who get together once a month to bake muffins. You can see all of our lovely muffins by following our Pinterest board. Updated links for all of our past events and more information about Muffin Monday can be found on our home page.

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Salsa Pebre Chileno

Salsa Pebre Chileno is a traditional accompaniment to an asado or barbecue in Chile. It’s made with ripe tomatoes, onion, lime juice and lots of cilantro. Add a little hot sauce for kick! 

When our Sunday FunDay host announced the theme of today’s event – salsa! – I decided to search on Google for a recipe I’ve never heard of. This world is WIDE, people, I want to taste it all. 

Salsa simply means "sauce" in English but I wanted something that could stand alone and not, for example, a curry sauce that you would cook meat in. This meant I actually had to search for the word “salsa” rather than its English translation. A search in Spanish for recetas para salsa, turned up all sorts of great ones. 

When I found the first salsa pebre recipe, I began searching specifically for that recipe title to see if they varied much from cook to cook. There were minor variations among the Chilean bloggers, some adding garlic, others using vinegar instead of lime juice but most were very similar to what I am sharing here. 

Salsa Pebre Chileno

What you need to know is that Chilean pebre is not eaten on top of the grilled meat at a barbecue but on bread warmed on the grill or on salads. It’s also the condiment of choice for Chileans making choripáns – aka chorizo in a bun. This recipe was adapted from several on the interwebs but this one formed the basis: Que Rica Vida. It's in Spanish but for those of you who don't speak the lingo, use Google Translate. 

Ingredients

1/2 medium onion

2 tablespoons fresh lime juice

1 generous bunch cilantro 

2 ripe, firm tomatoes

1 tablespoon canola or other light oil

1/2 teaspoon red hot sauce (or more if you like your pebre spicy)

Salt

Serve salsa pebre on

grilled bread

a toasted bun with chorizo (choripán) like hot dog relish

or alongside grilled meats

Method

Peel the half onion and chop it roughly. Put in a food processor and process until very finely chopped. Transfer to a bowl.

Pour the lime juice over the onion and leave to marinate. 

Wash the cilantro and dry very well. (I use a salad spinner.) Cut off any hard stems and discard them. 

Place the leaves and tender stems in the food processor and chop very finely. Put the cilantro in the bowl with the onion but don’t stir yet. 

Wash the tomatoes and remove the seeds. (You can leave the seeds in but then your salsa is going to be very wet.) Cut the tomatoes into chunks then chop them finely in the processor. 

Place the tomatoes and any juice in the bowl with the cilantro and onion. Add in the oil, hot sauce and salt to taste. Stir to combine well. 

Serve right away or cover the bowl and let it chill in the fridge until ready to serve. 

Enjoy! 

It’s Sunday FunDay and, who knew but May is National Salsa Month so we are sharing salsa recipes or recipes made with salsa as an ingredient for the celebration. Many thanks to our host, Camilla of Culinary Adventures with Camilla. Check out all the links below. 

• 7 Layer Dip by Amy's Cooking Adventures
• Celery Rhubarb Pico de Gallo by Cook with Renu
• Homemade Smooth Taco Sauce by Palatable Pastime
• Mile High Salsa Pie by Making Miracles
• Olive Oil-Poached Salmon Bellies with Cantaloupe-Preserved Lemon Salsa by Culinary Adventures with Camilla
• Pico de Gallo: Classic Tomato Salsa by Our Good Life
• Roasted Jalapeño Salsa by Karen's Kitchen Stories
• Salsa Pebre Chileno by Food Lust People Love
• Three Bean Enchiladas with Corn Salsa by A Day in the Life on the Farm

We are a group of food bloggers who believe that Sunday should be a family fun day, so every Sunday we share recipes that will help you to enjoy your day. If you're a blogger interested in joining us, just visit our Facebook group and request to join.

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Scratch Spaghetti Os with Meatballs

With tiny Italian sausage meatballs and anelli pasta in a rich tomato sauce, these scratch Spaghetti Os are so much better than what you can buy in the can! 

When I was a kid, the Spaghetti Os with meatballs were a treat. (You can buy them without meatballs, but why would you?!) I don’t recall that my mom bought them very often because Hamburger Helper made a meal for the whole family and that can of pasta served pretty much one of us.

The Spaghetti Os slogan was "the neat round spaghetti you can eat with a spoon" and which child didn't want that? It was a favorite for sure. If you grew up outside the US, you might know these as Heinz spaghetti hoops which unfortunately never came with meatballs. 

Fast forward a bunch of years and the only time I really bought Spaghetti Os for my girls was when we had a long flight on our itinerary. When we were living in Paris, a friend took the six-hour flight back to D.C. with her infant and toddler and the elevator that was supposed to bring the food up from the hold for serving malfunctioned. 

