SMS - Caramelized Onion, Sage and Cheese Muffins

I can't tell you how excited I am to host this week's SMS recipe. The very first time I browsed through The Sweet Melissa Baking Book, the savory muffins immediately caught my attention. I had never heard of such a thing before. How clever! I knew that that would be my recipe selection for SMS. The book offers so many varieties. Oh boy, which one would I pick. I looooooove (caramelized) onions, and I have a sage plant, so here we are.

Although the muffins sounded pretty good as-is, I wanted to add something to make them extra special. Muffins... muffins... crumb topping. YES! That's it. I'll add a crumb topping. What came to mind is this crumb topping I add to my tuna casserole for a nice crunch and some cheese flavor. So I grated some extra cheese on the small holes of a box grater, I added bread crumbs for a little crunch, some cayenne for a little kick, and some flour to coat the cheese and prevent it from sticking together (see recipe).

These muffins were super tasty. Moist, tender and very flavorful. The caramelized onions shined through perfectly, while the flavor of the sage hit your taste buds at the end. The cheese crumb topping was deliciously crunchy, adding another dimension to the muffin's texture. I will definitely make these again and play with different vegetables, herbs and cheeses. They were the perfect accompinament to my Creamy Chicken-Wild Rice-Barley-Veggie soup.

Creamy Chicken and Wild Rice/Barley soup alongside Savory Muffins. Yum!

To all my fellow SMS bakers, I would like to extend a big Thank You for baking along with me this week. Check out the blogroll to see how the other SMS ladies did this week.

Final thoughts/tips:

• Hubby hasn't had a chance to try these so I will report back later on what he thought, assuming I can get him to try some. He was a bit weirded out by the thought of a non-sweet muffin. I'm hoping that since it's spicy he'll at least try, since he likes spicy food.
• I cut the recipe in half and baked only 6 muffins, fearing I'd be eating 12 muffins by myself otherwise. Having tasted them, I wish I had made 12 after all. They're that good!!
  
• Check out this week's P&Q section as there are lots of ideas posted on these muffins, including some info on how to caramelize onions.
• My changes and notes to the recipe can be found below in the color maroon.
• I have included step-by-step pictures below. Enjoy!
  

Savory muffins: Caramelized Onion, Sage and Cheddar Muffins
from The Sweet Melissa Baking Book

Yields: 12 muffins

Ingredients:

• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 tablespoon plus 1 1/2 tsp teaspoons baking powder
• 1 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
• 3/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• 1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper (doubled this)
  
• 1 teaspoon sugar
• 10 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted (used 80% butter, 20% extra-virgin olive oil)
  
• 2 large eggs
• 1/2 cup heavy cream, room temperature
• 1/2 cup whole milk, room temperature (used 2% milk)
  
• 1 cup shredded sharp cheddar cheese (used shredded colby jack cheese + extra for crumb topping)
  
• 1 cup chopped caramelized onions (+ 1 tsp finely chopped garlic)
  
• 2 tablespoons chopped fresh sage

Hanaâ's special crumb topping:

• ~1/3 cup loosely packed finely shredded cheese
• ~2 tbsp bread crumbs
• 1 tsp of all-purpose flour
  
• 1/8 tsp cayenne
• Toss together until cheese is coated and set aside.
  

Instructions:

Position a rack in the center of your oven. Preheat the oven to 350F. Line a standard 12-cup muffin tin with muffin papers (or butter and flour the cups or spray them with nonstick vegetable cooking spray). I used Pam spray with flour and no muffin liners.

Chop 2 medium onions and sautee them in a nonstick pan with half the salt, half the black pepper and half the cayenne pepper from the recipe. Half way through cooking, add the finely copped garlic. Cook until fully caramelized; about 10 minutes.

In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, salt, black pepper, cayenne, and sugar.

In a small bowl, whisk together the melted butter, (extra-virgin olive oil) and eggs. Whisk in the heavy cream and milk until combined.

Add the cheese, sage, and caramelized onions to the flour mixture, and gently toss with your fingers to coat. Make a well in the center. Pour the butter mixture into the center of the well and, using a rubber spatula, gently pull the flour mixture into the center of the well until just combined. Muffin batter will be thick at this point.

