Apple Cinnamon Muffin

Until I found this recipe I have mostly used my muffin pan to bake mini quiches, mini corn bread and other mini things that were not muffins.
Then I stumbled upon the following recipe in the book "BakeWise" by Shirley O. Corriher. It promised that the muffins would be deliciously moist and flavorful and I decided to finally make muffins with my muffin pan!
I mostly stuck to the recipe, although I used baking soda instead of baking powder and dried coconut instead of frozen coconut. And as always, I used coconut sugar instead of white sugar.

1 cup pecans
1 tbsp butter
salt
2 cups flour
1/2 tsp baking soda or 2 tsp baking powder
2 tsp cinnamon
1 cup coconut sugar
3 eggs
1 cup canola oil
2 tsp vanilla extract
1 cored and peeled apple, cut into chunks
2 carrots, peeled and shredded
1/2 cup golden raisins
1/2 cup coconut shreds
Roast pecans in the oven, add some butter and salt.
Mix flour and baking soda (make sure that the baking soda is well distributed), add cinnamon and coconut sugar.
In a second bowl mis eggs, canola oil and vanilla extract. Slowly pour the egg mixture into the flour mixture and combine well.
Add apples, carrots, raisins and coconut shreds.
Bake for 18 min at 400F / 200C, then cool an a cooling rack.

The muffins were indeed deliciously moist and very yummy! I made them a couple of times since the first try. Once, I ran out of coconut and made the muffins without it. Surprisingly that had a huge influence on the taste, they are much better with the coconut shreds!

Picadillo

This Picadillo recipe is one of my favorite recipes. I learned it from a friend a couple of years ago and have made it a couple of times since then.
It is great in tortillas as suggested in the recipe, but I like the rice version just as much. I served it with home made guacamole, grated cheddar and some salad:

Eggnog - second try

I tried making the eggnog again.

Again I had to sift the eggnog so that it was smooth. I think it was the cinnamon that clotted in/with the milk during the heating process. But I am also wondering if it could be because I used coconut sugar instead of white sugar although I don't see why that would happen.

Next time (for New Year's Eve!) I want to try starting to heat the milk up after I have already started to whisk the egg yolks and sugar, I hope to better control the heating process that way. Also, I want to try adding the cinnamon to the egg mixture so that it is not heated up with the milk. Just in case I bought a proper sieve, though :)

Eggnog and Mini Mushroom Quiches with Potato Crust

Great thing about Christmas is that I can try out all those christmassy recipes. Something I always wanted to make from scratch is eggnog. The recipe I used won me over with its title: "Amazingly good Eggnog".
As before, I substituted sugar with coconut sugar. I also left out the cloves and nutmeg and used spiced rum instead. The result tasted very good, but I must have done something wrong (probably during the heating process) and the eggnog wasn't smooth.
Great thing about not getting yummy things right the first time: There's going to be a next time!

Accompanying the eggnog was a vegetarian dinner that I have been exited about for several days!
I am a big fan of my newly acquired muffin pan. I haven't made a single muffin yet, but I thoroughly enjoy all the non-muffin recipes I can make with it. Like Mini Quiches!!

The idea for the potato crust I got from this recipe. But I used fresh potatoes and also added an egg and a tablespoon of flour to my crust "dough". It turned out wonderful and I am a big fan of it!
The filling was made from this Mushroom Quiche recipe. I did add more cheese (Gruyere AND Compté!) and parsley. Some quiches got a little bit of salmon as well which turned out to be a great addition!