I think most people, or at least most people who live in places with restaurants and dining establishments, have a favorite place to dine out. I've got a couple, personally. So does my daughter. Her favorite restaurant is Panera. It's not exactly fine dining, but it's better than most of the fast food establishments available and I'm generally pretty happy to have her eating there. She has a favorite meal there. She likes the kids' Mac and Cheese, which is actually not wretched nor does it taste like the ghastly from-a-box yellow stuff that is standard at many "family dining" establishments. She also has a favorite dessert. She likes the Candy Cookie. The Panera closest to us - it's actually walking distance - sometimes runs out of candy cookies. Then we have a major disaster on our hands. It's like the world ends. I picked up some little candies - they're not M&Ms but very similar, and I found something that looked about the right size at the Emergency Backup Grocery Store. My intention was to make some cookies for her.
The thing is she was nagging for muffins for breakfast for something like two days straight. Breakfast is a difficult thing for us in this house. None of the three of us are great eaters in the morning. We used to try to force her to eat because it's a good dietary habit, but she really resisted and really, if neither of us has any appetite in the morning it's not reasonable to expect her to. But if she suddenly has an appetite then we kind of have to feed her, right? Well, I didn't have any muffin filler on hand. I had some prunes. I wasn't going to do that. I did have the candy for the candy cookies... I decided to go for it.
It seems to be the best way to get breakfast into her. They're whole wheat, so there's some fiber and nutritional value there. She won't leave them alone. Next time I shop hopefully I'll find a better muffin filler, but for now this seems to be doing the trick.
Candy Cookie Muffins (makes 12; approx. $0.59/serving)
7 tablespoon butter
3/4 cups raw sugar
2 eggs
2 1/4 cups whole wheat flour
4 tablespoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1 1/4 whipping cream
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups mini candy-coated chocolates
Equipment:
- Cooking spray
- Muffin tin liners
- Stand mixer with paddle attachment
- Ice cream scoop
- Rubber spatula
- Preheat your oven to 375︒.
- Prepare your pans. I usually spray the cups of the muffin tins, then line the tins with the liners, then I spray the liners.
- Cream together the butter and sugar in your stand mixer.
- Add the eggs to the mixture one at a time. I like to scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl in between additions.
- Combine the dry ingredients - flour, baking powder and salt.
- Add the dry ingredients to the mixer in thirds, alternating with 1/2 of the combined cream and vanilla. You should start and end with dry ingredients.
- Fold in the candy.
- Use the ice cream scoop to portion out the batter evenly between the muffin tin cups.
- Bake 20 - 25 minutes. A tester should come out clean.
- Serve.
Talk about a guilty pleasure! I'd love to make these so I could justify eating candy for breakfast. "No, it's healthy, really- It's just a muffin!"
Posted by: Hannah | January 16, 2013 at 01:00 PM
Hannah - Thanks! At least it's whole wheat.. (Yeah, I know. I'm reaching.)
Posted by: Fearless Kitchen | January 18, 2013 at 11:31 AM