Divide the batter evenly among the prepared muffin cups (using a large, spring-loaded ice cream scoop), filling each cup until full. If using, top each muffin with a little bit of the cheese crumb topping.

Bake for 30-35 minutes, or until lightly golden and a wooden skewer inserted into the enter comes out clean. Remove to a wire rack to cool. Mine were fully baked after only 20 minutes so watch them closely.

Serve warm or at room temperature. The muffins are best eaten the day they are made, but they can be tightly wrapped in plastic wrap and kept for 2 days at room temperature. For longer storage, wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for up to 5 days, or freeze well wrapped in plastic wrap and then aluminum foil for up to 3 weeks. Defrost still wrapped at room temperature.

SMS - Orange-scented Scones

There's a first time for everything and this is officially my first late SMS post. So many things going on, including being sick, that I was going to pass on the scones. Really glad I didn't because they were great. Definitely worthy of making again and again. A big thanks for such a great pick by Robin of Lady Craddock's Bakery.


These scones were very easy to make, especially if you have a food processor. They are crispy on the outside, moist and tender on the inside. Since they're not very sweet, I liked eating them with jam, as suggested in the book. And for that, I made half a batch of Strawberry-kissed Plum Jam. Why strawberry-kissed? I used 2 lbs of plums (4 cups) and added a small handful of strawberries that I needed to use up. The jam was delicious; just the right combination of sweetness and tartness. This recipe was based on the Fruit Preserves recipe in the Sweet Melissa Baking Book.

Ready to go into the oven!

An inside look... I loved the tender crumb of these scones... no hockey pucks here!

Don't you love that color?

Bon appetit!

Final thoughts/tips:

• I used half an orange (whole) and pureed it in the food processor, the way we did a few weeks ago for the Whole Orange Poppy Seed Cake. I wish I had added some sugar to the orange when doing this, as the scones had a tiny bitterness to them. I decreased the amount of cream to 1/2 cup.
• When washing any citrus fruit for zesting, instead of using water alone or water and a sponge, try using some dish detergent to scrub of the wax. It works great. You can feel the difference; the fruit's surface will be much rougher.
  
• Instead of 6 scones, I shaped it into a long rectangle and cut it into 4 squares which I then cut in half, resulting in 8 scones.
• I sprinkled the scones with raw sugar prior to baking as I like that crunchy texture.
  
• Don't forget to check out the other SMS bakers.
  

1-yr blogaversary

It's been exactly 1 year since I started this blog. Baking has been a passion of mine for a few years now. I really enjoy reading other people's blog and learning new things. By creating my own blog, I was hoping I could do the same for others; share recipes, tips, and techniques.

A big thanks goes to a couple blogging gals who were a big inspiration to me: Deeba of Passionate About Baking and Vera of Baking Obsession. I love their creativity and passion.

Last but not last, I would like to thank Lorelei of Mermaid Sweets for setting up the Sweet Melissa Baking Club, and all the SMS bakers. I'm so glad I joined this group. It has encouraged me to blog much more often. I also very much enjoy baking in a group setting and sharing baking experiences.

Over the weekend, I baked a banana cake and filled it with the peach jam I recently made. To keep things simple, I dusted it with powdered sugar. This banana cake is another great recipe from The Cake Bible; moist, soft, tender, and banana-ey. I highly recommend it. You can find the recipe HERE. My changes: omitted zest, added 1 tsp cinnamon.

Happy 1st blogaversary :o)

SMS - Perfect Pound Cake

This week's SMS recipe, Perfect Pound Cake, was chosen by Michele of Veggie Num Nums. At first I planned on making 3 mini loaves on Sunday; plain, espresso/chocolate marbled, and lime poppy seed respectively. Unfortunately, some unexpected errands came up and I only had time to make one large loaf. A few SMS bakers had commented that the recipe as-is was a bit too plain so I opted for the espresso/chocolate marble. I made a few more changes to the recipe which I noted in the final thoughts/tips section.

