Carrot Cake Muffins

This recipe is from a book I bought in 1982 to send to my daughter-in-law in St. Louis.  I copied a lot of the recipes before mailing and I’m just getting around to making this one.  It’s a very good muffin – moist and full of healthy things like carrots and pineapple.

CARROT CAKE MUFFINS

• 1-3/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 2/3 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
• 1 tsp. baking powder
• 1/2 tsp. baking soda
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 tsp. ground cinnamon
• Dash of mace
• 1 egg
• 1/2 cup crushed pineapple, drained (juice reserved)
• 1/4 cup reserved pineapple juice
• 1/2  cup vegetable oil
• 1-1/2 tsp. vanilla
• 2 cups shredded carrots
• 1/2 cup raisins

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.  Grease or insert liners in 12 muffin cups.

In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, brown sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon and mace.

In a medium bowl, whisk the egg lightly,  stir in the pineapple, juice, oil and vanilla.

Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients and add the pineapple mixture, stirring just to combine.

Stir in the carrots and raisins.

Spoon batter into prepared cups and bake for 15 to 20 minutes, until a tester inserted in the center of one muffin comes out clean.

Remove muffin tins to wire rack and let cool 5 minutes.  If using silicone liners, I like to remove them right away to cool on a rack.

Remove the muffins from the cups/liners and finish cooling on rack.

Makes 12 muffins.  These muffins freeze well.

Walnut Streusel Coffeecake

This recipe makes a nice nine-inch cake that is big enough for a family breakfast (leftovers are good, too).

WALNUT STREUSEL COFFEECAKE

• 1 egg
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 1/3 vegetable oil
• 1 Tblsp. baking powder
• 1 tsp. salt
• 1 cup milk
• 2 cups all-purpose flour

Streusel:

• 1/4 cup chopped toasted walnuts
• 1/3 cup light brown sugar
• 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/2 tsp. cinnamon
• 3 Tblsp. melted butter

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.  Oil a 9-inch baking pan

In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the egg, sugar and oil.  Whisk in the baking powder and salt, then the milk.  Stir in the flour just until blended.

Pour into the prepared 9-inch baking pan.

To make the Streusel:  In a small bowl, stir together nuts, brown sugar, flour and cinnamon.  With a fork, mix in the melted butter.

Sprinkle the Streusel on top of the batter in the pan.  Bake @ 350 degrees  F for approximately 30 minutes until top is golden brown and a tester comes out clean when inserted in the center of the cake.

Set on a wire rack to cool.

Serve warm or at room temperature.

Leftover Biscuit Pudding

Normally, I make up my Biscuit Mix* and keep it in the refrigerator until I’m ready to make just a few biscuits for my daughter and me.  I use 1/4 cup of the mix and about a tablespoon of milk per biscuit.  This time, when I made up the mix, I forgot and added the full ¾ cup of milk and we had 10 biscuits which were good hot from the oven but not that great reheated.  Then, I remembered seeing a post on Syrup and Biscuits about her country grandma who made a kind of bread pudding out of leftover biscuits.  This sounded like a good answer to my problem and it was.  The pudding has a smoother, lighter texture than regular bread pudding and it’s very good – just like something Grandma might have made.

LEFTOVER BISCUIT PUDDING

• 4 or 5 baking powder biscuits (about 2-½ inches dia. )
• 2-½ cups milk, divided
• ½ cup granulated sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 tsp. vanilla
• ½ tsp. cinnamon

Preheat oven to 325 degrees F

Butter or spray a 9-inch square baking dish

Crumble biscuits over the bottom of the 9-inch prepared baking dish.

Pour 1 cup of milk over the biscuit crumbles.

Allow the mixture to soak until milk is absorbed.  Sprinkle granulated sugar over the top of the mixture.

In a 2-cup measure, place the eggs, vanilla, cinnamon and the remaining 1-½ cups of milk.  Whisk until blended.

Pour milk mixture over top of biscuits.

Bake @ 325 degrees F for 40 to 45 minutes until top is browned and mixture is set.

Best served warm.  Leftovers could be warmed briefly in the microwave.

Servings:  6-8

One-fourth cup of raisins or nuts could be mixed with the biscuit crumbles before the milk is added.

