Big Sur Bakery Cookbook - Michelle Wojtowicz [11]
Using a chef’s knife and wiping the blade clean with a wet towel between cuts, cut into 3-inch squares. Transfer the bars to a platter, sprinkle generously with powdered sugar, and serve.
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Date and Quinoa Muffins
We love dates, especially on long road or camping trips. Whenever we heard someone was going to Palm Springs, we used to beg them to bring us a couple cases of Medjool dates. Now we have a small group of friends who pick them up for us when they are down there. We serve these muffins from winter to early spring, when dried fruits are our staple. These started out as a brown sugar muffin but they needed something extra. After a little experimenting, Michelle decided to add dates and orange zest, and when we have candied kumquats, she chops some and folds them in. There’s quinoa flour, too, to sneak some whole grains into your diet.
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INGREDIENTS
FOR THE STREUSEL TOPPING:
¼ cup pecan halves
½ vanilla bean
¼ cup unsalted butter
¼ cup plus 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
¼ cup (packed) light or dark brown sugar
¼ teaspoon kosher salt
FOR THE MUFFIN BATTER:
½ cup pecan halves
1 cup unsalted butter, softened, plus extra for coating the pan
½ cup granulated sugar
1 cup (packed) light or dark brown sugar
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon kosher salt
2 eggs
1 ½ teaspoons vanilla extract
Grated zest from 1 orange
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup quinoa flour
1 cup buttermilk
10 dried dates, pitted and chopped into pieces
Makes 1 dozen muffins
Adjust the oven rack to the middle position and preheat the oven to 375ºF.
Scatter the pecans, for both the streusel topping and the muffin batter, on a cookie sheet and toast until they’re golden through the center, about 10 minutes. (To check if they’re done, cut one open and inspect the color inside.) Let them cool and then roughly chop them. Use ¼ cup of chopped pecans for the streusel and reserve the rest for the muffin batter. (Leave the oven on.)
To make the streusel topping: Split the vanilla bean lengthwise with a paring knife, scrape out the pulp with the back of the knife, and put the pulp and the pod in a small saucepan. Add the butter and melt over medium-high heat. Cook until the butter separates and the white milk solids start to brown and smell nutty, about 7 minutes. Remove the vanilla bean. Pour the hot brown butter into a dry bowl, place it in the freezer, and leave until solid, about 30 minutes.
Remove the solidified butter from the bowl and chop it into small pieces. Combine the butter, flour, brown sugar, and salt in a bowl and work the mixture with a pastry blender until crumbly. Mix in the chopped pecans and refrigerate the streusel until ready to use.
Butter a 12-cup muffin pan and set it aside.
To make the batter: In an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream together the butter, granulated sugar, brown sugar, baking powder, and salt until light and fluffy. Add the eggs, one by one, and mix to incorporate. Mix in the vanilla extract and orange zest. Combine the all-purpose flour and the quinoa flour in a bowl. Then add the combined flours in three batches, alternating with the buttermilk, beginning and ending with flour. Using a rubber spatula, fold in the chopped dates and the reserved pecans.
Fill each prepared muffin cup almost all the way to the top with batter, and sprinkle each muffin with a layer of streusel. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes, or until a cake tester inserted in the middle comes out clean. Let the muffins cool completely in the pan. Then remove them from the pan by running a knife around the edges. Serve.
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Doughnuts
Our first roommate in Big Sur was a longtime local named Everett Makowski, who was eighty when he offered to rent us one of the rooms in his big house down in Sycamore Canyon. Everett’s nickname was “The Doughnut King” because when he used to commute to work, he sometimes