Honey ginger muffins

I got it into my head last night that muffins tasting like gingerbread would be great for breakfast this morning. Danny and Isaac agreed. After a bit of searching (googling "ginger muffins" did not get me the results I wanted, but "gingerbread muffins" did), I found this recipe and got really excited.

Until, for the SECOND time, I made the mistake of thinking I had molasses, when, in fact, I did not. There is a bottle of Karo dark corn syrup that keeps tricking me (which I could probably use in place, but yuck, I reserve corn syrup for only when necessary, like fudge or caramels...um, b/c those are necessary sometimes). Molasses is now on my grocery shopping list :)

I'd already started soaking my flour (you can read about why I soak flour here and here, if you're interested), so the show had to go on. I'd used honey instead of molasses in the gingerbread people, and it worked, so I subbed the honey in. I also used coconut oil instead of butter; replaced 1/4 c. of the water with whey (for the soaking); used 1/2 c. rapadura instead of sugar; and added a few grinds of pepper (I love the peppery-ness of gingerbread items, and when I was refilling my pepper grinder last and smelling it, I decided that the next time I made something like this, I'd try adding pepper--and it was good!). I think the recipe is now mine!

I think the original recipe would be delicious, but if you'd like to try mine (I think I know at least one person who will)....they were delicious, and of the 15, only 4 remain and they will not make it through the day. Well, bread baking is commencing, so the fresh bread MAY save them for the morning...we'll see.

Honey ginger muffins

Night before:

Whisk the dry ingredients,

• 2 3/4 cups soft white wheat flour
• 1 tablespoon plus 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/8 teaspoon ground cloves
• 3 or 4 grinds of pepper
• scant 1/2 cup of rapadura

Melt and whisk together, then whisk into dry ingredients,

• 1/2 cup of honey
• 1/2 cup of coconut oil

Add,

• 1/4 cup of whey (or just plain yogurt, or buttermilk, or kefir...)
• water to bring the whey up to 1 1/3 cups

Mix all of this well, cover and leave on the counter overnight.

In the morning, whisk in 2 large eggs (or 3 small, which was all I had) and 1/2 teaspoon of salt. Sift in 2 1/2 teaspoons of baking soda, whisk one final time, fill muffin tins, sprinkle a tiny bit of rapadura on top and bake at 375 for about 20 min. I baked mine for 12 min, then rotated and did another 10 min, and I think they could have come out a minute earlier.

I didn't do the glaze, either; too much work in the morning, plus I try to save powdered sugar for frosting, not breakfast!

I'm also trying french bread for the first time today.  I can't decide which is better: the heat of summer and NOT turning on the oven, or the cold of late autumn/winter and having the oven on all day, making the kitchen all warm and yummy smelling...