Muffins and Rolls

I got up early this morning - yeah, that means 10:00 - and decided to make my mom the muffins that she has been pestering me about.  She is apparently obsessed with the glazed doughnut muffins that I have made a few times before.  Since she is so picky, it's easy to just make her her favorites sometimes!  Luckily they are quick enough to whip up.  Since Mom demands these quite often, I will give you guys the recipe right here in the blog; she swears by them because they are cakey, soft, and spicy, and she is in love with nutmeg and cinnamon.  This was the first time I used my new silicone baking cups on them, and I am in love with them possibly more than the muffins.  No tedious cleaning of a muffin tin, no greasing, and they're dishwasher safe!  Wahoo!

Then tonight I ended up being home alone.  I wasn't sure what to do with myself, and then it hit me that it has been way too long since I last worked with yeast.  A quick scan through my yeasty pins, and I decided to make no-knead dinner rolls.  Now, to me, no-knead is really not as fabulous as it might be for normal people.  I love kneading bread (how did I get to be such a dork?).  But I thought I would give it a try since it says that it's a good bread for beginners.  I am not a beginner, but as I start to hear about more and more people actually reading my blog and trying out recipes (!!!!!), I figured it wouldn't hurt to try a few easy yeast recipes.  I cannot stress enough how amazing your house will smell when you bake yeast breads, and really, although yeast seems scary before you start working with it, it is actually quite easy.  There is a lot of time just sitting around waiting, and lots of sticky, doughy fingers :)  If you haven't made your own breads before, try this recipe.  Trust me.  Easy, and delicious.  From start to finish including rising time, these took about 3 hours and were pretty simple to make.  It makes a very sticky, soft dough, which was kind of fun to roll into a log and then cut it with my nifty pastry cutter (thanks Tuck and Linny!)  I did check my rolls in the oven when they still had about 10 minutes, and they were browning a bit too fast, so I tented them with foil like the recipe suggests.  I recommend checking your rolls after around 20 minutes just to be safe.  They came out perfect: hot, buttery, fluffy and delicious.  Unfortunately I am the only one around to enjoy them, but something tells me they will be a fabulous roll to house my chicken salad for lunch tomorrow (by the way, I have legitimately been living on that chicken salad for every lunch and dinner for the past two days.  Amazing).

Ran out of eggs tonight, and since I was home alone with Dad, that meant no more baking for me.  I have plenty of ideas for tomorrow though :)

Recipes:
no-knead dinner rolls

glazed doughnut muffins

from My Baking Addiction, adapted from King Arthur Flour

Ingredients:
For the Batter
1/4 cup butter
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/3 cup brown sugar
2 large eggs
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 teaspoons ground nutmeg
1 teaspoon cinnamon
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 2/3 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup milk

For the Glaze
3 tablespoons butter; melted
1 cup confectioners’ sugar
3/4 teaspoon vanilla
2 tablespoons hot water

Directions1) Preheat the oven to 425°F. Lightly grease a standard muffin tin.  Or use your amazing silicone baking cups :)

2) In a medium-sized mixing bowl, cream together the butter, vegetable oil, and sugars till smooth.
3) Add the eggs, beating to combine.

4) Stir in the baking powder, baking soda, nutmeg, cinnamon, salt, and vanilla.

5) Stir the flour into the butter mixture alternately with the milk, beginning and ending with the flour and making sure everything is thoroughly combined.

6) Spoon the batter evenly into the prepared pan, filling the cups nearly full.

7) Bake the muffins for 15 to 17 minutes, or until they’re a pale golden brown and a cake tester inserted into the middle of one of the center muffins comes out clean.

8.) In a medium bowl, prepare the glaze by mixing together the melted butter, confectioners’ sugar, vanilla and water. Whisk until smooth.

9.) When muffins have cooled slightly, dip the muffin crown into the glaze and allow the glaze to harden. At this point, you can leave them as is or go for the double dip. I glazed my muffins twice, and I even drizzled the extra glaze over a couple of lucky triple-dippers.

10.) Serve warm, or cool on a rack and wrap airtight. Muffins will keep at room temperature for about a day.