Chocolate Chunk Cookies

I like the look of a nice chunky chocolate chip cookie with a lot of stuff in it. This recipe is from Eat Good For Life. These called for coconut too but I forgot to bring it up to my mom's house. I'm baking away from home today because the kitchen is still disassembled. So I used whole wheat flour in these because I didn't have the barley flour, I subbed slivered almonds for walnuts, and I only used 1 C of chocolate chips instead of a whole 11.5 oz bag- damn girl that's a lot of chocolate!! Like bags of Ghirardelli just grows on trees or something!?!?!

Ingredients:

1/2 cup butter (1 stick)
1/2 olive oil
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup packed light brown sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup whole wheat pastry flour
1 cup barley flour (you can use all whole wheat flour if you prefer)
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
2 cups oats
1 cup unsweetened coconut
1 cup walnuts, chopped
11.5 oz bag of dark chocolate chips ( I used Ghirardelli brand 60% cacao)

Preheat oven to 350F.

In a bowl combine, preferably with an electric mixture ( I use my hands and a whisk), sugar and butter. Add olive oil, eggs, and vanilla and combine all ingredients.

In another bowl combine flours, baking soda, and baking powder and combine. Add dry ingredients to butter mixture and fold in. Add rest of ingredients and mix through. Drop batter with a tablespoon onto lined baking sheets spacing them out and flattening them slightly.

Bake for 12-14 minutes (mine took at least 15 mins because I forgot to flatten them, you want to get some color on them babies!!) and transfer cookies to a wire rack to cool.

Cool Tub

There's nothing like a hot bath in a luxurious tub at the end of a long day...

The kitchen is still in the process of being backsplashed...

So hopefully I'll get a muffin or a cookie done between studying and work today, I have a few recipes in mind including a chocolate chip chunk cookie and an orange cornmeal cake that I plan on turing into a muffin...

Marie's B&W Photo Wall

My mom wanted to share her black and white photos with us. They have a food/baking theme to them. She has them mounted on a wall in her mango-colored kitchen.

Thanks Mom

Postponing Muffin Thursday

My dear cousin Michael is putting a backsplash in the kitchen today so Muffin Thursday is going to be more like Muffin Saturday or Sunday...

Omar's Carrot Cake Cookies

So my friend Omar must love sandwich cookies because this is another one that I used to make for him. He is the only person in the world who likes a carrot cake without raisins or nuts in it so I made these ultra-plain for him- but I recommend that you stick to the recipe and add lots of raisins and nuts. Tradition!! (Tevia)

These cookies are super soft and cakey and don't hold hold up too long so keep them in the fridge and eat them fast baby!! Original Recipe from Epicurious.

The Cookie

Ingredients:

1 1/8 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 stick (1/2 cup) unsalted butter, softened
1/3 cup plus 2 tablespoons packed light brown sugar
1/3 cup plus 2 tablespoons granulated sugar
1 large egg
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup coarsely grated carrots (2 medium)
1 scant cup walnuts (3 ounces), chopped
1/2 cup raisins (2 1/2 ounces)

Preparation:

1. Put oven racks in upper and lower thirds of oven and preheat oven to 375°F. Butter 2 baking sheets.
2. Whisk together flour, cinnamon, baking soda, and salt in a bowl.
3. Beat together butter, sugars, egg, and vanilla in a bowl with an electric mixer at medium speed until pale and fluffy, about 2 minutes.
3. Mix in carrots, nuts, and raisins at low speed, then add flour mixture and beat until just combined.
4. Drop 1 1/2 tablespoons batter per cookie 2 inches apart on baking sheets and bake, switching position of sheets halfway through baking, until cookies are lightly browned and springy to the touch, 12 to 16 minutes total. Cool cookies on sheets on racks 1 minute, then transfer cookies to racks to cool completely.

