I have a little problem. I'm addicted to cookbooks, food writing, recipe collecting, and cooking. I have a lot of recipes waiting for me to try them, and ideas from articles, tv, and restaurants often lead to new dishes. I started losing track of what I've done. So now I'm taking photos and writing about what I've prepared—unless it's terrible in which case I forget it ever happened.
Last Friday, the Good Food Awards Roadshow was welcomed to Austin with a happy hour party. Good Food Award winner Stephanie McClenny of Confituras hosted the happy hour at Springdale Farm, and it was a mini showcase of local foods and beverages. There were samples from some Austin food artisans and a few seasonal, homemade items. Carla from Austin Urban Gardens brought a kale and butternut squash salad made with all local ingredients, and I whipped up these mini, savory muffins. The idea is from Baked Explorations where they’re suggested as regular-size muffins, but I thought minis would work better as happy hour snacks. They were made with local pumpkin from my CSA, clothbound cheddar from Brazos Valley Cheese, and eggs from Smith and Smith Farms. Black pepper and cayenne pepper keep these muffins firmly in the savory category, and I garnished with pumpkin seeds, a little extra finely grated cheese, and a sprinkling of mild chile powder as visual cues of their lack of sweetness.
These are easy to make because everything is whisked and folded together in a bowl, and no mixer is required. Since I had a fresh pumpkin on hand, I roasted and pureed it, but canned pumpkin is suggested in the book. To start, that is once the pumpkin is ready, you whisk together pumpkin puree and sour cream and then add eggs and cooled, melted butter. In a separate bowl, flour, baking powder, cayenne, salt, black pepper, and brown sugar are combined, and a well is formed in the center. The wet ingredients are poured in the well, and the mixture is folded until combined. Grated cheese is folded into the batter, and this it is divided among oil-sprayed muffin cups. If you’d like to garnish the tops, you can sprinkle on more cheese, pumpkin seeds, and chile powder before baking. For the mini muffins, I baked them for 15 minutes.
The pumpkin and cheddar worked wonders together in these little guys, and the cayenne delivered a surprising hit of spice. They were great as little hors d’oeuvres with a glass of wine, and I’d like to try them too, as they were intended, as regular-size muffins for breakfast.
I have a hard time wrapping my brain around this, but my spin instructor actually complains about losing weight in the heat of the summer. Personally, I can’t imagine ever being unhappy about shedding an extra pound or two, but apparently for him, when it’s hot outside and he’s teaching several spin classes a week and can’t maintain his normal weight, it’s annoying. He dropped a hint about how since I do a lot of baking, some cookies might help with his weight loss issue. That sounded like a perfect trade-off to me. I go to him to burn calories, and he comes to me to consume calories. I used this opportunity to try the cowboy cookies from Baked Explorations, and I’m so glad to have gotten to know these particular cookies. After baking a batch and taking them to the gym, just a few days later, I was pulling out the book to bake them again for a birthday. It could have been the hint of espresso in the cookies that works wonders with the chocolate chunks, but really it was probably the salty pretzels that are stirred into the dough that made me like these cookies so much.
This is a cookie dough that needs to rest and firm up in the refrigerator, so you do have to plan ahead. The dry ingredients were whisked together, and those included flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Oats were then added to that mix. Butter was creamed with granulated sugar and dark brown sugar, and an egg, egg yolk, and then vanilla were added. Espresso powder was dissolved in hot water, and that was mixed into the butter mixture. The dry ingredients were stirred into the dough, and last, chocolate chunks and broken pretzel pieces were added. The dough was left in the refrigerator for about four hours. After scooping balls of dough onto the cookie sheets, more broken pretzel pieces were pressed into the top of each dough ball. The cookies baked for twelve or so minutes, and then I wanted to eat them all.
Crunchy, chewy, chocolaty, and slightly salty cookies work for me. Now, I’ll be looking for just about any excuse to bake these again. But, since I’m not in need of increasing my calorie intake, I guess I’ll have to find a way to attend some extra spin classes.
where they’re suggested as regular-size muffins, but I thought minis would work better as happy hour snacks. They were made with local pumpkin from my CSA, clothbound cheddar from Brazos Valley Cheese, and eggs from Smith and Smith Farms. Black pepper and cayenne pepper keep these muffins firmly in the savory category, and I garnished with pumpkin seeds, a little extra finely grated cheese, and a sprinkling of mild chile powder as visual cues of their lack of sweetness. 
