gender reveal parties Archives

Check out how these surprising muffins come together.

I dislike the whole idea of a gender reveal celebration. There are lots of surprises thrown at us, many are kind of scary and not a lot of fun. Finding out the sex of your baby at the moment of birth is one of the few good surprises we have left to experience. I know it’s a polarizing topic, and I’m sure a few of you are nodding in agreement with me, and the rest of you are rolling your eyes at me. It’s ok, I can take it!

With advances in technology, it’s almost impossible not to find out in advance these days. Parents say they want to know so they can get ready. Truthfully, you don’t need much to get ready to bring a baby home from the hospital. Those first few months are just a blur of eating, not sleeping and changing diapers. The best thing you can do to get ready is to fill your freezer with food that can be prepared and eaten with one hand!

When I was born, back in the dark ages, my parents were living at my grandfather’s house with my mom’s sister and brother. I had an older sister (18 months) who was sleeping in a crib in my parent’s bedroom. My mom emptied out a dresser drawer and lined it with pillows for me to sleep in. in her defence, she did remove the drawer from the dresser. It’s not like she put me in there and shut the drawer. These days, she would be reported to Children’s Aid for putting me in unsafe sleeping conditions. Newborns should never sleep with pillows, as it can put them at risk for SIDS.

There was no room in their bedroom for my makeshift crib, so I was put out in the hall to sleep every night. My uncle was a taxi driver, working the late shift, and every night he would come home at 2:00 am, trip on my drawer in the hall as he came up the stairs, cursing my parents. Eventually, my parents took the hint and bought a house of their own before my next sister was born.

While I dislike a gender reveal, the reveal of a jammy egg yolk in the centre of this Savoury Breakfast Muffin, is one I can get behind! They were dubbed “Rebel Within Breakfast Muffins” by their creator, Chef William Werner of San Francisco’s Craftsman & Wolves.

How the heck does that yolk stay runny in the middle of a perfectly cooked fluffy muffin? It’s culinary alchemy and just plain delicious. You start with a 6 minute egg, which must be plunged into ice water to rapidly chill it.

The muffin batter is enhanced with a generous amount of cheese (Asiago and Parmesan), green onions and spicy Italian sausage (I used plant based Beyond Sausage).

Once the chilled egg is peeled, it gets rolled in some flour to coat the surface. The flour coating helps to insulate the egg and allow the batter to stick to it when baking. Piping the batter is the easiest way to cover it.

The amber colour of these yolks of these eggs is not photoshopped! They really are this gorgeous hue. My family and friends are sick of hearing me wax poetic about these amazing eggs, but it’s the small things that make me so happy.

Click here to print recipe for Rebel Within Breakfast Muffins.

I love surprises. Well, I should clarify. I like good surprises, like finding out the sex of my babies, at the moment of their birth. Three of the greatest surprises of my life! It makes me sad that people have reveal parties and choose to forgo that moment of awe. A little too much over-sharing for my liking. Ok, social media rant over. Onto more important things.

Happy Valentines Day! We don’t make a big deal out of Valentines Day in our house, but I’d never say no to a little sweet treat. While many people believe the day should be marked with chocolate, I’m much more of a coconut –caramel kind of girl. But sometimes a little bit of chocolate is necessary.These cookies contain a little surprise. Along with the usual chunks of bittersweet chocolate, I mixed a big handful of Valrhona chocolate pearls into the dough. Little nuggets of crispy rice cereal enrobed in milk chocolate are totally unexpected but very welcome in a chocolate chip cookie. I ordered mine online. Callebaut also makes chocolate pearls. Their salted caramel crispearls are kind of astonishing (crunchy biscuit bits coated in salted caramel). If you can’t find them, chopped up maltasers or whoppers would make an excellent substitute. My friend Marla would love them!Can we talk about butter for a minute? Specifically, what does “room temperature” butter mean? How long a rest on the counter are we talking about here? When I’m baking, I’ll take the butter from the fridge first, slice it into 1/4 inch pieces. By the time I’ve gathered all the other ingredients, the butter will be perfect for creaming. Ten minutes is really all it takes. You want it to still be cool, but pliable. The whole point of creaming the butter with the sugar is to beat air into the dough. If your butter gets too warm, it won’t hold that air and you will end up with flat cookies.An ice cream scoop makes for even sized cookies.A light sprinkling of sea salt on top of each cookie before baking, because that’s how we roll around here. This is salt and serenity after all!