Whole Grain Corn Muffins with Goat Cheese and Cranberries

I debated whether or not to advertise this cornbread as vegan, because it totally is, except for the goat cheese. Story of my life.

Fun fact: did you know you can use a really ripe avocado instead of eggs or oil in your baked goods? Works wonders. Think about it: it's a little unctuous ball of butter and eggs all in one. I think the fat in the avocado is the reason they work much better than mashed bananas or applesauce as an egg replacer. You get fat and moisture without sweetness, giving you a lot of flexibility in your choice of baked goods. You want to use really, really ripe avocados when you do this, ones that are past the guacamole stage. The ones they sell two for a dollar in the produce clearance aisle? Those are perfect.

Honey? And avocado? That sounds weird. But hey, we're making vegan cornbread with avocado here (and goat cheese and cranberries) so we're putting weird on the back burner for the moment.

Savory.

Sweet.

Scoop.

Bake.

I used my immersion blender (definitely another favorite piece of kitchen equipment) to whip up the avocado, honey and soymilk right in the bowl. If you don't have an immersion blender, or your avocado isn't really, really ripe you might want to mash up your avocado in a separate bowl and then beat in your honey and soymilk.

Truth be told these vegan/not vegan corn muffins don't know exactly what they want to be. They are just as delicious for breakfast as they are with dinner (we ate them with sweet potato soup) or for an afternoon snack. Goat cheese and cranberries is really a no-brainer, it's got the sweet/salty, chewy/creamy contrast going on. Both are a lovely surprise studded throughout the cornbread, whose texture is decidedly un-vegan. I make cornbread at least weekly and I was surprised at how little I could tell a difference between this cornbread and my standard favorite recipe, which calls for 1/2 cup of butter and 2 eggs (totally not a Southern recipe, I've converted...).

It doesn't really matter what these muffins want to be; anything studded with chunks of melted goat cheese can't be anything other than delicious.

Whole Grain Corn Muffins with Goat Cheese and Cranberries

• 1 cup yellow cornmeal
• 1 cup whole-wheat flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 tablespoons honey
• 1/2 ripe avocado
• 1 3/4 cups soymilk
• 1/2 cup crumbled goat cheese
• 1/2 cup dried cranberries

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Grease a 12-cup muffin tin.
2. Thoroughly combine your dry ingredients in a large mixing bowl.
3. In a separate bowl, mash up your avocado and beat in the soymilk and honey, mixing well.
4. Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients and stir the wet and dry together with a wooden spoon or mixing spoon until just combined. Gently stir in the goat cheese and cranberries.
5. Scoop into prepared muffin tin and bake for 15 to 20 minutes, until muffins are well risen and lightly browned on top.

Multigrain Chocolate Stout Banana Bread

Simplicity is not my strong point, at least when it comes to food. In life I am perfectly content to wear the same long waisted t-shirt and comfy flats high school through college, no problem. When it comes to my eating habits, however, I am infamous for 1) eating every meal out of a bowl 2) putting more ingredients than really necessary in said bowls. For instance, my morning oatmeal bowl often consists of oatmeal (3 parts steel cut to 1 part old-fashioned--try it, the texture is unlike any other) topped with sliced banana, nuts or peanut butter, yogurt, and granola. If you do 1/2 servings of each component you end up with one well-rounded bowl of lovely texture and temperature contrasts, the key to memorable dishes.

Which brings us to today's creation. It all started with a bottle of opened stout in the fridge. I opened it the other night for dessert and apparently misread my cravings because it was too heavy for me that late at night. I think I had a glass of wine instead. I'm all about freedom of choice. But back to the beer--flat, opened beer in the fridge screams "beer bread" to me. Did y'all make beer bread in college? We made a lot of it. Want to know why? Here's the recipe, pay attention now: measure 3 cups of self rising flour and 1/2 cup of sugar into a bowl (or directly into a greased baking pan, if you really want to go dorm-style). Stir in 1 12-ounce bottle or can of beer. Bake at 350 for 1 hour. Really, that's it. Sometime we would get creative and do garlic parmesan or cinnamon sugar toppings, but in general that's it. It has a texture like the middle of a good biscuits-and-gravy biscuit: dense and bready, perfect for slathering with butter and honey. Bringing back memories.

So today's beer bread started with that basic premise. The chocolate stout in the title refers not to "chocolate stout" as in Young's Double Chocolate or similar, but rather to chocolate, as in a fantastic high-fat natural cocoa powder I got from Penzey's this weekend, and stout, the beer on the same end of the spectrum as porters. Chocolate stout beer bread? I could tell this bread was headed somewhere delicious. There was also quite an old banana sitting in the fridge that I'd been meaning to mush up in a bowl of oatmeal for a few mornings now. I realize not everyone is a fan of the banana + chocolate combination, but I certainly am and a banana always adds some welcome moisture if you're a fan of the flavor. Oatmeal! That's a good idea too.  Then a hint of cinnamon for a welcome backbone of warmth and a star is born.

I truly wish you were here to share this with me. This honestly turned out so much better than I thought it would, the darkness of the stout and coffee brought out wonderfully by the cocoa and the cinnamon. It made for a deeply satisfying snack with a little fig-orange-ginger jam on top and a mug of coffee on the side. I told you simplicity is not my strong point. Oh and also? This loaf just happens to be vegan. Snuck that one in on you, huh? That's right, no eggs, milk, or butter to be found, just good ol' beer, coffee and chocolate. If you like barely sweet and highly flavorful baked goods, this loaf's for you. 

Multigrain Chocolate Stout Banana Bread

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees and grease a 9x5 inch loaf pan.

1.  Measure out 1 cup any stout beer (such as Guinness) and 1/2 cup strong black coffee into a measuring cup.  Add 1/2 cup old-fashioned rolled oats and let stand at room temperature while you prepare the rest of the ingredients.

2. Measure 2 cups whole wheat pastry flour (you could certainly use all-purpose; whole wheat behaves much the same way most of the time, it would work fine in this recipe), 1/2 cup whole wheat flour, 1/3 cup natural cocoa, 1/4 cup cocoa, 1 tablespoon baking soda, 1 tsp. salt and 1 tsp. cinnamon into a medium mixing bowl and mix well with a fork or wire whisk to combine.

3. In a separate bowl, mash one ripe banana using a fork or pastry blender. Whisk in 3 tablespoons vegetable oil.

4. Add the measuring cup of beer + coffee + oatmeal to the banana and stir to combine. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and stir just to combine.

5. Pour your batter into the prepared loaf pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 45-60 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the very center comes out with one or two moist crumbs attached. This is a very dense bread and so will not be actually wet and batter-like in the center. If you're baking in a metal baking dish, the bread will probably take closer to 45 minutes and if you are baking in a glass Pyrex dish or similar it will probably take closer to 60 minutes.

6. Turn out onto a wire rack to cool for at least 15 minutes (slicing into it hot will ultimately dry out the loaf!). Slather with your condiment of choice and enjoy with an afternoon cup of coffee. Or, of course, another beer.