Mascarpone & Mesopotamia

Exactly how you read it. 

My current routine consists of intensive History learning and creative breaks. Together they create unique duos I will remember forever. Therefore today I'm inspiring you to bake amazing Mascarpone Muffins and meet with the past, purely for fun and interest. Enjoy. 

Let's start with the muffins. I prepared them spontaneously for a film night with friends but didn't expect them to be so nice. The recipe was found on Kwestia Smaku, a polish culinary blog, which takes the whole credit. Nevretheless, I've made minor modifications.

 ↠ MASCARPONE CRANBERRY MUFFINS ↞

They're luxurious, sweet and sour, crispy and soft, filing and delicate at the same time!

INGREDIENTS: (for exactly 12 portions)

Cheese feeling: 

• 125g creamy cheese (used mascarpone)
• 1 tbl spoon sugar (used ready sugar with vanilla seeds)
• 1 teaspoon flour
• 1 egg

Mash the cheese with sugar, flour and the white (yolk can be added to the dough, I obviously put it there). Put into plastic container and leave in the freezer. 

Heat the oven up to 175/180 C; prepare the muffin baking pan by filing it with muffin forms.

Dough:

• 1 and 3/4 glass of flour (in the original recipe there is a cocoa instead of 1/4 extra flour, but I didn't want to make these muffins chocolate ones) 
• 3/4 glass sugar
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/3 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 glass water
• 1/2 glass natural yogurt
• 1/3 glass oil (for me olive oil has got too strong aroma)
• 1 tbl spoon vinegar/lemon juice
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/3 glass red cranberry jam*

*my suggestion

JUST:

1. In one bowl, riddle the flour, add sugar, baking soda, salt, mix together. Create a whole in the middle and pour in there a mixture of water, yogurt, oil and vinegar/lemon juice. Add vanilla extract & yolk left aside. Stir together with a spoon until all ingredients combined. 

2. Fill in the cupcake forms 1/3 of their height. Now add the cheese mass (taken out from the freezer, about 1 teaspoon inside each muffin). At the top of the feeling add extra teaspoon of cranberry jam, trust me you won't regret it. Cover it with the rest of muffin dough, but don't be too generous as the feeling likes to escape during baking. 

3. Bake about 25 minutes, until top crispy and brown. Let them breathe for a while and decorate as you wish - I chose a glamorous gold frosting for my Queens of the day. ❤

↠

And now what? Am I going to give you a small, tasty lecture about the milestones of human civilization? Well, I could do it, but I suggest you something better and definitely more worthwhile.

Grab this muffin and a person sitting next to you reading this and go out. Find a museum in your area you haven't visited yet. There must be one, I'm sure of it.

It doesn't matter if it holds exhibition of Sumerian (still it's good to start exploring from the very beginning) or your local poet. It's Sunday, the entry can be even free, did you know that?

Wife of Gudea, sculpture of Lagash

*look at this friendly smile*

Put on your new dress or smart jacket. Let yourself wallow in this elegant and slow atmosphere of art encounter. Don't hurry, stop by this model and reflect it.

Smile to a stranger staring at the same object. Share an eye contact. Smile even wider. 

When you feel like you explored enough for today, don't force yourself to see everything. You can always come back. Grab a hand of your love, kid, grandmother, whoever you took there and invite for a coffee. If you prefer to go home, go home. 

Remember 11 fresh muffins are still there, waiting for you. 

Have a wonderful, creative Sunday, 

Julia xxx