Yesterday morning I was craving something different, but I didn’t feel like going anywhere so I needed to work with what I already had in the kitchen. To be honest, I’ve been having a hard time enjoying the usual foods that I eat after returning from a trip to Europe. The food there is so much better in so many ways, plus I didn’t have to make any of it so I was constantly being gifted the experience of new ingredients put together in ways that I’d never have thought of, and these new concoctions thrilled me, even when they weren’t something I’d particularly want to recreate myself.
Cruise Camp
We were on a Rhine River cruise, and I had never before traveled on a ship. The closest experience that I can relate it to is going away to summer camp as a kid, which I loved but only did a small handful of times. In both instances you meet people from various places, eat and experience new things every day with them, go to bed tired and wake up too early to start the next day full of new experiences with these new friends, then you all go home your separate ways with some photos, memories, and promises to keep in touch.
Instead of nature hikes there are city center walks, and instead of crafts there are optional cheese and wine tastings, but it really made me think about how many fewer opportunities we have as we get older to be thrown together with new people for days on end and delight in our commonalities and discuss our differences and experience unusual things together. It’s special, and unique, and I can understand why people get hooked on cruises even though overall it would not be my choice of travel mode.
Back to Muffins
These vanilla muffins were basically the same as I’ve made before, except this time I didn’t reduce the sugar as much as I used to, and that is what gives these the pound cake effect rather than the other, plainer, version. (Those are also good, just different.) I also changed where I baked them by instead of using the middle rack, I moved the rack up a notch, so they were slightly closer to the top of the oven. Both tweaks made a difference where the complete outside of all the muffins had that pound cake topping encasing them which made these such a treat.
Just like with the original vanilla muffins I have posted here, the basic recipe I loosely follow is for blueberry muffins on the back of a Bob’s Red Mill Gluten Free Flour bag.
Vanilla Pound Cake Muffins
2 Cups Bob’s Red Mill GF 1-to-1 Baking Flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup regular or vegan butter
3/4 cup cane sugar
3/4 cup brown sugar
1 tsp cinnamon
1+ tsp vanilla extract (here’s how to make your own!)
2 eggs or egg replacer
1/2 Vanilla Oat Milk
Start by preheating oven to 425 degrees and prep your muffin pan with either paper liners or spray oil. Add the dry ingredients (besides the sugar) together in a bowl and stir. Cream the sugar and softened butter together with a hand mixer. Add the vanilla and mix again. Add the eggs (or egg replacer) and mix, then add the dry ingredients a bit at a time while mixing, rotating with adding the half cup of oat milk. The batter looks like a cake batter. Scoop the batter into a prepared muffin pan for 12 normal sized muffins. Put the pan in the oven and immediately turn the temperature down to 375 degrees. Bake for 30 minutes, then let them cool on a cooling rack for at least five minutes before digging in.
They taste delicious alone but really shine with strawberries, especially with a scoop of vanilla yogurt.
Happy middle of May. I hope you have some sweetness this week.
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