A kitchen timer is an essential tool for baking — if you don’t have one, it’s a good investment to make. It’s important to select one that will meet your personal needs. You should consider how far you tend to wander from the kitchen when baking and whether the timer is loud enough and/or portable. If you bake for long durations, make sure the timer can be set for long periods.

Fortunately, just after our kitchen remodel my sister-in-law surprised me with the Pyrex Digital Probe Oven Thermometer/ Timer. It’s compact, portable, easy to use, and has saved many dishes from fiery deaths.

This timer is easily set for a few minutes or several hours and rings loudly enough to be heard throughout the house (so I have no more excuses for burnt bread). With a magnetic backing, it sticks to the fridge or even to our outdoor grill when I take it outside for barbecues.

Also, the timer features a detachable thermometer feature which is a nice perk. Just plug the thermometer into your roast beef or turkey, and program the desired temperature for the meat to reach. When the meat reaches the desired temperature, the alarm goes off.

I use it every time I bake and have started to take it for granted. Several weeks ago the timer stopped working as I was about to place a batch of muffins into the oven. I nearly freaked out and feared it was broken (ok, so it’s possible that I may have dropped it a few times). Fortunately, it wasn’t my abuse but instead a dead battery which was easily replaced!

My great-grandmother never made her blueberry muffins for me, but I found her recipe while looking through my mother’s recipe box a few years ago. I made the recipe and was an instant admirer of the muffins — delicate and moist, the sweet batter hugging each and every blueberry.

I decided to make the muffins this weekend and went to the store for the ingredients. In the baking aisle I happened to stop in front of the display for Bob’s Red Mill products, as I always enjoy looking at the variety of interesting flours produced by them. The Bob’s Red Mill All-Natural Hazelnut Flourinstantly caught my eye and I thought how good it might taste in the muffins.

The flour is actually a fine ‘meal’ of ground hazelnuts and is suggested as only 1/4 of the flour used in baked goods. I figured the nutty flavor of the hazelnuts would pair nicely with the blueberries. And although the recipe didn’t call for lemon zest, it popped into my mind that this might create a light background note to the other flavors. The new recipe quickly came together in my mind and I hustled around to rest of my ingredients. I decided to buy roasted hazelnuts as well, to chop up and sprinkle on the muffins.

I returned home with more items than I originally intended to purchase. Sometimes you just need to give into your ideas and let a new recipe to emerge. I unpacked my bags and quickly got down to business with making the muffins.

The muffins turned out well, as moist and light as I remember. The hazelnut flour added a very slight nutty flavor and added nice dark flecks of color to the muffin itself. I enjoyed the chopped hazelnuts on top as they added a crunchy contrast to the texture. Next time, I might increase the lemon zest by another teaspoon. Also, I don’t suggest that ‘more is better’ when it comes to adding the blueberries. I had an extra 1/4 cup or so that I threw in and it compromised the structure of the muffins (a few fell apart when being removed from the muffin tin).

Enjoy the recipe — I’ll definetly make them again with a few adjustments. And although I love the original blueberry muffin recipe, I’m sure my great-grandmother would approve of this new version.

Hazelnut Blueberry Muffins
1 egg
2/3 cup sugar
1/4 cup melted shortening
2/3 cup milk
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup hazelnut flour (meal)
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 teaspoon fresh lemon zest
1 cup blueberries
1/4 cup chopped hazelnuts

Mix flours, salt, baking powder and sugar until combined. Add shortening, egg, milk, vanilla, and lemon zest. Mix until ingredients are just well-mixed, then fold in blueberries.

Fill muffin tins about 3/4 full with the mixture. Sprinkle each muffin with chopped hazelnuts. Bake at 350 degrees for 20-25 minutes. Allow to cool before removing from muffin tin. Makes 12 muffins.

The cake is believed to have started in the early 1900’s, although upside-down cakes were common during the late 19th century. Pineapple and maraschino cherries were both popular around 1920 and the first printed recipe occured around this time.

This weekend my young nieces visited and I knew how much they enjoyed my mother’s pineapple upside-down cake. I was also feeling nostalgic and wanted some comfort food, so I dug through my cookbooks to find my recipe. I decided to try something different though. Instead of making it in a skillet, I decided to try making it as individual sized cakes using a large muffin pan. I figured this would ensure no fights over cherries since each cake had its own cherry on top.

