Hello.

Two weeks ago, I wrote about how I was putting my regular content on hold because of the coronavirus pandemic. As I explained, I wanted to focus on content that you guys would find helpful during such critical times. But there was another reason too: I thought that, in two weeks, the majority of this would be over. That by now, the government would have organized to provide the resources necessary to fight the pandemic, that our cities would have quickly implemented measures to ensure our safety, and that we as a society would have responsibly and selflessly adhered to those guidelines. That the threat of COVID-19, while real, would be far away and abstract. And as a result, I could go on sharing recipes like I normally would and would be able to walk you guys through my new website without feeling like a trivial jerk.

What a fool I was.

The fact of the matter is that it will be a few months before things go back to normal. China (where the outbreak began) and Korea (where the outbreak intensified) are JUST starting to get things under wraps. And the places where the responses were swift and successful—Singapore, Taiwan, Hong Kong—took fierce and strident measures that dramatically changed the lives of their people for months. Whatever way I look at it, it’s clear to me that “normal” is something that won’t be back for a long time, if ever.

As a result, I’ve been spending the last few weeks thinking about this space, and how I could use it to wield some good in times of uncertainty. And indeed, during these last two weeks, I saw how many of you have been (rightfully!) staying inside and finding joy by baking. It was inspiring and uplifting to see you all cooking my recipes in your homes. It led me to the decision to re-start publishing recipes here again, providing new ones more suited to these times (small batch when possible, with lots of substitutions), and double-checking and updating older-but-still-popular recipes to ensure success in your kitchens as much as possible.

But here’s the truth: this type of recipe development and content creation requires resources, and COVID-19 hit my family hard financially. As a result of the pandemic, my fiance Erlend is currently furloughed from his job, leaving me as the main source of income for the family. Although we are not strangers to this circumstance (I was the breadwinner for years when he was in grad school), this is the first time that I am supporting us solely on an unstable freelancer’s income. The majority of my income from blogging has always come from partnering with brands for sponsorships; unfortunately, many of those partnerships were delayed or outright cancelled because of the pandemic as well. I’m fully anticipating that I won’t receive any income from those sources until the end of this year.

While there’s been a well-deserved and important outcry to support your favorite small restaurants, family-owned cafes, and other mom-and-pop food operations, there’s been little to none for the food bloggers and Instagram recipe developers. At worst, there are folks who have looked at the negative economic effects of COVID-19 on influencers with glee (“Now these brats will have to get a real job!”), all while continuing to consume and take advantage of our content unabashedly. At best, people forget that we are small businesses that need help too.

So here I am, asking for help.

How You Can Help

In the list below, I’ve tried to be as transparent as possible about how doing any of the actions below will support my work:

1. Support me on Patreon.
   This is something I only recently set up, and is truly the only way to ensure that you are financially supporting my work. Supporting me on Patreon will eventually enable me to focus less on branded content, and instead allow me to create recipes that are specifically made for YOUR needs and our community. There are different levels of support available, each with its own perks like exclusive content, extra Instagram Story recipe tutorials, signed copies of my book, and even 1-1 mentoring sessions with yours truly.
   


2. Visit Hummingbird High as often as you can and share links to my recipes with as many people as possible.Visiting my blog and sharing links to your favorite recipes with others will increase my pageviews, which is helpful for earning advertising revenue. Ad revenue is typically measured in two ways: pageviews and clicks on the ads themselves. The more pageviews I have and the more times people click on my ads, the more money I earn. But don’t worry! There’s no need to click on an ad unless it’s really, truly something that interests you—your pageview is plenty enough.
   


3. Follow me on Instagram, like and comment on all my feed photos (especially any sponsored ones!), and watch my Instagram Stories as much as possible.In the last few years, Instagram has been my primary source of revenue. More followers and engagement (specifically, your likes, comments, and Instagram Story views) within my account enables me to negotiate better payouts with future sponsors.


4. Buy my cookbook.
   I’ve explained before that, unless you’re Ina Garten or Chrissy Tiegen, cookbooks are NOT a reliable source of income. But every little bit helps—a purchase of my cookbook reduces my “debt” to my publisher and will enable me to potentially earn royalties from my book one day.

