Strawberry Buttermilk Muffins

I am all about these muffins! They were not overly sweet and still maintained a bit of zing from the strawberries. I will make a few tiny changes the next time I make these but other than that I could totally eat them every weekend.


Strawberry Buttermilk Muffins

3 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla bean paste
2 cups sugar
4 eggs, beaten
1 cup cooking oil
¾ cup buttermilk
2 1/2 cups sliced strawberries

Preheat oven to 350F. Spray muffin pans lightly with cooking spray. Set aside.

Combine all the ingredients except for the strawberries and mix together with a wooden spoon until well combined. Gently stir in the berries.

Place the batter in ¼ cup measures into the prepared pans. Bake 35 minutes or until an inserted toothpick comes out clean. Cool 10 to 15 minutes before removing from pan.


I would recommend using fresh strawberries for this recipe, although thawed and drained frozen berries would work in a pinch.

These could easily be made for a halloween treat. Maybe shark bite muffins? I am under not illusion that they are pretty.

Banana-Oatmeal Bread

One of the things I’ve noticed from watching what I eat has been the fact that I can’t seem to eat my bananas quick enough. I eat one daily and up until this last shopping trip I was buying them ripe and ready to eat but by the end of the week they were over ripe. Well, my co-worker told me about a little trick; buy them green and they’ll last longer. I did take her advice during this most recent shopping trip but it didn’t help last week’s bananas. What’s a food blogger to do with over ripe bananas? That’s an easy answer. Make banana bread!

I have shared quite a few recipes for banana bread over the years, like Meg’s Sweet Banana Bread (my hands down favorite version), Banana Apple Bread or Kona Inn Banana Muffins (amazing by the way) but this is the first healthy banana bread recipe I’ve made and shared with you.

Baby Cakes was home from work yesterday and called me at work asking how to make banana bread. I told him where he could find my recipe and assumed he was making it. About an hour later he called back and asked me what baking pan he needs to use and then again about 5 minutes later to ask another question. I finally told him that I’ll make it for him when I got home from work. So now I had to bake but the plus side is because I know I will be eating some of it (come on, how could I not have a piece or two) I get to make a healthy version. Thanks to Google, my dear friend, I found the perfect recipe to try.

It was very good oat type bread. It had just enough sweetness to it and although it’s not the moistest bread I’ve made it wasn’t dry at all. I’ll make it again, maybe next time with pistachio.

It would be excellent with applesauce smeared on it like a jam.


Banana-Oatmeal Bread
recipe slightly adapted from Cooking Light Magazine, June 1999

1 cup packed brown sugar
7 tablespoons canola oil
2 large egg whites
1 large egg
3 small ripe bananas, mashed
1 cup quick cooking oats
1/2 cup fat-free milk
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
cooking spray

Preheat oven to 350°.

Combine first 4 ingredients in a large bowl; beat well at medium speed of a mixer.

Combine banana, oats, and milk; add to sugar mixture, beating well.

Lightly spoon flour into dry measuring cups; level with a knife. Combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon; stir with a whisk. Add to sugar mixture; beat just until moist.

Spoon batter into a 9 x 5-inch loaf pan coated with cooking spray.

Bake at 350° for 1 hour and 10 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean.

Cool 10 minutes in pan on a wire rack; remove from pan. Cool completely on wire rack.


I had ½ a piece that night and 1 piece the following day, and then it had to go to work with Baby Cakes. I know my weaknesses and baked good are one of them.

Don’t get used to me sharing this info but 1/12 of the loaf equals 264 calories. 1/24 of a loaf, or half of one piece, equals 132 calories hence the ½ piece the first night.

Delicious and nutritious,

5-Flavor Pound Cake

I have made this recipe several times this past month but for some reason I have not shared the recipe with y’all yet. I don’t know what I am thinking. I blame it on the busy holiday season.

There aren’t words for how wonderful this cake is, dense, creamy, and I am in love with the combination of flavors. When I came across this recipe I noted that the post said “I’ve never met anyone who didn’t like this cake” and so far, after sharing it with many, I find that to be true. In fact everyone comments on how good it is. Who knew a simple pound cake would be the key to cooking adoration? I do now!

For Christmas this year I am making these for gifts for mine and Baby Cakes’ co-workers and bosses; easy, affordable gifts. I’m also making large bundt cakes to take to all the Christmas’ we have to attend this year. It doesn’t get easier than that. Okay, well maybe it does but for a Martha like me it doesn't.


