Ghiradelli White Chocolate Raspberry Muffins

Let me just start by saying: white chocolate and raspberry both in one recipe can NOT be bad. And this recipe did not disappoint. I made these while my mom was in town for a visit, and I'm glad she helped me eat them, because I had a hard time keeping myself away from them. And I personally think they tasted even better later in the day after they had completely cooled. Since I'm sure I have you all sufficiently drooling, let me go ahead and give you the recipe. (Bummer, I just realized my picture is really fuzzy... you'll have to use your imagination a bit.) Ghiradelli White Chocolate Raspberry Muffins

1/4 cup butter
1/2 cup + 1 T sugar
1 egg
1 cup milk
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 T baking powder
2 cups + 1 T flour
2-8 oz bars white chocolate baking bars, chopped
1/2 cup fresh raspberries

Preheat oven to 400°. Grease 12 medium-sized muffin cups or line with paper baking cups. In a medium-sized bowl, cream butter and 1/2 cup sugar until smooth. Add the egg, milk and vanilla and stir until combined. In a large bowl, whisk together baking power, 2 cups of the flour and the white chocolate. Gradually add to creamed mixture, mixing until just combined. Add raspberries and stir just until they are incorporated (batter will be slightly lumpy). Fill the prepared muffin cups 3/4 full.

In a small bowl, add remaining 1 T of the sugar and flour, and mix well to thoroughly combine. Dust muffins with the sugar mixture. Bake 20-25 minutes, or until the center of a muffin springs back when pressed lightly. Cool muffins in the pan on a wire rack 5 minutes.

I did a few things differently than the recipe. First, I used a 12-oz bag of white chocolate chips instead of the 16 oz of chopped white chocolate. It definitely was sweet enough and didn't need an additional 4 oz of chocolate. Second, I used frozen raspberries since they didn't have fresh ones in the store that week. I didn't thaw them first, so they wouldn't make the batter pink. And finally, now that I read the recipe through again, I don't remember doing the last step of the dusting of flour & sugar. Oops!

Maybe it was just my muffin pan (which you may remember I don't like anyway), but the cups ended up being fuller than just 3/4 full when I only used the 12 muffin cups. I probably should have stuck with the 3/4 measurement instead of the quantity, because I had to bake the muffins longer than it said, and they still seemed a bit gooey when I took them out. However, it may just have been that the chocolate had to set, because once they cooled they were definitely not under-cooked.

Tomorrow morning I'm making peanut butter & jelly muffins with my daughter... it may take me a few days to blog, but it will be up soon!

Mini Caramel Pull-Apart Rolls

I never promised to only put successes on this site. So although this wasn't necessarily a flop, it sure wasn't a success. Maybe it has something to do with my muffin pan - I bought one of those silicone pans at a garage sale and I've never been happy with it. But these did taste really good, once I got them all the way done.

Mini Caramel Pull-Apart Rolls

1/2 cup butter, melted

1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1/4 cup granulated sugar
2 tsp ground cinnamon
2 cans refrigerated biscuits

Grease or spray 12 regular-size muffin cups. Mix butter and brown sugar; spoon 1 tablespoon mixture into each muffin cup.

Mix granulated sugar and cinnamon in 1-gallon bag. Separate dough into 20 biscuits; cut each in 6 pieces. Shake pieces in bag to coat. Place 10 pieces in each muffin cup. (Type-A's, eat your heart out with the specifics!!!)

Bake at 350° for 12-15 minutes or until golden brown. Cool 1 minute; turn upside down. Serve warm.

The part that didn't work out so well for me was that the tops were golden brown after 15 minutes, but everything else was still dough. So thinking that they were done, I flipped them over only to discover they were still raw. Fortunately I flipped them onto a cookie sheet, so I stuck that back in the oven for 5-10 more minutes. But since they hadn't been cooked in the muffin tin, they fell apart when I tried to move them. Next time I think I'll stick to traditional monkey bread.