That being said, I recognize what a tough time it is for everybody—many industries are undergoing the same layoffs and instability that affected me and my family. So even if you’re unable to continue supporting my work right now, please know that I am truly grateful for what you’ve afforded me in the past. It is an incredible privilege to have so many of you in my community. Thank you, thank you, THANK YOU for being here.

Please stay healthy and safe.

Learn More

• Read about the history of Hummingbird High, how its mission and content has changed over the years, why your help is needed, where your money will go, and other ways to support my work on my Patreon page


• “Free Ways to Support Content Creators” by Chris Loves Julia (also one of my favorite interiors blogs)


• “Shakespeare Survived Quarantine With A Little Help From His Patrons” by Ian Wheeler in The New York Times

Dear friends,

If you follow me on Instagram, you already know that I’ve been spending the last few days thinking about COVID-19 and how I can better serve you during these uncertain times. After receiving invaluable feedback, messages, and requests from so many of you, I’ve decided to pause my regular content in this space. I'll instead focus on the following topics on Instagram and Instagram Stories:

1. How to Build the Ultimate Baker’s Pantry
   I'll focus on building a pantry to minimize trips to the grocery store, one that's robust enough to keep yourself busy and engaged with several baking projects while social distancing.


2. Small Batch Baking Recipes with Servings for 2 to 4 People
   Many baking recipes are made to share between 6 to 8 people; however, with so many of us staying at home and social distancing, those excess portions will easily go to waste. I'll showcase some small batch recipes from my book, as well as share tips and tricks on how to freeze other baked goods to make and share for later.


3. Baking Recipes Without Eggs And Other Ingredients That Are Hard to Find Right Now
   Because people are terrible, many folks (including myself) have seen shortages of ingredients and empty rows of shelves at our local supermarkets. The most common shortage is eggs—I'll share some of my favorite eggless baking recipes via Instagram Story tutorials, as well as discuss common baking substitutions to make what you already have in your pantry work. 

I've decided to focus primarily on Instagram because it's a way to reach many more of you quickly and urgently. And although it can feel silly to Instagram in such critical times, I’m continuing to share my work because I’m hoping that the posts will prevent you from going stir-crazy at home, and remind you that we're all in this together.

For more on my thoughts on everything, please follow me on Instagram and check out the Instagram Story highlight titled “covid updates” saved on my profile. Thank you for being here; please stay healthy and be safe.

With love,
Michelle

Most fudge brownie recipes call for bittersweet, semisweet, or dark chocolate—but in a pinch, milk chocolate will work in any recipe too! Milk chocolate makes my best fudge brownie recipe sweeter and chewier, resulting in an especially flaky and paper-thin sugar top. Jump to the recipe.

Why You Should Make Homemade Brownies

For an embarrassingly long time, I was a firm believer that making brownies from scratch was a waste of time. I mean, why bother when the boxed mix stuff was so fast, reliable, and good (I'm looking at you, Ghirardelli Double Chocolate Brownie Mix)? But a few years ago, when researching recipes for my cookbook, Weeknight Baking, I did a taste test of boxed mix brownies versus some of the internet's most beloved recipes (my friend Erika did something similar and wrote all about it). That was when I became convinced otherwise—as good as the boxed mix stuff was on its own, it just couldn't hold a candle to homemade brownies. I now noticed a weird artificial flavor and cakey texture that I hadn't ever noticed before. It turns out that homemade brownies, even the inferior recipes that I tested, were just infinitely more chocolatey and fudgy than the boxed mix stuff.

Fudge Brownies Versus Cocoa Brownies

A caveat: not all homemade brownie recipes are the same. In fact, there are so many variations that I get stressed out just thinking about them. You can make brownies with oil instead of butter, different types of sugar, and chocolate. To me, chocolate is the biggest determinant of what kind of brownie you'll have. In general, brownie recipes that use solid chocolate that you chop up into smaller pieces and melt are fudge brownies; these are super dense, thick, and almost ganache-like in flavor and texture. Brownie recipes that use cocoa powder are no less chocolatey, but are chewier and lighter in flavor and texture. I'm personally partial to fudge brownies, but honestly, really good recipes (like my Better-Than-Supernatural Fudge Brownie Recipe, cough cough) will use a mixture of both chopped chocolate and cocoa powder to get the best of both worlds.

