Thursday Treats: Raspberry Muffins {Flour} + Homemade Butter!

Today, I have the perfect summer muffin for you. These raspberry muffins are just bursting with flavour and they are pretty quick to put together! I love raspberries, and when a friend of mine was lamenting her problem of lots of raspberries, but no recipe, I turned to one of my favourite cookbooks ever: Flour! I'm sure giving her a batch of these babies will earn me some raspberries from her bushes. Score. :D

Joanne always comes through for me with the most delicious recipes. I just love her stuff! {A friend of mine got me Flour, too for my birthday and I've been eyeing some yummy looking recipes in there for a while now--will have to throw a party :D}

Hope you enjoy this recipe...and the last of summer! The days are already getting shorter, and my walk to work in the morning a lot darker! Plus it's getting a lot cooler...global warming anyone?? I kid, I kid :D

Raspberry Muffins

Flour

Joanne Chang

3+1/4 cups flour

1/2 tsp baking soda

4 tsps baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

2 eggs

1 egg yolk

1+1/3 cups sugar

1/2 cup butter, melted

1 cup milk, at room temperature

1 cup creme fraiche {I just use sour cream}, at room temperature

2 tsps vanilla

2 cups fresh or frozen raspberries

1. Heat the oven to 350. Line a standard muffin tin with paper liners [I ended up making 21 muffins].

2. In a large bowl, sift together the flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt.

3. In a medium bowl, whisk together the eggs and egg yolk until thoroughly mixed. Slowly whisk in the sugar, butter, milk, creme fraiche, and vanilla until well combined.

4. Pour the butter-sugar mixture into the flour mixture and, using a rubber spatula, fold gently just until the ingredients are combined.

5. Gently fold in the raspberries until evenly distributed. The batter may seem lumpy, but don't try to smooth it out.

6. Spoon the batter into the prepared cups, dividing it evenly and filling the cups to the rim [almost overflowing].

7. Bake for 30-40 minutes, or until the muffins are golden brown on top and spring back when pressed in the fiddle with a fingertip. Let cool on a wire rack for 10 minutes, and then remove the muffins from the pan.

And, totally unrelated to raspberry muffins, I made some butter today! It was so, so neat :D

*Sorry for the long absence. I lost my internet connection {sharing with the neighbour upstairs} and was too spoiled to go to the library after having the world at my fingertips from the comforts of my own home :P Things should be back to normal now!*

Celebrating Canada: Visiting Banff & Lake Louise

Today we spent most of the day at Lake Louise and in Banff National Park. The Rockies were nice to see in all their majesty, and it made me feel quite small and in awe of our Creator. 

I loved the winding roads up and down the mountain side--even though I had to keep popping my jaw to get my hearing back :D

Only spot that wasn't comletely frozen over. I was pretty disappointed not to see the emerald green waters of Lake Louise. I suppose May is still too early for spring/summer temps up in the North!

Chateau we ate lunch in.

Lake Louise is a little ways past Banff, so we headed there first and then backtracked to the mountains.

It was overcast pretty much all day, but didn't rain until we headed towards Banff. Most of the rain came while we were traveling, and we were able to stop and get pictures in Banff.

The "Castle". That's what someone referred it as when describing the Banff Springs Hotel. I can see the resemblance!

Bow Falls

The Gondala. You can either walk up the mountain and get a free ride back down or take both ways in the Gondala. Personally, I liked having my feet on solid ground, so I didn't go up. However, my parents did, back when they visited Calgary several summers ago, and really enjoyed it.

So, now I have been to Banff National Park, and Lake Louise!

Thursday Treats: Drop Sugar Cookies {Good Housekeeping}

I was quite skeptical that these cookies would turn out. They just seemed...too easy.

Just flour, baking powder, salt, butter, sugar, an egg and vanilla. Simple ingredients. No chilling. No cutting out.

And, they're soft and chewy.

These cookies taught me two things. I need glasses and the need to correctly read recipes :D

I only needed 1+1/3 cups of flour, but I thought I was supposed to put in 1+3/4 cups. I was so confused when my dough didn't form, but separated into thousands of dry little balls. After I figured out I had put way too much flour in, I threw an extra egg and 1/4 cup of butter in to even things out.

Whew. An easy, but unnecessary fix if I was but paying attention :P

Drop Sugar Cookies

by Good Housekeeping

1+1/3 cups flour

3/4 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup butter

1 cup sugar

1 large egg

1 teaspoon vanilla

M&M's and chocolate chips: optional mix-in

1. Preheat oven to 350F. In a small bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, and salt.

2. In a large bowl, beat butter and sugar until light and fluffy--your mixer should be on medium speed. Beat in the egg next as well as the vanilla. Reduce the speed of your mixer and add the flour mixture just until combined.

3. Drop dough by heaping teaspoons {I use a small ice cream/cookie scoop} 2 inches apart on ungreased cookie sheets. Bake until edges are brown--10 minutes or so--and make sure to rotate your pan at the half-way mark. {Unless you have a convection oven, in which case you can disregard the rotating instruction.}

4. Transfer cookies to wire racks to cool completely. Repeat with remaining dough.

5. You can store cookies in a cookie jar for 1 week or freeze up to 3 months.

So, since I'm not a huge fan of plain cookies {ie, sugar or shortbread cookies} I threw in a handful of M&M's and milk chocolate chips into the dough after I made 1 plain batch.

Both taste really good...but, the ones with the mix-ins are the bomb. I've been really, really, really wanting some M&M cookies, and these totally fit my craving.

Good thing the recipe didn't make a huge batch!