[$20/week] Blueberry Muffins (week 1)

Right in the middle of the night, I get the munchies... I quickly scavenged for ingredients and made something simple, yet healthy. Here's a recipe for about 12 muffins. These things saved me for the rest of the week for snacking or breakfast.

Blueberry Muffins

Ingredients
1 1/2 cup Whole Wheat Flour ($.015)
2 teaspoons Baking Powder ($0.0382)
1/2 cup Sugar ($0.48)
1/3 cup Oil ($0.18)
1 Egg ($0.149)
1/2 cup Dried Blueberries ($1.50)
2/3 cup Milk ($0.15)
Total: $2.55

Directions (Preheat oven 375F)
1. Run all the dry ingredients together through a sifter.
2. Mix all the dry ingredients.
3. In a separate container, mix all the wet ingredients.
4. Combine dry and wet ingredients.
5. Line muffin tins.
6. Bake for 15-20 minutes or until done.

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:

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:

Pancakes! Midnight Civil Engineering Snack! ^_^

So.... my fellow suffering, civil engineering students are strenuously working on water resources and intermediate structural analysis homework using our best friend. Matlab to solve everything ... xD.

Enough of me being a nerd and geeky. I shall solve my hunger by displacing myself to the kitchen away from forces from homework loads.

Mini-pancakes



Ingredients

Dry Ingredients:
1/2 cup cake flour
1/2 cup bread flour
1 tbs. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
2 1/2 tbs. sugar (adjust depending on sweetness, I think this is just right)

Wet Ingredients
1 large egg
3/4 cup milk
3 tbs. melted butter

Mixing Process

1. Sift and mix dry ingredients together
2. Beat first two wet ingredients
3. While whisking the liquid slowly add in the butter
4. Dump the wet into the dry and mix until it is incorporated with little clumps
*NOTE:
DO NOT OVERMIX!

Cooking
1. Add a little bit of oil into the skillet
2. Use a ring cutter to make shape of mini sized pancakes
3. Put 1/4 cup of batter inside a 4 inch ring (this is the size I used)
4. Cook well on each side (should take about 1 minute each side)
5. Serve with cinnamon and powdered sugar / syrup on the side