A Tate’s Bake Shop Giveaway & Orange Poppy Seed Muffins

“Hello” all you fantastic cookie lovers! 

I bet I will have you drooling shortly!

I was drooling before I could even get all the beautiful packages opened when the box from Tate’s Bake Shop arrived.  Inside were the thinnest, crispiest cookies I have ever eaten and a copy of Tate’s Bake Shop Cookbook by Kathleen King.  They are buttery delicious and have the honor of being featured in the magazine ~ Everyday with Rachael Ray, The Boston Globe, The New York Times and The Gourmet Retailer.

Right now though, I want to tell you a little about Kathleen King, the owner and baker at Tate’s Bake Shop in Southampton, New York.  She was born there and first began selling her chocolate chip cookies at her father’s North Sea Farms roadside stand.  Kathleen has been famous for her chocolate chip cookies since she started baking them as an 11-year-old girl.  They were such a hit that selling them put her through college.  Her cookies are sweetly magnificent ~ perfect!

Kathleen King ~ owner, Tate's Bake Shop

And here’s a really sweet surprise from Kathleen ~ one of you lucky people will be winning the same package I received.  It’s filled with 3 boxes of cookies:  oatmeal raisin (the best I have ever eaten!), white chocolate macadamia nut (YUM!), and her award-winning famous chocolate chip.  And the extra-added attraction is a copy of Tate’s Bake Shop Cookbook by Kathleen King with the foreword written by none other than Ina Garten!

I love Tate’s Bake Shop Cookbook!  It’s chocked-full of a yummy assortment of desserts and treats, with a few being:  Orange Moss (Kathleen has great memories of her grandmother making this light dessert often),  Peanut Butter Bread (a must-try!), Gorp Cookies (trail mix turned into a cookie), Oatmeal Scones, Fresh Blueberry and White Chocolate Tart, Magic Bars (an old-style cookie bar from the 1930’s), Raspberry Charlotte, Blueberry Buckle, Bob’s Mud Cake (an interesting recipe given to Kathleen by her professor at Cobleskill College), Whole Wheat Quick Bread and…

The first recipe I tried from Kathleen’s cookbook:  Orange Poppy Seed Muffins.  Bill was drooling while the muffins were baking up.  Oh, my gosh!  What a fantastic aroma coming from the oven!  They are delicious ~ a very light citrus muffin with a flavor that can be changed to lemon or tangerine.  The texture is so light and the top so springy with just a tad of crispiness on the edge after baking.  I will be making them with lemon the next time for a change. 

Orange Poppy Seed Muffins

1¼ cups all-purpose flour

1¼ teaspoons baking powder

½ teaspoon baking soda

¼ teaspoon salt

½ cup butter, softened to room temperature

¾ cup sugar

2 large eggs, separated

1 tablespoon freshly grated orange fzest

1 teaspoon vanilla

½ cup buttermilk

2 tablespoons poppy seeds

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Grease nine 3 x 1½-inch muffin cups.

In a medium-size bowl, stir together the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt.

In a large bowl, cream the butter and sugar until the mixture is light and fluffy.  Add the egg yolks one at a time, beating well after each addition.

Beat in the orange rind and the vanilla.

Add the flour mixture and buttermilk alternately to the butter mixture, finishing with the flour mixture.

Fold in the poppy seeds.

Beat the egg whites to soft peaks and fold them into the flour mixture.

Spoon the batter into the prepared muffin cups, filling them to the top.

Bale them for 20 minutes or until a cake tester or toothpick inserted in the center of one muffin comes out clean.

Yield:  9 muffins

Now, on with the giveaway!

Like I mentioned earlier, if you are the lucky winner you will receive 3 packages of goodies:  chocolate chip, white chocolate macadamia nut and oatmeal raisin cookies plus the magnificent Tate’s Bake Shop Cookbook by Kathleen King.

 

Here are the rules:

• Leave a comment on this post telling me you are a follower through Google Friend Connect (on the side bar of this blog) and what your favorite Christmas treat is. 

• For an extra entry become a fan of Tate’s Bake Shop Facebook fan page and leave me a separate comment telling me you’ve done that. 

• For a third entry, follow this blog on the Facebook Networked Blogs (on sidebar of this blog) and leave a comment telling me you’ve done so.

• This giveaway is open only to U. S. residents. 

• The giveaway is open through midnight CST, Tuesday, December 14, 2010.  The winner will be selected by Random.org and announced on Wednesday, December 15^th.

If you can’t wait until the drawing or are not the winner, Tate’s Bake Shop is offering the readers of Pam’s Midwest Kitchen Korner a coupon worth 15% off any tatesbakshop.com purchase now through December 31, 2010.  Please use the discount code:  cookie. 

Good luck to all of you!

My only regret is that I don’t live close enough to Tate’s Bake Shop in the Hamptons.  That would be a heavenly sweet thing!