5-Flavor Pound Cake
recipe lightly adapted from Sweet Pea

2 sticks butter
1/2 c vegetable shortening
3 c sugar
5 eggs, well beaten
3 c flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 c milk
1 teaspoon each coconut, butter, lemon, vanilla, and almond extract

Combine butter, shortening and sugar until light and fluffy. Stir in the well beaten eggs.

Combine the flour and baking powder in a small bowl and add to the creamed mixture alternating with milk.

Stir in flavors.

Spoon into a well-greased bundt or loaf pan and bake at 325 degrees for 1 1/2 hours or until an inserted toothpick comes out clean.

Soak with glaze and let cool.


5-Flavor Glaze

1 c sugar
1/2 c water
1 teaspoon each above stated extract

Combine ingredients in a heavy saucepan. Bring to a boil and stir until sugar is melted. Pour over cake after removing from oven.


I can’t think of any way to make this better. Earlier this year I used raspberry extract in lieu of the coconut because I felt it was springier but for winter coconut just seems a more appropriate depth of flavor. I have also seen the recipe with rum extract instead of almond but I am an almond girl. Maybe use them all, a 7-flavor pound cake? Yum.

XOXO,

Pumpkin Banana Strudel Sweet Bread

Y’all know I had to share a recipe featuring pumpkin, especially using pumpkin puree since I just made a crock pot version the other day. I love pumpkin pie but it’s too early for all that, for some reason I don’t really want pumpkin pie until Thanksgiving. So I was trying to figure out what to make with some of this puree. Well, luckily we are still in the in-between seasons here in Texas. It’s not cool enough to cast away summer foods just yet but then again it’s not our regular 100 degrees either so this is my attempt at marrying the seasons.


Pumpkin Banana Strudel Sweet Bread

3 medium overripe bananas
½ cup pureed pumpkin
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup dark brown sugar
1/3 cup butter, softened
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon butter flavored extract
2 eggs, lightly beaten
1 2/3 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
½ cup sugar
4 tablespoons ground cinnamon
1 tablespoon ground nutmeg

Preheat oven to 325F degrees. Spray smooth, dark coated bundt pan with nonstick cooking spray.

In a small bowl, mash the bananas and pumpkin together until semi-smooth. Set aside.

In a separate small bowl, mix the flour, salt, baking soda and baking powder until combined. Set aside.

In a large bowl, mix the sugars and butter with a whisk. Stir in the extracts. Add the eggs until blended. Add the mashed mix; mix 30 seconds. Stir in the dry ingredients until just moistened.

Pour half of the mixture into prepared pan. In a small bowl mix the sugar, cinnamon and nutmeg to combine and sprinkle on top of first layer or batter. Pour the remaining batter over the cinnamon mixture.

Bake until wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. About 50 minutes.
Allow to cool completely before slicing.


I can’t tell you how moist this bread is. If you ever made my banana bread then you have an idea but if you haven’t well, what are you waiting for? Get in that kitchen right now and make some, either one, just make one!

Yum-O!

Kona Inn Banana Muffins

We don’t buy bananas very often, we just don’t eat them. Instead they sit on the counter and turn black. Because of that I truly only buy them when I have an intention for them (see Grandma Lolly’s Banana Pudding, Not Yo Momma’s Banana Pudding, Banana Apple Bread, Meg’s Sweet Banana Bread or Chunky Monkey Pie) but every once in a while something comes over me and I buy them because well, the price is right (I should probably look into freezing them). This was one of those occasions when I had over ripe bananas about to go bad on the counter and I am not just going to let them waste oh no not when they can create something amazing.

Luckily, I have a bookshelf of cookbooks at my disposal so I sat down and searched through all there index’s and finally, after searching I came across this recipe.

How had I never heard of these before? Why isn’t everyone making them? I am at a loss. All I know is that this is the moistest banana bread I have ever tasted. I’ve made it twice, each time handing some out to friends and family and every person who has bitten into one has said how good it is.

Now a few changes I made to the recipe are that instead of shortening I used vegetable oil and I left out the walnuts because I am allergic to them but other than that I followed the recipe to the letter. You’ll notice that the ingredient list is fairly simple as in no cinnamon or even vanilla and although at first this kind of had me uncertain I am now convinced that they don’t need a thing.


Kona Inn Banana Muffins
recipe from The 150 Best American Recipes Cookbook

½ cups vegetable oil
1 ¼ cups all-purpose flour
5 very ripe med. bananas
1 teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
1 cup sugar
2 large eggs, lightly beaten
½ cup chopped walnuts (optional)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Smear the cups of a muffin pan with shortening and sprinkle with a little flour and shake the pan to distribute. Turn the pan upside down over the wastebasket and shake out excess flour.

