Category: Muffins and Baked Goods

Apple & Pumpkin Muffins

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I made these muffins over the weekend to redeem myself from a very disappointing batch of peach muffins I’d made earlier in the week. (My earlier muffins were underbaked, not quite sweet enough and just a bit too moist. Eww.)

These however, were sublime – spicy and fruity with just the right amount of sweetness. The recipe is from Mel’s Kitchen Cafe with a few changes.

I discovered years ago that if you’re baking apples into bread, cake or muffins, you don’t really need to peel them. You can just grate them with a coarse box grater and they blend in beautifully. (Yes, I’m that lazy!)

You can use either a premixed pumpkin spice mix or Mel has kindly provided a blend that I actually like better as all the ingredients are fresher.

INGREDIENTS
1 2/3 cups all purpose flour 
1 cup sugar 
1 tsp baking soda
 1/4 tsp salt 
1/4 tsp baking powder 
1 cup canned pumpkin 
1/2 cup butter, melted 
2 large eggs, lightly beaten 
1 large apple, grated (no need to peel – I had a Gala apple so that’s what I used.)

3 tablespoons sugar
4 tsp pumpkin pie spice, separated OR make your own mix with:
2 tsp cinnamon, 1 tsp ginger, 1/2 tsp nutmeg, 1/2 tsp cloves, mixed  

INSTRUCTIONS
Combine flour, sugar, soda salt and 1 Tbp spice mix in a large bowl. Combine pumpkin, butter, and eggs in another bowl and add to dry ingredients, stirring just until moistened. Fold in grated apple and fill muffin tins two-thirds full.

Blend the 3 Tbsp sugar and the final teaspon of spice mix and sprinkle heavily over muffins.

Bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes. Let cool and serve. (Or take your chances with hot, yet delicious muffins!)

Irish Apple Cake

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Quick, simple and so delicious, with chunks of Gala or other sweet apples!
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Apples by Shelley Pauls on Unsplash

Ingredients:

2 cups flour
1 tsp baking powder
2/3 cup sugar
1/2 cup butter (1 stick) softened and cut into pieces
1 egg
1/2 cup milk
2 big apples, or three smaller ones, chopped  (no need to peel)
2 Tbsp sugar
1 tsp cinnamon
powdered sugar for topping

Preheat oven to 350.

In the bowl of a mixer, gently blend the flour, baking powder and sugar.  Add the butter and stir just until the butter is in little pea-sized shapes.

Mix egg and milk together in a cup and pour into the flour. Mix just a few moments until they are combined and there is barely any flour mixture left on the bottom.  It make quite a thick dough.

Mix 2 Tbsp sugar and cinnamon in a medium bowl and toss the apple chunks in it until they’re coated.

In a 9 springform pan, or a quiche dish, spread about half the cake batter evenly.

Sprinkle apples evenly on top of that, scraping out the bowl to get every last bit of cinnamon and sugar.

Cover the top with the remaining batter.  It will be pretty chunky so it’s easier to just drop spoonfuls and not worry about smoothing out the top too much. 

Place on a baking sheet (a little butter sometimes leaks from springform pans) and bake 35-40 minutes, or until lightly browned on top.  Serve with powdered sugar, whipped cream, or caramel sauce.

Good Morning Muffins/Breakfast Bars

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berries-and-bananas
Beautiful image by Jason Leung – Unsplash

Our local realtor sent another postcard with a wonderful recipe and I can see this becoming a staple in our kitchen. It’s listed as a muffin, but is more dense and chewy – more like a breakfast bar.

Ingredients:

1 cup mashed ripe bananas
1 egg
1/4 cup milk
1/3 cup maple syrup
1/4 cup melted butter
1 tsp vanilla
1 1/2 cup oats, ground finely
1 1/2 cups oats, old fashioned whole
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
1 1/2 cup wild blueberries (or mix of strawberries and blueberries)

Preheat oven to 350. Mix all but the berries well. Then gently fold in the berries, saving a few for topping. Fill 12 muffin cups right to the top. (These muffins have no leavening agent, so they won’t rise.)  Top with remaining berries.

Bake for 30 minutes. Enjoy!

