Peanut Butter Banana Muffins

pb banana muffinsWhat’s the difference between a muffin and cupcake? A sweet treat like this one might hover on the border of being a cupcake flavor-wise, but what really divides muffins from cupcakes is their chemical makeup and preparation style.

Muffins, which are small quick breads, tend to rely on vegetable oil for their fat content. Their dry ingredients and wet ingredients are mixed separately, then incorporated all at once until they’re just blended to avoid gluten activation so they have a crumbly texture. Muffins can be sweet or savory, ranging from chocolate chip to bacon cornbread.

Cupcakes, which are small cakes, rely mostly on butter for their fat content. Cupcake batter is normally prepared by creaming butter and sugar together, then adding other wet ingredients like eggs and flavorings before finally incorporating the flour to activate the gluten and yield a fluffier, less crumbly texture. While cupcakes tend to be sweet, anyone who’s watched an episode of Cupcake Wars on Food Network knows that all sorts of savory ingredients have appeared in cupcakes in more recent years.

These muffins combine the great flavor friends of peanut butter, banana, and chocolate. They’d be perfect with a bit of peanut butter smeared on them, but they’re also delicious without any further enhancements.

Ingredients

  • 2 cups flour
  • 1 cup sugar
  • 1 tablespoon baking powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 1 cup very ripe mashed bananas (about 3 small bananas)
  • 1/3 cup milk
  • 1/3 cup peanut butter
  • 3 tablespoons vegetable oil
  • 1 egg
  • 3/4 cup milk chocolate chips

Preparation

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line two muffin tins with paper liners; this recipe yields about 20 muffins.

In a large mixing bowl, combine flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt.

Add the bananas, milk, peanut butter, vegetable oil, and egg all at once, using a fork to mix until combined. Stir in chocolate chips.

Using a two-inch cookie scoop, drop scoops of batter into prepared muffin tins, filling about 1/2 to 3/4 full.

Bake for 20-25 minutes, until tops are light golden and a cake tester comes out clean.

Serve warm or cool.

 

Basic Dog Treats

basic dog treatsThere are many kinds of dog treats out there, but it’s very easy to make your own with some of the most basic ingredients you’re likely to have in your pantry. In most cases, you’ll just need some flour – usually whole wheat – and other dog-friendly items like peanut butter (make sure it doesn’t contain xylitol), broth, pumpkin, banana, and so forth.

Dog treats bake for a while so they can harden, which helps them keep for longer than a traditional cookie. But since these are homemade, keep an eye on them to make sure they don’t look or smell like they shouldn’t.

Ingredients

  • 2 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 1 egg
  • 1/2 to 3/4 cups chicken broth

Preparation

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a baking sheet with foil.

In a mixing bowl, combine all ingredients and stir together, then knead with your hands until a sturdy dough forms; I recommend starting with 1/2 cup of chicken broth and adding more to make the dough easier to handle as you go along.

Roll out on a very lightly floured surface and cut into desired shapes. Bake for 30-35 minutes, until golden. Cool completely on a wire rack.

Crazy Chocolate Cupcakes (Vegan!)

mo cupcakesMy goddaughter Maureen, also known as Mo, just turned three. Mike and I traveled to Maryland this weekend for her party and Mo and I baked these cupcakes together, which was great fun. She’s very good at mixing, but even better at eating. At the end of her party, she sat down by herself at the table and proceeded to eat all of the icing off of two cupcakes…a girl after my own heart.

Mo’s mom, my cousin Barb, sought a recipe that was both dairy-free and egg-free to accommodate some guests with food allergies, and she got this recipe from a friend whose sons can’t have milk or eggs. Cakes like these are also known as Depression Cakes, given the scarcity of dairy products and eggs during the Great Depression. As always, the resourcefulness of bakers never ceases to amaze me; the end result of this recipe is a delicious, moist cake that reminds me somewhat of devil’s food, but better. And, because there are no animal products in either the cake or frosting recipes, these treats are vegan! 

Note: the recipe below yields 36 cupcakes with enough frosting for generous portions on each cupcake. 

