Carrot Muffins

“The surprising thing about these exceedingly good muffins is that they’re neither what you expect them to be nor even what they seem. They are not carrot cake made as a muffin”
Dorie Greenspan

Look no further than Dorie’s opening to our recipe this month. These were surprising, and they were exceedingly good! Quite unexpected if I am being completely honest…I mean ‘Carrot Muffins’ don’t have quite the appeal to me as let’s say, Double Chocolate Chip hahaha!

These were an easy bake, with most ingredients what you would normally have on hand…which is always nice for the repeat value of a recipe. I did not include the optional pomegranate molasses or the dried fruit.

The batter consists of a few regulars flour, sugar, milk, eggs, vanilla, and oil but also a few you wouldn’t expect: ginger, freshly grated carrots, orange zest, brown sugar, and sunflower seeds on top.

This all gets mixed together, divided into 12 liners and baked at 375 for 22 min or until golden brown.

I wouldn’t say we are carrot cake fans here so we weren’t sure what to expect…clearly we didn’t read Dorie’s note too carefully the first time I guess. 😂. We were so surprised by the flavor of these muffins. The ginger was there and once again, my home grown orange was front and center. These were really moist and really delicious!

Everyone loved these…and were surprised by them. So good!

This one is a keeper!

Peanut-Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies, Paris Style

This is a very impressive looking cookie…with an equally impressive to-do list to get the final product. These are very time consuming…which is rare to say for a cookie!

These cookies are a nod to the trend of cookies popping up in Paris…new-wave creations with a lot happening on top…nuts and candy and praline and nut butter.

Let’s take a quick look at the list of steps:

• Make the praline brittle…peanuts covered in the sugar cooked down to caramel. Let cool.
• Break up the brittle and put it in the food processor to end up with a sandy sprinkle. Remove 1/2 cup
• Continue processing the sprinkle, longer than you think, to end up with a praline spread similar to peanut butter.
• Using 1/3c of the spread, make the dough which requires an overnight rest in the fridge.
• Divide the dough into 18 pieces….roll into balls
• Roll the balls in chopped peanuts
• Flatten the balls with a sugar dipped bottom of cup into 2in disc
• Bake the cookies, cool for 5 min on cookie sheet and 10 min on rack before topping
• Spread the praline butter on each cookie
• Top with chopped peanuts, chocolate chips, praline sprinkle and a few flakes of salt

Impressive right?!

The cookies were big…and beautiful…everyone thought so. Interestingly, pretty much everyone was in agreement that they looked much better than they tasted…the impressiveness of the looks didn’t match the expectation of the taste. Don’t get me wrong…they were good…just not GREAT like you would expect with all that going on.

Everyone enjoyed them and they got eaten, but I was a little disappointed in the bake just because they took a long time and didn’t quite pack the punch of flavor I was expecting.

All in all, good but I don’t think I would make these again.

White Wine-Poached Pears

“The pears are good! Now THAT is how I like to eat fruit!” 😂

These were a winner…everyone enjoying them and likening them to apple pie filling. Good on their own, but most saying next time they would love to try them with some caramel or ice cream.

I have never made poached fruit…I am kind of surprised by this after seeing how easy it was. I mean it is a pretty simple process for a quick, elegant and tasty dessert. The only hard part is the prep, but that was because I was all thumbs…next time I would be faster. The peeling of the skin was easy but coring the pears actually broke my peeler haha. On the first one…so there I was trying to figure out what to do when I have never done this. I ended up just using a knife and I think it was actually easier than the corer. It did bring back memories of scraping out the pumpkins for the kids when we were carving pumpkins hahaha. It was a very similar process 😂.

Once you have the pears prepped, it is just a matter of boiling the wine, sugar, honey, ginger, vanilla, cinnamon stick, and star anise..I also added the optional cayenne pepper. You then add the pears and simmer for 20 min. Bring them out and finish the syrup with another 5 min boil. That is it.

Big reward for little time/effort!

I would totally make this again. It really is a perfect dessert for entertaining because you can make it a head of time, it is easy, and everyone thought it was delicious.

This one is a keeper!