The pound cake took a little over an hour to bake. After the cake cooled completely, I cut a few slices from it. I loved the marbled look and the smell of freshly ground espresso beans. The cake's tender crumb was spot on. And it tasted great. Although it was a tad dry, it wasn't too bad. Especially if you're planning on enjoying a slice with a cup of milk, hot cocoa, tea or coffee anyway.

If you'd like to give this recipe a try, please visit Michele's blog. Thanks for a great pick, Michele. We enjoyed it a lot.

Beat until fluffy and pale-colored.

Divide the batter and add ground espresso and Dutch cocoa.

Sniff... this batter smells great.

Ready to go into the oven.

After just a little over an hour in the oven, it looks like this.

An inside look into the beautiful loaf of pound cake.

Marbled slices of espresso/chocolate pound cake.

The cake's texture was soft and tender.

Final thoughts/tips:

• Hubby enjoyed this cake and he normally doesn't like pound cake as they're usually very dry and incredibly heavy and dense. His rating: 8.5 out of 10.
• To give you some insight on the dryness of the cake: on a scale of 1 to 10 where 1 means perfect moistness and 10 means super-dry, my husband gave it a 3.
• Ingredient changes: used a total of 1 cup + 2 Tbsp of sugar. Once I divided the batter in half, I added 1 Tbsp of freshly ground espresso and 2 Tbsp of Dutch cocoa (sifted).
• Instruction changes: beat room temperature eggs and sugar together until fluffy and pale-colored. Drizzle melted butter into egg/sugar mixture while beating. Alternate flour mixture and cream/vanilla mixture, starting and ending with flour mixture.
  
• Why? I learned that leaveners, such as baking powder and baking soda, increase air bubbles already present in the batter; they don't create air bubbles. Hence my decision to beat as much air into the egg/sugar mixture before adding the flour.
• Check out the SMS blog roll to see how other SMS bakers baked up this pound cake.
  

A to Z Tag

My SMS friend and fellow Fair baker, Michelle of Flourchild, tagged me. It's my very first tag, so bear with me :o)

1. A – Available/Single? Married to the sweetest man!
2. B – Best friend? Hubby, mom, my close friends (you know who you are!)
3. C – Cake or Pie? Cake (especially those with a fruity mousse filling).
4. D – Drink of choice? H2O.
5. E – Essential item you use every day? Facial cream.
6. F – Favorite color? Brown.
7. G – Gummy Bears or Worms? Neither, thank you.
8. H – Hometown? A Dutch city close to the German border.
9. I – Indulgence? Warm Stroopwafels (Dutch wafer thin cookies with a caramel filling).
10. J – January or February? Hubby’s birthday is in January, so January.
11. K – Kids & their names? None.
12. L – Life is incomplete without? God, family, friends, cooking and baking.
13. M – Marriage date? March, 1999.
14. N – Number of siblings? Two younger sisters.
15. O – Oranges or Apples? Oranges.
16. P – Phobias/Fears? Bugs, especially bees and spiders.
17. Q – Quote for today? “Yummy in the tummy”, as often spoken by “princess” Yasmine – my friend’s 3 year old.
18. R – Reason to smile? One of many reasons, is my super cute and adorable niece of 19 months.
19. S – Season? Summer; from end of spring until end of summer, really. That’s when most of our garden veggies and fruits are ready for consumption/canning/sharing. Yay!
20. T – Tag 4 People?

Wafae of La Cuisine de Wafae

Joy of Hot Oven, Warm Heart

Jane of Jane's Sweets & Baking Journal

Karen of Karen's Cookies Cakes & More

21. U – Unknown fact about me? I once recorded half an album with a producer-friend, singing R&B songs.
22. V – Vegetable you don't like? It’s so cliché but I really don’t like Brussels sprouts (I do try them every time they’re served, hoping I’ll change my mind because they’re healthy).
23. W – Worst habit? Going to the grocery store for 1 item and coming home with tons more.
24. X – X-rays you've had? Dental and chest x-rays.
25. Y – Your favorite food? Moroccan cuisine and healthy food.
26. Z – Zodiac sign? Taurus.