Crazy Chocolate Cupcakes

Ingredients

  • 4 1/2 cups flour
  • 9 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
  • 3 cups sugar
  • 3 teaspoons baking soda
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
  • 3 tablespoons vinegar
  • 3 teaspoons vanilla extract
  • 15 tablespoons vegetable oil (7.5 ounces, just shy of one cup)
  • 3 cups water

Preparation

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line muffin tins with paper liners.

In a large bowl, combine flour, cocoa powder, sugar, baking soda, and salt. Mix until well-blended, then make three wells for the wet ingredients.

Place vinegar, vanilla, and vegetable oil in the wells; add water and mix until batter is smooth. The mixture will bubble slightly when you add the water; just keep mixing until you get a smooth consistency in the batter, which will be fairly thin.

Using a 1/4 cup measure, fill each cupcake about half-full. Bake for 13-15 minutes, until a cake tester comes out clean.

Cool completely before frosting.

Vanilla Frosting

Ingredients

  • 1 cup shortening
  • 3 teaspoons vanilla extract
  • 1/2 cup water
  • 8 cups powdered sugar

Preparation

In a mixing bowl, combine shortening, 1 teaspoon vanilla, water, and 4 cups powdered sugar. Mix on low speed, then increase to medium-high and beat for 10 minutes, until smooth. Add remaining powdered sugar and additional teaspoons of vanilla extract, beating until smooth.

About Maureen

mo bakingMo is an active three-year old who loves her parents, her dog Sukey, making messes, and referring to herself in third-person. She’s an avid fan of bacon, enjoys watching Octonauts, and has been known to wear tutus over skinny jeans.

 

White Cake with Sweet Lemon Frosting

white cake with lemonLast week’s cookie-baking extravaganza left me with six egg yolks, which of course I turned into lemon curd, which I then needed to use up in some creative way. Hence, white cake with lemon curd filling and sweet lemon frosting.

Recipes for single-layer cakes like this one are quite useful, especially if you’re baking for a date night or a small gathering. Tonight, Mike and I will celebrate New Year’s Eve, and this little treat will be perfect for our dessert.

Just a few items to note: my sweet lemon frosting is similar to lemon cream cheese frosting, and it’s based on another lemon frosting recipe I saw recently, with different ratios to increase the sweetness. Appearance-wise, don’t worry if your lemon curd filling and frosting drip over the sides of your cake; this just makes the end result a more charming, old-fashioned-looking dessert.

White Cake

Ingredients

  • 1 1/2 cups flour
  • 1/2 tablespoon baking powder
  • 1 cup sugar
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt
  • 1/4 cup shortening
  • 1 egg
  • 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
  • 3/4 cup milk

Preparation

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Spray a 9-inch round cake pan with baking spray; line with a parchment circle and spray the parchment.

In a small bowl, combine flour and baking powder; set aside.

In a mixing bowl, cream together sugar, shortening, and salt until fluffy.

Add egg and vanilla; beat until combined.

Add flour mixture and milk in alternating batches, starting and ending with the flour and beating until just combined.

Pour batter into prepared pan; bake for 25 minutes, until top is golden and a cake tester comes out clean.

Cool cake completely before filling and frosting.

Lemon Curd Filling

  • 1 recipe lemon curd, prepared in advance. Reserve about 2 tablespoons prior to filling the cake for the frosting.

Sweet Lemon Frosting

Ingredients

  • 4 tablespoons butter
  • 2 ounces cream cheese
  • 2 tablespoons lemon curd
  • About 2 1/4 cups powdered sugar

Preparation

In a mixing bowl, beat butter and cream cheese until very well blended, about 3 minutes.

Add 1 cup powdered sugar and 1 tablespoon lemon curd; beat on low to begin, then increase speed and beat on medium until well-blended. Add additional cup powdered sugar and additional tablespoon lemon curd; beat on low to begin, then increase speed to medium and beat until very well-blended. Taste; add another 1/4 cup powdered sugar if desired.

