Another prime example of… I’ll bake just about anything you request. Including things with yucky coconut! {Again, feel free to make any requests!} This muffin turned out quite moist and I’d try it again, but this time without the yucky coconut ;) I was searching and searching for a muffin recipe with the main ingredients being pineapple and coconut, but even foodgawker was failing me this time. I took to google search and for once, found a recipe that looked presentable on about.com, which I normally avoid. The recipes tend to be incomplete and unreviewed, but this had a photo and I was hooked. I was glad I took the risk even though my muffins didn’t rise like the ones in the image, but next time I won’t hesitate to fill the paper cups to the top as suggested in the recipe. Especially since I cut the baking powder in half. They were moist thanks to the banana, buttermilk and vegetable oil. You would have thought with all the ingredients they would have been quite dense, but that wasn’t the case at all. I think I may try to alter this recipe in the future for a carrot cupcake. There’s definite potential with this one! {The batter reminded me of chunky peanut butter.} Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Line muffin tins with papers. In a large bowl, mix together the oats, flour, whole wheat flour, baking soda and salt. In a separate bowl, mix together the banana, crushed pineapple, brown sugar, oil, egg, lime juice, buttermilk and vanilla. Add the carrots, coconut and nuts to the dry ingredients. Add the wet ingredients to the dry and mix until everything is incorporated. The batter looks like chunky peanut butter. Fill the muffin tins almost to the top. Place in the oven, close the door and then lower the temperature to 350 degrees. Bake 15-18 minutes, insert toothpick and make sure it comes out clean. When the muffins are ready, the tops should feel slightly springy to the touch. Remove and let cool in pans for 10 minutes, then remove and let cool completely on the rack. {Makes 20 muffins}
Ingredients
Preparation
For those of you who may not know, I have a separate baking blog that I don’t update nearly enough. Recently after attending the blogging class in Stockton I’ve been considering just melding that blog with this one. Alejandro talked about how blogs are the central hub of your brand so it makes sense that two blogs are only more confusing. I want you to be able to find me easily and in one location. What do you think? While you’re all mulling it over, read on for a yummy muffin recipe that’s really more like a naked cupcake. {If I were too take an educated guess, I’d say it’s because the recipe called for cake flour.} I’ve never liked blueberries so this is probably my first time baking with them, but these were at the request of Mr. Goddard. If you don’t know this about me yet - I always take requests! {Please feel free to make one anytime!} It helps me branch out of my box. Otherwise I’d keep baking the same snickerdoodles and the same vanilla cupcakes. This is only my second or third time making muffins, which is such a different ball game than cupcakes. With cupcakes I’m always trying to achieve light, fluffy and moist. Muffins in my opinion are more hearty and therefore light and fluffy are not the goals. Mr. G took these into his work and I received several emails of thanks and praise, but the way I really know there a hit? If there’s none left at the end of the day and I saw these on the counter at his sister’s house a couple days later… What I’m trying to tell you is that these may not have hit it out of the park {why am I speaking in sports terms?}, but they were good. I think that I make actually make them again, but use them as a cupcake base. Maybe since I’m trying out blueberries I could attempt throwing them into a new frosting recipe? You’ll just have to wait and see! Preheat oven to 380 degrees F. Sift flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt, and set aside. In a food processor or mini chopper, pulse sugar and lemon zest until you get a fine blend. In your mixer’s bowl, whisk together your lemon zest sugar, oil, egg, and yogurt. Add the dry ingredients slowly, reserving one tablespoon of dry ingredients to toss with the blueberries. Mix just until dry ingredients are incorporated. Detach your bowl and add 1 cup of blueberries, and stir 3 more times. Fill muffin cups 3/4 full. Place muffins in the oven to bake and increase oven temperature to 400 degrees. Bake for 15-18 minutes. While muffins are in the oven squeeze the juice from your 3 zested {is that word?} lemons. Added about a quarter cup of powdered sugar at a time to the juice until you reach a desired consistency. Mine was probably similar to ranch dressing. It’s sticky enough though not to pour down the side of the muffins though. Remove from heat and let stand in the pan on your cooling rack for about a minute. Then remove muffins to cool completely. Once cool I turned the muffins upside down and gently dunked just the tops in my glaze. Turn up right and allow glaze to dry. {The glaze is what makes the top of the muffin look so shiny in the photo.} Store in an airtight container until served.
Lemon glaze
Instructions
A friend of a friend very generously moved the content of my blog from tumblr to wordpress for me recently. For FREE. I obviously couldn’t let that kindness go unrewarded and luckily for me, this was a tech genius with a B-I-G sweet tooth. My wifey has asked his wife if he’s part elf because he knows how to indulge in all sweets that come across his desk. Haha! Saturday night, with the help of my beautiful assistant, I made another attempt at stuffed cookies. This time with Reese’s Peanut Butter in the miniature size. It was definitely much easier than the s’more stuffed cookies I made a few months ago, equally delicious – just easier. Next time I make these (and pb fans take note) I will definitely use the original sized cups. There just wasn’t enough peanut butter to do justice to their name. 1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. In a stand or electric mixer, cream butter and sugars until well combined. Add eggs and vanilla until well combined. 2. Place flour, baking soda and salt in large bowl; mix then slowly add to wet ingredients. Add chocolate chips to combine. Using a cookie scoop take one scoop of cookie dough and place on top of snack size candy bar. Take another scoop of dough and place on bottom of candy bar. Seal edges together by pressing and cupping in hand until candy bar is enclosed with dough. Place onto a parchment or silpat lined baking sheet and bake cookies 9-13 minutes or until cookies are baked to your liking. Let cool for 5 minutes before transferring to cooling rack. Serve with a tall glass of milk, enjoy! Makes 25 cookies.
Ingredients
Instruction
Cupcake humor, love it!
My honey turned 32 last week so when I came down to his office for lunch I surprised him and his coworkers with his favorite cupcake! Yellow cupcakes with chocolate frosting.
Mr. Goddard works in a big building downtown where I have to check in at the lobby with security. I felt quite official!
Ingredients
Instructions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
Cream the butter and sugar for about 3-4 minutes. Add in the eggs one at time, making sure the batter is well-blended before adding another egg.
In a separate bowl, whisk or sieve the flours, salt, and baking powder. In a (2-cup/16oz) liquid measuring cup, mix the half-n-half and extract. Pour in a 1/3rd of the dry and a 1/3rd of the wet ingredients and continue to alternate, ending with the flour mixture. The batter should be thick (and tasty).
Pour batter into cupcake liners, and bounce them gently on the counter to remove air bubbles and to make the batter even. Bake the batter for 18 minutes, you should end up with about 22 cupcakes.
For the frosting I usually make it up as I go along, but I start off with William Sonoma’s ‘Quick Chocolate Buttercream’.
These definitely earned me some friends in the office.