Silver Lining Sour Cream Rhubarb Coffee Cake

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market-fresh-rhubarb-3503166_1920

Image by MikeGoad on Pixabay (be sure to cut off and discard all leaves!)

Rhubarb can be a bit too tangy for many people, but it is amazing in coffee cake. My version is stuffed with fruit and features a slightly crunchy, cinnamony crumble top.

We had a huge hailstorm a couple of nights ago and among other things, my rhubarb was demolished. There was nothing to do but gather up the broken stems and dice them up for baking. I froze most of the diced rhubarb, but used 4 cups for this recipe.

Fingers crossed, my plant will recover, but in the meantime, we’re enjoying this moist, delicious cake as the silver lining from an awful storm.  And yes – you can use frozen rhubarb in this recipe – just let it thaw for a bit, and drain off any juices that accumulate.

Cake ingredients:

1 cup white sugar
1 tsp baking powder
½ tsp kosher salt
2 cups flour
2 eggs, beaten
1 cup sour cream
1 tsp vanilla
4 cups rhubarb, diced

Topping:

1 cup sugar
¼ cup melted butter
1/3 cup flour
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

Mix 1st cup sugar, baking powder, salt and flour In a large bowl. Add in 1 cup sour cream, vanilla and eggs and stir until smooth. (Batter will be very thick.) Add rhubarb and stir to distribute evenly. Scoop into a 9 x 12” baking dish and smooth top with a spatula.

In a small bowl, mix 2nd cup sugar, melted butter, flour and cinnamon until very crumbly. Sprinkle evenly over cake.

Bake for 45-50 minutes until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean.  So good – I’ll be surprised if you can stop at just one piece!

Maya’s Brown Butter Banana Bread

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Maya is home for the summer and baking quite often, which we are definitely going to miss when she goes back to school. (That girl can bake!) Recently she made up a new way to make Banana Bread  – kind of a “Bananas Foster” version that is unusually rich and delicious.

Ingredients:

9 Tbsp butter
2 large or 3 small ripe bananas, peeled and mashed with a fork
3/4 cup brown sugar
1 egg
1 1/2 cup flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 pinch salt
1 tsp vanilla

Melt butter in a medium saucepan on low heat, and leave on heat until it turns a light brown. Then add 2 Tbsp of the brown sugar, stir and add mashed bananas. Stir over low heat for 2 minutes. Add the rest of the sugar, and stir for 3 more minutes.

Remove from heat and let cool. Stir in egg and add flour 1/3 cup at a time, stirring after each addition Finally, add baking soda, salt and vanilla and stir gently.

Pour into buttered pan and bake at 350 for 50 minutes. May need to bake a bit longer – just look for doneness.

This produces a very rich, dense banana bread – almost more like a steamed banana pudding, but it is absolutely delicious.

Oatmeal, Cranberry & Pecan Cookies

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oatmeal-cookies
A confession: I am not much of a baker. It seems you can either bake or cook, but usually not both. I don’t know why.

My daughter Maya is an amazing baker. One of the things I’ve really missed with her being away at college is baked goods – her oatmeal cookies in particular. After attempting a disastrously, painfully inedible batch, I asked Maya for her recipe.  It was originally published in “Simple and Delicious” and makes about 2 dozen delicious cookies.  Best of all – even a non-baker can make them!

Ingredients:

1/2 cup butter, softened (1 stick)
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 large egg
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup all-purpose flour
3/4 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 1/2 cups old-fashioned oats
1 cup Craisins (Can roughly chop if you like – I didn’t)
1 cups chopped pecans

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add egg and and vanilla. Beat for several minutes. In another bowl mix flour, cinnamon, salt, baking powder and baking soda. Gradually beat into creamed mixture. Add in the rest of the ingredients. The dough will be quite stiff and still fairly sticky.

Drop by generous tablespoonfuls onto a baking sheet (12 per sheet.) Bake for about 12-13 minutes. Place cookies on a parchment sheet and let cool.

Over the Top Sweet & Savory Waffle Bar

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For our family potluck Easter brunch this year, we did a Waffle Bar – and I may have gotten a bit carried away.  But it was so much fun! People brought amazing salads, veggie sides and a wonderful egg casserole, and we made waffles.

