Blueberry muffins with Greek yogurt

I recently got stuck in another breakfast rut. I think I ate toasted English muffins for 5 straight days. I normally don't eat a lot for breakfast, but I do love the occasional muffin. Blueberry muffins happen to be one of my favorite, so I decided to bake up a batch to add a little bit of variety into my humdrum breakfast routine.

During my last trip to the grocery store, I bought a container of Greek yogurt. I am not a fan of eating it plain (it's too tart for me, even with different flavors and brands), but I do like to bake with it. I wanted to use Greek yogurt in my muffins to add a bit of protein and make them somewhat healthier.

I found this recipe on the smitten kitchen website and thought they sounded perfect. I own Deb's book (The smitten kitchen cookbook) but shamefully have not made anything from it yet. I hope to correct that soon.

Deb proclaims that these are the perfect blueberry muffins. I have to agree. They are nice and fluffy and chock full of juicy blueberries. I guess the only thing that is missing is streudel. I'm a sucker for streusel topping and would love these muffins even more if they had it on top. But muffin-wise, yeah, these are pretty much awesome.

Blueberry muffins with Greek yogurt

• 5 Tablespoons unsalted butter , softened
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 large egg
• 3/4 cup sour cream or plain Greek yogurt (I used Chobani 0%)
• 1/2 teaspoon grated lemon zest (I omitted because I didn't have any lemons)
• 1 and 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 and 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 3/4 cup blueberries, fresh or frozen (if frozen, do not defrost or thaw)

Directions
Preheat your oven to 375°F.

Either 1) line a muffin tin with 9 or 10 paper liners or 2) spray a standard muffin tin generously with a nonstick spray (I chose a third option and used my silicone muffin tin. I did not spray it).

In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment or in a large bowl using handheld mixer, cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy, about 2-3 minutes.

Add the egg until it is fully incorporated. Then add the yogurt and lemon zest.

In a separate medium sized bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Add half the dry mixture into the wet mixture and mix until just combined. Add the remaining dry ingredients into batter and beat until the flour disappears - do not overmix.

Turn off the mixer and gently fold in your blueberries by hand using a rubber spatula or a wooden spoon. The batter will be very thick and resemble cookie dough.

Evenly distribute the batter into the prepared muffin tins or liners and fill them about 3/4 full. If you have an ice cream scoop, it would be helpful to use here. I used my medium cookie scoop and portioned about 1 and 1/2 scoops per muffin tin.

Bake in your preheated oven for 25 to 30 minutes, until tops are golden and a tester inserted into the center of muffins comes out clean. Remove from the oven and allow the muffins to cool before devouring.

Muffins will store in an airtight container at room temperature for several days. They can also be stored in the freezer for several weeks and reheated as desired. 

Yield: About 9 or 10 muffins

Source: smitten kitchen, who originally adapted it from Cooks Illustrated

Skating Fridays

One of the required elements for the Adult Gold Freestyle test is the axel jump.  If you wanted to take a look at one of my landed jumps, check it out (this video was taken one month ago):



Since we've exclusively been working on Gold Moves, Coach B has never worked on the axel with me until now. She's seen the video above, and immediately saw a few a bunch of things that needed improvement:

1. My back is slightly hunched over in the take-off.
2. I do not get enough height since I am not jumping off my top toe pick.
3. My ankles do not make full contact with each other in the air.
4. And another 5638 other things.

So, Coach B has given me a variety of axel preparation exercises to improve my jump. Note that we are not working in the harness yet. That will come later, after I've gotten some of the fundamentals down.  Things like:

• Split waltz jump
• Waltz jump with ankle taps mid-air
• Waltz jump with crossed legs mid-air
• Once-arounds, or bell jumps
• Other exercises at the board

Here is a video of the split waltz, waltz with ankle taps and waltz with crossed legs. These are amazingly hard to do. There isn't much time to do the ankle tap or leg cross on a waltz jump. But if can't do any of these, then I wouldn't be able to successfully land an axel. The axel jump is only 0.3 seconds of airtime from takeoff to landing so there isn't time to do much at all.


I'm anxious to get in the harness soon and see if I can make some good improvement on the jump. I'll be curious to see if the differences in my jump before and after Coach B's axel prep exercises.

Cinnamon and spice sweet potato bread

I am a planner - your typical, Type A personality. I thrive on lists, schedules and places like The Container Store (though sadly, none are in my area).  When I saw this cinnamon and spice sweet potato bread on Averie Cooks pop up in my RSS feed, I actually had to drop everything I was doing and make it immediately.

