Tuesday, September 19, 2006

What's a Cuffin?

I made these 'Coconut Chiffon Cuffins' for my family from Esther Brody's 500 Best Muffin Recipes. There is no explanation of what a Cuffin is, and she has other terms I don't know. I believe from the taste that it is either a Cake-Muffin or a Cupcake-Muffin. At any rate, these were fabulous.

Note: Chiffon means beaten egg whites are going to be in the recipe, and that means a big mess. Also, Esther has a bad habit of using only parts of ingredients at one point in the recipe and then more later. For example, the ingredient list asked for 1.5 cups of sugar. I did not notice that she said add 1 cup sugar at the beginning, and of course I dumped in the entire thing, with my son's energetic help. So,I had to add more to the egg whites later to get them to fluff up, and so this was a bit sweeter than she may have intended. However, my family loved them. I liked that the coconut was sprinkled on top only and not mixed throughout - it added something special for some reason.

I had to bake treats for two friends' birthdays in the past week, so of course I had to purchase a new pumpkin-shaped muffin tin for the season. Blogger seems to be having trouble uploading more pics, so I will have to leave it to your imagination for now, though I'm sure I'll be using it a lot this month and next! My friend loved his muffins, my usual favorite Chocolate Chip from Linda Williams' Muffin Lady book. I did forget the corn syrup, but it did not seem to matter...

I also made Chocolate Chip Peanut Butter Squares from Esther's 500 Best Cookies, Bars & Squares. It was a good as it sounds, though I did increase the recipe. Who wants to go to all that effort for 16 squares? And who really cuts squares in 2X2 sizes anyway?

I'm back reading lots of teen books for freelance projects. I have to review Amelia Atwater-Rhodes Wolfcry by the end of the week. Amelia's first book was published when she was 13 and I have had the pleasure of meeting her a few times. She is a lovely accomplished young woman whos intricate fantasy writing never ceases to surprise me. Wolfcry is the fourth in a series about shapeshifting warring worlds, and it is the best yet. I was almost as surprised by the plot in this book as I am whenever my baking turns out well!

4 comments:

Joe said...

Aha! So corn syrup was the mysterious missing ingredient...what exactly would that have done?

Amy said...

Joe -
You have not read this blog long enough if you seriously think I know what corn syrup does...

Possibly they would have risen higher then the 1/2 inch they did rise, but they were still tasty, right?
:)

Anonymous said...

I love these recipe experiments and the way you're so casual about...oh, I forgot the corn syrup or I didn't notice that she said to add 1 cup of sugar, so I added 1 1/2 cups. I've made every mistake you have and, like you, have laughed about it. You are going to bring us treats at Fall Exec meeting...right???

Kate said...

Hah! I found your blog because I'm sitting here reading Esther Brody's cookbook and I am really annoyed with her. If you're going to have it issued with American instructions then by golly, tell us the difference between a cuffin, muffin and buffin! Maddening.