The cake is easy to prepare and worked well in the muffin pan. The sauce on the bottom cooks up the side of the cake, so when the cake is turned out of the muffin pan it is drenched in the sticky goodness. My nieces loved them, who doesn’t enjoy getting their own personal cake? I will definetly make them again this way. Here is the recipe I use:

Pineapple Upside-Down Cakes
1/4 Cup Butter
2/3 Cup Packed Brown Sugar (I used dark)
1 Cup Chopped Pineapple
1 1/3 Cup All-Purpose Flour
1 Cup Sugar
1/3 Cup Shortening
3/4 Cup Milk
1 1/2 Teaspoons Baking Powder
1/2 Teaspoon Salt
1 Teaspoon Vanilla Extract
1 Teaspoon Fresh Lemon Zest
1 Egg 6 Maraschino Cherries

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Melt butter in a small pan. Add brown sugar to melted butter and stir to dissolve, remove from heat. Using a large muffin tin (6 muffins, 3 1/2″ wide openings), distribute butter mixture evenly in each muffin opening. Place 1-2 tablespoons of pineapple in each opening, followed by a cherry pushed down into the center.

Beat remaining ingredients with an electric mix, scraping down the bowl as needed. Beat on high speed for 3 minutes. Pour batter evenly in each muffin opening. Bake 30-35 minutes or until toothpick inserted in the center comes our clean. Turn upside down onto a cookie sheet immediately. Allow to cool for 15 minutes before serving.

The Tres Leches Cake is commonly attributed to Mexico, however Nicarauga also claims it as their own. Each country puts their own spin on the ingredients, sometimes including coconut milk or rum. Regardless of the true orignator, I love whoever invented it. This cake is rich, creamy, and insanely good!

Feeling a little frugal, I decided to try making it instead of spending $27 on one from the local market. It only took a few web searches to find a broad spectrum of recipes with which to start. Wikipedia informed me that the cake is butter based allowing the cake to hold up to being soaked with the 3 milks. I disregarded any recipe that didn’t include butter in the cake batter. Fortunately, I came across a particularly interesting (and authentic looking) recipe from the Central Cafe in El Paso, TX.

Warning: you should not be watching your calories if you seek to make this cake. You’ll immediately notice the number of eggs and cups of heavy cream required. I could feel my arteries seize up while I read through the recipe, but with a cake like this you can’t skimp on the recommended ingredients. My only variation was to use two 9″ round cake pans and baked them for 30-35 minutes. The cake turned out well with a slightly firm texture with which to hold the milk. Because the cake is served chilled, it makes a great summertime dessert. Here is the recipe I used:

Tres Leches Cake
from Central Cafe, El Paso TX (as published in Texas Monthly Nov. 1999)

Cake

9 Eggs (room temperature)
1 1/2 Cups Sugar
12 Tablespoons Butter (softened)
2 Cups All-Purpose Flour
1 1/2 Teaspoons Baking Powder
1 Cup Milk
1 Teaspoon Vanilla Extract
1 Teaspoon Cream of Tartar

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Separate egg yolks and whites, keeping whites at room temperature. In bowl of an electric mixer, cream sugar and butter together until pale yellow and fluffy. Add egg yolks and beat until fluffy again, 2 to 3 minutes on medium-high speed. In a separate bowl combine flour and baking powder. In a third bowl mix milk and vanilla. Alternately add the flour mixture and the milk mixture to the butter mixture (a fourth at a time) until all are combined. Beat until smooth after each addition.

Beat egg whites with cream of tartar until soft peaks form and, using a large spatula, gently but thoroughly fold into flour-and-butter mixture. Grease bottom of a 9- by 13-inch metal baking pan. Pour in batter and bake for approximately 25 minutes, until golden brown. Allow to cool. (May also be baked in an 11.5- by 17.5-inch sheet pan for 20 minutes; this size rises very evenly, helpful for inexperienced cooks.)

Three Milks

2 Cups Heavy Cream
1 Five-Ounce Can (5/8cup) Evaporated Milk
1 Fourteen-Ounce Can (7/8cup) Sweetened Condensed Milk

Stir the milks together thoroughly; do not beat. Do not refrigerate canned milks before using.

Cream Icing

2 Cups Heavy Cream
1/3 Cup Sugar

Whip cream and sugar together until stiff. When cake is cool, slice or peel off the thin top crust. Ice sides first, creating a small lip on top to catch milk mixture. Pour milk mixture evenly over top of cake (if necessary, poke holes in cake with a knife or toothpick to facilitate soaking; you will probably need only 3/4of mixture). Finish icing top. (If using an 11.5- by 17.5-inch pan, cut cake in half to make 2 equal pieces. Soak first layer, ice top if desired, and place second layer on top of it. Proceed as above.) Chill cake immediately and allow to set for 2 hours (or overnight) before serving. Serves 12.