Baking Adventure #16

Standard weekly baking adventure aside, this week has been quite the adventure in and of itself! It has been filled with impromptu chocolate chip cookie baking in a foreign kitchen (aka not my own), randomly winning tickets to a country music concert and attending said concert 24 hrs later(Jimmie Jam 2010 featuring Luke Bryan), and seeing myself on the news!!!

Remember back in January when I said I was going after a dream? Well, I went to a casting call for a new Gordon Ramsey cooking show called MasterChef, where they take amateur cooks and turn them into professional chefs. I didn't get a call back (as you can see since I'm still here writing ya'll) but it was a fun experience nonetheless! Check out the video below at the 1 min 20 sec mark plus about 5-10 seconds:

This week's baking adventure came from a recipe my mom found. She and my dad like to go up to north Georgia and visit with my godparents in the mountains from time to time. My mom gets the task of providing breakfast and horsderves when they go, but she's not much of a breakfast person, so when she came across this recipe, she asked me to try and make it on a trial run for the family first to see how it would turn out. For anyone who likes waffles and muffins, this is a must-try!

Waffle Muffins with Maple Sugar Glaze

[Let me know if you want the recipe and I'll send it to ya!]

First on the agenda was to gather the ingredients at the grocery store. There were a few things on the ingredients list that we didn't have in the house: malt powder, maple syrup (shocker, I know!... Don't judge us), and turbinado sugar. [What's turbinado sugar, you ask? WELL, have you heard of/seen "sugar in the raw"?... They're the exact same thing! Turbinado is just a fancy schmancy name for it!] Anyways, so apparently malt powder isn't a common ingredient people purchase anymore; it took me 30 minutes, 3 store workers, and 2 managers searching through Kroger to discover that they did not carry the stuff. Then I tried Target to no avail... BUT third time's the charm right?! RIGHT! Publix was my final stop before I decided to give up the search and not only did they have it but they had a couple different brand options as well! WOOHOO! Waffle Muffin-baking was back in business.

Back at the house, it was time for a little PREP action! All of the ingredients were placed on the counter and the eggs were separated. [Reference Baking Adventure #14 for tips on separating eggs]

This recipe was VERY simple to make. First, you combine the dry ingredients and sift/whisk together until blended. Then, melt the butter and....

BEEP BEEP BEEP

We interrupt this baking blog for a little Public Service Announcement... Do NOT, and I repeat do NOT place butter uncovered in the microwave while attempting to melt. You will have a geyser-like explosion and thus, a mess to cleanup. Please reference the below photo for evidence.

We now return you to your regularly scheduled baking adventure.

BEEP BEEP BEEP

Man, don't you hate it when that happens??? Those PSA people sure like to interrupt whenever they darn-well please. Anyways, where was I? Oh yea!...

Next up is to combine the wet ingredients together once the butter has time to cool a little. Remember, you don't want to curdle the eggs yolks, and if the butter is too hot, you'll have to start over. Once the wet and dry ingredients are in their respective bowls, it's time to combine the two just until incorporated. No need to over-mix or make smooth!

Set the batter bowl aside, and using a hand-mixer, beat the egg whites until medium peaks form.

Then, gently fold the egg whites into the waffle muffin batter until white streaks are all that you can see.

Next is time to fill the muffin cups! The recipe calls for mini-muffin pans and to grease the cups, BUT being the little rebel I am [insert snarky laughs here], I decided to use regular-sized muffin pans AND use muffin liners. Little tip: I've found that the liners help keep them fresh and moist longer!

After the muffin pans are filled with the batter, it's time to bake! The muffins baked for about 20 minutes and then were removed and glazed with the maple syrup and turbinado (raw) sugar.

Then they were popped back in the over for another 3-4 minutes until the glaze had time to set... and here you have the finished product!

Like I said, these Waffle Muffins were BEYOND simple to make. The most difficult part was locating Malt Powder at the grocery store....

"WAIT! Pint-Size Baker... you didn't tell us the most important part!" Oops, sorry. I'm guessing you're wanting to know how they tasted??? They were extremely moist, not overly sweet, and super delicious served warm with a little butter and extra maple syrup poured over top! Not the healthiest, but who cares? It's the weekend! :-)

That's it for this week's installment of the Pint-Size Baker's baking adventures! Hope you all had a great one!!! Until next time... muah!