After Addison went to bed, I got to working and baked this bread. My kitchen smelled glorious from all the aromatic spices like cinnamon, allspice and nutmeg. But because I only had one sweet potato, I halved the recipe below and only baked for 40 minutes. It was perfect.

Lesson learned: it pays off to be impulsive every once in a while because this bread was out of this world (I actually made two loaves in one week because it was eaten so quickly). Addison ate the bread like she was a starved woman and polished off a slice in the blink of an eye and wanted more. My husband loved it. My in-laws loved it. And I did too.  So will you. Drop what you're doing and bake this now.

Cinnamon and spice sweet potato bread

• About 1 and 1/2 cups mashed sweet potatoes (2 medium or 1 very large)
• 3 TBSP water
• 2 large eggs
• 1/2 cup canola or vegetable oil
• 1/4 cup buttermilk (I used Greek yogurt; you can also use sour cream or buttermilk powder)
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 and 3/4 cups all-purpose flour 
• 1 and 1/4 cups granulated sugar 
• 1/4 cup light brown sugar, packed 
• 2 tsp baking soda 
• 1 TBSP ground cinnamon 
• 1 tsp ground ginger 
• 1 tsp ground nutmeg 
• 1/2 tsp ground allspice 
• 1/2 tsp ground cloves 
• A pinch salt

Directions 
Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F.

Spray or grease a 9-by-5-inch loaf pan and set aside.

Peel the sweet potatoes and cut them into 1-inch sized chunks. Put sweet potatoes in a large, (preferably shallow) microwave-safe bowl. Add 3 tablespoons water to the sweet potatoes, cover with plastic wrap, and microwave on high power for about 15 minutes or until the sweet potatoes are soft. Discard any excess water and mash the potatoes with a fork. Let the potatoes cool for a few minutes so they are no longer hot.

Add eggs, oil, buttermilk and vanilla to the sweet potatoes and mix until well combined and set aside.

In a separate large mixing bowl, combine the flour, granulated sugar, brown sugar, baking soda, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, allspice, cloves, and salt.

Add the sweet potato mixture over the dry ingredients, and gently stir to combine. Do not overmix!

Pour the batter into greased loaf pan and be sure to smooth the top lightly with a spatula.

Bake for 60 to 70 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. The bread will be domed, golden and springy when touched.

Cool the bread directly in the pan for 10 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.

Store bread by covering with plastic wrap and sealed inside a zip-top plastic bag. Bread will keep at room temperature for up to 1 week.

Yield: One 9"x5" loaf

Source: Averie Cooks

Homemade mini Three Musketeers candy bars

Happy Mother's Day!  Since I am now a mom and can celebrate Mother's Day with some of my favorite foods, I figured that I'd continue my love affair with chocolate by making homemade Three Musketeers bars.  Although I like snacking on candy bars, I don't eat them very often. And I prefer the fun-sized ones since they are portion-controlled.

Two of my favorite candy bars are Three Musketeers and Milky Ways. Though Milky Ways are my #1 choice, I opted to make Three Musketeers so I wouldn't have to deal with a caramel layer - I know how messy that stuff can get. But, if you prefer to make Milky Way bars, check out this recipe from Beantown Baker.

These homemade candy bars were surprisingly similar in taste to the pre-packaged versions. The nougat layer actually tasted like the light and fluffy interiors from my favorite brand. I had a difficult time cutting and dipping the chocolate bars and even ran out of melted chocolate to dip the last 8 or so bars. Regardless, they were still tasty and satisfying to recreate.This is a winning recipe, for sure, and perfect for my chocoholic self on Mother's Day.

Happy Mother's Day to all the moms out there, including mine, of course!

Homemade mini Three Musketeers candy bars

• 4 cups chocolate chips, divided (can use milk or semi-sweet)
• 1 (8 oz.) tub frozen whipped topping, thawed
• 2 TBSP vegetable oil or shortening

Directions
Line an 8 or 9-inch square pan with wax paper (I used a silicone pan and did not line or spray my pan).

In a medium bowl, melt 2 cups of chocolate chips in the microwave in 30 second increments until it is fully melted. Stir after each 30 second interval. Alternatively, you can melt the chips in a double boiler if desired.

