Wednesday, February 8, 2012

muffins save the day

acorn cakelets
{acorn cakelets}

On Monday I made bean soup, but it was taking forever for the beans to soften up. I was beginning to give up hope and was feeling rather discouraged, but having these muffins as a side-dish perked me up. There is just something festive about a specially shaped muffin. (I use the applesauce muffin recipe from this book because it produces a firm muffin that holds the shape of the tin quite well.)
dala horse muffin
{Dala horse muffin}

I have a Dala horse cake pan (from Ikea, of course) and have never used it, but on a whim I decided to use the smaller pan that it came with to bake a muffin. Success! Have you ever seen a more adorable muffin? I have not. And now I am totally inspired to make a cake from the larger Dala horse pan.

heart shaped muffins
{muffin hearts}

There were hearts as well (same recipe, same night, different camera). We ended up simmering the bean soup into the night (and had it for dinner later in the week) and heating up some leftovers for dinner to go with these muffins.

5 comments:

Madame Melville said...

Loving all your muffins!

Susan said...

Darling muffins! I love the Dala horse one! I have that tin too and will have to try that.

Wylie said...

I also bought the Dala horses at Ikea, and used both of them to make birthday cakes for my 1-year-old granddaughter. We gave her the small cake frosted with whipped cream to eat all by herself! Here she is! http://www.flickr.com/photos/wyliehunt/6792977395/in/photostream

valérie said...

Best meal ever, somehow: muffins and leftovers, prepared with the heart and eaten in the company of family! :)

Anonymous said...

Just a tip......

I just learned this a couple months ago when I made lentil chili and the lentils didn't get done: Cook the beans/lentils until tender BEFORE adding anything acidic, such as tomatoes.

Here is a link if you're interested in reading more about cooking dried beans:

http://www.hom-ec101.com/how-to-cook-with-dried-beans/