I made up this recipe (sort of)

For Bruce and Molly:  these are healthy so you don't have to feel bad about loving them.

Blueberry Orange Muffins

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup canola oil
• 1/2 cup apple sauce
• 6 egg yolks
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup or more OJ
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 2 mashed bananas
• zest of one orange

• 2 cups whole wheat flour
• 1 cup ap flour
• 2 tsp. baking powder
• 1/2 tsp. baking soda
• 1 tsp. salt

• 1 pint blueberries

Method:

Preheat oven to 430.  Paper a 12-cup muffin tin.  Mix all wet ingredients in one bowl, all dry in another.  Pour dry into wet and mix, then mix in blueberries.  Divide batter into muffin tray and bake at 430 for 7 minutes, then reduce temp to 400 and bake another 12 minutes until muffins are cooked through.  

Bran muffins on the weekend

How does a Maida Heatter bran muffin with fresh Jersey blueberries sound?  I went to Long Beach Island this past week with my friend Maya and her family.  We had a great time even though there was no sun for my whole visit!!  My friends Phil and Alisha went out fishing one night and cought bluefish that we cooked for dinner.  That was definitely the highlight of the vacation.  Fresh bluefish with garlic roasted in the oven.  On the way home I stopped at a farm stand on 206 that had the best watermelon I've had all year.  I also got tomatoes, peaches, green beans, and blueberries.  The first pint of blueberries got eaten pretty much right away, but the second one I reserved for baking.  And that's how this muffin came about...

Maida Heatter's Bran Muffins with Blueberries
Adapted from Maida Heatter via Star Chefs

Ingredients:

• 2 ounces ( 1/2 stick) unsalted butter
• 1/2 cup firmly packed dark brown sugar
• 1/4 cup dark or light molasses or honey

• 2 eggs (large grade)
• 1 cup low-fat buttermilk

• 1 1/2 cups bran cereal (do not use flakes, Maida recommends Kellogg's All-Bran)
• 1 cup raisins
• 1 cup blueberries
• 1 cup pumpkin seeds

• 1/2 cup unsifted whole wheat flour
• 1/2 cup unsifted all purpose white flour
• 3/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 1/2 teaspoon baking soda

Method:

If your oven can not fit both muffin tins side by side on the middle rack, adjust the 2 racks to divide the oven into 3rds.
Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.
Butter 18 2 3/4 inch muffin forms. Note: Buttering the tins will create a very nice crust for the muffins, if using paper cups the crust may be diminished but the muffins will keep longer.
Melt butter over low heat. In a large mixing bowl combine the melted butter, sugar and molasses or honey and stir to mix.
In a separate bowl beat the eggs and milk to mix.
Slowly add the egg mixture to the butter mixture stirring with a wire whisk to blend. Mix in the bran and raisins and let stand for a few minutes. Or cover and refrigerate overnight. Stir in pupmkin seeds and blueberries.
Sift together flours, salt, and baking soda and add to bran mixture. Stir quickly with rubber spatula just enough to moisten dry ingredients.
With a large spoon, fill prepared cups with batter about 2/3rds full.
Bake for 15 minutes rotating muffin pans once to insure even cooking. Muffins will be done when they spring back from touch. Note: If muffin mixture has been refrigerated, cooking time will be 4 minutes longer. Take muffins from oven and remove from baking tins immediately and cool on rack.

**Notes:

So in addition to the blueberries I added pumpkin seeds (because I had some in the fridge to use up) instead of walnuts.  I also used bran flakes even though she prefers to use actual bran cereal.  I opted for the molasses rather than the honey- I really like that dark richness from the molasses.  Lastly, I used buttermilk as my milk.  

Strawberry cake with jam and lemon curd

Question: What to do when you have a ton of fruit salad that's taking up all the room in your fridge? Aaaaaand you need to make a birthday cake for someone at your mom's work?

Answer: Strawberry cake with home-made strawberry and blueberry jam and lemon curd left over from the blueberry cake you made on Saturday!!

