breaking my own rules.

Let me start off by saying that when it comes to a new recipe, I'm a stickler.  I stick to the recipe....I figure there is time to play with it once I know how it works, especially when it comes to baking.  In cooking, there is much more room to play, but with baking it's more of a science....so there is less wiggle room.  That being said, I tried a recipe for the first time and made a handful of changes....here's hoping it works out.

I started with the Moosewood Muffin recipe from Moosewood Restaurant New Classics.  It's a favorite cookbook of mine that falls open to the pizza section and the recipe for drunken beans. 

I have made these muffins before, but tonight I realized that my muffin tins are at my boyfriend's house, so now it will be a coffee cake.  And I replaced 1/2 a cup of the AP flour with whole wheat flour.  And, when it came to mixing the wet ingredients, I added 1/3 cup of spent grains.  (I had to connect it with brewing somehow, right?)  I added fresh strawberries and a handful of chocolate chips and dropped it into a greased 8X8 pan. 

Then I added the streusel topping, which is optional on the muffins....

 
I never think a topping with butter and sugar should be considered 'optional'.  In fact, they recommended that if you anticipate making muffins on a fairly regular basis, that you should just double the recipe, so it's easier in the future.  For the record, I can't remember the last time I made muffins, but just in case I doubled the streusel topping, you know, for those emergency muffins I have to crank out next week. 

And this is what it looked like after baking for almost 50 minutes...and sprinkled with confectioners sugar...

I was going to save this for breakfast....but I think a taste test tonight is an okay thing. 

Oh yes. recipe = success.

Until tomorrow . . .