Day Four - A recipe for comforting after a stressful day!

Today was one of those days where I felt on multiple different occasions like pulling my hair out, the sort of day that you wished deep down it was Friday so you didn't have to face the office the next day and had a lovely two day break from the workplace. Unfortunately, that is not the case, it's only Tuesday and there is a massive snowstorm predicted for tomorrow, schools have been canceled already, even though there is no snow as of yet..

On a night like tonight, what I wish I could do was go home, settle into a nice glass of Nero D'Avola and bake a batch of one of my savory muffins, tune out of the real world and zone into the baking world. Cooking/baking and running are my top two forms of unwinding and decompressing and in my opinion they are the tonic for pretty much anything that's stressful, upsetting, what have you. I think its important to have at least one, if not two activities that allow you take your mind out of everything that is going on around you and recenter yourself.

I already ran today, so that nixes one of my two options for decompressing, might as well move on to option number two, baking!

To preface, I would not say I am a world class baker, I'd say I am pretty skilled in making muffins and certain breads, but cakes, pies, cookies and the such, well aren't really for me since I'm not the biggest fan of sweets.

One of my favorite recipes and what I plan to make tonight is: Parmesan Herb Muffins. They are bundles of herby, cheesy, goodness, there is nothing not to love about these guys...and the added bonus is that they are really simple.

When I bake, I unfortunately am not particularly exacting, I know how much should go in by eye sight as opposed to be specific measurement, now I feel that I can give you an iiiiiiidea of about what the measurement should be so, if they don't come out perfectly the first time, tweak the amounts just a little bit..Also good to note before baking with my recipes, I try to avoid butter and try to make things lower fat, if you want to go the other route, substitute a few of the egg whites in my recipe for two to three full eggs and butter for the olive oil.

Here we go:

Lets go through the ingredients:

(1) Cup of gluten free flour (gives the muffins a nice gummy, moist texture that I love)
(1) Cup regular flour
A splash (about a teaspoon) of baking powder
A splash (about a teaspoon) of baking soda
A dash of salt and black pepper
(1) full egg
(3) egg whites
(1) cup of Buttermilk
(1.5) cups of grated parmesan
(1) chopped up garlic clove
A splash of olive oil, more than a teaspoon, but enough to moisten the batter
Now onto the herbs - I like to use rosemary, thyme, marjoram, and basil, sometimes chives, but seeing as it is winter, I think you should leave them out. Ideally, utilize the fresh versions of the herbs, but if you feel like you would waste the rest, using dried herbs is fine too. I like to be liberal

And that's pretty much it. This is easy as pie.

Step One: Preheat the oven to 350 degrees, whenever you are baking, you always want to make sure you have that oven heating up as you are preparing whatever is eventually going into it, you don't want to have to wait around!

Step Two: Combine all the dry ingredients

Step Three: Add in eggs, milk, olive oil, cheese, herbs, and garlic. Mix together till everything is combined. Then use cooking spray or olive oil and  coat your muffin tins, fill each muffin space about 1/2 to 2/3rds full. Top with a little extra grated Parmesan for that added umph. Then place in the oven at 350, bake for twenty five to thirty minutes or until golden brown. Pull out and let cool and then grab one and enjoy! I recommend on a cold, winter night like tonight pair it with a nice warming red wine or a deep beer. These muffins do go quite nicely with a glass of Sancerre as well and you can picture it being a cool spring evening, not a snowy winter one!