Strawberry Cake with Jam and Lemon Curd
Recipe adapted from Cooking by Moonlight

Ingredients:
(for the cake)

• 2 cups ap flour
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1 tbsp baking powder

• 1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, softened
• 1 1/3 cup sugar
• 2 eggs
• 2 tsp vanilla
• 1 1/2 cups strawberries, mashed

(for the jam)

• 2 cups strawberries and blueberries (you can pretty much use any berry combo)
• 1/2 cup sugar
• water

Lemon Curd Recipe Here

Method:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and grease and flour 2 9-inch round cake pans.
Sift together the flour, salt, and baking powder and set aside.
Mix together the softened butter and sugar until combined. (I let my butter soften in a dish on the stove while it's preheating). Then add the eggs and vanilla and stir to combine.
Pour the dry into the wet and stir until there are just a few small lumps. The batter will be stiff compared to many cake batters, that's okay... the strawberries will loosen it up.
Wash the strawberries and remove their green tops. Using a potato masher or fork mash the strawberries into strawberry soup. Pour the crushed strawberries, juices and all, into the cake batter and stir just until evenly distributed.
Pour the batter evenly into the two pans and use a knife or spatula to spread the batter evenly in the pans.
Bake at 350 for 20-25 minutes or until a cake tester comes out with just a few small crumbs attached.

Make the lemon curd according to the directions in the above link.

Make the jam by putting the berries, sugar, and a splash of water in a saucepan and cooking over medium heat for about 25 minutes, stirring pretty often. Don't put the heat too high or it will burn the bottom of the pan.

Once the cake, jam, and curd are cool, cut each cake layer in 2 to yield 4 layers. Put lemon curd in between two layers and jam in one layer and on the top of the cake.

I think tomorrow I am going to sift a little powdered sugar on top just to be fancy, this cake really doesn't need an icing, it's got all kinds of delicious spreads going on. I could see a ganache or something since strawberry and chocolate go so well together but I'm going to let this one be for now.

Mini- muffin madness

Let the mini-muffin baking begin!! My mom's school is having a breakfast tomorrow and I am in charge of baking the muffins. Four kinds in two hours, the only thing that held me up was that I only have two mini-muffin pans and I was making the batter way faster than I could bake and cool the previous batch. So I got a little backed up, but they came out great! I also ran out of muffin papers so I had to start spraying the pans with Pam and you know how that goes when blueberries are involved.

Honey Orange Corn Muffin with Raspberry Jam
Adapted from Eat Good For Life

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup canola oil
• 4 egg yolks
• 1/2 cup honey
• 1/8 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup orange juice
• Zest 1 orange
• 1 tsp vanilla

• 1 cup whole wheat pastry flour
• 3/4 cup yellow cornmeal
• 2 teaspoons baking powder

• raspberry jam

Method:

Preheat oven to 450 and paper 2 mini-muffin tins.
Mix all wet ingredients in one bowl and all dry in another.
Pour dry into wet and combine, don't over-mix.
Fill 32 of the muffin cups half way full with batter, then spoon a dollop (about 1/2 tsp) of jam on top of the batter and then spoon more batter on top of the jam.
Don't use too much jam or it will just spill out all over the pan and burn.
Bake at 450 for 3 minutes, then turn down to 400 and bake another 6 minutes or so, until they bounce bak to the touch.

Chocolate Chip Muffins
Adapted from Crumbs and Cookies

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 cups ap flour
• 1 tbsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp salt

• 2 egg yolks
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1/3 cup oil
• 1/3 cup milk
• 1 cup chocolate chips

Method:

Preheat oven to 450 and paper mini muffin tins.
Mix all dry ingredients in one bowl and all wet in another, then pour dry into wet and stir until just combined.
Stir in chocolate chips.
Fill as many cups as you can to the top, or a little over.
Put them in the oven at 450 for 3 mins, then turn down the oven to 400 and bake for another 6 mins or so.

Carrot Cinnamon Muffins
Adapted from My Fudo

Ingredients:

• 2 cups ap flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

• 2 1/2 cups grated carrots (one bag of baby carrots buzzed up in cuisinart)
• 4 large eggs
• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 1 cup canola oil
• 1 teaspoon vanilla

Method:

Preheat oven to 450 and paper mini muffin pan.
Buzz up the carrots in your cuisinart or grate them, one bag of baby carrots yields about 2 1/2 cups.
Mix the carrots with the rest of the wet ingredients and set aside.
Mix all dry ingredients and add to wet, stir to combine.
Pour batter into prepared pan and bake on 450 for 3 mins.
Turn down oven to 400 and bake for another 6 mins or so.

