Taste-Test Thursday

Because of this blog and my posts about various taste tests including Sonic's bacon milkshake, a co-worker - we'll call her K- approached me to start our own bi-monthly taste test at work. We call it Taste-Test Thursday and volunteers try a new recipe to be judged by co-workers.

So far, we've only had two TTTs, K's and mine. We both opted to try sweeter dishes that were good in the morning (and all day long) - she made ice cream bread and I made pumpkin spice mini muffins.

The ice cream bread, to me, is a total oddity. The bare-bones version of it K made only had two ingredients: softened (chocolate) ice cream and flour. That alone, I think makes it a freakish dish that I was wary of. But it worked! It actually rose and baked up into two very pretty cocoa-colored loaves.

However, in terms of flavor, we were both somewhat disappointed. K and I had both anticipated something with rich chocolate flavor, like a brownie. However, as the name implies (duh!) it had less of a cakey texture and was like a dense banana bread with very subtle chocolate flavor. It wasn't bad per se, but it was certainly not what we expected. The recipe has an addendum that suggests using more complex flavors of ice cream and folding in some additional goodies - like chocolate chips or mashed up bananas etc. This route may yield something more along the lines of what we were anticipating a sweet, dessert-like food rather than a savory snack bread.

I've included the recipe and information on the sweetened up tip below.

This Thursday, I brought in pumpkin spice mini muffins. Every fall, my family buys various pumpkins - pie pumpkins, candy roasters etc. - and roasts them and packages our own puree to freeze because inevitably every fall I love to make pumpkin dishes - gooey butter cakes, ravioli, pies and more. I thawed out a pack of pumpkin (but canned would work too) and made a double batch of the pumpkin spice baked mini donut recipe below. I don't have a mini donut pan (or a full-sized one either) so I modified it to use a mini muffin pan instead.

This recipe was very simple and actually made 12 more muffins than I'd anticipated. The interesting thing about this recipe, and what I think holds it apart from other muffin recipes is that because it was intended to be for donuts, you get that spectacular cake donut texture. Unlike a muffin mix which can be almost runny and makes a fluffy, crumbly muffin, this recipe creates an actual springy dough that bakes into dense donut with wonderful mouthfeel. And this dough makes beautiful mini muffins, they look almost like light orange popovers (fill your muffin cups about 2/3 full), but you could shape them while warm to look more like donut holes (if you wanted).

They are delicious plain, but the wonderful finishing touch is to dunk them in melted butter and roll in a cinnamon sugar while still warm. I opted to save a few calories by only coating the tops, but they'd be delicious fully covered.

I highly recommend this recipe (not doubled) - included below- for potlucks, parties or family brunch.

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Ice Cream Bread

Ingredients:
2 c of your favorite ice cream, softened
1 1/2 c self-rising flour

Method:

Preaheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour an 8x4" loaf pan. Mix the ice cream and flour together in a bowl until just combined. Smooth it out so it looks even. Bake for 45 minutes or until toothpick inserted into the middle comes out clean. Cool and serve.

*For jazzier bread: use a more bold flavor (like Ben and Jerry's Chunky Monkey) and any mix-ins you'd like (nuts, bananas, chocolate chips) fold in after mixing the flour and ice cream together. Bake with the same instructions.

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Pumpkin Spice Mini Muffins

Ingredients for muffins:

1 3/4 c self-rising flour
1 t cinnamon
1/2 t nutmeg
1/2 t allspice
1/3 c vegetable oil
1/2 c brown sugar
1 egg
1 1/2 t vanilla extract
3/4 c pumpkin puree
1/2 c milk

For coating:

1/2 c butter, melted
2/3 c sugar
1-2 t cinnamon

Method:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter muffin pan, set aside.

In a large bowl mix together oil, brown sugar, egg, vanilla, pumpkin and milk until combined. Slowly add the dry ingredients to the mixture and stir until just combined, careful not to over mix.

Fill each cup with batter. Bake for 10 minutes or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean and they are springy.

Turn out onto a wire rack and cool for a few minutes. While still hot, dip each muffin into butter and roll in cinnamon sugar. Serve immediately.

If not serving them immediately, wait to coat with butter and sugar until ready to serve - reheat and then follow butter/sugar instructions.