Spiced Cider Muffins

I decided to make these spiced cider muffins, with minor changes. I don't own a mini muffin pan*, so these went in regular pans.  Tiredness precluded the final dip in butter and spiced sugar. I'll include that step in a future iteration. :) I made honey butter** to go with.

Total success :) They're yummy, light, and satisfying, especially with a hit of honey butter.

While the muffins baked, I did a bit if research into Chai tea. I need to make a pot of Hathi's Chai tea! Actually, I think I need a house elf to come to my house every morning before work and make this for me. 

I wanted to bake tonight, but fatigue reined in my enthusiasm.  I'll enjoy the anticipation of future baking instead :)  

On a totally different note - look at the tableau I found stepping out my front door early this morning! You'll have to imagine the bracing air and smell of winter  

*a tragedy I hope to correct some day

**1 part honey, 4 parts butter, dash of cinnamon, tiny sprinkle of salt, let butter get to room temp then whisk everything together. If it's cold in your house, you can warm the butter a tiny, tiny bit, just make sure it doesn't melt at all.

Peanut Butter Delights - results!

These came out delicious! They're like the love child of chocolate and a granola bar :) I am totally making these again. Next time I'll let the batter sit and cool a bit before spooning it out - the last ones poured from this batch had a better texture.

There's only a couple left from last night's batch. Yay! They were liked! The down side is that I have to resist those last delights if I'm going to find if/how the texture stands up to storage. Thankfully, I am willing to suffer for my (culinary) art :)

I am so glad I avoided cutting them into bars! I tried cutting one in half - total, delicious mess.

Here's my ideas (so far!) for variations:

~add dried fruit
~add crushed candy canes
~use almond or cashew butter
~use other rolled grains (wheat flakes would work. Corn Flakes would not)
~add sunflower seeds
~add peppermint oil or peppermint extract

What variation of Peanut Butter Delights do you want to try?

Peanut Butter Delights

Since I work in an office and enjoy baking, I bring treats to work on special occasions. Tomorrow I'll bring in some Peanut Butter Delights, aka Peanut Butter Chocolate No-Bake Cookies. I found the recipe in several different places online; I linked to the Cooks.com recipe because it has that handy Printer Friendly button right there at the top :)

Other recipes suggested dropping spoonfuls of the batter onto parchment paper, so that's what I planned to do. I don't trust my ability to cut them into squares without making a mess. So, I melted the butter, put the milk, sugar, and cocoa powder* into the pan, then went to lay out aluminum foil to receive the aforementioned spoonfuls.

Yes, that bit of foil is as tiny as you think it is. No, I don't have parchment paper to use instead

However! I was not daunted! Much!

While I waited for the mixture in the pan to boil, I decided to use silicone muffin cups. It should only affect the shape of the final product; given the ingredients they're bound to be tasty! I'll report in tomorrow with the final results :)

*I realized while typing this sentence that I forgot to put in the vanilla extract. D'oh!