Blueberry Lemon Muffins
Adapted from Kitchen Lane

Ingredients:

• 2 cups ap flour
• 2 ½ teaspoons baking powder
• 1/8 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt

• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1/3 cup canola oil
• 3/4 cup milk
• 1 large egg
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• zest of one lemon

• 2 cups blueberries

Method:

Preheat oven to 450 and paper your mini-muffin pans.
Mix all dry ingredients in one bowl and all wet in another, add dry to wet and combine.
Mix in blueberries, don't over-mix batter.
Pour into prepared pan and bake at 450 for 3 mins.
Turn oven down to 400 and bake another 7 mins or so, until muffins bounce back to the touch.

Notes:

*Some of the batters came out a little bit wetter or dryer than I like, if it was too wet I added a little bit of ap flour, and if too dry I added a little extra milk.

**I have been baking my muffins starting out really hot for a few mins and then turning them down to finish because it makes them get big and crusty on top and nice and high.

Blueberry lemon curd cake

I made this cake for my friend's BBQ. It didn't last long!  Instead of the lemon cream I used lemon curd and it was what made the cake. I got a little confused by this recipe and ended up reading it wrong and not baking enough cake to make all 4 layers, so I suggest doubling this recipe and baking it in two 9-inch pans, then cutting each one in 2 to yield 4 layers.

Blueberry Lemon Curd Cake
Adapted from Lu Lu's Sweet Secrets


Cake Ingredients: (makes 1/2 the cake- double this recipe for 2 cakes/ 4 layers once cut)

• 1 1/2 cups flour, sifted
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons granulated sugar
• 1/2 cup skim milk
• 1/3 cup canola oil
• 1 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
• Finely grated zest of 1 lemon
• 1 teaspoon fresh lemon juice
• 4 large egg whites, room temperature
• 2 cups fresh Blueberries

Lemon Curd Recipe Here

Whipped Cream Ingredients:

• 2 cups heavycream, cold
• 2 tablespoons powdered sugar
• 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

Method:

Preheat oven to 350 and grease two 9" cake pans.
Mix flour, b powder, and salt in small bowl, set aside.
Mix 1/4 cup of the sugar, milk, oil, vanilla, lemon juice, and zest in, bowl set aside.
In the bowl of a stand mixer beat egg whites until foamy then slowly add the remaining 1/4 cup plus 2 tbsp sugar, beat until the eggs hold stiff peaks.
Fold half the flour mixture into milk mixture, then fold in 1/3 of the egg whites, then more flour, then whites and flour two more times until all folded in.
Add blueberries and divide the batter between the 2 prepared pans.
Bake for 30 minutes and test the center with a toothpick.
Add addition time in 3 min intervals until toothpick comes out clean.

Make lemon curd while cake is baking.

Once cake layers are completely cool you can cut each in half horizontally and spread the cooled lemon curd between each layer.

Make the whipped cream by beating the cream until it starts to stiffen.
Add the 10x sugar and vanilla and beat until it is firm.

The whipped cream gets dumped on top of the cake and then with a long off-set knife grab some from the top and apply to the sides. It doesn't have to be perfectly smooth, leave it a little lumpy and rustic.

Whole Wheat Blueberry Cornmeal Pancakes

It's Sunday morning, let's make pancakes!! The party's not over the day after a BBQ. I have to make pancakes for the neighbors and my mom and sister.

Ingredients:

1 1/ 4c whole wheat flour
1/2 c cornmeal
1 tsp salt
1 1/4 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda

1 1/2 c buttermilk
3 tbsp brown sugar
1 egg
1/2 tsp vanilla

water to thin batter

blueberries

Method:

Mix all dry ingredients in one bowl and then all wet in another bowl, pour the dry into the wet and then thin the batter to thick soup consistency with a little water.
Heat pancake pan and melt a little butter on there to grease it.
After you pour out the pancakes onto the pan add a few blueberries to each one, then flip them.

Muffin Thursday: Olive Oil Blueberry Muffins

This recipe comes to us from Giada De Laurentiis via Food Librarian.

Ingredients:

1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup oats

1/4 cup sugar
4 large eggs
zest of 1 lemon
2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
2 tablespoons 2% milk
3/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil

1 1/2 cups frozen blueberries

Method:

Preheat oven to 400.
Mix dry ingredients (1st paragraph) in small bowl.
Mix wet ingredients (2nd paragraph) in another bowl.
Mix dry into wet just until combined.
Fold in blueberries.
Put batter into muffin cups and bake about 25 minutes or until they bounce back to the touch and knife comes out clean.