Using a hand mixer or stand mixer on high speed, beat the melted chocolate for about 30 seconds.  Add the thawed frozen whipped topping to the melted chocolate and beat until well combined and fluffy, about 30-60 seconds.

Using a spatula, evenly spread the chocolate mixture into the prepared pan.  Place in freezer for 30 minutes.  Remove pan from freezer and flip the chocolate mixture onto a cutting board and cut into one-inch squares with a knife.

Return the chocolate squares to freezer for another 15-20 minutes.

Melt the final 2 cups of chocolate chips with 2 tablespoons of vegetable oil or shortening and stir until well incorporated.  Dip the frozen chocolate squares into melted chocolate to coat (try using a toothpick to "stab" the chocolate and dip it).  Place on a sheet of wax paper to dry.

Candy bars can be stored in an airtight container in the refrigerator for several days.

Yield: I got about 32 "fun-sized" candy bars. You may get more or less depending upon how large you want your candy bars to be.

Source: Let's Dish; originally adapted from Eclectic Whatnot, who found the recipe on The Open Pantry

Skating Fridays

If you gave me a choice on whether I could jump or spin, I'd definitely prefer to jump. Spinning does not come naturally to me, and I know it might be due to the fact that I was not taught the correct technique as a child. My forward scratch spin has never been good, despite the countless hours I've practiced it. I've had a difficult time centering it, and recently toyed with a forward inside-three turn entrance. It's helping me center it a bit more, but I still have a weird "twist" in my body position that I need to work on.

Cue exhibit A:


My back scratch spin used to be my nemesis, but after 2 years of hard work, it finally came and is no longer one of my bad spins. I had to learn how to push up onto my rocker at the top of the circle and feel like I was sitting on the heel of my blade (even though technically I am spinning on my rocker - it just feels like my weight is farther back).  Here is what my back scratch spin looks like today.



I am looking forward to improving many more of my spins and jumps and hope to eventually fix the weird twist in my forward scratch spin. Let me know if you have any ideas to fix it.

Until next week!

Salted triple caramel cupcakes

I recently threw a virtual baby shower for my blogging friend Krystal of Mrs. Regueiro's Plate. As I mentioned in that post, Krystal and her husband (and big sister Elena) are welcoming a baby boy to their family in the next few days. Krystal and Eric nicknamed their baby boy "Cupcake," so we chose a cupcake theme for their online shower.

I happen to know that Krystal is a fan of salted caramel, so it wasn't too difficult deciding what cupcake to make for the guest of honor. I found these cupcakes (and lots of other yummy sounding ones) on Sally's Baking Addiction, who is another blogging friend of mine that creates and develops some amazing cupcakes and other sweet treats.

Although I had a difficult time with the frosting (mine got too stiff - I had wanted to swirl the cupcake using a frosting tip but settled on a smooth look that you see above), I enjoyed the flavors a lot. These cupcakes were gone within a day. If you are a fan of salted caramel, bake these triple salted caramel cupcakes. If you want them super caramel-y, feel free to drizzle some caramel topping and sprinkle with sea salt flakes on top.

Congratulations, Krystal and Eric! Can't wait to see photos of the new little man!

PS. Thanks to all of you who entered my Gearhart's Chocolate giveaway. The winner of the gift certificate is Luanne M.! I will contact you so you can claim your awesome prize!

Caramel cupcakes

• 1 and 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 3/4 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup firmly packed dark brown sugar
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
• 2 large eggs, at room temperature
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup whole milk (or heavy cream or half-and-half, do not use skim milk or 1% milk)

Salted caramel frosting

• 1/2 cup (1 stick) salted butter
• 1 cup dark brown sugar
• 1/3 cup heavy cream
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 3 to 4 cups powdered sugar, sifted
• additional pinch of salt, as needed
• salted caramel candies for decoration, optional (I used Rolos)

Directions
Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F. Line a standard 12-cup muffin pan with paper liners and set aside.

In a medium bowl, whisk the flour, baking powder, and salt together. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment or a large bowl (if using a hand mixer), cream the butter, sugar and brown sugar at medium speed until light and fluffy, about 2-3 minutes. Add the eggs and vanilla and beat until combined.

Gradually add in the dry ingredients until it is fully incorporated. Gently stir in the milk (can do this part by hand, or put your mixer on low speed to mix). Mix until the milk is fully incorporated and be sure to not overmix the cupcake batter.

Evenly divide the batter among the 12 cupcake liners, filling each about 2/3 full.