Desperate parents of small hungry (crying!) children were beside themselves with no help in sight. Finally, the beleaguered flight attendants served the cold sandwiches that were put on board for the final meal before landing. The restless hoard was fed but this story taught us all a lesson. Do not board a plane with children without also laying in supplies!

 

After that, I not only packed snacky things, but also the small pots (with the pull-off lids) of Spaghetti Os and Mac and Cheese. Sure, they were supposed to be heated in a microwave prior to consumption but hungry girls will eat them at room temperature as well and with relish. 

Scratch Spaghetti Os

For the meatballs, I use fresh hot Italian sausage for the flavor it adds to the sauce. If you prefer, you can use your favorite meatball recipe. When I don’t use sausage meat, this is mine. 

Ingredients

Olive oil

4 cloves  garlic

5 medium ripe red tomatoes

3 oz or 85g tomato paste (half the small can or tin)

3 1/4 cups or just shy of 3/4 liter chicken stock (fresh or made with cubes – either would work)

1/2 teaspoon sugar

Black pepper

1 lb or 450g pasta rings aka anelli or anelletti

1 1/4 lbs Italian sausage, pinched off into small pieces and rolled into tiny balls, like this!

Optional to serve: Grated Parmesan and a sprinkle of chopped parsley

Method

Preheat oven  to 400°F or 200°C. Put the meatballs in a baking pan single file and separated so they will cook evenly. Bake the meatballs for about 10 minutes then turn to broil for a further 5-7 minutes to brown the tops. You want them quite dark so that they will add flavor to the sauce as they simmer in it later. That is a teaspoon to give you an idea of how small you want the meatballs to be.

Remove the pan from the oven and leave to cool tilted a bit to one side so any grease that baked off the meatballs can be easily removed. 

Pour the oil off and then add a little of the hot stock to the pan so you can scrape up the lovely browned bits stuck there and add them to your stock. Use the spatula to get every bit off. 

Peel and chop the garlic finely. 

Heat the olive oil in a large pan. Add in the chopped garlic and let it fry over a low fire for just a few minutes, until it softens slightly. You don’t want it to brown, which makes garlic bitter.

Meanwhile, halve your tomatoes and remove the core and seeds.  Chop the tomato into small pieces. 

Add the chopped tomatoes to the garlic and give the pot a quick stir. Cook over a medium heat for about 5-7 minutes or until the tomatoes begin to soften and the juice starts to come out of them a little. 

Add the stock, the 1/2 teaspoon of sugar, a few good grinds of fresh black pepper and the tomato paste to the pot.

Cook for 20 minutes on a low to medium heat.  

Meanwhile, as the sauce simmers, cook your pasta rings according to package instructions, for about 2 minutes before it would be al dente. (My package said 15-17 minutes for al dente, so I drained them at 13 minutes.) Drain the pasta and reserve a half cup or 120ml of the pasta water. 

Take the pan of sauce off of the stove and allow it to cool for a few minutes. Carefully puree the soup in a blender or with a hand blender straight in the pot until completely smooth. Do not splash and burn yourself! Add the sauce back to the pot and then add in the meatballs. Simmer uncovered for about 10-15 minutes. 

When you are about ready to serve, stir in the cooked pasta rings and cook for about 2 minutes for pasta to reach al dente. If the sauce is too thick, add some of the reserved pasta water. Serve immediately!

 

Since we are making scratch Spaghetti Os, feel free to serve them with freshly grated Parmesan. This is better than your childhood favorite and deserves a sprinkle of cheese and chopped parsley.

Enjoy! 

It’s Sunday FunDay and at my instigation, my fellow bloggers are sharing recipes for homemade dishes that they loved from their childhood. Check out the links!

• Chili Mac from A Day in the Life on the Farm
• Ham and Mushroom Breakfast Burritos from Making Miracles
• Homemade Lorna Doone Cookies from Culinary Adventures with Camilla
• Homemade Wonder Bread from Karen's Kitchen Stories
• K-Mart Sub Sandwiches from Palatable Pastime
• Kempakki Dosa from Sizzling Tastebuds
• Meat Chilly Fry by Sneha's Recipe
• Meatballs with Mushroom Gravy from Amy's Cooking Adventures
• Mum's Buitoni from Mayuri's Jikoni
• Scratch Spaghetti Os with Meatballs from Food Lust People Love

We are a group of food bloggers who believe that Sunday should be a family fun day, so every Sunday we share recipes that will help you to enjoy your day. If you're a blogger interested in joining us, just visit our Facebook group and request to join.

Pin these Scratch Spaghetti Os with Meatballs!

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