Over the past week I’ve lost the ability to eat solid food, and just yesterday I was able to finally swallow something slightly more solid than pudding. *pats herself on the back*

Its amazing when you think about it. What would you honestly do if you were unable to chew your food? What if you were able to chew, but unable to swallow anything solid? I never thought I’d be in such a situation. I’ve always been a “oh, what? people stop eating when they get sick?” kinda gal. I get the flu and I gain 10 pounds because I’ve lost the ability to gauge or sense my own fullness.

Well, now that I’m feeling a bit better, I decided its high time I get back to the kitchen and make me some muffins.

I wanted to make muffins that I could actually eat, which means they’d have to be super soft. Super soft and melty. Nothing crunchy or hard or chewy. I really wanted to make cinnamon raisin muffins, because even the thought of the smell of baking cinnamon raisin ANYTHING makes meneverbashfulwithbutter.comhttp://www.neverbashfulwithbutter.com drool, but I know I’d want to make those with oatmeal, and oatmeal is something I’m not able to eat just yet. (my tonsils are still swollen, so stuff gets stuck in there. ew)

I didnt want to just make PLAIN muffins, and I didnt just want to make cupcakes either. Plain muffins are boring, and cupcakes are too sweet. I havent gained my entire sense of taste back yet, so the sweetness would be entirely lost on my palate.

So.. I dug out one of my old recipe books and started searching.

Somewhere in the back of my 1960’s Bright Orange Betty Crocker Cookbook, I came across a recipe for super soft sweet cheese muffins.

…Ok, so thats not what they were called.

I think they were called something like “Light as air” muffins. Something cheesy. This is the same cookbook that has an entire section titled “organ meats and your health” So.. you gotta be careful. Anywho..

I sifted through the ingredients list. Sounded simple enough, (no organ meats either! haha) so I gathered the ingredients and mixed it all up in a bowl at the kitchen table. I’m still having dizzy spells, so… sitting is probably the best thing for me to do when I’ve got to stir something. heh. I fell over walking from the computer room to the bathroom yesterday.. so.. shuddup! *smile*

I mixed up the batter and spooned it into little muffin cups. I realized… AFTER I started pouring, that I was making boring plain muffins. I had planned to add some mascarpone cheese to the mix and some marmalade. Damnit. I forgot.

So… I finished pouring. I sat there and stared at the now full muffin cups and thought.. well… I could just put the cheese inside the batter and bake it up now.

And thats what I did.

I took my mascarpone cheese, added a little powdered sugar and some orange and lemon extract, whipped it up and spooned it into the center of the muffins, pressing down a little so the batter covered most of it.

I baked them for a few minutes, not the entire length of time that the recipe called for, because I wanted them to be light and moist and.. well.. I didnt want them crusty on the top or on the bottom. I wanted them to be JUST barely cooked.

I managed to succeed, and I popped one out of the tin and gave it a whiff. From what I could smell, it smelled delicious.

Upon further inspection, I discovered it not only smelled great, but looked great and tasted even better. This muffin Melted in my mouth. I barely had to do any chewing.

And dont worry, I had my husband try one too, to make sure I wasnt all wonky because of my illness.. He just finished off his 5th muffin in the last 2 hours. hehe. I think that means he likes them.

So here you have it, the muffins that have brought me out of kitchen exile-

In my hunt for foods I can make that classify as “melt in your mouth” I’ve come across a recipe for french breakfast muffins that I transformed into a delicious, soft, light and fluffy muffin recipe that truely does melt in your mouth.

mm..

2 1/4 cups cake flour
1 1/2 cups white sugar
3 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup butter
1 cup milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
4 egg whites

You will also need-
3/4 cup mascarpone cheese
1 cup powdered sugar
2 teaspoons Orange extract
1 teaspoon lemon extract

My directions are simple, just how I like ‘em. Take all of the dry ingredients from the first list, and sift them together in a bowl. In another container, mix together all of the liquid ingredients. Slowly add the liquid ingredients, mixing between additions, until the batter is completely mixed. It will be a little lumpy, but thats ok.

Prepare your muffin tin with either paper cups or spray grease. Fill each cup about 2/3 full. Set aside.

In a separate bowl, mix together all of the ingredients from the second list. You’re trying to create a paste, and you do not want it to be liquidy. You want it more like a soft dough.

Once the dough is fully mixed- get out the muffin batter filled muffin cups. Drop a spoonful of the soft cheese paste into the center of each muffin. You can add up to two spoonfuls.

Bake at 325 for about 10-15 minutes. Just until they’re BARELY cooked through. Because you put cheese in the center, when testing for doneness poke a toothpick through the cupcake diagonally from one side towards the other. It should come out clean.

The cool thing about this recipe is that even though I intended to put the cheese in the original batter, putting it in the center sort of accomplished the same thing. The cheese melted and incorporated itself into the muffin, leaving it moist and soft. The top of the muffin had a slightly crunchy texture from the cheese as well. Everything about these muffins was awesome.

I managed to save one from my husband, and I intend to eat it with some marmalade for breakfast. mm..

Doesnt that sound delicious?

I finally got to use my new cotton candy maker!

My mom bought it for me sometime the week before I got sick, and I wasnt able to sit up long enough to use it before so.. I made some cotton candy today! I love this thing. Seriously, everyone should have a cotton candy maker!

So there you have it folks. Super soft sweet cheese muffins.

-A.

P.S.
Thank you everyone for your well wishes over the past week. I missed writing and taking photos so bad! I’m so glad to be feeling better. Also, I’ve been keeping up with my friendslist, so I have been reading your entries, I just didnt really have the right coordination to write many responses. I’ll do better this week!

This entry was posted on Thursday, February 28th, 2008 at 2:04 pm and is filed under February 2007, The Cupcakes!. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.