I decided to bake a test pie on Sunday to see if I could/should enter the Enid’s Apple Pie Bake-off next week. I’ve never made a pie from scratch on my own before and learned that it may be one of the most labor intensive kitchen activities one can engage in. This also makes it one of the most rewarding kitchen activities when the pie is successful, unlike some previous baking exploits documented on this blog.
If you’re not sure if you should bake a pie, here’s a quick questionnaire to review before picking up a pound of apples and getting coated in flour:
-Do you have nothing else to do for the next three hours?
-Do you have a sufficient playlist on your portable music device to get you through that length of time?
-Do you plan on going out for dinner tonight?
-Are your fully caffeinated with additional iced coffee at the ready?
If you answered yes to all of the questions above, then you may be ready to make a pie. Grab a rolling pin, a whole bunch of apples, and check out this recipe. » Read the rest of this entry «
I recently listened to a Radiolab podcast during which Robert Krulwich interviewed Brian Greene, a physics and mathematics professor and director of the Institute of Strings, Cosmology, and Astroparticle Physics at Columbia University, about his theory that there are an infinite number of universes. He describes the universes as being like the air bubbles in a piece of swiss cheese, however the cheesy space between the infinite number of bubbles is expanding so quickly that it’s impossible to traverse. There’s also a big point about how because there’s a finite number of ways molecules can be arranged, there is an infinite number of universes exactly like ours, therefore exact copies of each and every one of us out there, but I digress.
The swiss cheese in this simile could easily be replaced with a blueberry muffin, as I often feel like the cakey space between the deep purple pockets of blueberries goes on far too long. My answer to this dilemma is a recipe for Extreme Blueberry Muffins: where extreme meets blueberry. It’s a recipe for those who love muffins, but use them as a vehicle for fruit.
This recipe is adapted from one by Alton Brown that uses no butter, but does use yogurt. The result is a very light muffin that has just the right amount of sweetness. I should also note that it’s not the most beautiful muffin, but it tastes great.
» Read the rest of this entry «
