Apple/Cranberry Muffins

Seems I'm on a muffin kick these days.  I had some apples I needed to do something with and this is the end result.   I have decided to make the banana muffin recipe I use as my base recipe and just change ingredients.  They are so moist and yummy why change a good thing.

Bake 375 fir 20-25 minutes ---- makes 6 large muffins or 12 regular muffins. Ingredients: 1 1/2 cup AP flour 1 tsp baking powder 1 tsp baking soda 1 TBL corn starch 1/2 tsp salt 1/2 tsp nutmeg 1 tsp vanilla 1/3 cup oil (could use butter, melted) 1 egg 3/4 cup sugar 1 1/2 cup cooked apples (see below) 1/2 cup dried cranberries 1/3 cup ginger ale soda (reg or diet) 1/4 cup chopped walnuts (or pecans) For the apples, peal and core them, slice and place in a skillet with some butter, about 2 TBL, add 1/3 cup of brown sugar, 1 1/2 TBL cinnamon ,  1 1/2 TBL AP flour.  After the apples have started to soften add 1/3 cup of ginger ale soda, let cook until you get a thick sauce coating the apples.  Set aside to cool.  Soak your cranberries in warm water so they will be nice and plump and juice.  Drain before you put into batter. Direction: Mix dry ingredients and set aside.  In a large bowl whisk the egg, sugar, vanilla.  Add the apple mixture and cranberries to incorporate.  Add the dry ingredients and mix until incorporated.  Do not over mix, add nuts and mid.  Let set in bowl for about 10 minutes.  Fill lined muffin tins and fill 3/4 full bake and test with toothpick.  They should be golden brown and toothpick comes out clean. Sure hope you try this one, they are great and would be wonderful for breakfast or at brunch.  Great snack for the kids too. Thanks for stopping by, have a wonderful day and Remember to Find the Time to Do all the Things you love. Donna

Reese's Chocolate Cupcake

As you can tell I've been on a cupcake experiment voyage.  This is a great cupcake, very moist and a nice surprise with the Reese's mini peanut butter cup.  The frosting is very tasty.  I've been having a hard time with icing's and I'm one of those people who doesn't give up on something until I get it figured out.
Ingredeints:

Chocolate Cupcakes:

1/2 cup  Dutch-processed cocoa powder

1 cup  boiling hot water

1 1/3 cups  all purpose flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup  unsalted butter, room temperature

1 cup  granulated white sugar

2 large eggs

2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

Directions:

 

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F . Lightly butter, or line 15 muffin cups with paper liners.

In a small bowl stir until smooth the boiling hot water and the cocoa powder. Let cool to room temperature.

In another bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, and salt.

Then in the bowl of your electric mixer, or with a hand mixer, beat the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating until smooth. Scrape down the sides of the bowl as needed. Beat in the vanilla extract. Add the flour mixture and beat only until incorporated. Then add the cooled cocoa mixture and stir until smooth.  Fill pan about 2/3 full.  Bake for 11 minutes, remove from oven, insert Reese's mini peanut butter cup into each cupcake and return to oven for exactly 6 more minutes.  Test with toothpick, from the side when comes out clean they are done.

Chocolate Fudge Frosting:

4 ounces  unsweetened chocolate, coarsely chopped

2/3 cup  unsalted butter, room temperature

1 1/3 cups  confectioners (powdered or icing) sugar, sifted

1 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla 

Directions:

Melt the chocolate in a heatproof bowl placed over a saucepan of simmering water. Remove from heat and let cool to room temperature.

In the bowl of your electric mixer,  or with a hand mixer, beat the butter until smooth and creamy (about 1 minute). Add the sugar and beat until it is light and fluffy (about 2 minutes). Beat in the vanilla extract. Add the chocolate and beat on low speed until incorporated. Increase the speed to medium-high and beat until frosting is smooth and glossy (about 2 -3 minutes)

Hope you'll give these a try.  Thanks for stopping by, have a wonderful day and Remember to Find the time to do ALL the things YOU love.
Donna

Blueberry Crunch Coffee Cake

Sorry but I don't remember where I  found this recipe.  I thought I had it bookmarked but guess not.  :(   So whoever out there posted this thank you.

Blueberry Crunch Coffee Ring

Ingredients:
1 1/2 cup All-Purpose Flour
3/4 cup Sugar
1 tablespoon Baking Powder
1/2 teaspoon Salt
1/4 teaspoon Ground Nutmeg
1/3 cup Butter, firm
1 cup Blueberries
1 Egg
1/2 cup Milk
1 teaspoon Vanilla
Powdered Sugar
***Pecan Streusel Topping***
1/2 cup Pecans, finely chopped
1/2 cup Brown Sugar, firmly packed
2 tablespoons All-Purpose Flour
2 teaspoons Ground Cinnamon
2 tablespoons Butter or Margarine

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Pecan Streusel Topping: Mix the finely chopped pecans, brown sugar, flour, and cinnamon with the melted butter.
Pat half of the streusel mixture into a greased, floured 9-inch tube pan with a removeable bottom; set aside. (I didn't have a tube pan so just used my cheese cake one, it has the removable bottom)
In a large bowl, stir together flour, sugar, baking powder, salt and nutmeg. Using a pastry blender or 2 knives, cut in butter until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Gently mix in the blueberries.
Beat egg lightly with milk and vanilla; stir into berry mixture just until combined.
Spread half the batter in streusel-lined pan; sprinkle with remaining streusel, then with remaining batter.
Bake cake for about 40 to 60 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean.
Let cool in pan for 15 minutes, then remove pan sides. Dust cake with powdered sugar. 

