This was meant to be my Eighth Delicious Miss Dahl recipe. But surprisingly I wasn't as happy with the results as I imagined. The first day I flicked through the book this was one of the recipes that stood out....I loved the image of the little pear and ginger muffin in rustic looking paper with a thin slice of pear, stalk and-all, baked into it. It was on page 83 of Miss Dahl's Voluptuous delights.I was dying to make it, but it was in the 'winter breakfasts' section and so thought I'd better hang on a little bit.
I couldn't wait any longer and had a go this weekend...but I was a bit disappointed with the results. I think that's probably just down to my heightened expectations. It looked OK, all that quirky charm.....but it was a little heavy and didn't have that much flavour. Because of the addition of egg whites and not yolks I imagined it was going to be light and fluffy...almost a pear and ginger souffle... but no....more like a rock bun or a bowl of All-bran
In Miss Dahl's defence I have to admit that I did make a change to the recipe. I couldn't find any pear puree ( I suppose I should have made some) and so used mango instead. Also the requisite four egg whites had been frozen left over from ice cream making. Probably that may have altered the texture.
Opening the cake tin this morning I was greeted by a wonderful gingery smell and the muffins are very wholesome...but not the 'airy fairy' things Miss D promised (sorry SD.) I may try to make them again... but doubt it'll be any time soon. For the sake of Miss D's reputation. I will do so eventually and hope to prove myself wrong...I do have a bit of a soft spot for her....
...on a positive note...I found a post card I'd been looking for marking the recipe... so that was good.....
Oh no, I hate it when a much-anticipated recipe doesn't turn out. There's a lovely pear and ginger muffin recipe in Nigella Express (though it is extremely sweet - I reduced the sugar quite a bit and it was still quite sweet enough). I too have lots of things tucked away in books - always a nice treat to find them!
ReplyDeleteI know...I was so disappointed and felt like I was letting Sophie Dahl down somehow.....
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing about the Nigella recipe....I've just got my book down and checked it out and will definitely have a go......I've just got to munch my way through the SD batch first though......!