For about five days or so, chocolate cake has been on my brain. Specifically, Amanda Hesser’s Chocolate Dump Cake with Chocolate-Sour Cream Ganache. I found my way to the recipe via an interview that Luisa linked to on her blog, but only yesterday did I find my way into the kitchen to actually bake the cake. It was simple to make, and the ganache was a dream to work with. I was all sorts of excited; if it tasted as good as it felt under my knife, I’d have a real winner of a new recipe.
Turns out, I don’t really like the cake. My husband kinda strongly dislikes it (the ganache in particular), and I haven’t run it past the kids yet. I suspect they’ll be (at best) ambivalent. So much for a new cake to get all giddy over, sigh.
My family was much more excited about the muffins I made for breakfast the other morning.
I’ve had the recipe for years, but I’ve only made them a couple times, which is kind of ridiculous since they’re so fabulously easy, delicious, and convenient.
The muffins get their bran-ness from bran flakes the cereal, not the grain (as these muffins do). All the ingredients get whisked together and then the batter can be stored in the fridge for up to six weeks. In the morning, plop the batter into muffin tins, pop the tins into the oven, and then go about your business bossing kids, picking up socks, emptying the dish drainer, and making lists (or whatever it is you do to get ready for the day). Twenty minutes later, it’s breakfast time.
We ate the first round of muffins with butter from the cow that my daughter has been milking. The butter was a gift from the neighbor lady, and oh my, was it ever good. The kids slathered it on their muffins real thick, and I didn’t say a peep. There’s something wholesome about homemade butter that negates the fatty consequences, don’t you think? (Later, I melted down the remaining bit of butter for the waffle batter. When my children discovered what I had done, they were outraged. You wasted it! You can’t taste it in the waffles! I wanted to EAT it! I guess I won’t be making that mistake again.)
Refrigerator Bran Muffins
Recipe from our friend Wilma.
The recipe calls for Raisin Bran cereal, but I used just plain old bran flakes.
3 3/4 cups (7 ½ ounces) bran flake cereal
1½ cups sugar
2 eggs, beaten
½ cup oil
2 cups buttermilk
2½ cups flour
2½ teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon each allspice and cloves
In a large bowl, stir together the bran cereal, sugar, eggs, oil, and buttermilk. Whisk in the dry ingredients. Store the batter in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to six weeks.
To bake, fill greased (or lined) muffin tins three-fourths full with batter and bake at 375 degrees for about 20 minutes. (If baking a batch with the freshly-made—not-yet chilled—batter, bake time should be only about 15 minutes.)
Yield: approximately two dozen muffins.
P.S. Completely off-topic, but check this out: the infamous Harry Met Sally scene (you know the one)…in real life in the real café. (Thanks, Cup of Jo!)