Milk Chocolate Brownies

During all my research, I noticed that most fudge brownie recipes usually called for dark chocolate (or bittersweet and semisweet varieties). To rewind: milk chocolate and dark chocolate are often sold with a percentage on the package, which indicates how much of the bar, by weight, is made from cacao beans and cocoa butter. The higher the percentage, the darker and more bitter the chocolate will be. When baking, dark chocolates with higher cacao percentages translates to stronger and more intensely chocolate-flavored baked goods.

And while that science makes sense to me, the thing is, between you and me, I much prefer snacking on milk chocolate—something about its creamy, milky sweetness really makes my heart swoon (I mean, in case you couldn't tell from my blog, I legit have the biggest sweet tooth in the world). It got me thinking—what would my fudge brownie recipe taste like if I substituted out the dark chocolate for milk chocolate???

The answer: really freaking good.

While the milk chocolate brownies weren't as intensely rich and chocolatey as the original recipe, they were still utterly tasty and flavorful. But less like ganache, and more like a super-chocolatey blondie than a brownie. Also, you know how the best brownie recipes have a really shiny, paper-thin crackly top? That comes from the amount of sugar in the recipe. And because milk chocolate tends to have more sugar than dark chocolate, these milk chocolate brownies have an extra flaky and shiny sugar top. SO GOOD.

Ingredients to Make Milk Chocolate Brownies From Scratch

Okay, hopefully all of the above has convinced you to make these milk chocolate brownies, lol. Let's talk about some of the key ingredients you'll need for this recipe:

Milk Chocolate (obviously)

When baking a recipe that instructs you to melt chocolate, I always advise folks to opt for chocolate bars instead of chocolate chips. Chocolate chips have weird additives like paraffin wax (yes, the same stuff candles are made out of!) and other stabilizers to help them keep their shape in the oven. Look for a good quality chocolate bar that you'd want to eat as a snack, with a cacao percentage between 30 to 40%. I used Tony Chocolonely's Milk Chocolate Bar, which has 32% cacao.

Cocoa Powder

In the baking aisle of the grocery store, you'll find three types of cocoa powder: natural unsweetened, Dutch-processed (also known as Dutched or alkalized cocoa powder), and sweetened. Avoid the sweetened stuff and stick with either natural unsweetened or Dutch-processed cocoa powder for baking. In this recipe, you can use one or the other interchangeably. Natural unsweetened will give you more reddish, and just ever-so-slightly more bitter brownies, whereas Dutch-processed cocoa powder (which is what I used) will give you darker-colored and milder-flavored brownies. I used Hershey's Special Dark Cocoa Powder, which I love and always have on hand.

Brown Sugar

I love the extra something-something brown sugar gives brownies; I feel like it keeps them moister and fresher for longer (since brown sugar has molasses, which helps add moisture and flavor). When baked in the oven, the brown sugar almost caramelizes and gives the brownies really subtle toffee notes. Seriously—substitute half the white sugar in your favorite brownie recipe (any one that's not mine, because most of my brownie recipes contain brown sugar hahaha) with brown sugar. Your baking game will be changed.

Chocolate Chips

Because I am a chocolate fiend, I always sprinkle a handful of chocolate chips over the batter to give it texture and yes, to make it look "kewt". For this recipe, I found that mini chocolate chips didn't sink as much as regular-sized chocolate chips (Here's some fun food science: the chips don't sink in my original recipe that uses dark chocolate. Why? The extra cacao in the dark chocolate helps keep them afloat!). I also experimented with using milk chocolate chips versus dark chocolate (er, semisweet and bittersweet) chocolate chips and found I liked the contrasting flavors of the latter better. But you do you. I used Ghirrardelli's Semi-Sweet Chocolate Mini Baking Chips.

How to Make Milk Chocolate Brownies From Scratch

Once you've gathered your ingredients, it's time to make the brownies! While this recipe is not quite as easy as pulling out a box mix and adding in oil and sugar, it's still pretty easy breezy. Here are the steps to making brownies from scratch:

1. Preheat your oven and prep your pan—don't miss my baker's notes on how to do this, because these brownies can be finicky and have a tendency to stick!


2. Prepare the chocolate by chopping it into 1- to 1 ½-inch pieces. I am lazy and usually just use a food processor for this task.


