{"id":1739,"date":"2005-06-27T04:44:00","date_gmt":"2005-06-27T04:44:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/elitemporaryblog.wordpress.com\/2005\/06\/27\/introducing-a-wonderfully-food-obsessed-new-yorker-and-his-orange-nutmeg-muffins"},"modified":"2015-09-24T03:54:22","modified_gmt":"2015-09-24T03:54:22","slug":"introducing-a-wonderfully-food-obsessed-new-yorker-and-his-orange-nutmeg-muffins","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/orangette.net\/2005\/06\/introducing-a-wonderfully-food-obsessed-new-yorker-and-his-orange-nutmeg-muffins\/","title":{"rendered":"Introducing: a wonderfully food-obsessed New Yorker, and his orange-nutmeg muffins"},"content":{"rendered":"

In recent months, I\u2019ve spent a lot of time gushing about Seattle. I don\u2019t plan to stop anytime soon, but I should confess that when it comes to cities, I\u2019ve been known to be unfaithful. First, there was San Francisco, and bien s\u00fbr<\/em>, there will always be Paris. And though Seattle and I will celebrate our third anniversary in a couple of months, lately I\u2019ve been feeling downright googly-eyed about New York<\/strong>, or, rather, a wonderfully food-obsessed New Yorker. It’s serious\u2014the sort of situation that leads to an uncontrollable frenzy of cross-country care-package exchanges<\/strong>, from Ithaca<\/a> Nut Brown Ale to Fran\u2019s<\/a> chocolates, and from a vintage KitchenAid stand mixer(!) to orange-nutmeg muffins. I think I heart New York.<\/p>\n

Through a variety of forces and what some might call divine intervention, a young man named Brandon came into my life and brought with him, among other things, a bottle of Woodford Reserve bourbon and a keen eye for ridiculously underpriced kitchen equipment. For our first date, he proposed SoHo, <\/strong>Balthazar<\/strong><\/a>, and French martinis, but instead we settled on Pike Place Market, <\/strong>Bottega Italiana<\/strong><\/a>, and pistachio gelato. <\/strong>In the months that have followed\u2014during which I\u2019ve secretly and thoroughly vetted him for you, dear reader, and have found him eminently worthy of your company\u2014we\u2019ve sent criss-crossing the country both boxes of food and ourselves. Some might thank the heavens, but I thank the United Parcel Service, JetBlue, and MasterCard.<\/p>\n

As a modest early offering, I sent him a dozen homemade chocolate-covered coconut macaroons<\/a>, and Brandon sent back four bottles of Ithaca Nut Brown Ale and one of his favorite bourbons. I shipped off a jar of homemade apple butter<\/a>, and he sent back two kinds of pink sea salt, from Hawaii<\/a> and from the Himalayas, and a jar of hazelnut spread from Le Pain Quotidien<\/a>. I picked out a package of Fran\u2019s gray salt caramels, and he countered with two bars of Michel<\/a> Cluizel<\/a> dark chocolate, a bar of Jacques Torres 60% chocolate, and a thick, dark bar of Spanish Chocovic<\/a> 72% chocolate from Fairway<\/a>, all four wrapped together in a silky green ribbon from <\/strong>Ladur\u00e9e<\/strong><\/a> (he\u2019d been saving it, he said, \u201cfor the right occasion\u201d); as well as a bag of chocolate-coated and cocoa-dusted roasted almonds from Jacques Torres<\/a>. I spent one of my loveliest evenings in recent memory sitting alone in my car in the parking lot of UPS, a box from Brandon spilling Styrofoam peanuts on the seat next to me and a smorgasbord of chocolates spread out on my lap.<\/strong> And just as I began to slip irretrievably into a care-package-enduced food coma, another box arrived, this time bearing an original K45 KitchenAid stand mixer.<\/p>\n

