I don’t remember how I originally stumbled across this website and this recipe, but I printed it out a million years ago and have had it filed in my “try soon” recipe folder. (Yes, I’m a hoarder, but I’m obsessively organized and can usually put my hands on the EXACT piece of paper that I’m looking for in a minute flat…it’s a disorder, I know, but I usually use it to my advantage…) I happened to have all of the necessary ingredients on hand this morning, so decided to give these a try.
This recipe calls for Penzey’s Baking Spice, which I thought would be easy to concoct on my own. I mean, why bother with buying some blend of cinnamon, mace, cardamom and anise, when I already have those things in my spice cabinet? I can figure out how much to mix in, right? The problem was, as I soon discovered, that I only had anise seeds in my spice cabinet, not ground anise, which I thought would be better for sprinkling into baked goods. Undaunted, I just figured I’d get some the next time I went to the store. I tried my regular grocery store. No luck (it’s a smallish store, in the suburbs and not terribly specialized, so I wasn’t shocked). So, I decided to try the health food store and the local gourmet foods store. Still no luck. OK, I was starting to think that was really weird. They finally opened a new gigantic foods store in my neighborhood (for my East Coast buddies, the new store is VERY much like a Wegman’s: you can buy your upscale olives, imported cheeses…they have an in-store sushi bar, even….but you can also buy Tide and 7-Up, unlike at the health food or gourmet store) and so I decided to try there. Still no luck.
Well, when we passed through Houston recently, one of the places that I wanted to go was to the Penzey’s Spices store. They have great prices on bulk spices and they have some delicious-sounding proprietary spice blends (about 4 different kinds of curry powders alone) that I was nervous about buying from the catalog (I wanted to be able to smell, etc.). Well, wouldn’t you know it…they had ground anise, so I ended up getting some there. I should have just ordered the Baking Spice from them in the first place.
10 packets (one packet was plenty for all of the muffins) for about 50 cents…
I found the vanilla sugar recently on a field trip to the Hong Kong Supermarket, which is odd because the sugar is from Germany. I think it’s made with artificial vanilla flavoring, but it’s still good. If you want to make your own, just chop a vanilla bean into 1/2 inch segments and place it in a sealed, plastic container with 2 cups of coarse sugar and let it sit for a few weeks, giving it a shake to blend every couple of days, or whenever you think about it.
These muffins were absolutely delicious. The polenta gave them a delicious crunch; the buttermilk made them very rich and moist and the batter was thick enough that the blueberries didn’t all sink to the bottom of the muffins (I hate that).
If you’re not as afflicted with OCD single-minded and determined as I am, feel free to substitute Chai Spice blend or Cinnamon Spice blend or just a couple of shakes of cinnamon to this recipe, instead.
Or just leave it out altogether.
That wouldn’t bother me at all.
Really. Not a bit.
Well………maybe just a little bit.
Well, how ’bout if you don’t use the Baking Spice, you just don’t tell me about it, OK?
So, are you not familiar with Penzeys? I have pretty much started ordering most of my spices from Penzeys. I LOVE them. Their Extra Fancy Vietnamese Cassia Cinnamon is the ONLY cinnamon I sprinkle on my coffee in the mornings. I also like adding this cinnamon to French toast, waffles and most baking, although I do use their Chinese Cassia Cinnamon for a few things as well. I know how you are about your taco seasoning, so I don’t know if you would like this one as kosher salt is the first ingredient, but my family loves their Bold Taco Seasoning as well. I could go on and on, but I will stop here. However I am going to have to order baking spice now so I can make your Blueberry Lemon Muffins. Don’t worry though, it is not a hardship on me. Oh, one more thing, you can order very small jars of most of their spices, so if you don’t like it you don’t feel like you have wasted too much. OK, NOW I will stop.
Penzey’s is AWESOME! I love ordering from the catalog, but there is nothing like going to the store, where you can actually see and smell everything. I bought a lot more things in person than I would have through the catalog. I bought some BBQ 3000 and two different curry powders (one spicy, one kid-friendly) and a bunch of different stuff. Their prices are so good, though, that I came out with a pretty big bag and still spend only around $50, and part of that was some black peppercorns that my mom asked me to get for her, so it wasn’t even all mine. I also bought a big bag of cloves to sprinkle in my attic (supposed to help prevent creepy-crawlies). Another great place to buy spices is at an Asian market. I’m sure you’re seeing all kinds of spices on the cheap. Of course, they don’t carry all spices, just ones used in Asian cooking, but my local Asian market (Hong Kong Supermarket, on 183, near Ohlen) has HUGE bags of star anise, cumin seeds (they’re labeled “coriander”, but they’re not), sesame seeds, cloves, cinnamon sticks, and other spices used in Asian cooking and they’re never more than about $3 for a BIG bag. I LOVE the Asian market. I definitely stick out a bit when I go there, but that just makes it more fun. I went there yesterday and bought wakame and bonito to make some miso soup – keep an eye out for a future post.