3. Melt the chocolate, butter, and cocoa powder in a double boiler (in a pinch, set a heatproof bowl over a sauce pan with a few inches of boiling water, making sure the bottom of the bowl does not touch the water!). 


4. Whisk together the sugars, egg, and vanilla, before slowly adding the melted chocolate and finally mixing in the dry ingredients.


5. Pour into the pan, scatter with chocolate chips, and BAKE!

Best Milk Chocolate Brownie Recipe Tips

• Because of the sugars and the milk chocolate in the recipe, these brownies have a tendency to stick to the pan, especially when they've cooled to room temperature. Don't skip the step of lining the pan with parchment paper, and be sure to use lots of cooking spray too. As an extra precaution, I actually like to use a fine mesh sieve to sprinkle a fine layer of cocoa powder over the cooking spray (similar to how some bakers sprinkle flour in elaborate cake pans to help prevent the cake from sticking). Finally, follow the instructions for unmolding the brownies while they're still warm, about 20 to 30 minutes after you've pulled them out the oven. You don't want to do it too soon—doing so might cause the block to crumble apart since the brownies need some time to set.


• In this recipe, you'll first melt the milk chocolate with some butter and cocoa powder, before adding it to a mixture of sugar and eggs. If you add the chocolate while it's still too warm, it might accidentally scramble the eggs! There are some things you can do to prevent this—after melting the chocolate, immediately transfer it to a liquid measuring cup or a pitcher to help it lose heat quickly (you can see that I did this in my Instagram Story series about this recipe). When adding it to the sugar and eggs, make sure to do it VERY slowly, whisking continuously and quickly while you do so—in fact, I like to use a stand mixer to do the work for me since it gets tiring fast). And finally, use eggs that are straight from the fridge and straight from the fridge to help keep things from overheating.


• It is better to pull the brownies out of the oven early than leave them in too long—if you overbake the brownies, they'll be tough! They might appear underbaked, but I promise that when they've cooled, they'll be perfect.

More Brownie Recipes

• Better-Than-Supernatural Fudge Brownies
• Blueberry Brownies
• Brownie Cookies
• Dulce de Leche Brownies
• Tahini and Halva Floss Brownies

Fault line cakes are one of the most popular cake trends in the last few years. Similar to a geode cake, a fault line cake is made with deliberate crevices (but this time, around the middle of the cake). This crevice is then filled with sprinkles, cookies, flowers, and more to create a "fault line"! Despite its elaborate look, a fault line cake is surprisingly easy to make and customize at home—jump to the tutorial.

These banana cinnamon muffins have a soft and moist crumb, complete with an incredible banana flavor. But their distinctive quality is definitely their crunchy muffin top—each has a super tall and wide dome, all thanks to a generous sprinkling of cinnamon sugar on every muffin. Jump to the recipe! 

My Quest to Find the Best Banana Muffin Recipe

A few years ago, when I was researching recipes for my cookbook, Weeknight Baking, I noticed that while there were a TON of popular and very beloved recipes for banana bread. But there just didn't seem to be as many for banana muffins! It's weird because the the two baked goods are practically identical twins—I mean, they certainly share the same ingredients and overall spirit, lol. But I'm guilty of this too: while my blog has a ton of recipes for banana bread, there are hardly any for banana muffins (I literally only have this one, and while it's pretty good, it's a little too healthy-ish for me to really call it my "best banana muffin recipe"; ditto with the muffin recipe in my book, which uses whole wheat flour and Greek yogurt). And even despite my apparent undying love for banana bread, I could easily make the argument that banana muffins are the superior baked good of the two. They're easier to eat on the go, and of course, you get the delightful, crunchy top with every muffin.

Crunchy Top Banana Muffins

Because yes, I'm firmly in the camp that a good muffin recipe is defined by its top. The top should be crispy and crunchy with cake crust and lots of sugar. And there's one muffin recipe that does this really, really well: my copycat Levain Bakery blueberry muffins.

If you've followed my blog or my Instagram for a while now, you'll know that sometime last year, I became obsessed with trying to recreate Levain Bakery's blueberry muffin recipe at home. Their muffins are known for their sky-high domes and sugared tops that spread far and wide. After stalking their Instagram feed for behind-the-scenes secrets and attempting eight recipe trials, I nailed it! The secret was to use sprinkle a generous amount of sugar over each muffin to produce a crispy, crackly top. I wondered if I could try this same technique on a banana muffin recipe, too.

