Tag: baking

Banana Muffins

Ingredients:
2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 cup butter, softened
2 cups firmly packed organic sugar
2 eggs
2 very ripe bananas (peeled and mashed)
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 cup cashews

Preheat oven 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Cream together butter and sugar. Beat eggs, bananas and vanilla into the mixture. Add flour, salt, baking powder and cinnamon. Mix together until it forms a smooth batter. Fold cashews into the batter. Pour into greased muffin pan. Bake for 30 minutes. Yields about 18 muffins.

May 15, 2012
Butter Cookies

We have quite a collection of seasonal cookie cutters, and this is our go-to recipe for shaped Butter Cookies. We whip this out on Christmas, Easter or any old time we feel like it. I think we like playing with the rolling pin and cookie cutters more than eating the cookies!

Ingredients:
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour, unbleached
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) butter, softened
1 cups organic sugar
2 large eggs, free range and organic
1 3/4 teaspoons vanilla extract

Beat butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. Beat in eggs, one at a time. Add vanilla and mix well.

Add flour, baking powder and salt and mix in with the rest of the batter.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Dust work surface with flour and sprinkle some of the remaining sugar on top of the flour. Using a floured rolling pin, roll one dough to 1/8 inch thickness. Cut out shapes with desired cookie cutters, re-rolling scraps for additional cutouts.

Place cookies 2 inches apart on greased baking sheets and bake for 8 to 10 minutes.

Decorate with cookie icing, if you want. Sprinkle with sugar. Or serve as is.

May 2, 2012
The Pretzel Fairies

What do you do with two 6-year-olds on a misty Sunday afternoon?

Make pretzels! It’s so easy making pretzel dough on the breadmaker. And after seeing me make spider-shaped pretzels, the girls, still wearing their fairy wings, took over with their own creations: bacteria… uhrm… dots of some sort.

Still yummy! 😀

More pretzel shapes:
music notes and G-clef
skeleton bones

August 7, 2011
Carrot Cake Pops for Valentine’s Day

My friend Issa made amazing Valentine’s Day cake pops that inspired me to make my own version, using the Carrot Cake recipe for my breadmaker. Here’s how I did it:

First, I followed my breadmaker’s recipe book instructions on how to make Carrot Cake. You might remember the disaster the first time I made this. Somehow getting the cake out of the breadmaker pan was tricky. Now I know what to do with my cake should it crumble getting out of the pan.

While letting the cake cool, make the frosting. Beat together until smooth and creamy:

3 oz cream cheese
3 tablespoons butter
1 cup confectioner’s sugar

After the cake is completely cooled off, crumble it as fine as you can.

Add the frosting to the crumbled cake.

Then mix together with a spatula.

When thoroghly mixed into a paste, roll the cake into balls and refrigerate for an hour or overnight. If you’re in a hurry, freeze for 15 minutes. But really, in the future I would refrigerate overnight for best results.

Make another batch of frosting, this time:

5 oz cream cheese
5 tablespoons butter
1 1/2 cups confectioner’s sugar

Push lollipop sticks into the flat side of the cake balls (the part of the ball resting on the plate/baking sheet will be flat after sitting there for a while). Dip into the frosting fully and decorate.

Here’s a more thorough step-by-step tutorial on how to make cake pops, which also includes a video that shows how to dip the balls into frosting and decorate with sprinkles.

And then of course, anyone who makes cake pops should be inspired by the mother of all cake pops, Bakerella. She wrote the book aptly titled, “Cake Pops.”

Have fun!

February 11, 2011
Gingerbread House

Last year we made a gingerbread house from a Wonka box kit and we had a great time doing it. This year, we got a little bit more ambitious and attempted building our gingerbread house from scratch.

We got the Gingerbread recipe and instructions for building a gingerbread house from Family Fun magazine.

We started off wrong when we picked a box that was too big for the recipe. We had to make another half-batch of dough so our house would have a roof! But since we would up with more dough than we needed, we were able to make trees and a bunny.

I’m not very good at geometry, so I made mistakes measuring the walls and it took us all day to get the house standing. We had to keep trimming the walls until we had just the right measurement that would support the roof. I kept thinking about those $15 gingerbread house kits that have perfectly measured parts. Those sure would have saved me time and money!

We finally got to decorate our gingerbread house after dinner. It was a lot of work, but in the end it was worth it. We all learned the virtue of perseverance and teamwork, and felt a swell of pride in our chests after it was all finally done.

From my family to yours, we wish you a love-filled holiday season and a new year full of sweet blessings!