To assemble the cake:

Using a very sharp knife, cut cake in half horizontally. Flip top half onto a cake platter top-side down and spread lemon curd in an even layer. Lemon curd will drip over the sides; this is fine.

Top with the remaining cake half and frost the top of the cake only, so you’ll be able to see the sides. Store in the fridge.

Pink Flower Cupcakes

IMG_1812Cupcakes may be trendy, but they’re also quite practical for special occasions. They require no plates or forks, so they’re easy to serve and eat. They can be easily customized in flavor pairings, in that you can bake a batch of almond cupcakes and frost half with vanilla buttercream and the other half with chocolate to meet the varied preferences of your guests. Cupcakes can also be decorated very simply to look fun, whimsical, or elegant, whatever you choose.

These cupcakes were baked for a friend of a friend who is hosting a baby shower this weekend and were very simple to make, requiring one batch of almond cupcakes and one batch of vanilla buttercream. And, as this shower is celebrating the impending arrival of a baby girl, they are also very, very girly.

When tinting your frosting, keep in mind that gel food coloring yields bolder colors than liquid food coloring, so you probably don’t need as much as you think in order to get the color you want. You can always make a color darker, but it’s next to impossible to make a color lighter once you’ve tinted it.

Ingredients

White Cupcakes

  • 2 cups flour
  • 1 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1/8 teaspoon salt
  • 1/2 cup shortening
  • 1 3/4 sugar
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla
  • 4 egg whites
  • 1 1/3 cup buttermilk
  • 1 recipe vanilla buttercream
  • Pink gel food coloring
  • Leaf green food coloring
  • White and yellow flower-shaped sprinkles

Preparation

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Line two 12-cup muffin tins with paper liners.

In a medium bowl, stir together flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt; set aside.

In a mixing bowl, beat shortening and sugar together until creamy. Add vanilla and beat until combined, then add egg whites, one at a time, beating well after each addition.

Add flour mixture and buttermilk alternatively, starting and ending with the flour, beating until just combined after each addition.

Using a 2-inch cookie scoop, scoop batter into prepared tins, filling no more than half-full.

Bake for 18-20 minutes, until tops are light golden and a cake tester inserted in the middle of a few cupcakes comes out clean.

Cool on a wire rack before frosting.

To frost:

Prepare vanilla buttercream.

Reserve about 1 cup of frosting to tint green. Tint the remaining frosting light pink and frost each cupcake, creating a relatively smooth surface.

Add more pink food coloring to the pink frosting to darken the color. Fit a 12-inch pastry bag with a star tip and pipe flower shapes on each cupcake; mine were off-center to look more whimsical.

In the center of each dark pink flower, place a white or yellow flower-shaped sprinkle.

Tint the reserved frosting green by adding a very small amount of leaf green food coloring. Fit an 8-inch pastry bag with a plain tip, then pipe on flower stems. Remove the plain tip and replace with a small leaf tip; pipe on leaves.

Peppermint Pattie Cake

peppermint pattie cakeDark chocolate and peppermint are great friends. Perhaps the most famous product with this combination is the York Peppermint Pattie, another amazing confection pioneered right here in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania in the 1940s.

This cake tastes much like a York Peppermint Pattie, even though the candies aren’t used in the recipe. Next time, instead of crushing red and white mints for the cake’s garnish, I’d like to cut Peppermint Patties into halves or quarters and place them along the edge of the cake for the border. One other item to note about this recipe: the original recipe that I found online called for 3/4 cup of boiling water to be stirred in by hand once all of the other ingredients were blended. This seemed like far too much liquid to me, so I used 1/2 cup…which in hindsight was still too much liquid. Although the cake turned out well, the center fell significantly during cooling, so next time I’ll use no more than 1/4 cup.

Ingredients

For the dark chocolate sheet cake:

  • 2 cups sugar
  • 1 3/4 cups flour
  • 3/4 cup Dutch process cocoa
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 2 eggs
  • 1 cup milk
  • 1/2 cup vegetable oil
  • 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
  • 1/4 cup boiling water

For the peppermint vanilla buttercream frosting:

  • 8 tablespoons butter, softened
  • 2 1/2 cups powdered sugar, sifted
  • 2 teaspoons peppermint extract
  • 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 2 tablespoons heavy cream
  • red and white peppermint candies, crushed (optional)

Preparation

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray a 9 x 13 pan with baking spray.

