Beauty is in
the eye of the beholder, but let’s face it, sometimes food just doesn’t turn
out pretty.
Bland colors
on a bland plate? Sick. [Why don’t hospitals get this?]
Pasta with a white cream sauce served with white cauliflower as the vegetable? Ick.
White soup
with white saltine crackers? Blech.
[And yet
vanilla ice cream in a white bowl? Yum! Beholder, remember? Beholder!]
Let’s face
it, sometimes we simply have to close our eyes to eat.
Today’s post
is about inner beauty. [How I love to rationalize.]
I’ll admit
I’m no cupcake maker. I think I’m starting to realize that cupcake batter
should only fill half the cup (see my post for Halloween).
But it’s taken me
years to get this basic point. And it only took me a couple of weeks to forget
it. Perhaps I’ll write in on a Post-it note and put it on my baking cabinet…or
better yet, stow it in the cupcake tin itself!
{Lightbulb!!}
Anyway, I
made some gluten-free muffins and I forgot the tenet above and over-poured the batter. Minutes
later, out came these muffins. They’re flat-out ugly with elephantine bumps.
Frosting can cover a lot of ugliness, but I wasn’t adding frosting this time.
{Though a cream cheese frosting might be tasty.}
Given time
constraints of travel and not having time to make a whole new batch, I closed
my eyes and took a bite. It turns out they’re yummy, moist, and full of flavor.
Just don’t
look at them.
What do you
like to eat that’s flat-out ugly?
APPLE CHEDDAR MUFFINS
Ingredients:
(makes 8)
1 ¼ cup gluten-free baking mix (I used Pamela's see note below)
¼ cup water
¼ cup brown sugar
¼ cup chopped cheese (Dry Jack & Cheddar)
½ cup parboiled apple slices (recipe below)
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla
Directions:
Heat oven to 350 degrees.
In medium bowl, mix all ingredients. [Note, you can use any GF baking mix. Pamela’s, GF Bisquick, Bob’s Red Mill…]
Using a ladle, spoon mixture into 8 greased muffin pans or paper muffin cups (to ½ to 2/3 full). Bake approximately 18-20 minutes.
Parboiled Apples
*To make parboiled apples: Peel 2 apples, your choice. Dice into small bites. Heat ½ cup water to boil. Add apple slices. Boil 10 minutes. Drain.
** When adding apple slices to the recipe above, do not include the “sweet apple” water left over.
Extra recipe:
Parboiled "Applesauce"
Make as above. DO NOT DRAIN. Add 1 teaspoon cinnamon. Eat just like it is or... * I added the "applesauce" to my latest banana bread in place of one of the bananas. PERFECT. [Forgot to take pictures of this. Think chunky applesauce.]
* * *
You can
learn more about Avery by clicking this link.
And watch
for CLOBBERED BY CAMEMBERT, coming
out February 2012.