Ali and Caitlin had visited Waffle Up! in Denver and loved their waffles, so I gleaned some ideas from their online menu and we added a few of our own.

I found a great Belgian waffle recipe from Taste of Home that I modified a little, and tried a vegan waffle recipe that I wasn’t too thrilled with.  Will continue to work on that and post it if I find a good one.  If you are making a gluten-free batter be careful to only use one waffle iron for it to avoid cross contamination.

Warning – this is a long post – as we offered a lot of toppings!

Here’s my waffle recipe:

4 cups flour
1 cup sugar
2 generous Tbsp baking powder
3 cups whole milk
1 cup butter, melted
2 tsp vanilla extract

Mix milk, sugar, vanilla and melted butter in a large pitcher. In a separate bowl, mix flour and baking powder. Dump flour mix on top of the liquid mix and blend gently, until you have no large lumps. Don’t overmix the batter. It’s way easier to pour the batter from a pitcher.

Heat waffle irons and either spray with a vegetable spray, or use a small cooking brush to brush oil on the irons between waffles. Pour enough batter onto each section of the waffle iron to about half fill it. It will expand and nearly fill the whole section during cooking.

Keep waffles warm in a 200 degree oven with a sheet pan flipped over them.

Prep the toppings (can do many of them in advance) and keep them in small bowls with a little tag that identifies them. Print out and display your recommended “toppings recipes”. We also suggested that people cut waffles up and make waffle “bites” so they could try lots of different toppings.

Savory topping Supplies:

1 lb. Bacon or turkey Bacon, baked or fried and diced
1/2 cup fresh Basil, rolled and cut into thin strips
Brie
*Cinnamon Apple Butter (Add a little cinnamon to regular apple butter)
*Fig Jam
2 cups crumbled goat cheese
6-7 slices of prosciutto, diced
3-5 Green Onions, sliced into 1/4″ rings
Maple Syrup

Spicy Sausage gravy
1 lb. spicy breakfast sausage
1/3 cup flour
1 tsp salt
1 tsp fresh ground black pepper
3 cups of hot milk (Can add more if gravy is too thick.)
1/2 tsp Lawry’s seasoned Salt

Cook sausage in frying pan. Add flour and stir for a few minutes, until the flour is just starting to brown. Add the salt, pepper and Lawry’s and continue stirring. Slowly add the milk whisking to combine. Cook for another 10 minutes or so – stirring often – until it thickens. Check seasoning.

With these toppings, you can make:

Bacon, Basil & Brie with Cinnamon Apple Butter on the side
Brie and Apple Butter
Bacon with Maple Syrup
Fig Jam, Goat Cheese, Prosciutto with a garnish of Basil
Spicy Sausage Gravy with a garnish of green onions

Sweet toppings:

Fresh strawberries, washed, and sliced into 1/2 slices
Fresh raspberries, blackberries and blueberries (we used frozen organic blueberries and they worked great.)
5 Bananas, cut into disks
*Nutella
Sweetened Whipped Cream

*Vanilla Mascarpone Cheese
1 container Mascarpone
1 tsp vanilla
2 Tbsp brown sugar

Blend together. Could probably use Cream Cheese as well. Add more brown sugar if you like it more sweet.

Honey Nutmeg Sauce
1/2 cup honey
1/2 stick butter
1/4 tsp fresh nutmeg

In a microwave safe bowl, heat everything together for 1-2 minutes in the microwave.
Stir well and serve in a pitcher.

Caramel Apple Pecan Mix:
4 apples, peeled and sliced
2 Tbsp butter
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 cup chopped pecans

Saute apples in butter until they start to soften. Add brown sugar and cinnamon, and cook stirring constantly until sugar is nice and melted – about 3-4 minutes. Add pecans and stir to blend.

Bananas Foster Topping
1/4 cup butter
2/3 cup dark brown sugar
3 1/2 tablespoons rum
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Melt butter, add brown sugar and cinnamon and cook for a few minutes until they’re nicely blended. Add rum and cook a few more minutes until you can no longer smell alcohol when you smell the steam. Add vanilla extract and remove from heat.