For the filling-

Ingredients:

2 ounces bar cream cheese, room temperature
2 ounces unsalted butter, room temperature
1/4 cup confectioners' sugar
1 teaspoon fresh lemon juice

Preparation:

1. Blend cream cheese, butter, sugar, and lemon juice with electric mixer until light and fluffy

When your cookies are cool, sandwich them with as much or as little icing as you like, store in tupperware in the fridge. Try to eat these guys as soon as you can or they will start to get soft in the fridge or Omar will break into your kitchen and eat them himself.

Photo Credit: Epicurious

Yellow Cake with Queen 'Mo Icing

This is a recipe that my mom has been making forever- she would like me to specify that she made this cake and I just took the pictures. Whatever Marie. Anyway, there's nothing like a simple yellow cake to make queen mo icing (queen mother icing- but we call it mo) have all the glory. Here's how we did it:

Yellow cake (from the Silver Palate cookbook)

Ingredients:

2 C Sugar
4 Eggs
1 C Veg Oil
1 C OJ (original recipe calls for dry white wine)
2 1/2 C AP Flour
1/2 Tsp Salt
2 1/4 Tsp B Powder
1 Tsp Vanilla

Method:

1. Preheat 350, grease 2 9" round cake pans
2. Sift all dry ingredients- flour, salt, b powder, set aside.
3. Combine OJ, oil, and vanilla in bowl and set aside.
3. Beat sugar and eggs until combined with mixer. Then to the mixer add 1/2 dry and beat, 1/2 wet and beat, then last of dry and last of wet, mixing in between.
4. Pour batter into pans and bake for 30 mins or until the center bounces and a toothpick comes out clean.
5. Let cakes cool for 5 mins and then turn them out onto a cooling rack to cool completely.

Queen Mo (from the queen herself, Maida Heatter)- we make this while the cake is in the oven

Ingredients:

1 C Heavy Cream
4 Tsp Instant Coffee
16 Oz Semisweet Chocolate Chips

Method:

1. Heat the cream over medium heat until little bubbles form around the edge of the pot.
2. Add the coffee and whisk until it dissolves.
3. Add the chocolate chips and whisk for 30 secs, then remove from the heat and whisk until smooth.
4. Leave in the pot until the cake is totally cool so that you can gently reheat it if you have to.

So when your cake is done just pour on the queen mo and smooth it gently with an off-set spatula. Leftover icing can be stored forever in a tupperware in the fridge- not that it will last that long. Marie eats it with her ice cream every night.

We did 2x 9" rounds and a 4" wedding cake top to make a tiered cake. Then just poured the icing over each layer and let it fall over the sides for a nice dribbled look.

Martha Stewart Gold Standards

So let me share with you a few Martha Recipes that I have made many times with good results. These cookies are delish and always come out great- unlike a very crappy corn muffin recipe of hers that I tried the other week. I ended up feeding that one to the neighbor dogs. Very disappointing Martha. I am in the process of finding a new cornmeal recipe that will make a bangin muffin. I have one to try later this week possibly. But I digress... back to Martha:

Healthy Oatmeal Cookie:

This cookie is for anyone who likes a honey taste. It is also made with oil instead of butter so it's a dense, heart-healthy cookie.

Ingredients

1/2 cup whole-wheat flour (spooned and leveled)
1/2 cup all-purpose flour, (spooned and leveled)
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/3 cup vegetable oil
2/3 cup packed dark-brown sugar
1 large egg
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/2 cup rolled oats (not quick-cooking)
1/2 cup dried currants or raisins

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a medium bowl, whisk together flours and baking powder; set aside.
In a large bowl, whisk together oil, sugar, egg, and vanilla. Add flour mixture, and stir to combine; mix in oats and currants.
Using two tablespoons of dough per cookie, roll into balls; place on two baking sheets lined with parchment paper, 1 1/2 inches apart. Bake until lightly browned, 15 to 17 minutes, rotating sheets halfway through.
Cool 5 minutes on sheets, then transfer cookies to a wire rack to cool completely.

Lemon Cornmeal Cookie:

I have made this cookie a hundred times. It is a huge fave at work, even with non-sweet lovers. It's really easy to make and comes out perfect every time. Sometimes I add chocolate chips to it as well.