Peel the bananas, place them in a large bowl and beat them well with an electric mixer. The riper the bananas and the more you mash them, the tenderer your muffins will be. Don’t expect absolute smoothness, there will always be a few lumps. Set aside.

In a small bowl, combine flour, baking soda and salt. Add sugar, shortening, eggs and walnuts to the bananas and mix well. Add the dry ingredients to the banana mixture and stir just until the batter is thoroughly blended.

Fill muffin cups to about two-thirds full. If you’ve reserved some walnuts, dot the tops of the batter with them.

Place pan in the lower third of the oven. After 15 minutes, check the muffins for doneness. A toothpick should come out clean. If not, cook 5 minutes longer and check again. When toothpick comes out clean, remove the muffins from the oven and let cool in the pan for 5 minutes.

Run a knife along the edges of the muffins and transfer them to a platter serve warm.
These can be a cake. Butter two 9-inch round cake pans and divide the batter between them. Bake for about 25 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean. Cool cakes in the pan for 10 minutes. Dust completely cooled cakes with powdered sugar.


These ones look fairly puny but let me tell you that the first batch I made I only filled one muffin pan, 12 muffin cups, and that is how I will be making them in all future sessions. I thought that I should only fill them as much as the recipe called for but they don't really rise, probably because I used vegetable oil instead of shortening. Either way it’s a win-win, smaller ones equal more of them and larger ones means more in one serving.

Once again, amazing!

Banana Apple Bread

There is something about the fall, it always make me feel like baking. So bake I will. (I make a point of pointing this fact out because you'll notice I don't bake very often. The funny thing is that everyone in my life thinks I love to bake. I loath it, unless I am in the mood to, which is pretty rare. But when I do feel like it watch out, everyone around me is about to gain 5 pounds. Grin.)

Growing up my Mom always made her banana bread which is wonderful. I always love it when she makes it. I adore her Banana Bread, there is never anything as good as the recipe you remember from childhood, and as I said above if someone else makes it it always tastes better. Now I'm not selling myself short, I created my own recipe for banana bread here and it was/is my favorite version in the whole wide world.

This recipe ranks pretty high on my list of sweet breads. The apples certainly add to the moistness. I like it and will be playing with it some more in the future. Baby Cakes said that it is wonderful but not sweet enough. (He likes his sweets but then again so do I.)

It originally called for fresh orange juice instead of apple cider but I had one and not the other. In regards to it being fresh apple cider, yea right!


Banana Apple Bread
slightly altered from The Sweet Melissa Baking Book

For the apples:
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
3 tablespoons firmly packed dark brown sugar
2 apples, cored, peeled and cubed
½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

For the banana bread:
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
¼ teaspoon ground cloves
¼ teaspoon freshly ground nutmeg
½ teaspoon kosher salt
8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter
1 cup granulated sugar
2 large eggs
¼ cup apple cider
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 ¼ cups very ripe mashed bananas (2 or 3)
1-2 tablespoons coarse sugar

Before you start:
Position a rack in the center of your oven and preheat the oven to 350°F. Lightly butter and flour a 1 1/2-quart loaf pan.

To make the apples:
Preheat a medium skillet over medium-high heat. Add the butter and brown sugar and heat until bubbling. Add the apples and cinnamon and sauté until golden and tender, about 5 minutes. Stir in the vanilla. Remove from the heat and set aside to cool.

To make the banana bread:

In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, and salt.

In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy, 1 to 2 minutes. Add the eggs, one at a time, mixing well after each addition. Scrape down the sides of the bowl.

In a small bowl, combine the cider and vanilla.

Add the flour mixture to the butter mixture in three batches, alternating with the cider mixture, mixing well after each addition. Scrape down the sides of the bowl after each flour addition. Stir in the mashed bananas until combined. Then stir in the reserved apples.

Pour the batter into the prepared loaf pan and dust the top with the coarse sugar.

Bake for 55 to 60 minutes, or until a wooden skewer inserted into the center comes out clean. Remove to a wire rack to cool for 20 minutes before unmolding onto the rack to cool further.

Serve slightly warm with a shmear of butter and perhaps some apple butter. Yum!


Banana Apple Bread
I can see why this would be a star recipe in a bakery.

Happy Fall Baking Y'all,

Almond Peach Sweet Bread

Okay, this one is a process but having just tasted it- oh my goodnesss. I improvised ,and added this and that, and will, I pray, remember everything.