Place sugar, flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a mixing bowl and stir to combine. Add eggs, milk, vegetable oil, and vanilla and beat on medium speed for 2 minutes, until very well combined.

Gently stir in boiling water by hand; batter will be thin. Pour into prepared pan and bake for 35-40 minutes, until a cake tester inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool completely in pan before frosting.

To prepare the frosting, place butter in a mixing bowl and beat on medium speed for 1 minute using a paddle attachment. Add powdered sugar and beat on low speed until the sugar is fully incorporated; this will take several minutes. I cover my mixer with a kitchen towel to prevent a powdered sugar storm.

Scrape the sides of the bowl and add peppermint extract, vanilla extract, and 1 tablespoon heavy cream. Beat until well combined, scraping sides of the bowl frequently; beat in additional tablespoon of heavy cream and continue beating for 1-2 minutes for a smooth, even consistency.

Frost the cake and sprinkle the edges with crushed peppermint candies if desired.

Old-Fashioned Sugar Cookies

old-fashioned sugarsWhy do we leave out cookies and milk for Santa? Well, if you’re flying all around the world leaving gifts for all the good girls and boys, you’re probably in need of a bit of refreshment. Maybe one year, someone left Santa a note asking what he preferred, and he responded with a request for cookies and milk.

I bet Santa loves to visit the homes of bakers, where all manner of treats await. I also wonder what his favorite cookie is; there are so many to choose from, both store-bought and homemade. Does he like Oreos? Or Nutter Butters? Perhaps he prefers shortbread, or oatmeal raisin?

I like to think that Santa is an excellent judge of good cookies, and I bet he’d like this classic, old-fashioned sugar cookie. It is at once crunchy and soft, the kind of cookie that you’ll find in any bakery, the kind of cookie that needs no frosting to enhance its flavor…the kind of cookie that is perfect to leave on a plate next to your Christmas tree, in gratitude to Saint Nick and his kindness.

Ingredients

  • 1 cup butter, softenend
  • 1 1/2 cups sugar
  • 2 eggs
  • 1 teaspoon cream of tartar
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt
  • 2 3/4 cups flour
  • 1/2 cup sugar, for rolling

Preparation

In a mixing bowl, cream together butter and sugar until very well-combined.

Add eggs, cream of tartar, baking soda, vanilla, and salt; beat on medium speed until well-combined, scraping the sides of the bowl as necessary.

Gradually beat in flour, scraping the sides of the bowl to ensure that all flour is well-incorporated. Cover dough with plastic wrap and chill for about 1 1/2 hours, until dough is firm and easy to handle.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Line several baking sheets with parchment or foil.

Place 1/2 cup sugar in a small bowl.

Using a 1-inch cookie scoop, scoop out dough and roll into balls. Roll balls in sugar and place about 2 inches apart on prepared baking sheets.

Bake for 9-11 minutes, until tops are cracked and cookies are just golden. Cool on cookie sheets for about 5 minutes before placing on wire racks to cool completely.

Gingerbread House

IMG_1773Gingerbread houses are charming, aren’t they? I’ve never made one until today, and it didn’t turn out at all as I expected. Perhaps if I have a different recipe for both the gingerbread and the royal icing, I’ll give it another go someday. In fact, this is the first time I won’t post the recipes I used on this blog, because I truly believe there have to be better ones out there.

Like many shoddy construction jobs, I believe the fault in my house lies in my building materials. The gingerbread was far too soft, while the royal icing was far too hard. While I realize that royal icing is hefty stuff, designed to keep one’s gingerbread walls from caving in, mine turned out more like spackle…and it might have been easier to use actual spackle, since no one will be eating this.