Ingredients

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour, (spooned and leveled)
1 cup yellow cornmeal
1 tablespoon finely grated lemon zest
1/2 teaspoon salt
12 tablespoons (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, very soft
3/4 cup sugar
1 large egg

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a small bowl, whisk together flour, cornmeal, lemon zest, and salt.
In a large bowl, mix butter, sugar, and egg until combined. Gradually add dry ingredients until moistened.
Pinch off and roll dough into balls, each equal to 1 1/2 tablespoons; place on 2 baking sheets, about 2 inches apart. With fingers, flatten balls to 3/4-inch thickness.
Bake until lightly browned around edges, 20 to 25 minutes; transfer to racks to cool completely.

Outrageous Chocolate Cookies:

These cookies are a lot like a "brownie cookie" so I have made them on request for my best friend, Lauren. This is a recipe that takes melted chocolate and chocolate chips, if you replace a couple of Tbsp of flour with cocoa powder they would be a triple chocolate treat!! This is big crowd pleaser too but I tend to make them sparingly because I bake on a budget and they require a lot of chocolate. You could probably do the cocoa and melted chocolate and leave out the chocolate chips at the end and they would still be great while saving some choco-money.

Ingredients

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour, (spooned and leveled)
1 cup yellow cornmeal
1 tablespoon finely grated lemon zest
1/2 teaspoon salt
12 tablespoons (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, very soft
3/4 cup sugar
1 large egg

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a small bowl, whisk together flour, cornmeal, lemon zest, and salt.
In a large bowl, mix butter, sugar, and egg until combined. Gradually add dry ingredients until moistened.
Pinch off and roll dough into balls, each equal to 1 1/2 tablespoons; place on 2 baking sheets, about 2 inches apart. With fingers, flatten balls to 3/4-inch thickness.
Bake until lightly browned around edges, 20 to 25 minutes; transfer to racks to cool completely.

Cook's Note

Don't worry if the batter seems thin. It should look more like a brownie batter than a cookie dough.

Photo Credits: Martha Stewart

Jenn's Didn't Have Any Eggs In the House Oatmeal Cookies

Question: what happens when you bake at Jenn's house and she doesn't have any eggs in the fridge? Answer: you google an eggless oatmeal raisin cookie recipe and pray for the best.

Ingredients:

1/3 C Butter
1/4 C Brown Sugar
1/8 C White Sugar
1/3 Tsp Vanilla
1/2 C AP Flour
1/4 Tsp Salt
1/3 Tsp B Soda
1/8 C Boiling Water (we used cold and it didn't matter)
2/3 C Oats (we used actual granola)
1/4 C Raisins
1/2 C Chocolate Chips

Method:

Preheat oven to 350.
We melted the butter in the microwave and then mixed it with the butter using Jen's wand mixer. Then we added the vanilla, salt, b soda, water, and last the flour and oats and choc chips. This recipe only makes about 6 nice big cookies because we were just baking a small batch for fun. Put them in the oven for 12 mins to start then add 2 mins until they're starting to get brown, but take them out of the oven while still a little soft because they are going to harden up and get crispy once you remove them from the oven.

What I'm listening to right now...

I love music. I love when people tell me about new music. Tell me about some music that you just discovered that you are really into. Here's some good stuff that I've been listening to lately...

1. Lil Wayne- How To Love

2. M83- Midnight City

3. Walk Off the Earth- Love the Way You Lie

4. Walk Off the Earth- Someone Like You

5. Flo Rida- Good Feeling

6. Rise Against- Swing Life Away

That's just what's been in my head for the last few days, leave me more music suggestions in the comments box and I'll keep throwing more tunes up here.

Lauren's Brownie Cookies

My best friend Lauren loves brownie cookies, so one night a few weeks ago for The Bachelor Tells All I made these cookies for her.

Makes about 18 cookies

Ingredients:

1 1/3 cups (233g) dark chocolate, 70% cocoa solids or more, chopped
2 tablespoons (28g) unsalted butter, room temperature
2 eggs
2/3 cup (134g) sugar – I used vanilla infused sugar
½ teaspoon vanilla extract
¼ cup (35g) all purpose flour
¼ teaspoon baking powder
1 cup (175g) dark chocolate chunks or chips

Method:

Preheat the oven to 350ºF; line two large baking sheets with baking paper.