December 17, 2010
Gingerbread Creatures
Bored with the usual Gingerbread Man design? Check out these unique Gingerbread designs:

Gingerbread Skeleton

Girly Gingerbread

Gingerbread Sock Monkey

Gingerbread Ninja

Gingerbread in Pink

Gingerbread Puff

Inspired?

Recipe for Gingerbread Cookies

Ingredients:
1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup sugar
3 1/4 cup all purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ginger
3/4 cup molasses
1/4 cup water

Directions:
1. Beat softened butter with sugar until creamy.
2. Add the remaining ingredients and knead until it forms a dough.
3. Chill the dough for at least 1 hour.
4. Preheat the oven at 350^o F.
5. Roll out the dough on a clean floured surface. When the dough is about 1/4 inch thin, use a cookie cutter to make cookie shapes.
6. Line up the cookies on an ungreased baking sheet, about 1/4 inch apart.
7. Bake for 12 minutes.
8. Set the hot cookies out on a wire rack to cool.
9. Decorate with cookie icing.
Happy Holidays!
December 16, 2010
Pretzel Recipe for Breadmaker

My Breadman breadmaker came with a recipe book for various breads, doughs, butters, cakes and other desserts. It’s very handy and I love experimenting with the recipes.

The family favorite is homebaked Pretzels. I love making unique shapes for my pretzels. Here’s one that sings…

My husband photographed my process one day, so here are step-by-step photos of me making my homemade Pretzels.

Put ingredients in the breadmaker pan in the following order:

1. 1 1/4 cup water
2. egg yolk, room temperature (reserve egg white for glaze)
3. 1 tbsp oil
4. 2 tbsp sugar
5. 1 tsp salt
6. 1/8 tsp pepper
7. 3 1/2 cups bread flour
8. 1 tbsp active dry yeast

Put the bread pan in the breadmaker and set to Dough Program.

After the breadmaker is done, get the dough out. On a lightly floured surface, cut dough into pieces.

Roll each piece of dough into thin rope.

Shape the rope-shaped dough into pretzels. Place pretzels on a greased baking sheet 1 1/2 inches apart.

Whisk egg white and 1 tbsp water. Brush pretzels with glaze.

Sprinkle with kosher salt on top.

Bake at 375 degrees F for 15 to 20 minutes or until done.

January 19, 2009
Pumpkin Pie

Pumpkin Pie is probably the best thing to do with the pumpkin discarded from making a Jack O’ Lantern. The taste of a pumpkin pie made from fresh pumkin cannot compare to one made from canned pumpkin. Here’s the classic Pumpkin Pie recipe:

Pie Crust

Ingredients:
3 cups pastry flour
1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened
pinch of salt
1/2 cup iced water

Mix flour, butter and salt, until mixture is in crumbs. Toss with iced water. Do not overmix. This is enough for a double crust pie or two single-crust pies.

Pumpkin Pie

Ingredients:
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup granulated sugar
2 tablespoons flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3/4 cup pumpkin puree
2 eggs, separated
3/4 cup rice milk
3/4 cup evaporated milk

Directions:
1. Stir sugars, flour, salt and spice together.
2. Add vanilla, pumpkin and egg yolks. Stir until smooth.
3. Heat the rice milk and evaporated milk until the first bubble, and
stir into pumpkin mixture.
4. Beat egg whites until stiff and fold into mixture.
5. Pour into pie crust.
6. Bake at 350 degrees F for 15 minutes.
7. Turn oven to 325 degrees F and bake for 15 minutes longer.

October 23, 2005
Pumpkin Cookies

This recipe was passed on to us from my husband’s grandmother, who sent us care packages of her special Pumpkin Cookies every Halloween. Mammie used Crisco Oil and it made her cookies very moist and last for weeks. I used organic canola oil as a healthier alternative, and this makes the pumpkin cookies moist, light and fluffy. If you like your cookies crispy on the surface, use butter instead.

Mammie’s Pumpkin Cookies

Ingredients:
2 cups sugar
1 cup canola oil (or butter – 2 sticks)
2 eggs
2 teaspoons baking soda
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons cinnamon
2 teaspoons vanilla
2 tablespoons milk
1 can pumpkin
4 cups flour
1 large bag semi-sweet chocolate chips

Preheat oven 375 degrees F. Mix well all ingredients, except flour and chocolate chips. Add flour slowly until smooth. Add chocolate chips and mix. Spoon onto greased cookie sheet and bake for 12 to 15 minutes. Take the cookies out as soon as they are showing a bit of brown around the outer edges.

October 22, 2005