Bakery Style Chocolate Chip & Blueberry Muffins

So I’d been wanting to try these muffins ever since I saw those delightfully puffy muffin tops on SomethingSwanky.com. I am a massive muffin maniac—they’re probably one of my all-time favorite breakfast treats. Then again, everything is my favorite (waffles, crepes, pastries. Don’t make me choose!).

Anyway, I decided to deviate from my typical muffin recipe and try these out. They were wonderful! They use quite a bit more baking powder than most recipes, which really helped the muffins rise, making them soft and fluffy. If you have a jumbo-sized muffin tin, use that. These morsels are meant to expand.

While the original recipe suggests making chocolate chip muffins, I had fresh blueberries and decided to divide up the batter and make some with chocolate chips and a few with the blueberries. Again, I can’t just choose just one. 😛

Bakery Style Muffins

1 cup milk

1/4 cup vinegar

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1 tbsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

3/4 cup granulated sugar

1/2 cup butter, melted

2 eggs

1 1/2 tsp vanilla

1 cup chocolate chips OR blueberries (or divide the batter in half and make both like I did!)

Preheat the oven to 425ºF and prepare a 12-cup jumbo muffin tin or 18-cup regular sized tin with cooking spray, butter or coconut oil.

Combine the milk and vinegar in a small bowl and set aside.

In a large bowl, mix together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and sugar. Then, add the eggs, butter, vanilla and the milk/vinegar. Mix everything together with a large wooden spoon just until combined. It should be a little lumpy.

Lastly, fold in your chocolate chips and/or blueberries.

Fill the muffin cups about 3/4 full.

Bake at 425ºF for 5  minutes (4 minutes if using regular sized tin). Then decrease the heat to 375ºF and bake for another 13 minutes (11-12 minutes for regular sized tin).

Brayden and I enjoyed our muffins with a hot mocha! Delightful ❤

Homemade French Onion Soup

Last week, I wanted to try my hand at making French onion soup from scratch. The warm, deeply flavorful broth, the infusion of sweet caramelized onions, the lightly toasted mozzarella and Parmesan cheeses and the buttery crunch of French bread seemed like the perfect meal for a winter day.

Luckily, my mom had just given me the perfect items with which to broil my soup in the traditional way: two beautiful, Italian-made ramekins, which I popped right into the oven to get that classic, toasted bread and cheese topping.

I was quite happy with how they turned out, and the ramekins made the whole thing look so cute. Just a super cozy meal all around.

While it takes a while for the onions to caramelize and the broth to simmer and soak up the flavor, actually making the soup itself is very simple. But go ahead and let people think you slaved over this meal. *wink*

Let’s get to the recipe!

French Onion Soup

About 4 large yellow onions

3 tbs butter

4 cloves minced garlic

3 tbs flour

5 cups beef broth

1 cup water

1 tsp Worcestershire sauce

Salt, pepper and garlic powder

A French baguette

Grated cheese (a mix of mozzarella, Parmesan or Asiago)

In a large pot, melt the butter over medium heat.  Slice the onions into about one-inch squares (they’ll end up shrinking a lot), and sauté for a half hour or so. Stir occasionally and let the onions caramelize into a nice brown color, but be careful not to let them burn. Add the garlic and sauté for another minute.  Sprinkle in the flour gradually, and stir until it’s dispersed evenly throughout the pot.

Add the broth, water and Worcestershire sauce, then bring the soup to a simmer on medium-low heat, stirring every so often. Add in a bit of cracked black pepper and garlic powder to taste. I try to reduce salt/sodium where I can, so I only added a pinch of salt. Let the soup simmer for ten minutes.

In the mean time, cut a few thick slices of French bread and lightly butter them on one side. Sprinkle with cracked pepper and place in the toaster on the low setting. We just want a slightly golden brown crunch.

Once the soup is ready, set the oven to the broil setting on high. Grab your ramekins or oven-safe bowls and ladle in the soup, leaving about one and a half inches for the bread and cheese. Place the toasted bread over the top, then sprinkle generously with cheese.

Pop them into the oven on the center rack for approximately six minutes, or until the cheese has reached a level of toasty, bubbliness that looks delicious to you.

Once ready, take them out and enjoy! Be sure to handle the bowls with oven mitts until they cool down.