Melt the 1 1/3 cups chocolate with the butter in a small saucepan over low heat – stir constantly until smooth. Set aside to cool for 5 minutes. Mix eggs, vanilla and sugar in a medium bowl. Combine thoroughly. Set aside.
Sift flour and baking powder together in a small bowl.
Add melted chocolate mixture to the egg mixture and slowly add your dry ingredients. When stirred, add the cup of chocolate chunks/chips and stir.

Scoop 1 ½ tablespoons of dough onto prepared sheets. Bake for 10-12 minutes or until they are firm on the outside (dough loses its sheen). Leave to cool completely on sheets.

Photo Credit: Technicolor Kitchen

Omar's Red Velvet Chocolate Chip Sandwich Cookies

My friend Omar loves Red Velvet Cake. So I used this recipe for Red Velvet Chocolate Chip Cookies and made cream cheese icing and made them into sandwiches.

For the cookies:

1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup cocoa powder
1 teaspoon red food coloring
1/2 cup chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 375.
Cream butter and sugars together until fluffy. Add egg and vanilla and combine until smooth. Beat in red food coloring. Stir in cocoa, flour, baking soda and salt until just combined. Fold in chocolate chips.
Using an ice cream scoop, scoop out 1-2 tablespoons of dough and set on baking sheet. Bake for 10-12 minutes.

For the cream cheese icing:

8 oz butter
8 oz cream cheese
3 to 4 c powdered sugar
½ tsp vanilla

Mix room-temp butter and cream cheese with an electric mixer, slowly add the powdered sugar and then vanilla, beat on high until light and fluffy. The goal is to whip a good amount of air in there.

Once cookies are completely cool you can assemble them with the icing, store in an air-tight container in the fridge. It's best to eat these the same day you make them so they don't start to get soft from the fridge and the icing.

Photo Credit: How Sweet It Is

A Break From Baking

Besides baking I love clothes. When I see pictures of clothes I really like I save them on my desktop, I knew there was a reason. Now I can share them here. I like simple silhouettes, neutral colors, JEANS- especially boyfriend cut and ripped ones, over-sized sweaters, dolman everything, slim-cut pants with a baggy top or baggy pants with a tight top, cowl neck everything, infinity scarves, v-neck everything, button down shirts, yarn-knit sweaters, linen pants, tube tops, strappy tank tops....

Some of my favorite brands are: James Perse, AG Jeans, Diesel, Current Elliott, Splendid, C&C California, Splendid, American Apparel, J Crew, Vince, Gypsy 05, Toms, anything from Anthropologie, Chaser...

Photo Credits: x17 Online, Denim Blog, Haute Look

America's Test Kitchen: Salty Oatmeal Cookies

So these are some of the best cookies I've ever made. Of course it's an America's Test Kitchen recipe, they pretty much always have the best recipes. They don't put any raisins in these but I actually think they would be really good with raisins, golden raisins, or currants.

INGREDIENTS

1 C unbleached all-purpose flour (5 ounces)
3/4 Tsp baking powder
1/2 Tsp baking soda
1/4 Tsp table salt
14 Tbsp unsalted butter (1 3/4 sticks), softened but still cool, about 65 degrees
1 C granulated sugar (7 ounces)
1/4 C packed light brown sugar (1 3/4 ounces)
1 large egg
1 Tsp vanilla extract
2 1/2 C old-fashioned rolled oats (see note)
1/2 Tsp coarse sea salt

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 350 degrees. Line 3 large (18- by 12-inch) baking sheets with parchment paper. Whisk flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in medium bowl.

