Girl Scout Thin Mint Muffins

Thin Mint Muffins

Chocolate Muffins.
Girl Scouts Thin Mints.
Morning happiness.

These muffins are based on my favorite chocolate muffins - from King Arthur Flour. Instead of chocolate chips, I chopped up a sleeve of Thin Mints and added a few Andes Mint Chips too.

My UCLA college roommate, Agnes has two beautiful daughters, Lucia & Julia. They are in the Girl Scouts and each year I put out the cookie order form at work. To be honest, I don't know why anyone orders anything but Thin Mints... especially those Samoas covered with coconut (yuck!)

Over the years, I've tried to incorporate Thin Mints into favorite baked goods. You know, baking with seasonal ingredients and all. This year, I ordered six boxes of Thin Mints for myself. I'm not sure how long they'll last though. There have been incidents that require Thin Mint assistance: a bad week, nothing in the fridge to eat, and actors leaving Downton Abbey which translates into sad, sad endings (total thin mint worthy).

So, what have you been up to lately? Obviously, I haven't been blogging too much... I've been watching some TV. What's on your DVR? I have:

The Following with Kevin Bacon on Fox. Holy smokes. This show is fantastic but scares the beeejesuzzz out of me. I can't watch it on Monday night because then I can't sleep. I have to watch it on the weekend during the day. With the doors locked.

The Good Wife. CBS. Still a good show. Liked Julianna Margulies since her Nurse Carol Hathaway days on ER.

Elementary. CBS. Took some episodes to warm up to this one, but it's a good one to keep me in the Holmes world until the BBC releases more Sherlock.

Southland. TNT. Great cop show...and I like seeing Los Angeles landmarks throughout. :)

House of Cards. Netflix streaming. Damn, this is sooo good. Kevin Spacey is amazing.

Comedies:  The Mindy Project, New Girl, The New Normal

Waiting for more episodes from: White Collar (season just ended), Mad Men (coming back in April), Downton Abbey (if they don't kill off everyone...)

I don't have premium channels on cable so I have to wait and buy Amazon instant videos of Homeland (don't tell me what happens in Season 2 please! :)

Fun way to start the morning. Or to enjoy while catching up on your DVR. ;)

Here are some other Thin Mint creations:

Thin Mint Scones


Thin Mint Brownies


Thin Mint Pancakes


Thin Mint Cupcakes

Recipe:
Thin Mint Muffins

Adapted from King Arthur Flour's website's: Chocolate Breakfast Muffins with added Thin Mint cookies and Andes Mint Chips.

2/3 cup (2 ounces) Dutch-process cocoa
1 3/4 cups (7 1/4 ounces) King Arthur Unbleached All-Purpose Flour
1 1/4 cups (9 3/8 ounces) light brown sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 sleeve of Girl Scout Thin Mint cookies, chopped (in 2013, that was about 15-16 cookies and equaled about 1 1/4 cups)
1/2 cup Andes Mint Chips
2 eggs
1 cup (8 ounces) milk (I used whole milk)
2 teaspoons vanilla
2 teaspoons vinegar
1/2 cup (4 ounces, 1 stick) butter, melted

Prep: Preheat oven to 400°F. Prep muffin tin (I sprayed mine with Pam with Flour spray).
1. In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the cocoa, flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt, chopped Thin Mint cookies and Andes mint chips.
2. In a large measuring cup or medium mixing bowl, whisk together the eggs, milk, vanilla and vinegar.
3. Add the wet ingredients, along with the melted butter, to the dry ingredients, stirring to blend, just until combined. Do not mix.
4. Scoop the batter into the prepared muffin tin. King Arthur makes 12 muffins with big tops, but I made them smaller and made 16-18 muffins.
5. Bake the muffins for 18-25 minutes (depending on size), or until a cake tester inserted in the center of a muffin comes out clean. Remove the muffins from the oven, and after 5 minutes remove them from the pan, to cool on a rack.

