fruit of our baking labor

Finally, I got to bake a simple dessert with my mom and cousin tonight! It looks so yummy, don't you think? We baked two things today, blueberry muffin and dayap cookies. I realized though that baking is a very expensive hobby and that is why, a blueberry muffin, for example, is expensive! Imagine, the recipe requires two pints of blueberries and one pint already costs P186! It also needs one cup of sour cream and that costs P85 already! That's one big revelation.

However, we were able to use free, local ingredients for the dayap cookies. Actually, the recipe for lemon crinkles calls for lemons but we substituted it with the local lime, dayap. What is really nice about this dayap is it is fresh, and it is free! My cousin and I went to harvest the dayap that is bearing fruit in front of our Aunt-Lola's house in the province (without her knowing it as she was too busy dancing during our cousin's wedding yesterday). I'm sure that is fine with her because I doubt they would use all of it nor they use it often. Anyways, after we baked the thing, it turned out to be a cookie. I guess, I overcooked it so instead of crinkles, it turned out to be cookies. The taste is not that bad, though. I would surely make another batch of this next time.

------ update on 9 November 2013 -----

Blueberry Muffin (courtesy of Barefoot Contessa, lifted from mehanskitchenblogspot.com)

1 1/2 stick unsalted butter, room temperature (I know, annoying, pull it out the night before) 1 1/2 c sugar 3 eggs, room temperature 1 1/2 t vanilla 1 c sour cream 1/4 c milk 2 1/2 c flour 2 t baking powder  1/2 t baking soda 1/2 t kosher salt 2 half pints blueberries 
Preheat oven to 350.  Line muffin pan (makes 16) In a stand mixer with the paddle, cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy (5 minutes).  On low speed, add eggs, slowly, then vanilla, sour cream and milk.  In a separate bowl, sift flour, baking powder and baking soda (add salt after).  On low speed, add flour mixture until to batter until just mixed.  Remove bowl from stand and fold in blueberries. With ice cream scoop, generously pour into muffin liners to top.  Bake for 25 minutes.

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Lemon Crinkles (thanks goes to www.laurenslatest.com for this recipe!)

1/2 cup butter, softened
1 cup granulated sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1 whole egg
1tsp lemon zest (i substituted it with dayap zest)
1 tbsp fresh lemon juice (again, dayap juice)
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp baking powder
1/8 tsp baking soda
1 1/2 cup all purpose flour
1/2 cup powdered sugar

 Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease light colored baking sheets with non-stick cooking spray and set aside.

In a large bowl, cream butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. Whip in vanilla, egg, zest and juice. Scrape sides and mix again. Stir in all dry ingredients slowly until just combined, excluding the powdered sugar. Scrape sides of bowl and mix again briefly. Pour powdered sugar onto a large plate. Roll a heaping teaspoon of dough into a ball and roll in powdered sugar. Place on baking sheet and repeat with remaining dough.

Bake for 9 to 11 minutes or until bottoms begin to barely brown and cookies look matte (not metly or shiny). Remove from oven and cool cookies about 3 minutes before transferring to cooling rack.