2. In standing mixer fitted with paddle attachment, beat butter and sugars at medium-low speed until just combined, about 20 seconds. Increase speed to medium and continue to beat until light and fluffy, about 1 minute longer. Scrape down bowl with rubber spatula. Add egg and vanilla and beat on medium-low until fully incorporated, about 30 seconds. Scrape down bowl again. With mixer running at low speed, add flour mixture and mix until just incorporated and smooth, 10 seconds. With mixer still running on low, gradually add oats and mix until well incorporated, 20 seconds. Give dough final stir with rubber spatula to ensure that no flour pockets remain and ingredients are evenly distributed.

3. Divide dough into 24 equal portions, each about 2 tablespoons (or use #30 cookie scoop), then roll between palms into balls. Place cookies on prepared baking sheets, spacing them about 2 1/2 inches apart, 8 dough balls per sheet (see note above). Using fingertips, gently press each dough ball to 3/4-inch thickness. Lightly sprinkle sea salt evenly over flattened dough balls before baking.

4. Bake 1 sheet at a time until cookies are deep golden brown, edges are crisp, and centers yield to slight pressure when pressed, 13 to 16 minutes, rotating baking sheet halfway through. Transfer baking sheet to wire rack; cool cookies completely on sheet.

Molly's Banana-Filled Chocolate Chip Cookies

I love taking requests. Yesterday I was working with Molly, who we call Mole, and she was totally bummed that I didn't have any sweets for her- I always bring baked goods to work. So I asked her what she wanted me to make for her and she said something with banana. She likes anything that's moist, so banana is the ideal ingredient for that. I was thinking about a banana bread, I have an Early Grey Banana Bread recipe I've been wanting to try, and also a Buttermilk Banana Bread that has been on the back burner for a few weeks. But I wanted to try something a little different than a bread so *BRAINSTORM* what about a chocolate chip cookie with bananas baked in the center? So this is what I wanted my cookie to look like:

That recipe can be found here, the creator actually uses baby cereal in her cookie recipe- weird and no thanks. But her cookie came out beautiful and exactly how I pictured the banana layer in my mind.

I wanted to focus more on having the most awesome chocolate chip cookie and then adding in the banana layer thus perfecting one of the best flavor combos in the history of time: chocolate and banana. So I chose to use the America's Test Kitchen recipe, which is pretty freaking awesome. I bookmarked the recipe on Natalie's Killer Cuisine since she had really great pics.

The only thing I did differently, because I was feeling lazy is I didn't brown the butter. The cookie has a more nutty, rich flavor if you do, but it's still a perfectly rockin cookie if you just use soft butter (microwaved to softness in my case) and cream it with the sugar like in a normal cookie. I also didn't do that thing where they whisk in one egg at a time and blah blah blah I have a life and can't spend an hour on that stuff. So here goes:

Ingredients:

1¾ cups (8¾ ounces) AP flour
½ teaspoon baking soda

14 tablespoons (1¾ sticks) unsalted butter
½ cup (3½ ounces) granulated sugar
¾ cup (5¼ ounces) dark brown sugar
1 teaspoon table salt
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 large egg
1 large egg yolk
1¼ cups semisweet chocolate chips or chunks
¾ cup chopped pecans or walnuts, toasted (optional)

Method: (Preheat oven to 375)

1. Mix flour and baking soda in one bowl, set aside
2. With an electric mixer cream the butter and sugar until light brown
3. Add salt, vanilla, eggs and mix until blended
4. Add flour in 2 parts and mix until blended
5. Add chocolate chips and optional nuts and mix until just combined
6. Drop heaping tablespoons onto baking sheet and please don't crowd them like I did and like I always do or they will melt together and look so rediculous like mine did.
7. Press into each cookie a few pieces of sliced banana (thinly sliced) and pop them in the oven for 12 minutes to start, check cookies and add 2 more mins or so if they are still raw. Cookies are done when they are nice and brown around the edges and still soft in the very middle
8. Let them cool on the tray for a bit before removing them- these guys are still a little chewy in the center, esp. because of the banana.

So mine basically melted into one huge cookie because I crowded then on the tray and because I made my cookies too big. Next time I will give them more room, and keep the cookies to 2 Tbsp sized balls. I am also looking into using a cookie that just doesn't spread as much as these, with more flour or something so they look more like the prototype cookie in the Clumbsy Cookie blog.

