More fun with cherries: a coffee cake

I have been obsessed with blueberry cakes recently.  I keep downloading all of these recipes for thick fluffy blueberry coffee cakes.  Is it because it's blueberry season or am I just in a cake phase?  It's probably because the pictures of these cakes are amaaaaazing!!!  So basically I got stuck on this one recipe for days because the photos were so gorgeous.  I switched out the blueberries for cherries because I still had some left over from my very dense cherry brownies.  I also changes from lemon zest to orange zest because I didn't have any lemons.

Cherry Buttermilk Coffee Cake
Adapted from Cooking Bride

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
• 2 teaspoons lemon zest (zest from 1 large orange)
• 3/4 cup plus 3 tablespoons sugar, divided
• 1 egg, room temperature
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 2 cups all-purpose flour, divided
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt
• 2 cups pitted and quartered cherries
• 1/2 cup buttermilk

Method:

Preheat oven to 350 and grease and flour a 9x9 pan.  Cream the butter, zest, and all but one tablespoon of sugar in your stand mixer.  Add the egg and vanilla to the mixer and beat just til combined.  In another bowl mix the flour (minus 1/4 cup reserved for later), b powder, and salt, set aside.  Toss the pitted and quartered cherries in the reserved 1/4 cup of flour, set aside.  Measure out the buttermilk and then add 1/2 the flour mixture to the mixer, alternating with 1/2 the buttermilk, mixing slightly in between, until all flour and milk has been added.  Add the cherries and beat on low til just combined.  Pour batter into prepared pan, sprinkle reserved 1 tablespoon of sugar on top, and bake for 45-55 minutes or until top is getting browned and a toothpick tester comes out pretty clean from the center.  

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.

Muffin Thursday: Lemon Thyme Date Muffins

These are really excellent muffins. The recipe was for a loaf cake but I didn't feel like waiting that long for them to bake so I made muffins instead. Plus they're easier to share this way. :-)

This recipe comes from The Dinner Vine. I changed the whole eggs to yolks and the original recipe called for blackberries but I used dates instead.

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups flour

2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
3/4 cup sugar
6 egg yolks
3 tsp lemon zest
2 tsp chopped, FRESH thyme
2 cups chopped dates
1/4 cup 2% milk
1/2 tsp vanilla
3/4 cup extra virgin Olive Oil (EVOO)

Method:

Preheat oven to 375 degrees and prepare muffin pan with papers.
In small bowl, combine dry ingredients: flour, soda, salt, set aside.
In another bowl combine eggs, lemon zest, and sugar, beating well.
Add vanilla.
Beat in milk.
Add oil, gradually, mixing until incorporated.
Add dry ingredients, only stirring lightly.
Now gently stir in dates and thyme until combined.
Bake in muffin pan for about 20 min or until they bounce back to the touch.

My First Pie: Part Deux

So the pie is in the oven and here's how we did it:

I cut up 5 apples: 3 granny smith and 2 fjui (each apple cut into 12 pieces), and a quart of strawberries (each cut in half). To that I added:

zest from one orange
2/3 C Sugar
1/4 AP Flour
1 Tbsp Lemon Juice

Mix up that mixture and then toss the fruit in it and set aside.
Then take your pie doughs out of the fridge and let stand for 5-10 minutes. Put a little whole wheat flour on your counter and dust your rolling pin and your work space. Using the weight of the rolling pin roll from the center out moving your dough clockwise until it is big enough to cover the bottom of your pie plate with plenty of room for the sides and the crimping around the edges. This lady on youtube does a good demo. Roll the dough over your rolling pin and use it to get it on the pie plate. Make sure that it's slightly pressed into the bottom corners and use egg whites to glue any pieces that fell off. Throw that baby back in the fridge and roll out your top using the same method- or make a crumble for the top and save that other half of dough for another pie with a crumble top. Once your top is rolled take the bottom from the fridge and pour in the fruit. Make sure that you don't have a mountain of fruit- make it kind of level or it will never cook all the way through. Using the rolling pin again roll the top layer onto the pie and crimp the edges. Here's a demo on crimping. Then, I scored the top to get 9 slices so it will be easier to cut later. I also cut 2 little holes in each top to let the steam out. Then it went in the oven at 450 for 10 minutes and then I reduced the heat to 350 for 35 minutes, or until the fruit is bubbling and the apples are tender but still have a bite to them.

Let cool then cut or your fruit will not be set and will run everywhere.