Food on Fridays: Mascarpone-filled Gingerbread Muffins

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Here at the Food on Fridays carnival, any post remotely related to food is welcome—though we love to try new dishes, your post doesn’t have to be a recipe.If you want, you could simply tell us your favorite Christmas food-oriented tradition (Cinnamon rolls for Christmas breakfast? Lutefisk for dinner? ).My point is that we’re pretty relaxed over here, and posts like that are as welcome as menus and recipes.When your Food on Fridays contribution is ready, just grab the broccoli button (the big one above or smaller option at the bottom) to paste at the top of your post. It ties us together visually.Then link your post using Linky Tools.

Food on Fridays with Ann

While shopping at Trader Joe’s, I get distracted by the samples and interesting boxes. I’m easily swayed, throwing into my cart numerous items that aren’t on my list.Last time I was there, I picked up a box of gingerbread.I stood in the aisle with the box in my hand, studying the pretty picture, wondering if my kids would enjoy it. Just then, a Trader Joe’s employee spotted me. He could sense my vulnerability. I was weak. “Are you finding everything okay?” he asked.”Yes, thank you.””Do you have kids?” he asked.”Yes, I do.””I’ll tell you what,” he began, “mix this up and instead of baking it in a pan, scoop it into muffin tins and put a little bit of mascarpone cheese in the middle. Your kids will love this. Do you have any mascarpone?””No. Wait, what?””Hold on. I’ll go get you some mascarpone.” He disappeared for a few minutes and came back with a tub of the cheese. “Last one! Here!”I asked him to review the plan.”Just follow the directions on the box, but when you’re ready to bake it, scoop some batter into a muffin tin…“put a dollop of mascarpone cheese on top of it…“and then fill the rest of the muffin tin with another scoop of the batter.“Bake it, and the mascarpone will melt, and—oh, it’s soooo good,” he said, closing his eyes as if recalling a recent sample.“I’m telling you, your kids will love them,” he assured me.Well, he certainly sold me on both the gingerbread mix and mascarpone cheese.I took it all home and baked according to his directions. The kids sampled them.They did not love the mascarpone-filled gingerbread muffins like the Trader Joe’s guy said they would.(But I did.)