Anyway, I just dropped off the cookies to Molly at her job and she liked them, they do taste awesome, but this recipe needs some tweaking to get in the all-time fave list.

Photo Credit: Clumbsy Cookie

Muffin Thursday: Chai Spice

Starting something new today: Muffin Thursdays. Every week a new muffin recipe. This week we're doing Chai Muffins. I got the idea from a combination of a chamomile cupcake recipe and chai shortbread cookies. I still want to try the chamomile in a muffin at some point. So I changed some of the proportions and added a few things to make these muffins more hearty and rustic.

(Makes 6 muffins)

Ingredients:

1/2 C Whole Wheat Flour
1/2 C AP Flour
1/3 C Bran Flakes
1/2 C Oats
1 Tsp Baking Powder
1/2 Tsp Baking Soda
1/4 Tsp Salt
1 1/2 Tsp Cinnamon
1 Tsp Allspice
2 Bags Chai Tea- put tea leaves right into dry ingredients bowl

1/2 C Sugar
2 Tbsp Molasses
1/2 C Milk
1 Egg
1 Tsp Vanilla
1/2 C Apple sauce or more if mix looks dry once wet and dry combined

Method:

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
Combine all dry ingredients (first paragraph of ingredients list) and set and set aside.
Combine all wet ingredients (2nd paragraph) and set aside
Pour dry into wet bowl and mix just until flour is absorbed. If mix is dry add a little milk or applesauce, if too wet throw in some more oats and mix just until combined.
Drop batter into muffin tins and fill just to the top or a little over,
Bake for 10-12 mins and then check them, they should bounce back to the touch and a knife should come out clean when stuck in the middle.

Enjoy!!

Sandwich Memories

So in my travels today I met a kid named Reuben, and that got me thinking about sandwiches. I've been working at the same restaurant for going on 7 years now and when I started I only worked lunches. Lunch was my jam!! Quick and dirty- in at 10:00 out by 4:00 and still have the rest of the day to do my thing. And we used to do the best sandwiches. Besides the reuben we had 2 that stand out in my mind:

1. The Monte Cristo Sandwich- literally french toast with honey mustard, ham, and melted swiss cheese.

First you make french toast, this recipe is ideal if you have left-over french toast, then you simply make a sandwich with the honey mustard, cheese and ham and put it in a hot pan with a little butter and cover until cheese is melted.

2. The Turkey Apple Melt- an open-faced sandwich on black bread with a cranberry spread, turkey breast, granny smith apples, and cheddar cheese that gets melted under the broiler.

For this one you take each piece of bread and cover with cranberry spread or other nice fruit spread, layer turkey, apples, and cheddar cheese. Then you pop it in the toaster until cheese is melted and bread is toasted. Eat each piece separately or smash together and enjoy!

Chef John

I don't know why but I really like this guy, Chef John. He has this random cooking show on youtube that I found while searching pie crust recipes. His crust actually looks really easy, here is the link. But there's just something about this guy!! I like his friendly voice and goofy sense of humor. And there's something a little mysterious about not being able to see his face in any of the videos. I have to check out his website and see if he has any good recipes to steal.

I'm Having A Craving...

...for Carrot Cake Muffins. And I just so happen to have some low-fat buttermilk in the fridge. I started keeping that, yogurt, sour cream, and cream cheese stocked in the fridge when I find it on sale for just this reason. Oh well I have to go to Produce Junction tomorrow anyway, I may as well pick up a bag of carrots.

Ingredients:

2 1/2 cups whole-wheat pastry flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon ground allspice
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 eggs
1/3 cup raw brown (turbinado) sugar
1/3 cup canola oil
1 1/3 cups buttermilk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2/3 cup golden raisins tossed with 1 teaspoon unbleached all-purpose flour, or 2/3 cup chopped pecans
1 1/2 cups grated carrots

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees with the rack in the upper third of the space. Oil or butter muffin tins.
2. Sift together the whole-wheat pastry flour, baking powder, baking soda, spices and salt.
3. In a separate bowl, beat together the eggs, sugar, oil, buttermilk and vanilla. Using a whisk or a spatula, stir in the dry ingredients and mix until well combined. Do not beat; a few lumps are fine, but make sure there is no flour at the bottom of the bowl. Fold in the raisins or pecans and the carrots.
4. Spoon into muffin cups, filling them to just below the top (about 4/5 full). Place in the oven, and bake 25 minutes until lightly browned and well risen.

