My first ever post!

Ok so I figure I have put this off long enough... trying to come up with reasons I shouldn't do a blog but finally, I thought, "Porque no?" I might as well.... and who knows someone might find it interesting.... SO enough with the reasons! For my first post I wanted to do a kind of unusual recipe so I was walking through the thriftway by my apartment a few weekends ago (one of my favorite past times as the bakery has free samples and I love anything free... and baked...) A strange looking upside down muffin caught my eye, "Sailor Jacks $ .99" They looked yummy and branny and they were just calling my name... so I grabbed one to go, tried it, and was AMAZED. They are like little spice cakes with raisins covered in a crunchy lemony glaze. How have I never heard of these??? So of course I proceeded to google the recipe. Surprisingly it was hard to find! Apparently these little bites of goodness are native to the Northwest. I actually found the recipe on a boating website of all places. I guess these are popular with sailors? Who knew... So I went over to the rents house to use their kitchen (it is MUCH better stocked than mine!), employed the help of two dogs... more on them later.... and got to cookin!

Here is the recipe... and pictures for those of us who are visual learners!

Ready to begin....

Ingredients

RAISIN AND SPICE MIXTURE

1/2 cup (3-1/2 ounces) granulated sugar

1/2 cup (3-3/4 ounces) packed light or dark brown sugar

4 teaspoons ground cinnamon

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon ground ginger

3/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg

1/2 teaspoon ground cloves

1 cup (8 ounces) water

1/2 cup (3 ounces) raisins

2 tablespoons (1-1/2 ounces) molasses

MUFFIN BATTER

1 cup (4 ounces) whole wheat flour

1/2 cup (1-5/8 ounces) oat flour

1/2 cup (1-3/4 ounces) old-fashioned rolled oats

1 teaspoon baking soda3/4 teaspoon baking powder

1/3 cup (2-3/8 ounces) vegetable oil

1 large egg

GLAZE

1/2 cup (2 ounces) confectioner’s sugar

2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice

1 teaspoon milk

Raisin and spice ingredients

Batter ingredients, Bob's Red Mill makes GREAT oat flour but if you don't have any on hand you can measure out 1/2 cup rolled oats and put them in a blender, blend until it looks like flour.

DIRECTIONS:

So first you put all your raisin and spice ingredients into a sauce pan and cook them till they start to boil. I stirred them every once in a while so they wouldn't stick/burn. I used medium heat. When it starts to boil, turn down the heat a bit and let it simmer for about five minutes. Once it's good and simmered take it off the burner and let it cool. The recipe says overnight but I am too impatient, I gave it five hours, went on an impromptu shoe shopping trip, and called it good.

Next you preheat the oven to 375, grease a muffin pan - mine actually ended up making 12 regular muffins and two mini muffins. I lined the big muffin tins with paper and then sprayed the papers with non-stick spray. I did the minis by just spraying the pan and I liked how they turned out better.

Batter and cooled raisin mixture before I combined them... the raisin mixture smells AMAZING!!

THE BATTER:

1. Whisk together the flours, oats, baking soda and baking powder in a medium mixing bowl.

2. Add the cooled raisin and spice mixture, oil and egg. Stir to combine. Do not beat as this will toughen the muffins.

3. Scoop the batter into the prepared muffin pan, filling each cup about 3/4 full.

4. Bake the muffins until a cake tester inserted into the center comes out clean, about 20 to 23 minutes.

5. Remove from the oven and allow the muffins to cool in the pan for about 15 minutes, then turn them out onto a rack to finish cooling. After cooling I took the papers off and turned the muffins upside down because that's how they do it at Thriftway!

Before baking

After Baking

GLAZE: Mix all the ingredients until smooth. Drizzle over the cooled muffins. I needed a lot more glaze so I just kept adding to it.

The final product! YUMMY!! These were super good and even better the next day and the day after! A perfect take to work breakfast! So there it is, my first ever post. Hope you enjoyed and there is definitely more to come. But for now... go bake something!

NUTRITION INFORMATION PER SERVING: 1 Glazed muffin: 18 g. whole grains, 245 cal., 7 g. fat, 3 g. protein, 19 g. complex carbohydrates, 3 g. dietary fiber, 18 mg. cholesterol, 329 mg. sodium, 183 mg. potassium, 9 RE vitamin A, 1 mg. vitamin C, 2 mg. iron, 64 mg. calcium, 131 mg. phosphorus**

**I will try and put nutrition info on as much as I can so if you don't wanna know.... look away!