Bake the cupcakes for 20-22 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center of a cupcake comes out clean. Cool the cupcakes completely (about 1 hour) before attempting to frost them.

To make the frosting, melt the butter in a small saucepan set over medium heat. Then add the brown sugar and heavy cream. Constantly stir the sugar is completely dissolved. Add salt and allow the mixture to cook and bubble for 3 full minutes. Quickly remove the saucepan from the heat and allow it to come to room temperature, about 30 minutes (do NOT place this in the fridge or else the caramel will harden).

Transfer the caramel to your (clean) stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Or, if you are using a hand mixer, transfer the caramel to a large clean bowl. On medium speed, slowly beat in the powdered sugar one cup at a time or until you reach your desired frosting consistency.

If the frosting tastes too sweet, add more salt, a small pinch at a time. Add frosting to your cooled cupcakes and top with salted caramel sauce, candies or a sprinkle of additional salt. Store in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 5 days.

Yield: 12 cupcakes

Source: Sally's Baking Addiction

Virtual baby shower for Krystal

My dear friend Krystal at Mrs. Regueiro's Plate is expecting her second child any day now. I was thrilled to partner with her and make tiramisu together a few short weeks ago. She and I have become online friends, and I wanted to throw a virtual baby shower for her since I'm unable to throw her a real one in person.

I gathered up a few of Krystal's favorite blogging friends to help celebrate the upcoming birth of her baby boy. Since she has nicknamed him "Cupcake," we decided to have a cupcake theme for this virtual baby shower. I don't know about you, but I can always use a few extra cupcake recipes in my repertoire.

On to the cupcakes!

Jen at Beantown Baker made Chocolate Nutella Cupcakes for our guest of honor.  You had me at Chocolate (and Nutella, for that).

Becky at Because Chocolate Can't Get You Pregnant contributed Flourless Chocolate Cupcakes for her friend. I love the idea of flourless cupcakes - this would be great for my gluten-free friends.

Brady of Branny Boils Over baked Vanilla Cupcakes for 2. I normally don't need a dozen (or more) cupcakes in my house, so a recipe that yields a small batch sounds right up my alley.

Amy at The Nifty Foodie created Funfetti Cupcakes.Sprinkles make everything better, especially virtual baby showers!

Melissa from Delicious Meliscious made Pineapple Upside Down Cupcakes. Now why didn't I think of this? I love pineapple upside down cake, so turning these into cupcakes is a fantastic idea.

I made Triple Salted Caramel Cupcakes. Salted caramel. 'Nuff said.

Brandon at Kitchen Konfidence baked Maple Cupcakes. Oh, how I adore maple syrup and maple flavored things. This cupcake might be the next variety I try to bake next.

Sarah, the author of Taste of Home Cooking, contributed Cannoli Cupcakes. I love cannoli, and I can't imagine how awesome the cupcake versions must taste!

Melissa of I Was Born to Cook created White Chocolate Cupcakes with White Chocolate Cream Cheese Frosting. I adore white chocolate and know that I would love these - off to bookmark!

Jessica from Sunny Side Up brought Chocolate Covered Pretzel Cupcakes to help celebrate Krystal and Eric's big day. Can you save me some, Jessica?

Nicole at Prevention RD contributed her Watermelon Cupcakes. These are so adorable that I want a plush one!

Carrie at Carrie's Sweet Life made Vanilla Chai Cupcakes for Krystal and Eric. Chai spices always captivate me, and I am smitten by their aroma. I would love to bake these and fill up my kitchen with the smell of chai spices!

Jessica of My Baking Heart baked Sangria Cupcakes. Boozy cupcakes? Count me in!

Cara from The Boys Made Me Do It made Strawberry Mascarpone Cupcakes. What a fantastic way to use up this season's freshest berries!

Stephanie of Macaroni and Cheesecake brought Peanut Butter and Jelly Cupcakes to celebrate the momentous occasion.

Stefany from made The Balanced Baker created Double Chocolate Strawberry Cupcakes for her friend. Chocolate and strawberries are one of my all-time favorite food pairings, so I know these cupcakes are awesome!

And finally, Courtney of The Granola Chronicles baked Lemon Coconut Cupcakes. Sounds like the perfect springtime dessert and a perfect way to welcome a baby boy!

A huge congratulations to Krystal, her husband Eric, and big sister Elena for the newest arrival in their family. I can't wait to see pictures of the newest foodie in the Regueiro house!