Living in Austin...: April 2009

Saturday, April 18, 2009

Baking - Bisquick Blueberry Muffins

Bisquick Blueberry Muffins

Notes/Details:

Lockstep and I both enjoy these Blueberry Muffins.

Lockstep prefers soft/gooey/slightly undercooked qualities in baked goods (cookies, muffins). So don't overbake!

prep - 5 min

bake - 13 - 18 min

*made this recipe - 3 or 4 times now

*shout out to jillian! thanks for the baking cups! i've been using them to make these delicious muffins. they are awesome. :)

Pros:

- a nice soft texture

- super easy to mix up

- super quick to mix up

Cons:

- only makes 9 muffins? my muffin tins have 12 slots. it just looks a little off and leaves me wondering if the muffins are baking evenly in only 9 of the 12 slots. i could try to spread out the batter to make 12 smaller muffins maybe, but i really like the top of the muffin which is usually better in larger-sized muffins (imo). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_slang

Link: (recipezaar) http://www.recipezaar.com/Bisquick-Blueberry-Muffins-117370

Ingredients:

2 cups Bisquick

1/3 cup sugar

2/3 cup milk

2 tablesppons vegetable oil

1 egg

3/4 cup frozen blueberries

Directions:

Heat oven to 400 degrees.
Grease muffin pan well.
Stir all ingredients except blueberries in medium bowl, just until moistened. (I usually whisk together the dry ingredients in a big bowl. Mix the wet ingredients in the glass liquid measuring cup I put the milk into. Then make a well in the dry mixture bowl and pour wet mixture in. Stir together 14 times, turning bowl on it's sides and moving it around to make sure I get it all combined. (14 times = magic number from Alton Brown).
Fold in berries. (First, toss berries in some flour or bit of reserved dry mixture if I remembered to spoon out a bit. Then just mix around in the batter. Don't Overmix! Just make sure to get the berries evenly distributed.)
Divide batter evenly in 9 muffin cups. (using an ice cream scooper; a "disher" according to Alton Brown. i've been practicing this technique for a couple years now and i still never do it right so that it comes out evenly. but hey, i kinda like it that way when i get a slight variety of done-ness/brown-ness/texture in the batch. i usually prefer the imperfect ones.)
Bake 13 to 18 minutes or until golden brown.
Cool slightly and remove from pan to wire rack. (debate here, not sure on the best strategy. (unlike cookies - what i like to do is to cool 2 minutes on pan then move to wire rack.) for muffins and quick breads - just don't want them to get soggy.

Yield: 9 muffins

Thursday, April 16, 2009

Happy Birthday, Avery!

Avery is 3 years old today!

born: april 16, 2006

Thursday, April 09, 2009

Baking - Peanut Butter Cookies

Excellent. Just made these today.

Side note:

I've been doing a new thing with baking cookies this semester (pretty much since we moved to Austin). After mixing up the dough, I'll store it in the fridge for several hours (usually overnight) and then bake the cookies later. I've started dividing the dough into a few sections (usually 2 or 3) and wrapping it in plastic wrap. Then when I'm ready to bake cookies I'll use a knife to cut the block of dough in equal sections - so that it looks like a tic-tac-toe board or a grid. I think this method is supposed to make it easier to make your cookies the same size so they bake evenly.

Recipe: Peanut Butter Cookies

From: Jif

Side Notes -- My Methods:

I mixed up the dough last night.

Divided it into 2 sections.

Rolled each section in plastic wrap.

Stored in fridge overnight.

Ingredients:

• 3/4 cup peanut butter

• 1/2 cup shortening

• 1 1/4 cups firmly packed light brown sugar (light or brown works fine here)

• 3 Tablespoons milk (I used skim milk)

• 1 Tablespoon vanilla

• 1 egg

• 1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour

• 3/4 teaspoon salt

• 3/4 teaspoon baking soda

Directions:

• Preheat oven to 375ºF.

• In a large bowl: Combine peanut butter, shortening, brown sugar, skim milk and vanilla.

• Beat at medium speed of electric mixer until well blended.

• Add egg. Beat just until blended.

• Combine flour, salt and baking soda.

• Add to creamed mixture at low speed. Mix just until blended.

• Drop by heaping teaspoonfuls 2 inches apart onto ungreased baking sheet.

• Flatten slightly in crisscross pattern with tines of fork.

• Bake at 375ºF for 7 to 8 minutes or until set and just beginning to brown.

Yield: 3 dozen cookies

Diversity Day

One of my classes this semester is Counseling Diverse Populations. I have learned so much and always learning more in this class.... awareness and understanding of my own background and cultural identity as well as what that means in working with people from backgrounds different from mine. I have to put forth effort into learning and understanding about other cultures, and that you never really completely know what it is like to be in someone else's situation. This course has a huge workload, so it's not my favorite at the moment. I just have to remind myself that I know I'll look back on this class and be like, Wow that class enriched and shaped my future graduate career. Perseverance. Serious workload left to complete at the end of the semester ---- like 2 projects: Diversity experiential project (topic: Physical Disability) and Collaborative Wiki project (African American populations), Role Play critique paper, Final Exam, and Revision for my Cultural Autobiography paper.

All that being said, we're giving group presentations over the last couple of weeks. One group showed a clip from "Diversity Day" from The Office at the end of their presentation to lighten the mood (learning about oppressed populations is a pretty heavy topic). My professor was laughing and referred to the clip as "Diversity - Fast Food Style." I'm not sure what to say about this at the moment... so I'll leave to you to watch and consider...

The Office S1E2 [Diversity Day] - The Office