Take 2 peaches and peel, discard seeds and chop into chunks, 1 inch by 1 inch sqaures, roughly. Place peaches, 1/4 cup sugar and 3 tablespoons water in saucepan. Cook over Medium High for 15-20 minutes, strain/drain peaches from syrup but reserve in bowl. Set aside both drained peaches and syrup.

Use Amish bread starter (1 cup) and mix in, no metal, all the below ingredients. Hint: seems to work better if you use a wooden spoon and if you mix each ingredient in at the time not dump it all and then try to mix. (I am still learning you know, first loaf I ever made just about killed my arm, not that this is really that much easier.)

1/2 cup oil
1/2 cup cinnamon apple sauce
1 cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 teaspoon almond extract
3 eggs, beaten in a seprate bowl
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 cup milk
1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1 large box instant vanilla pudding
2 teaspoons cinnamon
2 cups flour
2 cups drained peaches
1 1/2 cups finely chopped toasted almonds
1/4 cup peach syrup

Divide evenly between 2 (regular) or 3 (smaller) loaf pans, greased and coated with cinnamon sugar mixture, and sprinkle top with 1-2 tablespoons of raw sugar each. Bake for about an hour and 15 minutes at 325 F.



If my directions seem wompy it's because so am I- it's late and that was alot of work after coming home from work, so anyhow, don't be afraid to ask questions.

Oh yeah and next time I'll use this dough to make Blueberry and Cream Bread.

XOXO,

Amish Friendship Bread

You know that starter that you always turn down when asked to take some- yes that one. Stop refusing it- it is wonderful. Take it, follow the directions and bake this...


Just incase you don't have any starter circulating around you, just make your own.

Amish Friendship Bread Starter

Mix 1 pkg. yeast
1 c. flour
1 c. sugar

Slowly stir in a combination of 1 c. milk and 1/4 c. water. Let stand in a glass or pottery container for 24 hrs.

Add 1 c. flour, let stand in warm place for 2-5 days.

Now follow the friendship bread instructions.

Note: Never use metal containers or utensils.


Amish Friendship Bread Directions

DO NOT USE METAL SPOON OR BOWL FOR MIXING
DO NOT REFRIGERATE
IF AIR GETS IN BAG, LET IT OUT
IT IS NORMAL FOR THE BATTER TO THICKEN, BUBBLE AND FERMENT

Day 1- This is the day you receive the batter; do nothing
Day 2- Squeeze the bag
Day 3- Squeeze the bag
Day 4- Squeeze the bag
Day 5- Squeeze the bag
Day 6- Add 1 cup flour, 1 cup sugar, and 1 cup milk. Put in larger ziplock bag and squeeze until mixed
Day 7- Squeeze the bag
Day 8- Squeeze the bag, of you notice a sour smell it is okay, completely normal.
Day 9- Squeeze the bag
Day 10- Add 1 cup flour, 1 cup sugar, and 1 cup milk to the batter in a large bowl. Mix with a wooden spoon or spatula. Pour four 1 cup starters into ziplock bags. Keep one starter for yourself and give the other three to your friends along with the instructions.

To the remaining batter add:
1/2 c. oil
1/2 c. apple sauce
1 c. sugar
1 t. vanilla
1 t. almond extract
3 eggs
1 1/2 t. baking powder
1/2 t. salt
2 c. flour
1/2 c. milk
1/2 t. baking soda
1 large box instant vanilla pudding
2 t. cinnamon

Pour into two large, greased and sugared (with cinnamon and sugar mixed) loaf pans. You can sprinkle some extra cinnamon and sugar on top. Bake 325 for 45-60 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean.

Opt.: add 1c. chopped pecans and/or 1/2 c. raisins, if desired.

Meg's Sweet Banana Bread

I have to admit it, this is the moistest banana bread I have ever had. You have got to make this recipe and eat it up.


1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup dark brown sugar
1/3 cup butter
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon almond extract
2 eggs
1 1/2 cups mashed ripe bananas (3 to 4 medium)
1/3 cup water
1 cup all purpose flour
2/3 cups whole wheat flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon baking powder

Heat oven to 325F degrees. Spray smooth, dark coated bundt pan with high heat nonstick cooking spray.

In a small bowl, mash bananas and water together until semi-smooth, no big chunks.

In a mixer or large bowl, mix sugars and butter with an electric mixer. Add eggs until blended. Add mashed bananas mix; beat 30 seconds. Stir in dry ingredients until just moistened. Add extracts and mix just a second more.

Pour into pan. Bake until wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Bake 50 minutes.

Flip pan onto a cake plate and allow to cool completely before slicing.