As those of you know who purchase new microwave ovens, no model works
exactly like any other. You have to tweak your loved recipes to fit
each new oven.
I tried something new and it worked perfectly.
I have a set of four silicone cups designed to make mug cakes, which
are ok, but …
These silicone mugs have just become my new best friends. I dug them
out of the cupboard to make perpetual muffins for breakfast. As my
one muffin was cooking, lightning struck in the form of an idea. Why
not poach an egg in this other cup?
I cracked my egg into the cup, no oiling of cup was necessary.
I pricked the yolk with a fork, not so much that it deformed and
scrambled, but enough to release the pressure inside while cooking.
I put a soup spoon full of water on top, and waited for the muffin to
stop cooking.
I removed the muffin cup from the microwave, replaced it with the egg
cup, covered it with a folded paper towel, set it to defrost and
pressed 1, this is the shortest defrost setting on the Panasonic, then pressed
start.
When it finished, the egg was cooked perfectly. I dumped it with what
was left of its water, into a bowl with a small pat of butter on the
bottom, added an appropriate amount of salt and pepper, and enjoyed
the egg with my muffin, which being sort of large, I cooked for 2
presses of the 30 second cook time setting. I just pressed that
button twice then pressed the start button. By the time the egg was
cooked the muffin was cool enough to cut and add butter to, although I didn’t
add the butter this time but ate it plain.
Perpetual muffins are good enough to eat without anything else. I
adapt my recipe from an old book, “The Art of Microwave Cooking” by Thelma
Pressman.
The cooking times need adapting because they are for 800 watt
microwave ovens. But in this recipe I adapt almost everything,
depending on what I have in the house. The good part is that the
recipe is very forgiving, and lasts as long as you need it to in the
refrigerator so you can cook a few each day instead of all at once, and they
work well cooked in the microwave.
They are bran muffins, using only ready-to-eat bran cereals off the
shelf, such as bran-flakes or All-bran. The downside is that if you
overindulge they act as a laxative.
Perpetual Muffins
The dough lasts up to 6 weeks in the refrigerator.
2 cups Kellogg’s all-bran cereal
1 cup Post 100 percent bran, I have not been able to find this for years.
Substitute any other bran cereal you have, or other choices such as
shredded wheat, if you don’t need more action, or cinnamon life if
you do. Raisin bran is a good choice if you want to stick with a bran
choice. Honestly, almost anything you like will do.
1 cup boiling water
2 eggs, beaten
2 cups buttermilk, I substitute other things for this sometimes
depending on what needs to be used. Choices I have used equally well,
powdered buttermilk with the appropriate amount of water, regular
milk, almond milk, sour milk, sour cream, yogurt plain, vanilla or
fruit flavored, and powdered milk. I would not hesitate to substitute
lemonade or orange juice either. In any case, if I want a bit more
flavor or pungency, I add lemon or lime juice to the plain milk product.
½ cup salad oil, I have substituted olive oil, but most often just
melt a stick of butter and toss that in.
1 cup chopped nuts, raisins or chopped dried fruit. I often add a cup
of chopped nuts, usually walnuts but sometimes pecans, and sometimes
mixed nuts. I often extend this to a cup and a half and add sunflower
seeds and chopped peanuts to the mix, or whatever I feel like. I have
added chocolate chips and skipped the nuts and seeds altogether. I
almost always add the fruit in addition to the nuts. This time it was
two snack packs of craisins and 2 little boxes of raisins.
1 cup sugar
½ cup brown sugar
1 tablespoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
2 and ½ cups flour, I usually use whole wheat.
Instructions:
In large bowl, combine cereals with boiling water and let stand 5 minutes.
Since I also sometimes add as much as 2 extra cups of cereal, I
generally add extra water to compensate. You want the cereal to
resemble pudding by the time you mix it all up and stir it around.
The longer it sits the more of the water absorbs into it. I don’t
hesitate to dump in 2 cups of boiling water.
Stir in eggs, buttermilk, oil and fruit. If using melted butter I
stir this in while the water is still hot and stir it well so it
combines with all the cereal evenly.
Combine all other ingredients into another bowl, mix well and spoon
into bran batter a little at a time until it is all combined and
mixed. Pour into storage container and refrigerate until needed.
To cook, put enough into cupcake papers to fill half way. Place in
cupcake ring and microwave and cook about 3 minutes for 6 small
muffins. With the new ovens I would check after each minute until I
knew my oven, checking after every 30 seconds after the first 2
minutes. I have not tried this but am guessing 2 minutes might be
enough cooking in my new microwave. I cook my mug cake version 1
minute and sometimes add 30 more seconds if necessary. I have not
tried the small muffins. Let stand 3 minutes or more before
unwrapping and eating. Enjoy, but most of all, play with this one and have fun
with it. This recipe is seriously fun to play with.
Pamela Fairchild
<pamelafairch...@comcast.net>
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