Nutmeg nutters muffins

Summer is officially over, August 2011 is now a thing of the past. The still, humid evening air has been blown away by a cool evening breeze. I spent the majority of last month glued to my computer, mostly breathing conditioned air and avoiding daylight as much as possible. I may live in the Mediterranean but my East European heritage is impossible to avoid or deny. I like it better when its not hot and humid like the inside of a hamam.

That's right. I’m looking forward to winter, but I should also mention that winter in Tel Aviv is almost perfect. The city shines under shades of grey, as temperatures drop to a comfortable low of 13 degrees Celsius around January and the days are dotted with sporadic rainy days here and there alongside the occasional dramatic thunder storm, for extra effect.

I have decided to welcome fall and bake it into muffin form. Nutmeg and muffins make for a special treat for any nutmeg nutters out there as these aren’t what one might call MILD; we’re talking sharp and pungent treats with one whole grated nutmeg and definitely the next step up from a cinnamon addiction- one that I hold dearly to my heart.

These are best served warm a dollop of sour cream or a thick fruit compote and every bite is reassurance that autumn one step closer.

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Nutmeg muffins

(12 muffins)

The recipe is slightly adapted from Marion Cunningham’s The Breakfast Book I discovered through Orangette.

Ingredients

1½ cups all- purpose flour

½ cup rye flour

½ cup sugar

1 tbs baking powder

1 ½ whole nutmeg, freshly grated

¼ tsp cinnamon

½ tsp salt

1 egg

¾ cup sour cream

¾ cup milk

40 gram butter, melted

1. Preheat the oven to 200C and butter or oil the muffin tins.
2. In a large bowl, mix the flour, sugar, baking powder, freshly grated nutmeg, cinnamon and salt to combine.
3. In a separate bowl beat the egg the add in the sour cream, milk and melted butter and stir to combine.
4. Add the cream mixture to the flour mixture and stir only until there are no streaks of flour. Do not overmix.
5. Spoon the batter into the muffin tins, about 2/3 full. Sprinkle a little cinnamon on top and bake until lightly golden, about 20 minutes.
6. Remove the muffins from the tins and serve warm with butter, sour cream or by itself. Alternatively, cool on a rack and freeze for later use.

Sweet yeast dough Monkey bread pull- apart muffins

My obsession with sweet yeast baked goods has taken a turn for the best recently. Tracking down a unique recipe is pleasing enough, but when juxtaposed with an original thought it can turn into a magical, and dare I say it, euphoric experience. I’m only saying this because it happened to me last week. Twice.

The first was a Sweet yeast dough Monkey bread pull- apart muffins. A mouthful. The second time was a lemon curd tart I made with a salted butter Speculaas Pâte sablée.

I found out about an American phenomena called ‘monkey bread’. Loosely based on pastry this is a violent recipe involving some cinnamon, but mainly the brutal drowning of industrial frozen biscuit dough chunks into what can only be described as butter. It was the cinnamon that caught my attention.

I would own this monkey bread, I thought. The industrial biscuit was quickly substituted with a sweet yeast dough recipe, making this a high quality muffin version of the cinnamon delight.

The dough is cut into bite size chunks before it is baked, so it has an ergonomic design, what with the bites pulling apart.

Sweet yeast, cinnamon and butter turned toffee pastry that’s user friendly – what more can and should pastry be?!?!

The result is breath taking and mouth watering and left me gob smacked and flabbergasted.

Sweet yeast Monkey bread pull- apart muffins

Makes about 15 muffins

For the dough

500 grams sifted all purpose organic flour

1 ¼ teaspoon salt

1 ½ teaspoon active dry yeast

320 ml milk

75 grams butter

For the dry sugar cinnamon mixture

2 cup brown sugar

1 cup granulated sugar

3 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1 teaspoon ground cardamon

For the butter sugar mixture

40 grams cold salted butter, diced

In a large bowl combine all the ingredients. Knead for about 5-8 minutes, either by hand or stand mixer until dough is smooth and elastic.

Cover the dough with a clean dishtowel and leave to rise for approx. 45 minutes at room temperature.

Divide the dough in 15 pieces. Form into little ball shapes, cover and leave for 20 minutes.

In a small bowl mix together the ingredients for the sugar cinnamon mixture.

Grease a muffin pan with butter, dust it with flour and set aside.

Turn out one ball of dough at a time onto lightly floured surface. Press it with your hands until it is about 1 cm thick. Cut the dough into small chunks, about the size of a thumb and roll them in the sugar cinnamon mixture until covered. Set aside. Do the same with all the remaining dough balls.

Add the cold butter into the sugar cinnamon mixture and mix with your hands until combined.

Fill each muffin to the halfway point with dough chunks, softly packing them in. sprinkle about a tablespoon of the sugar mixture, then top with more dough chunks, packing lightly. Finish with more sugar mixture.

Bake at 175°C degrees for about 12-15 minutes but keep an eye on them. Let cool in the pan for 15 minutes.

Run a sharp knife around the edges of each muffin then gently scoop out of the muffin tin.

This is when the magic happens and the sugar and butter have turned into oozing, juicy toffee.