But even with these extra-crispy tops, a bite into the muffin itself should reveal a soft, moist, and almost pillowy crumb. Which leads us to my next point.

Banana Cinnamon Muffins

It should also go without saying that the muffin needs to be extremely flavorful. Especially because, let's be honest: muffins are basically cupcakes without frosting. There, I said it, we can all breathe now (lol). But what that means is that your muffin batter is gonna need to do a lot of heavy lifting to compensate for that lack of flavor from the frosting. And as much as I love bananas, bananas in baked goods can taste a little flat and bland on their own. Bananas need some spice to help bring out their full depth of flavor. And one of my favorite spices to pair with bananas is cinnamon—it gives it just the right amount of heat and complexity to take it to the next level. I figured the best way to incorporate the cinnamon would be to add it to the sugar topping, Cinnamon Toast Crunch-style. Game freakin' on.

Ingredients in Banana Cinnamon Muffin Recipe

Now that I've convinced you to make these banana cinnamon muffins, let's talk about some key ingredients you're going to need for this recipe:

Really, REALLY Ripe Bananas

Sour Cream

Brown Sugar

Cinnamon Sugar

Essential Banana Cinnamon Muffin Recipe Techniques

How to Quickly Ripen Bananas

How to Make High Domed Muffins

How to Make Wide and Crunchy Muffin Tops

Best Banana Cinnamon Muffin Recipe Tips

• {Ingredient Tip} Bananas are listed in the recipe by weight, not volume or size. Why? It's risky not to include exact measurements for banana baked goods. Too little banana and your baked good will turn out too dry, but too much will cause it to collapse in the center if underbaked. For best results, use a digital scale! First peel the bananas, then use the scale to weigh the naked fruit. But fine—for those who need volume measurements, this recipe needs approximately 1 ¼ cups mashed bananas, from around 2 ½ large bananas. 


• {Equipment Tip} For this recipe, tools are important. You'll need two muffin tins, a 1-tablespoon OR a 3-tablespoon cookie dough scoop, and an offset spatula (preferably with a short, metal blade). The cookie dough scoops are for filling each cavity with muffin batter—to get tall domes, you'll need to fill each one with SIX tablespoons of batter. It works best if you're precise. Anything more will cause the muffins to overflow, and anything less will result in squat muffins. You'll then need the offset spatula to "unstick" the wide muffin tops from the pan.


• {Muffin Making Tip} Use cooking spray to spray the muffin tin in order to turn the muffins out of the pan easily and quickly. To make it work, you'll need to spray the inside of each cavity with a GENEROUS amount of cooking spray—and when I say generous, I mean generous. You should be uncomfortable with the amount of spray you used, lol. You'll also need to spray the outer border around the cavities. And FYI—butter won't work, and will cause the muffins to stick to the pan. Use cooking spray!!! 


• {Muffin Making Tip} The recipe instructs you to rest the batter for one hour at room temperature; technically, this step is optional. You can bake the batter immediately after making and end up with some pretty damn good muffins. But if you want super domed muffins with seriously tall tops, rest the batter for an hour! This will allow the flour to hydrate and absorb the liquids in the batter more fully, leading to taller domes. Don't stick the batter in the fridge—chilled batter will cause the muffins to stick in their cavities. In fact, make sure ALL your ingredients are at room temperature before using in the recipe. Again, this is one of the secrets to super tall muffin tops. 


• {Muffin Making Tip} Because each muffin requires so much batter, the recipe produces an odd number of muffins: 9 total. You'll need to bake 6 in one muffin tin, and the remaining 3 in another muffin tin. When baking the remaining three, you'll need to pour water into every other cavity to mimic the placement of the batter in the first muffin tin. Don't skip this step! Skipping this step will cause the remaining three muffins to spread too much and potentially overflow into other cavities. 

Other Banana Recipes

• Banana Bundt Cake with Salted Dulce de Leche
• Banana Sheet Cake with Dulcey Cream Cheese Frosting
• Banana Tres Leches Cake
• The Violet Bakery's Sugar Crusted Banana Bread
• Triple Chocolate Banana Cake