Sharing Recipes

I have been bookmarking recipes for a while now, but I can't bake them quick enough! I tend to like simple recipes that don't take too much time, too many weird ingredients, or have too many steps. Here are a few that I have been wanting to try:

1. Healthy-Delicious' Earl Grey Banana Bread

2. Mel's Kitchen Cafe Banana Bars

3. Joy The Baker's Honey Chamomile Cupcakes

Photo Credits: Healthy Delicious, Mel's Kitchen Cafe, Joy The Baker

Never-Fail Banana Muffins

This is another recipe passed from my mother to me that I have been making for years. I don't really use a recipe anymore, I'm sure I change it with every batch. It's really easy and forgiving as hell. You can add all kinds of stuff and take away ingredients if someone has allergies.

Ingredients:

1 C Whole Wheat Flour
1 C AP Flour
1 Tsp B Soda
1 Tsp B Powder
1/2 Tsp Salt
A Few Shakes of Cinnamon, Cloves, Allspice, Ginger, and Nutmeg- depending on what you like

4 Bananas- old and brown (mashed)
1/4 C Oil
1/4 C Sugar/ Brown Sugar/ Honey- more or less depending on how sweet you like it
2 Eggs
2 Tbsp Molasses
Milk/ Soymilk/ OJ/ Applesauce- depends on what's in the fridge (This liquid is added only if
your batter is too dry- it probably will be because of the whole wheat flour) so add some
liquid of your choice in small splashes until the batter comes together and soaks up all the
flour.

Raisins
Nuts
Seeds
Oats
Coconut
Chocolate chips
Whatever you feel like adding that you have lying in the cabinet

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 400- muffins like it hot
2. Spray your muffin or mini-muffin tin with Pam
3. Combine all the dry and all the wet in 2 separate bowls
4. Mix each bowl until all the wet is combined and all the dry combined in their separate bowls
5. Pour the dry into the wet and mix with a wooden spoon just until the flour is incorporated-
do not over mix at this point or the muffins won't have any fluff to them.
6. Now at this point if your batter needs a little more moisture you are going to add one of
the optional liquid choices from the ingredients list. Just a little at a time until it all
comes together with no clumpy flour chunks. Remember not to over-mix it.
7. Lastly add whatever nut, fruit, seed, blah blah you want- totally up to you- walnuts and
raisins are always a good standard.
8. Fill your muffin tins to the top and pop them in the oven
9. Bake regular muffins to start at 20 mins and add 3 mins until they bounce back to the touch
and a toothpick comes out clean- better to under-bake a little than have a dry muffin so err
on the side of under-done. Mini muffins start at 10 to 12 mins and go from there.

If you are doing a loaf- like a banana bread- try 35-40 mins to start at 350-375 and add
time from there- this will take longer because it's more dense.
10. Let muffins cool and then pop them out and enjoy!!

Note:

These guys can be made without eggs- just add some applesauce, without oil- again sub applesauce or some other liquid from the optional liquid list. They can be made with gluten-free flour, with nuts or without, basically they can be tailored to any need.
I often make them with no added sugar- they're not cupcakes people, they're muffins- like for breakfast.

My First Pie: Fin

It's doooooone! Took almost an hour, and we ended up turning it up to 375 to finish because the fruit was still not bubbling. But then I heard the sizzle of it boiling over onto the bottom of he oven and we knew it was over. Pulled it out and now it's cooling.

So my impressions of this crust recipe is that it's not quite what I want in the end. Light and flakey but it was kind of hard to roll and it's not sweet enough. I will be experimenting for the next one but otherwise- nice first try!