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Posts Tagged ‘muffins cupcakes and little cakes’

  1. Scent of winter – apple, cinnamon, pecans and honey muffins

    February 7, 2012 by Giulietta

    Some scents inevitably bring me back to certain seasons, certain places or specific moments in the past. They say that smell is a very powerful sense, able to activate memory quicker than the other senses.

    I can't call myself a "smell fetishistic", but I can't deny that the scent of a person, the comforting aroma of freshly baked bread or the smell of certain herbs are "odorous sensations" that remain dormant in the brain, ready to wake up at the first opportunity.

    Maybe it's because I took the "nose" from my father, not esthetically (I got the shape but not the size .. I don't mean to be rude, but I got lucky), but on a sensory level .. maybe I owe him my sense of smell to him not only for the genes, but for the "training" .. in many pictures of me as a child with my father, he is making me smell some lavender, some rosemary or who knows what other herb.
    May this have influenced my smell development? I don't know, but I like to think so.

    And, if some smells bring back autumn (roasted chestnuts or the smell or underwood, mushrooms), summer (the smell of salt or sun cream) or spring atmospheres (the spring has its own characteristic smell, and I believe it comes from the life that springs up again after the winter lethargy), there are some smells that come along the winter .. in these days we are surrounded by the smell of snow ("What does snow smell like?" you'd ask I think it has a smell, but I can't describe it or define it), but there are some smells and combination of smells that they "scent" like winter, warm house, steaming tea.

    In my opinion the scent of cinnamon, honey and baked apples are among winter scents.. so why don't combine them in a muffin?

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  2. Mania and lemon-poppy seeds muffins

    September 7, 2011 by Giulietta

    Who, between all of you, can say he/she is quirks-free?!

    Someone is fanatical about tidiness or cleanliness, someone is a shoe maniac, someone doesn't lend his/her properties non even under torture, and someone has every possible food and cooking mania.

    Well, let's say in the strongest possible terms that I fall within the latter category (I'm not free of other obsessive-compulsive disorders, I just have OTHER quirks, different from the ones listed above), and not because I have some food fads (I truly am an "omnivorous"), but because, for some time now, I'm obsessed with cooking magazines and cookbooks, I compulsively buy (or I get as a gift) kitchen tools of all kinds (which are useful to me, though: this is an imperative for me) and, above all, I spend hours surfing through food blogs from around the world (hallowed be Google Reader), bookmarking the recipes I absolutely have to try, creating a culinary wish list that I can't fulfill … unless I'll start to have 8 meals a day or I'll gain 50 kilos in the next years (by the way, this is the question that everybody ask me, since I started this blog, "how come you haven't gained any weight?". I'm trying to convince everyone that these recipes are the result of months of cooking and that everybody eat eat at least twice a day, but somebody doesn't resign to this)… so I tell myself that I have to give it a rest and bookmark only recipe that really are interesting to me and replicable.

    But some food blogs ruin my plans and lengthen this wish list that already is as long as the Divine Comedy: however I try to restrain myself, I just can't avoid to put on my to-do-list everything that these evil (aka great) food bloggers cook or bake. And so, when I find myself faced with some creation by Pips aka Panpepato senza pepe every good intention goes down the tube … if I even begin to make 8 meals per day, or if I become a real fat lady, you'll know who to blame…

    In all honesty, in front of her bright and attractive picture, in front of her delicate and original dishes, how could I stop?! So when I saw the recipe to make her lemon and poppy seeds muffins (served with an equally tempting tapioca pudding with raspberries and rhubarb) I couldn't stop myself, 'cause I'm madly in love with all that is citrus scented and 'cause I had some poppy seeds in search of an use. This time, however, I didn't just bookmark it … I put it into practice!

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  3. Madeleines au citron

    June 19, 2011 by Giulietta

    After I confronted myself for the very first time with a classic Overseas sweet (if you missed them, I remind you my brownies), this time I decided to dedicate myself to a great, great classic of Transalpine pastry making. Who, in fact, on a little trip to our French cousins ​​(here in Piedmont these cousins ​​are very very close) has never tasted a soft madeleine?

    Sure, maybe the croissants or the pains au chocolat are more famous (and easier to find here in Italy), but I wasn't psychologically ready for my first attempt to make puff pastry, yet (and maybe it's better to wait for a more cold season to give it a try, huh?). Also, I recently received a brand new nonstick pan for mini-madeleines… should I leave it untouched?! Never!!! It would be an insult and a mortal blow to my self-esteem.

    So, looking for a recipe for madeleines, I came across this video, which explains in detail (in French) how to prepare the most classical madeleines, lemon-flavored. Of course you can flavor them as you wish: coffee, matcha tea, chocolate chip, orange rind, with jam heart and so on.

    I start from the basics and, seeing the result, I will continue to experiment with madeleines, 'cause these little cakes are soft and fragrant, perfect for breakfast, as snacks to accompany your afternoon coffee or tea (and mine, being mini-madeleines, attenuate the standard sense of guilt) or as little desserts.

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  4. How to revolutionize Roman tradition: pecorino and black pepper muffins

    March 31, 2011 by Giulietta

    Of all the Roman culinary traditions, this is the combination that I love the most … Pecorino, on its own, is one of my "weakness" (in general I have a weakness for cheese, and I believe in this rule "the more a cheese stinks and more it's good".. I don't know whether this rule has already an "inventor", but otherwise we could easily call it "Robert theorem". And no, I did NOT change sex, Robert is only my heavy surname): in fact no one should ever, ever, ever leave me alone with cheese, because I shouldn't be liable for my actions!

    Until now we discussed cheeses in general … but sheep or goat ones, you may say?! They should come to me, too, 'cause with me they will always find an open door! I love these cheeses, whether fresh or matured, for their flavor intensity, and they are also better for those who have cholesterol problems, always without any exaggeration … and there's the rub! How can you live behind a poor cheese?! It's cruel!

    And among all the sheep and goat cheeses, I especially love Pecorino, an Italian glory, which is common to Lazio, Basilicata, Tuscany, Sardinia, Sicily, Campania, Abruzzo, Umbria (I have happy memories of Umbrian Pecorino) and Marche! Pecorino, which I prefer well-seasoned, it's absolutely one of my favorite cheeses, for its strong taste, his innate freshness, its salt intake, its texture, its fragrance…

    Pecorino, I love you, and there's nothing I can do about it!

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  5. Double holiday, double recipe pt. 2: quadruple chocolate muffins

    March 8, 2011 by Giulietta

    For those who thought that I would give up after the first recipe, here's the second one, again a light one (at least these muffins are baked in the oven)!

    It seems that today is also the International Women's Day and, even if I don't "feel" particularly this holiday (even though at its base there were noble motives, which unfortunately now are too often only words out of thin air), I prefer a thousand times give to all women who'll read this post something better than a sprig of mimosa (a flower that I don't like very much, anyway).

    And what's better than a small dessert that can be eaten for breakfast, for snack, at tea time or after dinner, and that hides in itself a real concentration of happiness?

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