A Superstar Muffin and Steampunk Shawlette

Ever since our trip to New Zealand my muffin expectations have been heightened.  Before that trip I had never been much of a fan because muffins here in the United States are typically puny, unexciting and heavy tasting, with very few exceptions.  But New Zealand opened my eyes to the potential for muffins.  Every coffee shop sold an amazing selection of wonderful looking jumbo muffins.  I remember how appealing they looked piled high in woven baskets in sumptuous sounding flavors like raspberry and chocolate, lemon and blueberry, and white chocolate with buttercream frosting to name just a few of the combinations that I recall.  I think I'll have to go back to New Zealand as I would like to refresh my memory on all the combinations. There's nice scenery too, if you care for that sort of thing. I'm just kidding, the scenery in New Zealand is incredible and you really should go and not just for the muffins.

After years of disappointment and grumbling about American muffins you can imagine my interest was peaked when I saw the Bake From Scratch magazine was featuring "Morning Muffins Reinvented."  Was this going to be the same old American muffin I wondered?  My first sampling was the Cinnamon Swirl Muffins with Pecan, and I loved them, but it was when I tried the Banana Chocolate Espresso Swirl Muffins that I knew that I had found that special muffin.  A Superstar Muffin!  One that could compete with muffins anywhere (even New Zealand)!  And fortunately for you when I reached out to Bake from Scratch they graciously gave me permission to share their recipe. I hope you will enjoy them as much as I do and have fun baking them and sharing them with your friends!

Quickly, before I get to the recipe I want to give you my chocolate melting tip as you will be melting chocolate for this recipe.  Yep, it has melted chocolate in the batter.  Need I really say more about these muffins?

Tip for Melting Chocolate:

The recipe shared below gives the recommended and preferred method for melting chocolate which is to use a double boiler.  That method works great.  If you have the patience of a saint.  But I'm no saint.  So this is my quick and dirty method for melting chocolate.  To melt chocolate pour morsels into a micro-wave safe bowl and give it short zaps in the micro (10 to 15 seconds) stirring well after every zap as this helps the chocolate to melt evenly.  Once the chocolate gets to the stage where it's almost all melted set the bowl on the counter and allow the heat of the melting chocolate to finish the job.  Chocolate scorches easily so short zaps is the key.

Banana Chocolate Espresso Swirl Muffin Recipe

Shared courtesy of Bake From Scratch (recipe found in Winter 2016 issue).  For more baking inspiration follow them on Twitter and Instagram ~

Yield  8 jumbo muffins

1 cup semisweet chocolate morsels
11/2 tablespoons (6 grams) espresso powder
2 cups (256 grams) all-purpose flour
3/4 cup (185 grams) sugar
1 teaspoon (4 grams) baking soda
1/2 teaspoon (3 grams) kosher salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon grated fresh nutmeg
11/2 cups mashed banana
2 large eggs
1/2 cup (108 grams) vegetable oil
1/4 cup buttermilk
1 tablespoon molasses
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

* N.B.  I garnished mine with a few jumbo bittersweet chocolate chips sprinkled on top just before baking.  This is purely optional and my addition because, like Emeril Lagasse, I like that little extra bam to my baking.

1.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Line 8 jumbo muffin cups with parchment or paper liners or coat well with cooking spray.

2.  In the top of a double boiler, melt chocolate with espresso powder.  Remove from heat, and let cool.  In a large bowl whisk together flour, sugar, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg.  Make a well in the center of mixture.  In a medium bowl, whisk together mashed banana, eggs, oil, buttermilk, molasses, and vanilla.  Add to dry ingredients, stirring just until moistened.  Spoon 11/2 cups (330 grams) batter into a separate bowl, and stir in chocolate-espresso mixture.

3.  Spoon banana batter into prepared muffin cups, filling two-thirds full.  Using the back of a spoon, make a shallow trench in the middle of each muffin cup.  Spoon in chocolate-espresso batter, and swirl with a wooden pick.  Bake until a wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean, 25 to 30 minutes. Let cool in pans for 5 minutes.  Serve warm or at room temperature.

Vis-a-vis the chocolate chip garnish, without the chocolate chips they are perfect with a morning cup of coffee but if you like a sweet pick me up the added chocolate chips make this muffin a great midmorning snack.

Steampunk Shawlette ~

As a transitional piece to Spring this shawlette is just the thing.  Knit in a sport weight yarn it has more heft than most shawlettes and the best part is that it's a free pattern!  It has a steampunk vibe but you probably recognize it as the Age of Brass and Steam Kerchief  (designed by Orange Flower Yarn) as it has been hugely popular with online knitters.   My only "modification" if you will was to add a knit broach as it's really too small to tie effectively (I made the broach by knitting a simple flower and adding a silver button for the center.  A broach clasp is sewn to the back). Gifted to my sister who wears blue well and seemed very pleased with it.

I'm sad to report that this yarn is no longer available as La Lana Wools closed its doors with the death of its founder and inspiration, Luisa Gelenter.  This was a unique yarn company located in the American Southwest in the artsy community of Taos, New Mexico selling plant dyed yarns and custom proprietary patterns. Today there are a lot of beautiful yarns being hand dyed but this yarn was truly artisanal with each skein being unique, rustic and beautiful.  I knit this shawlette using the last of my stash so there will be no future projects using this yarn but I'm grateful that I have the La Lana wool creations that I have including my Sea foam Shawl, several scarves (gold) and (blue) and my Gaucho Vest.  La Lana Wools was a unique experience and the passing of its founder was a tremendous loss to the knitting community.

Until next time be well, love well and while it's still cold and wintery be sure to enjoy some rich and indulgent muffins..... like Banana Chocolate Espresso Swirl Muffins.... with your morning cup of coffee.