Despite the recipe challenges, my end result is a cute and eco-friendly little structure. It’s small, with fairly thick walls, so it would be easy to heat and cool. And yes, those are supposed to be solar panels on the left side of the roof. Perhaps I could have constructed a wind turbine out of some pretzel sticks, but that’ll have to wait until next time.

 

 

Peppermint Meringues (Gluten-Free!)

peppermint meringuesMeringue cookies are a great option for using up leftover yolks; they’re easy to make, easy to adapt, and usually gluten-free, depending on what you combine with them.

The next time I make these cookies, I’ll do just a few things differently: first, I may bake them another 5 minutes or so, and second, I’ll remove them from the kitchen for cooling. The residual heat from my oven caused these meringues to get sticky within the first few minutes of cooling, which is something I haven’t experienced with meringues before. Despite their stickiness, they’re very nice peppermint treats, both with and without their chocolate enhancement!

Ingredients

  • 3 egg whites
  • 1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar
  • 1/2 teaspoon peppermint extract
  • pinch of salt
  • 3/4 cup sugar
  • red gel paste food coloring, for tinting

Chocolate Drizzle, for dipping cookie bottoms (optional)

  • 1/2 cup semisweet chocolate chips
  • 1 tablespoon shortening

Preparation

Preheat oven to 200 degrees. Line several baking sheets with parchment paper.

In a mixing bowl, combine egg whites, cream of tartar, peppermint extract, and salt; beat on medium speed until soft peaks form. Slowly add sugar and whip on high speed until stiff peaks form; when whites are approaching stiff peak stage, add red gel paste food coloring to tint.

Transfer meringue to a pastry bag fitted with a star tip and pipe 1-inch circles of meringue onto prepared baking sheets.

Bake for 1 hour and 15 minutes, until meringues are dry and firm when lightly touched. Transfer meringues to wire racks and cool completely in a cool room.

Optional: combine semisweet chocolate chips and shortening in a small saucepan and melt over low heat, stirring constantly. Dip bottoms of meringues in chocolate; place on parchment or waxed paper to harden.

Poppy Seed Scones with Lemon Curd

poppy seed sconesOne hundred and fifty recipes ago, I decided to become a blogger. You really have no idea how many recipes exist in the world until you become a food blogger, scouring the internet for the most interesting, challenging, tasty treats in existence. Many of my recipes have come from cookbooks and websites, but some of my favorites are the ones that I adapt from other bloggers. I feel a kinship with these individuals, who share my passion for this creative and delicious pursuit.

Two of my favorite ingredients are poppy seeds and lemons, so it’s fitting that tonight’s post involves both. Poppy seeds and lemons are good friends flavor-wise, so a basic poppy seed scone was easily enhanced with a bit of Meyer lemon zest and the lemon curd I made a few nights ago. If you’re out of lemon curd, you could boost the lemon flavor in these scones by covering them with a powdered sugar/lemon juice drizzle icing. 

Ingredients

  • 1 1/2 cups flour
  • 1/4 cup sugar
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
  • 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1/8 teaspoon salt
  • 4 tablespoons cold butter, cut into small pieces
  • 1 tablespoon poppy seeds
  • 1 teaspoon lemon zest
  • 1/2 cup buttermilk, plus 1 tablespoon to brush on the tops of the scones
  • 1 egg, lightly beaten
  • About 1 tablespoon sugar, to sprinkle on the tops of the scones
  • Lemon curd, for serving

Preparation

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. 

In a medium bowl, combine flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Add butter and toss to coat, then rub the butter into the flour mixture with your hands until the mixture just begins to stick together when you pinch it between your fingers.

Add poppy seeds and lemon zest; stir with a fork to combine. 

Combine beaten egg and buttermilk and stir into the flour mixture until a soft dough forms. Turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface and knead a few times. Pat into an 8 x 4 rectangle and cut into quarters, then cut each quarter in half, yielding 8 scones.

Place scones on prepared baking sheet and brush with buttermilk, then sprinkle with sugar. 

Bake for 14-16 minutes, until tops are golden brown. Serve warm or cool with lemon curd.