Jumbo Blueberry Muffins

Whenever I get a chance to visit another country, I at least MUST visit one of excellent local bookstore, one of my favorite whenever my family and I visit HongKong is PageOne, it's so big I can stay there for days and not be finished with all the books to read. One of my recent purchased is Diner Desserts by Tish Boyle, although here in Manila diners aren't that prevalent unlike in the United States, I still couldn't resist this book #1 because it's written by one of my favorite author. #2 I love making those tall, homey looking cakes that is so associated with diner desserts. #3 although it doesn't have much pictures of the desserts themselves, which is often one of my requirements for loving a book, this book is so much different. I love the black and white pictures of the diners that is scattered throughout the book, it evokes a sense of nostalgia that in our current economical and political turmoil is a nice welcome.

There's so much recipes that I want to try with this book that I couldn't wait to start! Next to finding an excellent book, the hardest part for me is finding that first recipe to start of your time together. As hard as it may seem I had to choose, I started with something easy but a first time for me, I started with the Jumbo Blueberry Muffin Crumble.


It's amazing when I realized that I haven't made a successful muffin before this. My first muffin experience was from one of Nigella Lawson's book, it was a Banana Muffin, it came out inedible, don't know what went wrong there but it was awful! I swore off muffin making after that, it just wasn't for me, until this one...

I'm not sure what made me choose this recipe from the others, I have seen a lot of blueberry muffin recipes before so there really shouldn't be any reason to be drawn to this recipe! But now that I've finished and ate it, I can happily say that this muffin is different from the blueberry muffins that my mom purchase in French Baker, one of the most popular locally established bakery franchised here in Manila.

When I was making this muffin, I was a bit skeptical when everything is combined and mixed together, it seems as if it wouldn't be enough to fill my jumbo muffin molds! I just keep telling myself that, relax that's what the book said it yields 6 jumbo muffins so the really scrapped the bowl thoroughly! I was even skeptical about the quantity of blueberries the recipe called for, I thought it was a typo or something, didn't realized that a cup of blueberries goes a long long way. Thankfully, I resisted my urge to add more and it came out beautifully! This is the first time I tasted something as special as this. The crumble on top adds the right amount of sweetness that enhances the blueberries.

Granola Anyone?

Granola. I love eating and making granola. I'm not sure if it's because making and eating granola makes me think that I'm doing something healthy for a change.

I got this granola recipe from Cafe Fernando, I revised it a little to suit me. The original recipe called for wheat bran, did not have that at hand so I use flax seed which turn out nice for me, no sunflower seeds either, so I use my favorite walnuts (I should have added more! they are delicious toasted and crunchy). Cafe Fernando used blueberries I used both cranberries and blueberries, for practical reason, I ran out of blueberries! It's midnight and all the stores are closed! This is the sort of fun project for those nights when you don't have a lot of time, but you feel restless and you just have to make something, this is it, and just think, come morning you'd have a delicious breakfast to start your day.
Did not really care for the molasses that was called for in this recipe because it such a pungent smell that my little brother won't such it because according to him "It smells bad!" Anyone has a suggestion what I can substitute molasses with? Aside from that I absolutely love this recipe and would definitely do this again. What I particularly like aside from the taste is that it look so gorgeous, if I do say so myself :)

TWD: Chocolate Pudding

Hello! Dorie Greenspan fans, its time for the Tuesdays with Dorie event. This is my first time in joining this event and I'm very excited! I've heard of Ms. Greenspan for a long time now, I think everybody who bakes and blogs about food and reads about food knows who she is.
One more plus about this event is the we'll be doing a Chocolate Pudding! Although, I'm not really fond of eating puddings, just baking with chocolates satisfies me.
In my excitement to do this recipe, I've committed a great sin, I DID not read the recipe thoroughly!!! My gosh! Everything went splendid it's just that in the instruction, she uses food processor, which for me is not needed since its all so breezy and easy to do that me lugging out the food processor out of it's box and using it for such an easy task is such a no no. If only I had read the recipe thoroughly, instead of just diving into it head first. I would have enjoyed this experience more, less dishes to wash and no food processor to watch!

Peak Ka Boo!

In my recent trip to Watson's, a sort of convenience store but bigger with varieties of stuff from food to shampoo, I saw dark chocolate M &M's! I was so excited! it was the first time I saw them being available locally. The first time I tasted these was when my family and I were vacationing in Hong Kong.
The best way to use these newly found baubles is to make them into cookies!!! I imagined making M&M Studded Cookies, using my regular chocolate chip cookie dough, replacing the chocolate chips with the M&Ms, I miscalculated though. The two packets of candies were not enough to prettily decorate and stud the cookies as I wanted them to. So I threw in a couple cups of chocolate chips to make up for the lack of M&Ms. It's such a nice contrast though soft cookies with a bid of crunch, when you bit into the candy shells.
Next time, I know to buy more M&Ms!!!

I LOVE Tiramisu

I must admit I love anything Italian, I'm very passionate about Italian food much less Italian desserts! My favorite among them is the Tiramisu, I think it's safe to say that I'm not alone in this, I'm sure many people share this particular passion of mine. What made Tiramisu special for me is that, this is the first dessert that I learned to make and really enjoyed it. This is the dessert that made me fall in love with baking. So this is my authentic
Having made this dessert several times, I'm embarassed to admit that this is the first time I use mascarpone cheese!!! Yes I know, tiramisu made with cream cheese is totally different from one made with mascarpone. When my sister went to Santi's the most known deli in Manila, I grabbed the opportunity and asked her to purchase some for me :) I even got the authentic savoyardi, Italian lady fingers, in the past I use local ones and there's a difference the local ones are more fragile than the Italian ones. I even got Kahlua and real espresso to make this. Sad to say got a wee bit carried away, I put too much soaking liquid, that's why my lady fingers turned too soft, but still taste awsome.
Now, I'm a fan of Mascarpone cheese! It taste like heavy cream but remove the liquid, eerrr.. does that make sense???