Whole Wheat Orange Olive Oil Rosemary Muffins

From a random fruity cake recipe- that looked delicious- I was inspired to make this muffin. I was just going to bake the cake in muffin tins, with peaches or something, but muffins with fruit in them don't hold up more than a couple of days in the fridge. They start to get soft and mushy from the water in the fruit.

The inspiration came from The Eccentric Cook's apricot breakfast cake. Interestingly enough, I just read an article in Lucky Peach Magazine about how terrible the commercially grown apricots that are available to us taste compared to the ones they have in Europe and Asia. Ours look really pretty but are completely tasteless. So I got rid of the fruit all together, backed off on the sugar, used half whole wheat flour, olive oil instead of butter, OJ and milk instead of just milk, and threw in some rosemary from my garden to compliment the orange. Also, I have perfected the baking temp to get the ultimate crusty muffin.

Ingredients:

1/2 cup olive oil
1 cup OJ
1/2 cup milk
zest from 2 oranges
zest and juice from 1 lemon
big handful of brown sugar
5 egg yolks
1 tsp vanilla

2 cups ap flour
1 3/4 cups whole wheat flour
4 teaspoons baking soda
2 teaspoons salt

big handful of fresh rosemary, chopped

Method:

Preheat oven to 450, grease 12 cup muffin pan.
Mix all wet ingredients in one bowl and all dry in another bowl.
Add dry to wet and stir til almost combined.
Add rosemary and mix the rest of the way.
Pour batter into muffin pan and bake on 450 for 7 minutes.
Turn oven down to 375 and bake about 8 more minutes, until muffins are done in the middle- check with a knife.

Muffin Thursday: Lemon Thyme Date Muffins

These are really excellent muffins. The recipe was for a loaf cake but I didn't feel like waiting that long for them to bake so I made muffins instead. Plus they're easier to share this way. :-)

This recipe comes from The Dinner Vine. I changed the whole eggs to yolks and the original recipe called for blackberries but I used dates instead.

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups flour

2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
3/4 cup sugar
6 egg yolks
3 tsp lemon zest
2 tsp chopped, FRESH thyme
2 cups chopped dates
1/4 cup 2% milk
1/2 tsp vanilla
3/4 cup extra virgin Olive Oil (EVOO)

Method:

Preheat oven to 375 degrees and prepare muffin pan with papers.
In small bowl, combine dry ingredients: flour, soda, salt, set aside.
In another bowl combine eggs, lemon zest, and sugar, beating well.
Add vanilla.
Beat in milk.
Add oil, gradually, mixing until incorporated.
Add dry ingredients, only stirring lightly.
Now gently stir in dates and thyme until combined.
Bake in muffin pan for about 20 min or until they bounce back to the touch.

Grilled Romaine and Radicchio

This is a really easy way to change up the traditional caesar salad. You just buy a bag of those pre-washed romaine hearts, cut them in half long-ways and brush them lightly with olive oil. Throw them on the grill for a few minutes until they are wilted and eat them with a sweet balsamic vinegar or the Martha Stewart caesar dressing that we love. Last night we also tried grilling radicchio and it came out really well.

Caesar Dressing

I like this recipe for classic caesar dressing. It's not one of those creamy ones, more an intensely garlicy olive oily one. It's also really easy and besides the anchovies I had all of the ingredients laying around. Of course, it's a Martha. Original recipe can be found here. The only change I made was to add a little parmesan cheese.

Ingredients:

2 garlic cloves
4 anchovy fillets
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon freshly ground pepper
1 tablespoon freshly squeezed lemon juice
1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
1/2 teaspoon Dijon mustard
1 large egg yolk
1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil
4 tablespoons parmesan cheese

Method:

Combine all ingredients in your cuisinart or a blender and enjoy!

Muffin Thursday: Olive Oil Blueberry Muffins

This recipe comes to us from Giada De Laurentiis via Food Librarian.

Ingredients:

1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup oats

1/4 cup sugar
4 large eggs
zest of 1 lemon
2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
2 tablespoons 2% milk
3/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil

1 1/2 cups frozen blueberries

Method:

Preheat oven to 400.
Mix dry ingredients (1st paragraph) in small bowl.
Mix wet ingredients (2nd paragraph) in another bowl.
Mix dry into wet just until combined.
Fold in blueberries.
Put batter into muffin cups and bake about 25 minutes or until they bounce back to the touch and knife comes out clean.

Olive Oil Shortbread Cookies

For some reason I got really into olive oil cookies for about week. Whole Food's 365 EVOO is the cheapest around- and when I was working there I got a discount on top of it. This recipe is insane it's so simple and easy. And while you don't get that buttery shortbread taste, they are really good all the same, and it makes a ton of little cookies, enough to share- or not. I just realized they are also vegan, nice.

I actually added vanilla and cardamom to mine because I thought they were sooo simple. THey would probably be good with any spice- like cinnamon, and a ground nut- like an almond or something. I found the recipe at Wendy Paul Creations.

1 cup extra virgin light olive oil
1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
3 cups flour

Mix together all ingredients until dough forms a ball. On a piece of parchment paper, place dough and shape into a log, sealing all edges (like a piece of candy). Refrigerate 1 hour until firm. Unwrap dough and cut into 1/3" slices, baking at 400 degrees for 8 minutes. Remove from the oven and let cookies stand on the cookie sheet for 1-2 minutes. Remove from the cookie sheet and place on a wire rack until cooled completely. Happy Baking!