I love these single servings, and for me they seem to come out better than a whole cake/bread/pie. Two of my favs include:
Cheesecake - Sometimes plain, sometimes topped with sweetened sour cream/yogurt, or fresh fruit.
Cornbread - My fav so far, but is a pretty sweet version… but good with savory dishes with just butter, or as a dessert with honey vanilla butter cream…
70g Bob’s corn meal
60g AP flour
6g baking powder
45g sugar
2g kosher salt
Into a large bowl, mix the cornmeal, flour, baking powder, sugar, and salt. In another bowl, whisk together the whole milk, egg, butter, and honey. Add the wet to the dry ingredients and stir until just mixed.
Place muffin paper liners in a 6-cup muffin tin. Evenly divide the cornbread mixture into the papers. Bake for 18 minutes, until golden.
Like Scott, first thing that came to mind was cornbread. Would never turn down a good cupcake either. Also like eggy brunch bites, brownies, and Yorkshire Pudding. Have made individual stuffing muffins which were good, and like the idea of various savory muffins as well. So many things can be done - what a versatile pan, and a good way to control portion sizes.
Agree on the cheesecake. It’s often so rich or dense that a smaller serving is just perfect. If it’s a Japanese style fluffy cheesecake though, then I want the whole 8" cake for myself.
Based on this recently viewed Chef John vid, I made a modified version of my corn bread batter above using one of my fav 1/4 lb hot dogs and was seriously impressed. Not sure if it was the best corn dog concoction I’ve ever had, but it was close.
Good to know! Did you just cut up the hot dogs and stir into the batter? I do get a corn dog craving every now and then. (Sorry typed this out, haven’t watched the vid!)
I cut the dogs into sections the same height as the cupcake, filled each wrapper with batter about 3/4 of the way, and then inserted the hot dog section in the middle (which brought the batter to the top), then baked at 425°F for about 18 minutes.
Like @Lambchop , I also thought of eggy things. I’ve worked on frittatas and egg bites, but used a wider, shallower wrapper. I was going for single servings in an informal setting. Unfortunately, they looked less attractive after an hour.
The struggle is real lol! The pictured bites look great.
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BarneyGrubble
(Beethoven and Latina singer fan in Ottawa)
10
David Leibovitz’s Brown Butter Financiers
My first attempt at making these delectable morsels. I didn’t have a nut flour at hand, so I just blitzed some pistachios in a food processor. They’re not the best looking, but tasted great. Repeated a few times. I think I’d get a better rise with nut flour.
The two things that will give you a better rise are an overnight rest of the batter and yes, finer flour. I grind it all in the coffee grinder, as a food processor can’t get as fine a result. The rest imo produces much better results than without, not just in terms of rise, but also flavor and texture.
BarneyGrubble
(Beethoven and Latina singer fan in Ottawa)
13
Thanks for the tips. Have you tried a Magic Bullet instead of a coffee grinder? I have an almost unused MB, whereas I would have to really clean out my much-used coffee grinder to get out the taste and smell of coffee.
If you have a Vitamix you can do it there. I don’t know if the MB is as powerful, but I imagine it might be. Keep in mind you have to grind with flour and/or powdered sugar to keep things dry and prevent nut butter from happening. As for your coffee grinder, grinding a slice of bread or some rice is good for cleaning it out. I use mine for spices and have no issues with the flavor remaining in there afterwards.
Depending on where you live, almond meal might be more easily available than having to grind your own (for eg: TJs, WF, indian and middle eastern stores.)
But yes, magic bullet will work — you just have to shake and dislodge along the way, and it won’t be superfine like the store stuff.
BarneyGrubble
(Beethoven and Latina singer fan in Ottawa)
17
Bob’s Red Mill Flour is easily available here (expensive, though), if you’re looking for almond meal, but they don’t make pistachio meal, so I have to grind my own.
I just stumbled on to this and woofed up 6 this morning in my 6-muffin pan (although I used ham as I had no Canadian bacon). Perfect eggs…super quick & easy… fun and delicious!
