Carrot Muffins

I was browsing my Google Reader today and stumbled upon Cooking with Christine's Healthy Carrot Muffins. Because of the remaining carrots in my CSA box, I thought it would be a good idea to make a simple and easy breakfast item that is semi-healthy (sorry Christine, I sort of added more sugar and some butter xD). I also made mini muffins because oddly enough, I only have mini muffin trays.

Carrot Muffins
(Prep time: 5 minutes Bake time: 10-13 minutes)

(Mini muffins)

Ingredients
Dry
3/4 cup Grated carrots (about 3 carrots)
1/4 cup Carrots (food processor chopped coarsely, 1 carrot)
1 cup Quick cooked oats
1 cup Whole wheat flour (all purpose is fine too)
1/2 cup Brown sugar* (see note)
2 tsp Cinnamon
1/2 tsp Baking soda
1/2 tsp Baking powder
Wet
2 tsp Honey
2 large Eggs
1 tsp Vanilla extract
2 tbs Melted butter
1 cup Milk

Prepwork
1. Preheat the oven for 400F
2. Grate the carrots until there is 3/4 cup
3. In a food processor, chop the carrots until you have 1/4 cup of coarsely chopped carrots.
4. Mix all the dry ingredients together.
5. Beat the eggs well with the milk until some bubbles form
6. Add in honey and vanilla extract
7. Mix wet and ingredients together
8. Butter the insides of muffin tray
9. Place mix in muffin trays

Baking
1. Bake for 10-13 minutes in mini muffin trays, may take 20-25 minutes if you have large muffin trays
2. Cool on a rack and enjoy with a glass of milk

Notes: According to my friend Jeannie, these were not sweet enough, but I think they are just right. If you have a sweet tooth, like Jeannie, add about 1/4 cup more brown sugar.

Here's another picture:

BBQ Chicken Pizza Bagel

As stated in my previous post, "Plain Bagel Recipe", my friend, David, suggested making a pizza bagel place. I came up with making a BBQ chicken pizza bagel because that is my favorite type of pizza in America. I have also made my own BBQ sauce, but I am not going to share that until I have consistently made it; so far, I have been getting different results for my BBQ sauce. With whatever tools you have, this is really simple.

BBQ Chicken Pizza Bagel



Ingredients
1 Chicken breast
6 Bagels of choice (heck ... you can even go with chocolate chip, though I don't guarantee it will taste good)
2 cup BBQ sauce (set aside 1 cup for marinating the chicken)
1 cup Mozzarella cheese
2 Carrots
1/2 Red onion
1 batch Cilantro

Prep work
1. Dice onion
2. Chop cilantro
3. Shred the carrots into thin strips

Chicken preparation
1. Chop the chicken into 1/2 cm (tiny) pieces
2. Marinate in BBQ sauce
3. Put chicken in baking tray and bake for 10 minutes at 350F

Assembly
1. Cut the bagel in half
2. Spread BBQ sauce over the bagel
3. Top with onion, carrots, and chicken
4. Add the cheese
5. Broil in a small toaster oven or your big oven on high for 2 minutes or until cheese melts
6. Garnish with cilantro

Enjoy this bagel pizza. This is absolutely delicious. I am still wondering why no one has started the pizza bagel trend yet.

Plain Bagel Recipe

Day five of spring break ... already? I really think my break is ending very fast. Tomorrow will be Wednesday, and I have not done anything productive! I did have two failed trails on my pasta and also a batch of failed bagels because I did not use proper techniques. I guess my spring break is currently well spent on experimenting items that take a long time to prepare.

I got the inspiration to make bagels from my friend and co-worker, David, who had the brilliant idea of starting a pizza bagel shop somewhere in Los Angeles or even a food truck. I agree with him. There are no such thing as a place that specifically sells pizza bagels. I decided to find how difficult it is to make your own bagels.

Bagel Dough



Ingredients
430 g Bread flour
225 ml water (100-110F range)
20 g Sugar
15 g Maple agave syrup
10 g Active yeast
7 g Salt

Directions
1. Make sure the water is within 100-110F with a thermometer
2. Mix in the yeast until dissolved
3. In a mixing bowl and electric mixer with dough hook attachment, add in yeast mixture, sugar, syrup, and salt.
4. Begin stirring on medium speed and gradually add in the flour until firm dough is formed (about 8 minutes)
5. Kneed the dough a few times to make sure the dough has a springy consistency (if you push down it should come back up)
6. Put dough back in the mixing bowl and cover with warm, damp paper towel
7. Store in a warm environment for an hour (80-85F, I used my oven for this. Turn on the oven for a short while and wait for the internal temperature to get within that range)
8. Remove dough and roll into a 14 in roll
9. Split roll into 6 or 7 parts with a knife
10. Form bagel from each part
Note: There are different ways to form the bagel. I like to form it by putting my thumb in the middle of one part and my finger on the other side and begin swinging it in circles or punch a whole in the middle.

Cooking/Baking the bagel
1. Prepare a gallon of simmering water with 1/4 cup of honey
2. Poach bagels in the pot and simmer for 1-2 minutes on each side
3. Place poached bagels on parchment paper and a pan.
4. Bake at 450F for 10 minutes on each side

You can also add egg wash and other toppings, such as poppy seeds, sesame seeds, etc.
Here's a picture of the final result: