Sour Cream Coffee Cake Muffins

Yes, I've said before I'd be moving away from the simple carbs.  And yes, here I am again baking those evil sweets.  It's official; I can't let go of these things.  I'll just have to learn with having these in moderation.  Life without baked goods is not a life worth living.  Much.  Besides, I really enjoy making these things.  It's too much fun waiting to see how they all come out and imagining what the muffins will taste like. 

So I decided to go for these sour cream coffee cake muffins.  The original recipe can be found here. 

SOUR CREAM COFFEE CAKE MUFFINS

INGREDIENTS:

1/2 cup butter, softened

1 cup sugar

2 eggs

1 cup sour cream

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

TOPPING:

1/4 cup sugar

1/3 cup packed brown sugar

2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

1/2 cup chopped pecans

DIRECTIONS:

In a mixing bowl, cream butter and sugar. Add eggs, sour cream and vanilla; mix well. Combine flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt; add to creamed mixture and beat until combined. Pour half the batter into a greased 13-in. x 9-in. baking pan. Combine topping ingredients; sprinkle half of topping over batter. Add remaining batter and topping. Bake at 325 degrees F for 40 minutes or until done.

PERSONAL NOTES:

For starters, I omitted the pecans and used Greek yogurt instead of sour cream.  I always believed Greek yogurt would be a sufficient substitute and I was right.  It worked great!

Next, as you can see by the photos, I made muffins instead of a full sized coffee cake.  I like making muffins because you can freeze the uneaten portions and have them when you want :)

Cinnamon Streusel Scones

It's funny, now that I'm moving away from the winter squash sweets and dishes, I find myself more and more being drawn towards cinnamon and all other manner of sweet confections.  Then I'm reminded of course, that I've been trying to move away from the sweets and bread-y dishes.  I seriously can't help myself.  I'm not sure I can ever keep far enough away from them.   

Anyhow, I realized I hadn't ever made scones before - never ever.  Thus, my hunt for the perfect (and frankly, easy to make) scone began.  Luckily, I didn't have to hunt all that long.  I found this recipe here and decided it looked yummy enough - and easy - to make. 

The verdict? It was wonderfully yummy and easy to make. This recipe is a keeper :)

CINNAMON STREUSEL SCONES

INGREDIENTS:
scones:

• 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup cold butter, cut into 1 inch pieces
• 1 cup vanilla yogurt
• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract

streusel filling:

• 2 tablespoons cold butter
• 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/4 cup brown sugar

topping:

• 1 egg white, beaten
• 2 teaspoons sugar

DIRECTIONS:

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.


In a large bowl, add flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and sugar. Cut in butter until pea size crumbles. In separate bowl, stir yogurt, egg and vanilla together. Stir into flour mixture. Pour onto a lightly floured surface and knead five or six times. Divide dough in half. Pat each half into about an 8 inch circle. Carefully place one dough circle onto a greased or lined baking sheet.


In a small bowl, combine streusel filling until crumbly. Sprinkle over bottom dough circle. Place remaining dough circle over streusel filling. Pinch edges together gently. Using a sharp knife, carefully cut into 8 wedges.


Brush with egg white and sprinkle with sugar.


Bake for 20-25 minutes or until golden brown.


Serve warm or at room temperature.

PERSONAL NOTES:

Boy, these were pretty easy. I thought I'd run into some difficulty when it came time to put the two halves together but it actually worked rather nicely.  I used a rolling pin to flatten out the dough, piled on the streusel mixture then laid on the top layer of dough.  I used a pizza cutter to slice down the edges to make a square piece.  Then I cut the wedges from there.  Easy peasy.  I half expected the streusel filling to ooze out during baking, but it never happened.  Must be enough flour in there to keep that from happening.

Just so you know, I didn't have vanilla yogurt so I used fat free Greek yogurt.  It worked out great.  Like it was made to be used for scones.  I added vanilla extract and half of a vanilla bean (scooped out with the vanilla mixed in).

YUM!

Spinach Pancakes. It can be done and be GOOD.

It's no secret I've been trying to find some "healthier" recipes and really cut down on the refined foods (hello, bread anyone?).  I came across this recipe and decided to give it a whirl, though of course I modified it quite a bit so that it looks like a completely different dish. 

The pictures don't do justice to this dish.  The pancakes come out looking all weird but they are really so good!  Although they are densely "spinach", they're still pretty thick.  However, I wouldn't call them bready.  The flour in the recipe is just enough to get everything to stick together.  The end result is a hearty and healthy meal.

SPINACH (and sweet potato) PANCAKES

INGREDIENTS:

1 cup chopped spinach (or use one package 10oz frozen spinach)
1 cup sweet potato fries, chopped
1/4 cup flour
1/2 tsp kosher salt
1 large egg
1 tsp dried basil
1/4 tsp garlic powder
Canola or Vegetable Oil
Accompaniments: Marinara sauce, Ketchup, or Mustard

Or see this recipe for the Ka-Pow dipping sauce. It is absolutely, RIDICULOUSLY good!


DIRECTIONS:
Place the vegetables in a food processor and pulse to chop fine.

Add the chopped vegetables into a bowl along with the flour, salt, egg, basil and garlic powder. Mix to combine.

Heat oil in a skillet over medium heat and place 1 tbsp of the batter into the pan for each pancake.
Cook for 1-2 minutes on each side.

Serve with marinara sauce or dip of your choice.

PERSONAL NOTES:

These pancakes came out much heartier than I originally anticipated.  I love it that there's hardly any flour in the mix so the pancakes are really very spinach-sweet potato.  And because of the egg/flour additions the pancakes came out nice and thick.  So good.  Not to mention, they're very filling.  I probably eat 2 for each serving.

As I mentioned above, these pancakes are really, really good with the Ka-Pow sauce.  You should try it!!!

Cinnamon Muffins. A yummy part of any breakfast.

One of my favorite things about weekend mornings home with my husband is making breakfast.  He'll ask me what I'm making and I either thumb through the recipe book or troll online until I come across something that strikes our fancy.  This weekend was no different.  Part of the fun is discovering the ingredients in my cupboard; I try not to plan too much in advance so the weekend baked goods are spontaneous and extra special (at least I think so).

So of course I was pretty psyched when I discovered I had all the ingredients to make these cinnamon muffins.  (Original recipe can be found here from allrecipes.com).

They were easy to make and came out just fine.  I've had other muffins I enjoyed more, but these really did hit the spot just fine. 

CINNAMON MUFFINS

INGREDIENTS:

3/4 cup all-purpose flour

1/4 cup sugar

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg

1/4 teaspoon ground allspice

1/2 egg, lightly beaten

1/4 cup skim milk

2 tablespoons and 2 teaspoons margarine, melted

TOPPING:

1 tablespoon sugar

1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon

2 tablespoons margarine, melted

DIRECTIONS:

 In a large bowl, combine flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, nutmeg and allspice. Combine the egg, milk and margarine; mix well. Stir into dry ingredients just until moistened. Spoon into greased or paper-lined mini muffin cups. Bake at 400 degrees F for 12-14 minutes or until muffins test done. For topping, combine sugar and cinnamon. Brush the tops of warm muffins with margarine; sprinkle with cinnamon-sugar.

Makes 24 mini muffins.

PERSONAL NOTES:

I halved the recipe and it came out to 5 large muffins.  I was happy with that.  With just me and my husband at home, we simply didn't need more (our waistlines certainly don't!).

Happy St. Patty's Day, Shamrock Butter Cookies!

For pretty much every holiday I bake butter cookies and make them in whatever appropriate shapes.  Thus, it's no big surprise that I made some butter cookies in the shapes of shamrocks for St. Patrick's Day.  YUM YUM!

Everyone loves them and they're easy to make.  Sometimes I ice them for extra sweet goodness, and sometimes I let the butter cookie sing.  This time I did both.

The recipe comes to me from my mom :)

SHAMROCK BUTTER COOKIES

INGREDIENTS:

1 lb. butter
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
4 1/2 - 5 cups of flour (not a full 5)
1 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. vanilla
3 cups sifted confectioner's sugar
1/4 cup milk
1/2 tsp. vanilla
Dash of salt
(food coloring, optional)

DIRECTIONS:

Mix well. Taking one or two handfuls at a time, roll out the dough. Cut with cookie cutter, or use a juice glass top to cut. Just press rim of glass into dough and form circles.

