There’s a reason why I write mostly about cooking and not baking. I don’t “really” bake. Cooking doesn’t require specifics, a lot of time and your results are not dependent on oven temperatures, the weather and pans. Just give me a normal pan, oil, salt and a few other ingredients plus 20 minutes, and something good can come out of it. Baking always – for me, anyway – requires a recipe, paying careful attention to the recipe and at some point or another, the realization that I have baking powder on hand and not baking soda.
I do love to look at and salivate over photos and recipes of baked goods. I read baking blogs and cookbooks obsessively and regularly plan to try one of the recipes that looks “easy enough.” One of the blogs I started reading recently – The Faux Martha – had a recipe that I tried for two simple reasons: it looked very easy, and it sounded like the kind of thing we could eat for breakfast. And let’s be honest, there aren’t a lot of baked goods I can eat for breakfast and still think I’m giving my body the strength and energy it needs.
(Diversion alert: Husband and his family get cake for breakfast on their birthdays and when I was there for my birthday a few weeks ago, I got to eat a strawberry panna cotta-type thing for my birthday breakfast and profiteroles.)
This muffin is no birthday cake material, but it is a bit like a bowl of winter porridge stuffed into a muffin cup and after 30 minutes of baking, voila. A muffin I can snack on during the day or hand to Husband to take for his breakfast on his way to work. It took about five minutes to assemble (because I had applesauce made and in the fridge), so when I say that this recipe is easy, I am not kidding.
- Baked Oatmeal To Go I followed her recipe with only a few modifications – I used chopped pecans and put a lot more in, I used almost a whole cup of applesauce, and I sprinkled only a bit of sugar into the mix. The sugar can be omitted, especially if you’ve got dried fruit in there.
Do you know that the Faux Martha is a JBU grad, along with her husband? It’s Melissa Noble Coleman married to Kevin Coleman-they graduated with me in 2007.
Hi Jennifer, yes I did know that, and I love her blog – great design and photography is a plus to the good baking recipes.
Devs, we would be a great team. You can make the mains. I prefer to bake. Fresh toasted bread and desserts as the only things on the menu? I have no problem with that.
Haha, yes we would make a great team. I think the only time I made a dessert on top of a main meal was for the hubby’s birthday..