Cheddar waffles
After stumbling across this appetite-inducing instagram account I was on an immediate mission to make waffles. He pretty much waffles everything and is thus winning at life.
Starting off simple, I went for this cheddar waffle recipe (minus the bacon), mostly just because I had all the ingredients on hand. The recipe worked out a-okay, but I think I’ll try to plan ahead next time and give this recipe and sandwich from Joy the Baker a whirl next time. Who doesn’t love BLTs?
This batch was topped with bacon, egg, and a little bit of maple syrup – aka a perfect start to the morning.
Green tea shortbread creatures
The only treats I’ve ever baked with green tea were these grapefruit cupcakes with green tea frosting. I’ve really no idea why I haven’t experimented with green tea powder since, but I’m sure glad I tried it again.
I decided to test out this recipe, with the only substitution being that I used regular green tea powder instead of matcha green tea. Matcha can be a bit hard to come by in local shops / is more expensive, but the alternative I used produced very similar results and the flavour is A+.
I’ve only ever attempted shortbread once, and with it being such a miserable fail I hadn’t tried since. This recipe, however, was *super* easy, has only six ingredients, and was easy to roll out and rework.
Next up on the to-try list are these matcha almond linzer cookies with strawberry jam and these matcha mini cakes with black sesame buttercream.
Homemade English muffins
English muffins are something I’ve always wanted to try to make, but was mildly too terrified to do so. After finding this recipe from Foodess, I was much less intimidated and just happen to have all the ingredients.
I definitely haven’t mastered it yet to get just the right the amount of bubbles and fluffiness, but I’m getting close. It’s a recipe that’s easy enough to try on a whim, so I’m going to keep at it until I’ve mastered it.
When I tried it for the first time, I dusted the pan with a bit too much cornmeal. The cornmeal cooks and browns really quickly, so I’d try to just dust the pan in little rounds where you’ll place the muffins to cook. The first time I also had the heat on a bit too high and couldn’t cook the muffins in the pan long enough for them to sufficiently puff up. This time, I lowered the heat to 4-5 on a dial of 10 and cooked for three minutes on each side. I also accidentally let the muffins rise too long for the second time, which meant that they were touching, hard to get apart to move into the pan, and started to deflate with when moved. A minor oversight on my part. Definitely only let them rise for 20 minutes on the baking sheet before baking them in the pan, and make sure they’re well spaced.
Ingredients:
1½ cup skim milk
¼ cup butter
1 egg, beaten
¼ cup plain yogurt
4 cups all purpose flour
1 tbsp granulated sugar
2 ¼ tsp yeast
1 ½ tsp salt
Cornmeal, for dusting skillet
- Microwave the milk until it begins to simmer. Stir in butter until melted. Once mixture has cooled, add beaten egg and yogurt.
- Mix together the flour, sugar, yeast, and salt in the bowl of a standing mixer. With mixer speed on low, slowly add milk mixture. Beat until just thoroughly combined. Dough will be very wet. Cover with saran wrap and place in a warm spot to rise for one hour or until doubled in bulk.
- Turn out dough onto a floured surface. Lightly flour the top of dough, and pat down until it is about ½ inch thick. Use a floured 3” biscuit cutter (or a upside-down drinking glass) to make rounds. Gather up scraps of dough and repeat. Use a floured spatula to pick up the English muffins as you go, and set them aside to rise for 20 minutes.
- Preheat oven to 400F and heat a skillet (or two) over low-medium heat (may a 5/10 on the temperature dial). Dust skillet where you will place each muffin. Place English muffins 1 inch apart in skillet and cook 3-4 minutes, until golden brown on bottom. Flip and cook another 3-4 minutes on other side. Transfer to baking sheet as they’re done. Once all English muffins have been browned, bake for 7-10 minutes, until they sound hollow when you tap their tops.