Easter Sunday Wrap

I am finding it difficult to write this post in the wake of the crisis in Japan and so many around the world facing difficult times.  A sobering reminder that all things can be swept away by the tides of time or tragedy.  I recognize how easily it could be me in that situation and with that knowledge I try and live my life with thanksgiving and a generous spirit in the good times and pray that I will have the strength to face adversity in the difficult times.  But no one is ever really prepared to face the type of crisis facing the Japanese people and those striving for freedom in the Middle East.

And so sometimes we carry on even when our heart is breaking and filled with concern for others.  Those of you who celebrate know that both Passover and Easter are approaching.  These holidays are an important part of our lives as Steve is Jewish and I am Christian.  

In this post I am wearing a wrap that I knit to wear for these holidays called the Netsuke Wrap.  It is knit using an angora yarn embellished with seed beads as I wanted something special to wear. 

I love the beads and the vintage feel they add to this piece.  Although I must confess that I almost lost heart and quit adding the beads after a friend observed that using beads with angora yarn was crazy because the beads wouldn't even be seen.  Good point, I thought.  But having already begun adding the beads I continued on and, surprisingly, the beads do show up very nicely.  I think that may have something to do with this particular angora which does not shed and I just lucked out there.

Particulars:  Netsuke Wrap by Bad Cat Designs,  3 US 4 circular needles (you need 3 of the circular needles due to the oblong center); 2.5 skeins Windsor Farms Rabbitry, Angora Blizzard (85% angora 15% merino - lace 2 ply - 200 yrds/skein); and a mix of size 8/0 and 6/0 Japanese seed beads (Ivory Ceylon). I added the beads using the dental floss method. No modification except yarn substitution.  While this is described as a challenging lace project I thought it was a pretty straight forward knit.  I think the challenge in this project comes from adding the beads which I found more tedious than difficult.  This shawl is knit like a hap shawl, i.e. the center is knit first and then stitches are picked up around the center design and knit outward.  Relaxed post blocking dimensions: 17" x 52."

Breaking Bread

You might recall several posts back I mentioned ordering the Tartine Bread book after Raina talked about it on her blog, Raining Sheep. I was captivated by the romantic notion of baking bread using only the wild yeast found here in Topanga. But after several days of watching a lack luster starter my more practical side won out.  I spiked my starter mix with a few grains of French sourdough yeast (Lalvain du Jour) just to make sure I had a few live yeast in there. Other than that, I followed the Tartine bread methodology exactly.

My first loaf was just beautiful as you can see in the photo above. It looked wonderful.  It had a thick crunchy crust and a light airy texture and, as I savored that first bite, I was delighted.  Until I finished chewing and realized that the flavor was too sour.  What now?  Did I want to invest possibly years tinkering about with a starter that was never exactly right? Or, for a mere $6.95 should I go go back to using King Arthur's starter which has a combined history dating back 250 years to New England and the Alaska gold mining days. I'll let you guess what I decided.

Caveat and baking tip. I have baked bread for many years.  An absolute beginner might find the Tartine Bread book method daunting.  In particular I think it might be easy to confuse seeing air bubbles in the batter for live yeast activity.  If your "starter" looks like a pancake batter (i.e. diffuse large bubbles on the top) I suspect you are seeing just that (air bubbles) and not yeast activity.  Live yeast activity is typically evidenced by small clusters of bubbles.  Without live yeast your bread will not rise.  It is therefore important to wait to bake your first loaf until your starter has live yeast activity or do as I did which is spike it with a very small amount of commercial yeast just to be sure.

Until next time, be well and love well and may the upcoming holidays be a special time for you and your families.

Ripple Linen Basket Liner

Starting the morning with a nice basket of warm muffins sets the tone for the whole day, don't you think?



This basket of muffins also happens to be modeling my new Ripple Linen Basket Liner. Muffins are a fun treat to serve when you have company and serving them in a basket with a pretty liner adds a festive touch.



For those interested, this is a basic blueberry muffin recipe from The King Arthur Flour 200th Anniversary Cookbook, but any muffin recipe will do!

When I have company and plan on serving something hot in the morning, I employ this little trick to lessen the preparation time in the morning:

Baking Tip #1: To make things easier and faster when you have company, prepare in advance by mixing the dry ingredients together the night before and also preparing the baking pan. That way in the morning all you have to do is add the wet ingredients and pop the muffins or whatever you are baking into the oven!

Seeing that muffins by themselves are perfectly delightful but do not make for a balanced breakfast, I generally also serve a fruit salad and something hot such as Irish style steal-cut oats.


I have toyed with the idea of knitting a basket liner for some time as I am always baking dinner rolls or muffins of some sort. I'm not sure that I chose the best pattern, though. Despite the seemingly simple design, I did not find this to be the simplest of knits. The first tricky bit is that you employ a figure-8 cast-on which I suspect is not the easiest technique if you are not familiar with using double pointed needles. I did find Hello Yarn's series of photos demonstrating this cast-on technique very helpful; having seen the photos, as well as being very comfortable with double pointed needles, I did manage just fine. The next tricky bit is working with the wet spun linen itself. I found the yarn to be stiff and uncomfortable to knit as well as having a number of small breaks in the skein. It is linen, though, and the finished product is worth it!



Project Specs: Approximately 1/2 skein Euroflax 100% wet spun linen; US3 straight and circular needles; Island Moss colorway; pattern: Ripple Linen Basket Liner from The Knitter's Book of Yarn; blocked dimensions: 13" square. The only modification I made was to continue the increases until I had 48 stitches between each marker. I did this as the finished dimensions of the pattern as written was for a 12" square, and I thought that seemed a bit skimpy.

Mr Puffy has asked if he might also have a basket liner for his treats. I've told him "we'll see."