I suppose I could have been overwhelmed, called a time-out, or picked up my skirts and fled, but when presented with such a show of gastronomic generosity and <\/strong>eBay<\/strong><\/a> aptitude<\/strong>, there was really nothing to do but retire to the kitchen and whip up a proper thank-you. Brandon had once mentioned in passing his love for a good nutmeg muffin, and well, I don\u2019t let these hints escape me. Instead, I bake\u2014and I hand-deliver.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
So with only a slight delay, I flagged down a flight to New York and arrived with a bag of muffins in hand, red-eyed but no less googly-eyed. Yes, when it comes to cities, I’ve been known to be unfaithful, but maybe Seattle won’t mind sharing me every now and then.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Orange-Nutmeg Muffins<\/strong><\/p>\n

Brandon ate quite a few of these toasty, spicy little cakes at the now-defunct Oberlin Music Caf\u00e9 in Oberlin, Ohio (\u201csome of the best espresso I\u2019ve had,\u201d he told me a bit mournfully), but since its closing, he hadn\u2019t had a nutmeg muffin. Though I was unsure of the idea of a muffin flavored with sizeable quantities of what I considered an \u201conly a pinch\u201d spice, I did some detective work and found this recipe<\/a>. It seemed promising, and with a bit of tweaking and the addition of fresh orange zest (optional, but nice), it more than lived up to its potential. Luckily\u2014or rather, wisely<\/em>\u2014Brandon thought so too.<\/p>\n

2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
\u00be cup light brown sugar
1 Tbs baking powder
\u00bd tsp freshly grated nutmeg
\u00bd tsp salt
Zest of \u00bd to 1 orange, to taste
1 large egg
\u00be cup heavy cream
\u00be cup milk (nonfat is fine)
4 Tbs canola oil<\/p>\n

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit. Spray a 12-cup muffin tin with cooking spray.<\/p>\n

In a large bowl, stir together the flour, brown sugar, baking powder, nutmeg, salt, and zest. Set aside.<\/p>\n

In a medium bowl, beat the egg well. Then stir in the cream, milk, and oil, whisking to blend well. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients, and stir to just combine (overmixing will develop the gluten in the flour and make for tough muffins).<\/p>\n

Scoop the muffin batter evenly into the wells of the greased muffin tin. Bake the muffins for about 20 minutes, or until domed and nicely golden. Serve warm. [These muffins also freeze beautifully. Allow them to thaw at room temperature; then reheat them gently in a 300-degree oven.]<\/p>\n

Yield: 12 smallish muffins.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In recent months, I\u2019ve spent a lot of time gushing about Seattle. I don\u2019t plan to stop anytime soon, but I should confess that when it comes to cities, I\u2019ve been known to be unfaithful. First, there was San Francisco, and bien s\u00fbr, there will always be Paris. And though Seattle and I will celebrate our third anniversary in a couple of months, lately I\u2019ve been feeling downright googly-eyed about New York, or, rather, a wonderfully food-obsessed New Yorker. It’s serious\u2014the sort of situation that leads to an uncontrollable frenzy of cross-country care-package exchanges, from Ithaca Nut Brown Ale to Fran\u2019s chocolates, and from a vintage KitchenAid stand mixer(!) to orange-nutmeg muffins. I think I heart New York. Through a…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nIntroducing: a wonderfully food-obsessed New Yorker, and his orange-nutmeg muffins | Orangette<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"http:\/\/orangette.net\/2005\/06\/introducing-a-wonderfully-food-obsessed-new-yorker-and-his-orange-nutmeg-muffins\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Introducing: a wonderfully food-obsessed New Yorker, and his orange-nutmeg muffins | Orangette\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"In recent months, I\u2019ve spent a lot of time gushing about Seattle. I don\u2019t plan to stop anytime soon, but I should confess that when it comes to cities, I\u2019ve been known to be unfaithful. First, there was San Francisco, and bien s\u00fbr, there will always be Paris. And though Seattle and I will celebrate our third anniversary in a couple of months, lately I\u2019ve been feeling downright googly-eyed about New York, or, rather, a wonderfully food-obsessed New Yorker. It’s serious\u2014the sort of situation that leads to an uncontrollable frenzy of cross-country care-package exchanges, from Ithaca Nut Brown Ale to Fran\u2019s chocolates, and from a vintage KitchenAid stand mixer(!) to orange-nutmeg muffins. I think I heart New York. 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