Bake at 325 for approximately 5-6 minutes. They shouldn't be too brown on the edges. I check the bottoms to make sure they are golden before taking them out.

PERSONAL NOTES:

When rolling the dough, use a sheet of wax paper for the surface, sprinkle with flour, place the dough and sprinkle that with some flour. Cover with a second piece of wax paper. Use the rolling pin over that. It just makes for easier rolling.

For the icing I use skim milk and it always comes out great.

Happy St. Patrick's Day: Irish Soda Bread

It would be wrong on many levels if I failed to produce the traditional Irish soda bread for St. Patrick's Day.  I took a recipe from here and added to it a bit.  I had to; it didn't include the caraway seeds or raisins.  Both are a MUST if you're making Irish soda bread.  Otherwise it's not the real deal ; )

As always, I'm pleased with the way my Irish soda bread came out.  It's so good and full of flavor.  Normally I'm not into the flavor of caraway seeds but it goes so well with this bread.  And while the bread is good on its own, it never hurts to spread a little butter on your slices.

YUM!

IRISH SODA BREAD

INGREDIENTS:

4 cups all-purpose flour

4 tablespoons white sugar

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 tablespoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup margarine, softened

1 cup buttermilk

1 egg

1/4 cup butter, melted

1/4 cup buttermilk

1 tablespoon caraway seeds

3/4 cup raisins

DIRECTIONS:

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Lightly grease a large baking sheet.

In a large bowl, mix together flour, sugar, baking soda, baking powder, caraway seeds, raisins, salt and margarine. Stir in 1 cup of buttermilk and egg. Turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface and knead slightly. Form dough into a round and place on prepared baking sheet. In a small bowl, combine melted butter with 1/4 cup buttermilk; brush loaf with this mixture. Use a sharp knife to cut an 'X' into the top of the loaf.

Bake in preheated oven for 45 to 50 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the loaf comes out clean, about 30 to 50 minutes. You may continue to brush the loaf with the butter mixture while it bakes.

PERSONAL NOTES:

As I mentioned above I had to add the caraway seeds and raisins as the original recipe doesn't include them.  Which by the way, is unusual.  I've never had an Irish soda bread without those ingredients. 

Oh, and I chose to omit the butter mixture for the top of the loaf.  I thought it was fine without it.  So that's up to you.

Swope Bread. Sweet and hearty.

I really have to stop baking bread.  It's too damn good and I can't stop myself from eating (lots of) it.  I'm so drawn to it... check out the latest loaf I made: Swope Bread.  I've been tooling around online and I'm trying to figure out what is Swope Bread.  Any ideas?

All kidding aside, starting this week I am giving up bread.  Not forever, mind you, but just until I can have it without obsessing over it.  I can do it; I've done it before.  It's the getting there part that stinks :(  I have to keep in mind it's just healthier for me.

That said, this bread is wonderfully delicious and easy to make.  No waiting around for the yeast to kick in and rise the dough.  I estimate this bread takes about 10 minutes to prepare and another to bake.  Easy-peasy.
SWOPE BREAD

You can find the original recipe here from allrecipes.com - one of my favorite all-time food sites.  I've made so many things from this site.  YUM!

INGREDIENTS:

2 cups all-purpose flour

4 cups whole wheat flour

1 cup white sugar

2 teaspoons salt

4 teaspoons baking soda

4 cups buttermilk

DIRECTIONS:



Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Lightly grease two 9x5 inch loaf pans.

In a large bowl, stir together all-purpose flour, whole wheat flour, sugar and salt. In a separate bowl, dissolve baking soda in buttermilk. Stir buttermilk into flour mixture. Beat well. Pour batter into prepared pans.
Bake in preheated oven for one hour.

PERSONAL NOTES:
This recipe makes two loaves so I just halved it to make the one.  After all, it's bad enough I'm eating most of it on my own anyway... Oy.

Oh, I mixed half spelt flour and half all-purpose flour.  Spelt flour works wonderfully in breads.