Orange-hazelnut muffins

This Monday morning is the official start to our summer vacation!  Second grade has officially wrapped up for the little one and he is eager and more-than-ready to enjoy the leisurely summer days ahead.  We have a few short camps and activities on his schedule but plenty of time left to just chill and be.  (Wish me luck!)

I've got breakfast on my mind because now that summer is here and we don't need to make it to school before 8:15am, there will be time to experiment with breakfast and to have pancakes on weekdays!  We all enjoy muffins and I'm always on the lookout for a new recipe.  I'll even have time to make them fresh in the morning (though I personally prefer muffins as a midday snack or even as dessert).

Muffins are great because, in the majority of cases including this one, they are just so easy to put together.  Since I'm not a big fan of most icings or buttercream, muffins are also perfect for me since I can just focus on the cake.

These are orange-hazelnut muffins, a recipe I slightly adapted from the latest July issue of Cooking Light.  I love hazelnuts and anything with orange zest so these flavors called out to me.  Plus, they are a breeze to make and healthy with hazelnut meal (I'm all for healthy fats like the kind from nuts), just a touch of sweetness from honey, and a bit of milk and canola oil in the batter.  

The original recipe calls for agave nectar but I used honey instead.  I wish I was a fan of agave but I'm not.  I admit I've only used agave once so maybe I need to give it more of a chance but I just find the flavor too strong.  I think maple syrup would also be a good, easy substitute here too.  

This recipe makes 12 mini muffins but I opted to go for a small batch of 4 regular size ones instead for our breakfast.  Call them muffins or snack cakes, they are fragrant with the nuttiness from hazelnut meal and the fresh flavor and aroma of orange zest and a bit of fresh juice.  They are moist though without butter in them, I wouldn't call them rich, which is not necessarily a bad thing.  The texture is a bit like a corn muffin actually.  Again, not a bad thing.  I think these make a great breakfast muffin or a light snack.

Two-bite brownie bite cookies

When you are practically stranded at home - albeit cozy and fortunate enough to be with power and heat even if not phone, TV, or Internet service – because of gasoline shortages and continued power outages, you might look to comfort yourself and share something tangible like food with your family.  For me, I cooked – partly for comfort and enjoyment but also due to necessity given the inability to go out and get around like normal during the first week or so after the storm. 

Comfort food takes many forms, particularly in steaming bowls of pasta or anything that’s hot and plentiful, on the savory side.  For me, it also means chocolate…lots of chocolate because the smell and taste of it is simply soothing.  I took full advantage of my chocolate stash following the storm.  It was my daily dose of comfort “medicine.”

My little guy was a fan of these chewy chocolaty bites; I partly credit their petite size, which makes them easy to eat with little mess (he's hasn't been a fan of gooey cookies lately) 

I made these two-bite brownie bite cookies on November 7^th, nine days after Hurricane Sandy, as snow starting drifting down from the sky thanks to a nor’easter!  Did I mention there was also a minor (2.0 scale) earthquake in New Jersey a few days prior to that also?  There were no damages and I don’t think anyone even felt it but…seriously?  Insane times call for chocolate intervention.  By the time I baked these chocolate cookies in the early afternoon, the sky was almost completely dark and picture-taking was far from ideal.  But the cookies were good though…

For my daily dose of chocolate, these did the trick.  These small two-bite cookies (you could make them even smaller into single-bites if you have the patience or do the opposite and make them larger) are like mini bites of chewy chocolate goodness.  There’s dark brown sugar in them but it’s mainly the honey that sets them apart and provides that chewiness I enjoy.  I don’t generally love cookies with honey in them, mainly because it’s hard to find good honey that isn't insanely expensive, but these cookies needed to be made because I happen to have a jar of delicious honey I picked up on our last apple picking expedition, which feels like a lifetime ago.

Sadly, my precious jar of honey is dwindling quickly but I’m glad I put some of that nectar to good use here in these brownie bite cookies because you can really taste what you put in.  The honey, along with cocoa, and bits of semisweet chocolate conjure up this lovely little treat.  Since they are not overly sweet, rolling them in sugar adds an extra touch of sweetness as well as giving them a nice luster and crunchy contrast to the soft and chewy texture.  I tried granulated, sanding, as well as turbinado sugar for the topping and my family and I liked the sanding sugar best both in appearance and texture (just the right amount of crunch).

These cookies are great for a stressful day or anytime, any day.  They may also be something to consider for your upcoming Christmas cookie lineup.  In fact, they remind me of one of my other Martha Stewart-favorites for the holidays, chocolate gingerbread cookies, minus the spice but offering a similar texture and base chocolate flavor.  And since the recipe makes a large amount of these small cookies, it is great for sharing and gifting.