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Harvest Pumpkin Scones

Harvest Pumpkin Scones

Scones + Pumpkin = I'm so there.

Not much to say here. Um, just break out the canned pumpkin and make these! Harvest Pumpkin Scones from the King Arthur Flour website.

I'm NOT saying they are low-fat or anything, but compared to regular scone recipes made of butter and cream, these have slightly less of the bad stuff. One stick of butter, a couple eggs and the pumpkin (a vegetable!! ;) are the main ingredients.

You choose your add-ins: chocolate chips, crystallized ginger, or cinnamon chips. I threw in about 3/4 cup of mini semi-sweet chocolate chips.

I made 16 smaller scones (recipe yield is 12). I topped mine with my favorite Trader Joe's Cinnamon Sugar grinder, and some sanding sugar.

Click here for the recipe on the King's Arthur Flour website! These would be great for a holiday brunch.

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Blueberry Buckle - King Arthur Flour

Blueberry Buckle

Oh man, the buckle is one of the most awesome baked good ever. It's a fruity coffee cakey delight. I've made a nectarine buckle, lemon blueberry buckle, peach blueberry buckle - all delicious.This time, I made King Arthur's Blueberry Buckle.

I bought a big box of fresh blueberries and knew I had to bake something with them! Although the recipe doesn't call for this, I recommend adding 75% of the blueberries to the batter. Spread the batter into the pan, and then sprinkle the remaining 25% blueberries on top. Follow that with the crumb topping. Leaving some blueberries on top guarantee that the little blueberries don't all fall into the cake.

It was really early in the morning when I made this and forgot to add the lemon zest! Be sure you add that for a fresh taste.

Um, nothing like warm cake for breakfast!

I dropped this box off for my former co-workers. I got a message back from one of them saying they did their buckle dance. :) That's why baking for others is just awesome.

King Arthur Flour: The Baker's Companion
Blueberry Buckle (page 132-133)

Topping
3/4 cup (5 1/2 ounces) sugar
3/4 cup (3 ounces) flour
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt
5 1/3 tablespoons (2/3 stick) butter (I only used 1/2 stick of butter because I didn't want a leftover 1/3 stick. The batter uses 1/2 stick so I used a total of 1 stick of butter for the whole cake. It turned out fine with the 1/2 stick in the topping).
2 to 3 teaspoons lemon zest, or 1/8 teaspoon lemon oil (I skipped this part because I forgot to include it!)

Batter
3/4 cup (5 1/4 ounces) sugar
1/4 cup (1/2 stick, 2 ounces) butter
1 large egg
1/2 cup (4 ounces) milk (I used low-fat milk)
2 cups (8 1/2 ounces) flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 cups blueberries (fresh or if frozen, unthawed) (I used fresh blueberries)

1. Preheat oven to 375°F. Prep (grease and flour) a 9-inch square or 9-inch round pan. I like to line the pan with a parchment paper sling for easy removal.
2. Topping: Mix the sugar, flour and cinnamon, and lemon zest in a small bowl. Cut or rub in the butter with the side of a fork, two knives or your finger tips until it reaches a crumbly state. Set aside.
3. Batter: Whisk together the flour, baking powder and salt together in a mixing bowl. Set aside. In a stand mixer with paddle attachment, cream together the sugar and butter. Then add the egg and vanilla. Alternately add the milk and the flour mixture to the creamed mixture, ending with flour. Do not overmix. Fold in the blueberries.
4. Assemble: Pour batter into cake pan. Sprinkle the topping over the batter and bake for 40-50 minutes or until a cake tester or knife comes out clean.
5. Let the buckle cool for 10 minutes. Loosen the sides with a knife or spatula. Cool on a wire rack.

