Categories
Twitch Streaming

Berry bran muffins

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berry salad with candied mint and a puff pastry arlette

This was one of those “everything that could go wrong, will” kind of streams.

Somebody… not naming any names… kept us both awake super late because he (again, not naming any names) got sucked into watching God of War streams on Twitch and wouldn’t stop talking to the other member of the couple about it. So we got to bed around 4am.

So of course we woke up late, had trouble getting our butts in gear because we were tired, and then started way too late.

mixed berry bran muffin

I had originally planned to make this fruit salad. And then I looked in my fridge right after Son clicked “Start Stream” in OBS (the stream management program we use), and discovered that my greek yogurt had gone bad.

Crap.

So I ran back to my computer and scrambled for a replacement… and finally found a custard recipe that looked like it would be a good replacement.

Okay. Everything else should be fine, right?

bran muffin top with fruit

A few days before, Son asked me to make some extra fun components for his plating “art” portion of the stream. We were browsing through Payard Desserts and he saw some things he wanted me to try. So before the stream I candied some mint (which actually turned out fine). I also attempted to make something called arlettes – pretty much mini elephant ears/half-sized pamiers. Those went… poorly. So I threw the actual instructions out the window which involved rolling out slices of refrigerated rolls of puff pastry, and just baked the slices as is. (Which worked fine, but… still not how they were supposed to go.)

What should have been a two- to three-hour stream turned into a five hour stream.

cranberry sour cream bran muffin

But! We made muffins and they were delicious! It’s berry season, and I’ve been trying to find some healthier breakfasty things, so bran muffins it was. I found this recipe for bran muffins on Smitten Kitchen, and in it she also linked to an older recipe for sour cream bran muffins on her blog that she said was a lighter version more suited to bran newbies.

bran muffin top with fruit

For the first recipe, I used a mix of fresh berries – two raspberries, one raspberry, half a blackberry, and a few pieces of diced strawberry in each muffin. I also topped half of the muffins with a few pieces of semi-sweet chocolate, which let me tell you, was an excellent decision that I highly recommend. Thanks to the liquid from the berries, this actually turned out to be a very moist, tender muffin – not the dry, dense texture you might expect from a bran muffin. They were delicious, and of the two, my favorite.

puff pastry arlettes

The sour cream bran muffin recipe called for dried fruit, so I used dried cranberries. Like the first muffins, I also topped half of these with chocolate pieces, which again was a wonderful decision. These were not as tender as the first recipe, but were still delicious. Thanks to the cranberries and cinnamon in the recipe, these taste like Christmas to me. Definitely more of a fall flavor, but I’ll happily eat these year-round!

bran muffin top with fruit, topped with an arlette

Today’s Question of the Day: What is your favorite type of muffin?

Visit my Twitch stream to catch up on past streams, and hang out when I’m streaming! Want to know when I’m in the kitchen? Hit the follow button (the heart up top) so you’ll get notifications when I’m live – it’s always free to follow! Or you can follow me on Instagram or Twitter, where I usually post when I’m starting the stream.

Categories
Twitch Streaming

Chocolate cheesecake-stuffed strawberries, and chocolate raspberry madeleines

Missed the stream? Watch it on Twitch!

chocolate cheesecake-stuffed strawberries

When mom requests something for the stream… we make it happen. So when she sent me a link to these chocolate cheesecake-stuffed strawberries that she found on Fridgg, it went on the menu right away!

chocolate raspberry madeleines

We were lucky enough to find huge, beautiful, ruby-red strawberries at our local farmer’s market, which worked wonderfully for this. From there it’s easy enough to mix up the chocolate cheesecake filling, and pipe it into (or in our case, use a knife to fill) the strawberries. At my mom’s suggestion, I drizzled the strawberries with melted dark chocolate instead of using sprinkles.

chocolate cheesecake-stuffed strawberries

How did they turn out? Well… we ran the risk of mom not getting any, because we couldn’t stop eating them during the stream. And mom has already requested that we make these for her regularly during strawberry season. Suffice to say, you REALLY need to make these, ASAP. Sweet, flavorful strawberries + a creamy, chocolatey filling + the texture and flavor contrast of the hardened, slightly bitter dark chocolate = such an amazing dessert.

chocolate cheesecake-stuffed strawberries

Since the strawberries were so easy to make and we didn’t want the stream to be *too* short, I also decided to make chocolate raspberry madeleines (because mom is a huge chocolate-raspberry fan). I borrowed a madeleine pan from my mom, and whipped these up during the stream as well.

chocolate raspberry madeleines

Even though I used frozen raspberries instead of fresh, these turned out wonderfully. The madeleines are cakey, super chocolatey, but not too sweet, with a surprising fresh tang when you bite into a raspberry, and a touch of sweetness from the ganache. Mom loved these too, although she did request that next time I try making them with seedless raspberry jam (the one thing I hate most about raspberries is how the seeds never fail to get stuck in your teeth!)

All in all, today’s fruity chocolatey desserts were a huge success!

chocolate cheesecake-stuffed strawberries

Today’s Question of the Day: If you could have someone make you any food you wanted for your birthday, what would it be?

Visit my Twitch stream to catch up on past streams, and hang out when I’m streaming! Want to know when I’m in the kitchen? Hit the follow button (the heart up top) so you’ll get notifications when I’m live – it’s always free to follow! Or you can follow me on Instagram or Twitter, where I usually post when I’m starting the stream.