Orange-Honey Muffins

Cheesecake tomorrow, muffins today! I have a playgroup coming over tomorrow and I'm making the cheesecake for the moms, these muffins are for the kiddos.  This is another recipe that has been sitting in my "I cut it out of a magazine" file for I don't even know how long.  The original recipe seems to have come from Florida's Natural Orange Juice.  This particular recipe doesn't seem to be on their site, although I did find a few others I'd like to try!  For this recipe, I made a few modifications.  I used raw Ukrainian honey, butter instead of margarine and 2 eggs instead of egg substitute.

Orange-Honey Muffins
1/2 cup Orange Juice
2 cups flour
1/4 cup sugar
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 cup honey
2/3 cup margarine, melted
1/2 cup egg substitute
1 tsp vanilla extract

In a medium bowl, combine flour, sugar, baking powder and baking soda.  In a small bowl, combine the honey, juice, margarine, egg and vanilla.  Whisk until smooth and stir into dry ingredients.
Line a muffin pan (mine is stoneware from Pampered Chef) with paper liners and fill each cup 2/3 full with batter (I actually filled them a little more that that).  Bake at 375F for 20 minutes.

The flavor of the raw honey definitely shone through in these muffins, but in a good way.  If you don't like raw honey, you'd probably want to use regular, store-bought honey.  But they came out very moist, buttery and light.  My little helper and I split one to test them out and we agreed that they were yummy! I think they'll be perfect for the kiddos tomorrow!

A Lovely Lunch-Russian Blini with Homemade Lemon Curd

Today's lunch came from a variety of inspiration.  My family used to live in Ukraine and I would take my son on long walks every Saturday morning once the snow had melted and the temperatures had risen (so, starting in about June!).  The end of our walks were always spent at the large park near our apartment, where there is a large playground, multiple kiosks and a Ukrainian restaurant.  Among the kiosks were a few that served traditional Russian blini .  Most weeks, we would stop for a mid-morning snack and each get a blin-mine usually apple filled (sometimes Nutella) and my son's would be plain (a 2 or 3 year old trying to eat a thin pancake with a filling is just a recipe for disaster).

Ukrainian Playground

Since leaving Ukraine, I miss our walks, I miss the park and I miss the blini!  So, yesterday, we had a nice day of sunshine here and went for an early morning walk.  We walked about 5 miles total (well, I did anyway.  Someone else rode in the stroller a good amount of time) and spent a few hours at the local park.  For the first time, I noticed the lack of even a common vending machine.  How boring!  And then I thought about it, I can't recall a park/playground here in the US that has any kind of "food" at the park. It made me sad :(  I sat there thinking how much I missed our Saturday morning ritual.

Fast forward to the evening and I finally had the time to make a recipe I had found online a few weeks ago at the Poor Girl Eats Well blog for homemade lemon curd.  I love her recipes because they are always so creative and ALWAYS inexpensive to prepare.  Not long after I saw the lemon curd recipe, my neighbor brought home a dozen lemons for me from someone at work with a lemon tree.  Jackpot!  Of course, life always interferes and I hadn't found the time yet to try it out.  Her recipe is for Meyer lemon curd, and to be quite honest, I had never even heard of a Meyer lemon.  I have no idea if my lemons are the Meyer variety or not, but I suspect not.  They look pretty much like the lemons I buy at the grocery store.  But they are still lemons, so I decided to try the recipe.

It came out AMAZING.  But what was I going to do with the large jar of lemon curd?  This afternoon I was trying to come up with a creative lunch for me and my son and remembered my blini craving from yesterday.  I thought, "Hey, I can MAKE blini."  I've done it plenty of times.  And so, lunch was born.  I made up a half batch of blini for us, mine filled with the lemon curd and his filled with strawberry jam (he has graduated to being able to eat a filled blin since our days in Ukraine.)  We added a little yogurt and had a lovely lunch!

Homemade Lemon Curd

6 large egg yolks
3/4 c Meyer lemon juice (like I mentioned, pretty sure my lemons are the regular variety)
1 t finely grated Meyer lemon zest
1 c sugar (I used the Splenda sugar blend)
1 stick of butter, cut into small cubes

Combine the egg yolks, juice, zest and sugar in a medium saucepan and whisk together until smooth (this will help avoid chunky bits of cooked egg yolk).  Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly until the mixture coats the back of a spoon (about 8-9 minutes).  Remove from heat and stir in the butter, one cube at a time, making sure that the butter melts completely before adding the next piece. 