King Arthur has an online Blueberry Buckle but it is a little different than the one in the printed King Arthur Flour cookbook. Here it is though: http://www.kingarthurflour.com/recipes/blueberry-buckle-coffee-cake-recipe

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Chocolate Breakfast Muffins - King Arthur Flour

Chocolate Breakfast Muffins

Chocolate for breakfast. Sign me up!

This is pretty much a cupcake without frosting...so that makes it totally legit for breakfast. ;)

This recipe is super duper easy and from the fine folks at King Arthur Flour. You can throw the ingredients together in the morning and bake them while you are taking a shower. The muffin has Dutch-process cocoa and some chocolate chips for a double chocolate punch.


My friend Racheal came down with the dreaded cold... Have you had it yet? It is going around like crazy. I dropped this care package for Racheal and her cute son, Caden to get the healing started. Chocolate is medicinal, right?! Believe me, this is much better than a get well card.


Look what I bought myself for my birthday! A little stamp that says "From the Kitchen of...The Food Librarian." It's made by Three Designing Women. You can pick one up on Amazon - they mail you a blank stamp and a certificate to order the design online.

Recipe:

Adapted from King Arthur Flour's website

Chocolate Breakfast Muffins

2/3 cup (2 ounces) Dutch-proces cocoa 

1 3/4 cups (7 1/4 ounces) King Arthur Unbleached All-Purpose Flour

1 1/4 cups (9 3/8 ounces) light brown sugar

1 teaspoon baking powder

3/4 teaspoon espresso powder, optional (I used the espresso powder...coffee punches up with chocolate flavor) 

1 teaspoon baking soda

3/4 teaspoon salt

1 cup (6 ounces) chocolate chips (I used Nestle semi-sweet chocolate chips)

2 eggs

1 cup (8 ounces) milk (I used whole milk)

2 teaspoons vanilla

2 teaspoons vinegar

1/2 cup (4 ounces, 1 stick) butter, melted

Optional: coarse pearl sugar, for topping (I didn't have any pearl sugar (must get some, it is so pretty on the chocolate muffin)...I used some sanding sugar instead)

Prep: Preheat oven to 400°F. Prep muffin tin (I sprayed mine with Pam with Flour spray).

1. In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the cocoa, flour, sugar, baking powder, espresso powder, baking soda, salt and chocolate chips. 

2. In a large measuring cup or medium mixing bowl, whisk together the eggs, milk, vanilla and vinegar. 

3. Add the wet ingredients, along with the melted butter, to the dry ingredients, stirring to blend, just until combined. Do not overbeat.

4. Scoop the batter into the prepared muffin tin. King Arthur makes 12 muffins with big tops, but I made them a bit smaller and got 16 muffins. Sprinkle with sugar. 

5. Bake the muffins for 20 to 25 minutes, or until a cake tester inserted in the center of a muffin comes out clean. Remove the muffins from the oven, and after 5 minutes remove them from the pan, to cool on a rack.

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Lemon Bliss Bundt - Day #2 of Food Librarian's I Like Big Bundts 3

Lemon Bliss Bundt

I Like Big Bundts - Day #2

It's Day #2 of 30 Days of Bundts because I Like Big Bundts. Every year, I need to post at least one lemon bundt because lemon is definitely my favorite flavor. This cake doesn't disappoint! It's from King Arthur Flour recipes.

This cake is simple to make. It has lemon zest or lemon oil in the cake (I used zest) and is glazed with lemon-sugar mixture while it is still warm from the oven.

I really liked the crumb. It was soft and you can eat a few pieces without realizing it...not that I'm speaking from experience or anything.

Lemon. Cake. No frosting. Curvy Bundt. Sweet!

Come back tomorrow for another Bundt!! - mary the food librarian

Recap of I Like Big Bundts 3:
Day #1: Buttercake Bakery's Marble Bundt Cake


Recipe: Click here for printable recipe

Bundt Pan: Traditional 12-cup Bundt Pan
Adapted from the King Arthur Lemon Bliss Cake. I used Meyer Lemons from my Dad's backyard.

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