With these sweet toppings you can make:

Fresh Berries (any kind) with whipped cream
Fresh fruit (Strawberries and/or bananas) with a drizzle of Nutella and whipped cream
Strawberries with Vanilla Mascarpone Cheese
Bananas with Honey Nutmeg Sauce
Caramel Apple Pecan Topping
Bananas with Bananas Foster Topping

*These toppings work best in a ziploc bag, with the filling squeezed down towards a lower corner, and the the top of the squeezy part secured with a rubber band. Then just cut a little corner of the bag off, and store the bag in a bowl. You’ll need to cut a slightly bigger opening for the Mascarpone cheese and the fig jam as they’re pretty thick.

Arrange all the toppings in pretty little bowls, and the waffles on a big platter.  Make sure to display the suggested toppings combinations.  Our favorites were the Fig Jam, Prosciutto, Goat Cheese and Basil, and the Vanilla Mascarpone with Strawberries.  But really all of them were good and fun to try.

Jeane’s Praline Apple Bread

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Just stop what you’re doing and make this right now. I am serious. My T.T.T. sister Jeane made this for a meeting one Saturday morning and it is the very best quick bread I have ever had. I’ve made it lots of times and the response is always the same.  Make it.  Now.  You won’t regret it.

1 1/2 cups chopped pecans, divided
8 oz. sour cream
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 Tbsp Vanilla
2 cups flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/2 cups copped apples
1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup brown sugar

Take 1/2 cup pecans and bake them for 6 minutes at 350.

Mix the sour cream, sugar, eggs, and vanilla. In a separate bowl, mix the flour, baking powder, soda and salt. Gently blend the flour mix to the sour cream mix – just until blended. Do not overmix. Fold in the apples and toasted pecans.

Pour the batter into a greased loaf pan. Sprinkle remaining chopped pecans on top and bake the bread at 350 for one hour. Cool for 10 minutes, and turn out onto a serving platter.

In a saucepan, bring the butter and brown sugar to the boil and boil it for one minute stirring constantly. Pour over the bread. Let the bread cool and keep it covered.

It’s apple praline paradise.

Corn Bread

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1 1/4 cup flour
3/4 cup corn meal
1/4 cup sugar
2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1 cup buttermilk
1/4 cup olive oil
1 egg

Mix dry ingredients in a bowl. Mix wet ingredients in another bowl and gently blend the two. Pour batter into a glass pie pan and bake at 400 for 20-25 minutes. Serve hot with butter and a drizzle of honey.

Banana Bread

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banana-bread

My grandmother used to make amazing banana bread and this is a version of her recipe. She always mashed the bananas and left them out on the counter for a little while so they darkened up a bit, leaving lovely little brown streaks in the baked bread. She loved to bake and always brought several dozen cookies with her in coffee cans when she would come to visit.(Coffee cans were the container of choice before tupperware.)

My mother, who was a wise and kind woman, would then let us kids sit at the breakfast table with glasses of milk and eat as many cookies as we wanted. I suppose she let us get it our of our systems, which would cut down on begging for cookies later on. Thanks, Mom! Just one more way you were the best mother in the world.

One time when I was 16, Grandma asked me if I wanted cookies, and I said no, I’d better not – too much sugar and fat for me. She was stunned and said with complete sincerity, “Oh, no – cookies are good for you!”   Yes, Grandma they were.

1/4 cup oil
1 cup brown sugar
2 eggs
3 bananas, very ripe, mashed with a fork
1 1/2 tbsp sour cream or plain yoghurt
1 Tbsp lemon juice
1 tsp vanilla

Mix very well in a big bowl.

2 cups flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt

Blend in a small bowl and gently stir into banana mixture. Add 1 cup chopped walnuts or pecans if you like.

Pour batter into 2 greased loaf pans, or one larger baking pan (shown above). Bake at 350 for 35 minutes. If the middle of the bread is still very liquidy bake a little longer.

My notes say, Ali loves this – he ate one whole loaf himself !- 2-16-01 (He was 13.)