 Thanks for stopping by, have a wonderful day and remember to Find the Time to do ALL the things YOU love.
Donna

Cinnamon Raisin Bread

I was on a baking frenzy when I made this.  It was one of those days when you just wanted to make things.  I find that since I  have retired I just love to try and make new things.  This bread was not new to me but one of the things I did make that day.
I have been craving cinnamon raisin bread so I pulled out my recipe that I found on All recipes and did some changes.

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups milk 1 cup warm water (110 Degrees F/45 degrees C) 2 (.25 ounce) packages Active dry yeast 3 eggs 1/2 cup white sugar 1 teaspoon salt 1/2 cup margarine, softened

1 cup raisins 8 cups all-purpose flour 2 tablespoons milk 3/4 cup white sugar 2 tablespoons ground Cinnamon 2 tablespoons butter, Melted

Directions:

	Warm the milk in a small saucepan until it bubbles, then remove from heat. Let cool until lukewarm.
	Dissolve yeast in warm water, and set aside until yeast is frothy. Mix in eggs, sugar, butter or margarine, salt, and raisins. Stir in cooled milk. Add the flour gradually to make a stiff dough.
	Knead dough on a lightly floured surface for a few minutes. Place in a large, greased, mixing bowl, and turn to grease the surface of the dough. Cover with a damp cloth. Allow to rise until doubled.
	Roll out on a lightly floured surface into a large rectangle 1/2 inch thick. Moisten dough with 2 tablespoons milk. Mix together 3/4 cup sugar and 2 tablespoons cinnamon, and sprinkle mixture on top of  moistened dough.  Roll up tightly, starting at longest end.  Cut into thirds and be sure to tuck under the ends.  Put loaves into well greased pans 9 x 5 pans, lightly grease the tops or brush with just a little butter.  Let rise again for about an hour.  Bake at 350 degrees for about 45 minutes, until the tops are nicely browned and the loaf sounds hollow when tapped.  Place on cooling rack on their sides for about 5 or so minutes.  Then remove from pan and brush tops with some butter.  Slice when cooled. (if you can wait.)        This also makes wonderful french toast. Have a wonderful day, and Remember to Find the time to DO all the Things YOU love.

Strawberry Mango Cupcakes with Strawberry Mango butter cream frosting

I think Spring may finally be on it's way.   wooooo hooooo  I was in a puttering  mood the day I made these (the end of March).  I have days when I just jump from one project to another and it seems to take me all day to get all of them done.  I must admit there are days not all the projects get completed.  Not a bigger anymore since I'm retire...there's always tomorrow or the day after that.  :)
I had bought a Mango which I've never cooked with but several times on the Food Network they have used it for different types of things.  I also had just bought some really nice looking strawberries so I thought they sounded like a great combo.  Off to the kitchen to bake.
Ingredients:
1 1/4 cup self rising flour
1 tsp. baking powder
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup butter at room temperature
2 eggs
2 tbsp. yogurt (can also use milk if the mixture is a bit dry)
2/3 cup light pureed mango and strawberries
Directions:
Preheat oven to 350. Line your muffin pan with cupcake liners
Cream the butter and slowly add the sugar and cream until the sugar are dissolved.  Add the egg, one at a time into the mixture and beat well.  In another bowl, measure the flour and the baking powder.  Slowly pour into the wet mixture and mix well. Then add the mango strawberry puree.   Pour into pan and bake for about 20 min, test with toothpick.

Mango/Strawberry Butter Cream Frosting
1 /2 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup mango/strawberry  puree
Zest and juice of 1 orange, lime or lemon *about 2 Tbl.
2 tablespoons honey
4-5 cups of powdered sugar
In a mixing bowl, cream butter until light and fluffy. Add mango/strawberry puree, zest and juice  and honey. Mix well. Add powdered sugar, 1 cup at a time, until desired spreading consistency is reach.  (I didn't like the way this came out, it was too sweet for my taste and it looked awful)  :(    Sorry about that.  To me the icing looks sweet.  I may have added to much juice because it didn't really set up.  Oh well, next time.

These are very refreshing and  tasty.  Hope you give them a a try.  I will experiment some more with Mango's in the future.  Already have a couple of ideas going in my head.  Just call me the mad baker.  LOL
Have a wonderful day and Remember to Find the Time to do ALL the things YOU love. 

Cherry/Banana Muffins

It's experiment time again.  I had banana's that I needed to use but wanted to make something a bit different so here it is.  I used maraschino cherries.
Bake 375 fir 20-25 minutes ---- makes 6 large muffins or 12 regular muffins.
Ingredients:
1 1/2 cup AP flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1 TBL corn starch
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1 tsp vanilla
1/3 cup oil (could use butter, melted)
1 egg
3/4 cup sugar
3 ripe mashed bananas
10 maraschino cherries
1/4 cup chopped walnuts (or pecans)
Directions:
Mix the dry ingredients together, set aside.
In a large bowl mix the oil, egg, sugar and vanilla.  Add the mashed bananas and cherries.  Add the dry mixture to banana mixture, don't over mix. Mix in nuts, let stand for 10 minutes.  Line and fill 6 large or 12 regular muffins tins. (I made 6 large and I had a little left over, just enough for1 regular muffin so I put a liner in a custard cup)  Test with toothpick or tester, done when inserted comes out clean.

 
These are soooooooooooo yummy and just wonderful warm with some butter.  Hope you try them.  Have a wonderful day and Remember to Find the time to do ALL the things You love.
Donna