Okay

Well, I baked with barley again today! This time I used a recipe. :)

These tasted better than they look, but while they made the "okay" score, I still want to play around with them and graduate them to the "wow!" score.

Recipe:

Barley Muffins

5 cups barley flour
4 tsp. baking powder
2 dashes of salt
4 eggs
1/2 cup rich whipping cream
1/2 cup honey
1/2 cup milk

Preheat oven to 400, and grease two muffin pans (makes 2 dozen muffins). Sift together all dry ingredients into a large mixing bowl. In separate smaller bowl, beat eggs lightly. Add cream, honey, and milk. Stir until honey is dissolved. Add to flour mixture, and stir until all ingredients are combined. Put into muffin tins and bake 20 minutes.

I was attracted to this recipe because of the use of all-natural ingredients and the simplicity of the directions. Like I said, I am pleased with how it turned out, but I still want to fiddle with it.

For one thing, this only makes twenty-THREE muffins, not 24, and they don't rise very high. I think the dough was too stiff. I added the milk, which the original recipe didn't call for, and it still seemed stiff. Next time I'll use just 4 1/2 cups of flour, and still use the milk.

I also think that dates and cinnamon would taste really good in these - give them that extra punch.

Do any of you have additional ideas? I'm all ears!