Berrylicious

I was walking into Publix one day, and right inside the door was a bin of fresh blueberries. I had been wanting to make blueberry muffins from scratch for a while now, so I snagged a batch. The same weekend that I made the Valentine's cookies, I made myself some blueberry muffins for breakfast.

I found a recipe that seemed pretty easy. The only change I made was using berry flavored yogurt instead of plain. I thought that would make the muffins have a stronger berry flavor. And I had another chance to use my silicone muffin liners!

The muffins turned out very soft and fluffy. I was very happy with the texture. They were packed with tasty blueberries, but I thought the bread part of the muffins would have more flavor. Maybe they needed more sugar? I'm not sure. But I would make them again.

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Have a Heart

I totally fail at posting things in a timely manner - I really need to work on that! - but these cookies were too cute not to share.

I had told my new co-workers that I liked to bake but hadn't made them anything yet. So I figured Valentine's Day was the perfect occasion to take them some cookies. My snowflake Christmas cookies were such a hit that I decided to repeat that technique. When I found a recipe online for chocolate sugar cookies, I decided to add a twist. Plus, I knew the brown would look cute with pink icing!

The chocolate cookie dough was "interesting". It was thicker than regular sugar cookie dough, so it was easier to roll out and cut the cookies. I tasted one out of the oven, and it was a little too close to cardboard for my taste. I didn't have time to make another batch of cookies, so I forged ahead hoping they would taste better with icing on them.

I made royal icing again but was more careful not to add too much water. The icing turned out better, but I had a new problem this time - when I was piping the icing, the tip kept clogging up, and I had to free up the icing with a toothpick more times than I can count. This royal icing thing seems complicated - I wonder if I'll need to take a class to figure it out better.

I had reserved some white royal icing, and had intended to pipe another white heart on top once the pink icing hardened. But I started to run out of time, so I went with white and brown sprinkles instead.

Overall, I was very pleased with the look. The cookies did taste better with the icing on them, but - except for the other half batch in the freezer - I'm not sure if I'll make the chocolate version again. I think I prefer regular sugar cookies.

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