It is Birthday Week again for the Noto Unit, this time it’s DF’s birthday week. Which means Sydney and I will be baking at least 3 different cakes, watching every football game on satellite, and driving to Breckenridge only to hike and eat. He has not changed his request in 24 years.

This year I started the week with special breakfast muffins; I wanted them to have a romantic angle. Roses scream romance and love, so I surprised DF with rose muffins for day one of birthday week.

Rose Love Muffins:

187 grams, 1½ cups plus 3 Tablespoons cake flour, sifted

½ teaspoons baking powder

Pinch of salt

113 grams, ½ cup unsalted butter, room temperature  (*see note)

300 grams, 1½ cups sugar

¼ teaspoon candied sugared rose petals

115 grams, ½ cup heavy cream

116 grams, ½–cup mascarpone cheese

3 large eggs, about 165 grams

1-teaspoon  rose syrup

1-teaspoon almond extract

1 teaspoons lemon zest

 

Rose Glaze:

4 Tablespoons Rose syrup

120 grams, 1-cup powder sugar

2½ Tablespoons fresh lemon juice

1 vanilla bean, seeds only

1/2 teaspoon almod extract

 

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F/163°C.

Prepare your mise en place .

Sift together, 3 times, cake flour and baking powder. Set aside.

In an electric mixer with fitted paddle attachment, beat butter and sugar on medium speed until blended, about 4 minutes.

  Add the cream.

Add the mascarpone, and continue to beat on medium speed.

Add the dry ingredients alternating with the eggs whisked with rose syrup and extract.

Ending with the dry ingredients fold in the crushed rose petals.

Pour the batter into prepared muffin pans, smoothing the top, gently tap the pans against the counter top. (To remove air bubbles.)

Brush a line with melted butter in the center of the raw muffins. Bake for about 65 minutes, until the top of the muffins are golden brown and a toothpick inserted comes out clean.

 Cool the muffins in the pan on a cooling rack for 15 minutes.

Remove muffins from pans and cool on the rack. Meanwhile bring the oven temperature down to 300 degrees F or 150 degrees C.

 Rose Syrup Glaze: 

Prepare  your mise en place

Place sugar in a bowl; add rose syrup, lemon juice, almond extract  and vanilla seeds, whisk the ingredients together. Pour the glaze on the cooled muffins and put in the oven on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper in the 300 degree oven for 2 minutes to allow the glaze to set.