Pour the finished lemon curd into clean containers and either continue your usual canning process, or cover with a layer of plastic wrap that's been placed directly on the surface of the curd.


Blini-Russian or Ukrainian Pancakes (this recipe is for a half batch and makes about ten 6-inch blini) This recipe is adapted from one at Allrecipes.com

• 1 egg
• 1-1/2 teaspoons white sugar (again, I use Splenda blend)
• 1/8 teaspoon salt
• 1/3 cup all-purpose flour
• 1-1/4 cups milk
• 1-1/2 teaspoons vegetable oil
• 1-1/2 teaspoons butter

In a medium bowl, whisk together the eggs, sugar, and salt. Mix in the flour, and then stir in the milk. Mix until smooth and well blended. The batter will be very thin.

Heat a griddle or skillet over medium heat. Lightly oil the pan or spray with cooking spray. Pour about 2 tablespoons of the batter, or as much as desired, into the pan. Tilt the pan to spread the batter out evenly. When the edges are crisp looking and the center appears dry, slide a spatula carefully under the blin. Flip, and cook for about 1 minute on the other side, or until lightly browned.

Remove blin to a plate. Stack the blini on top of each other. To serve, spread with desired filling, then fold in half, and in half again to form a triangle. 

Blini with homemade lemon curd filling

Ukrainian Walnut Cake

So I decided to get a little crazy and make this cake for a party at Christmastime. My mom cut it out of some magazine years ago and it was one of those things I always looked at in my recipe file and never has the energy to try. It was easily the most labor intensive cake I have ever made. It took hours, with the grinding of the walnuts and the whipping of the egg whites, making the filling and the icing.

But, wow, was it ever worth it. It was so rich and so decadent, but because of the egg whites, it was still so light and not heavy at all. It was not an easy cake, nor it is low-cal, and it was very time consuming, so if you are looking for something quick and easy (on your time and your waist), this is not your cake. But if you've got the time, and the inclination, you won't be sorry.

Ukrainian Walnut Cake

10 oz finely ground walnuts, plus 3 Tbsp chopped walnuts

1/2 cup all purpose flour

2 tsp cornstarch

1 tsp baking powder

12 large eggs, separated

1/4 tsp salt

1 1/4 cup sugar

3 1/2 tsp vanilla extract

3/4 cup butter, softened

6 oz unsweetened chocolate, melted

6 1/2 cups sifted confectioner's sugar

3/4 cup strongly brewed coffee (I used instant)

1 1/2 Tbsp coffee liqueur (optional)

2 cups heavy cream

2 tsp instant coffee granules

1. Make the tortes: Heat oven to 350F. Butter the bottoms of two 10-inch round cake pans and fit with circles of parchment paper. Butter the paper and pan sides and set aside. Combine the ground walnuts, flour, cornstarch, and baking powder and set aside. Place the egg whites and salt in a large bowl and beat until stiff peaks form. Set aside. Place the egg yolks in a large bowl and beat on medium-high speed. Gradually add the sugar and continue to beat until the mixture becomes thick and fluffy -- about 5 minutes. Add 2 tsp vanilla, mix to combine and set aside. Sprinkle the walnut mixture over the yolk mixture and fold in the egg whites until combined. Divide the batter between the prepared pans and bake until the cake centers spring back when lightly touched -- 25 to 30 minutes. Run a knife around the pan sides and turn the cakes out onto wire racks. Cool completely.

2. Make the mocha frosting and coffee filling: Beat the butter, chocolate, remaining 1 1/2 tsp vanilla, and 1 1/2 cups confectioner's sugar together until creamy. Alternately add the coffee, liqueur, and 4 1/2 more cups of confectioner's sugar and continue to beat until fluffy. Set aside. Beat the heavy cream, instant coffee and remaining 1/4 cup confectioner's sugar to soft peaks..

3. Assemble the cake: Split the cakes. Place one split layer on a cake plate and spread 3/4 cup mocha frosting over top. Follow with a third of the coffee cream.Place second layer on top and repeat with frosting and cream. Repeat with third layer. Place the final layer on the cake and spread the remaining mocha frosting over the top and sides of cake. Decorate with the chopped walnuts. Refrigerate until ready to serve.