The pudding is very good served plain, but Syrup and Biscuits served her pudding with a rich bourbon sauce.  I opted for a lower fat version with a mellow bourbon flavor.

LOWER FAT BOURBON SAUCE

• ½ cup granulated sugar
• 2 Tblsp. cornstarch
• 1 cup cold water.
• 2 Tblsp. butter
• 3 Tblsp. bourbon

In a small saucepan place sugar cornstarch and cold water.  Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and let simmer for 3 minutes.

Remove from heat and stir in butter until melted.  Stir in bourbon.

Makes about 1-½ cups of sauce

*Biscuit Mix

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 tsp. salt
• 1 Tblsp. baking powder
• 1/3 cup vegetable shortening

This amount of mix combined with ¾ cup milk will make ten 2-½-inch biscuits.  Bake @ 410 degrees F for 12 minutes.

Refrigerate mix in a covered container and use ¼ cup of mix plus about 1 Tblsp. Milk for each biscuit.  This mix is also good for dumplings or as a topping for casseroles.

Faux Maple Muffins

I started to make these muffins and found that I didn’t have the maple syrup or buttermilk that the recipe called for and had to improvise.  This version turned out very well – not too sweet and with a nice maple flavor.

FAUX MAPLE MUFFINS

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 tsp. baking powder
• 2 Tblsp. dark brown sugar
• 1/4 tsp. salt
• 1 egg
• 1/2 cup pancake syrup
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1 tsp. maple flavoring
• 1/3 cup oil (Canola)
• 1 cup toasted, coarsely chopped walnuts

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.  Oil 11 muffin cups – or insert paper/silicone liners.

In a medium bowl, stir together the flour, baking powder, brown sugar and salt.

In a large bowl, whisk together the egg, pancake syrup, milk and maple flavoring.  Add the dry ingredients and stir just until blended.  Stir in the chopped walnuts.

Divide batter between 11 muffin cups.  Fill the empty muffin cup with water.  Bake @ 350 degrees F for approximately 20 minutes or until a tester inserted in the center of one muffin tests done.

Cool muffins in pan on wire rack for 5 minutes.  Then, remove muffins from pan and from silicone liners and finish cooling on rack.

Yield:  11 muffins

I have a note in my recipe binder for 9/26/09:  Made for breakfast on a grey, drizzly Saturday morning – excellent.”

Best of Show Chocolate Zucchini Bread

I started making zucchini dishes in 1982 when my husband, 12-year-old daughter and I were living in Blue Jay, Ohio, on the Indiana border.  We had two acres which my husband had filled with every kind of plant, tree and bush that would produce something edible – barely leaving room for a small house in the center.  He loved to grow zucchini because he was rewarded with basket after basket of them and as a novice country dweller, I tried to make use of every single piece of fruit or vegetable he brought in the house.

By 1987, I had tried a lot of zucchini recipes and was looking for something different to take to our Hamilton County Fair (Cincinnati).  I decided to take a favorite recipe from the Bear Wallow Zucchini cookbook and change it from a spicy zucchini bread to a chocolate one.  The bread not only won the blue ribbon at the fair, but also won the Best of Show rosette.  It’s a delicious zucchini treat.

BEST OF SHOW CHOCOLATE ZUCCHINI BREAD

• 3 eggs
• ¼ cup cocoa
• 1 cup vegetable oil
• 1-¾ cup granulated sugar
• 3 tsp. vanilla
• 2 cups grated zucchini (unpeeled)
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 tsp. soda
• 1 tsp. salt
• 1 cup chopped toasted walnuts

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
Grease and flour loaf pans of your choice

In a large mixing bowl, whisk eggs; add cocoa and whisk until smooth.  Whisk in oil, sugar and vanilla.

Stir in zucchini.

In a medium bowl, sift together the flour, soda and salt.  Stir into zucchini mixture.  Stir in walnuts.

Pour into greased/floured pans, filling about 3/4 full, and bake @ 350 degrees F.

Loaves are done when a tester inserted in the center of a loaf comes out clean

• Two 9×5 loaves – bake for approximately one hour
• Two 7-1/2×3-¾ loaves and one 5×2-1/2 mini-loaf  – bake for approximately 50 minutes (check mini-loaf at 35 minutes).
• Six 5×2-1/2 mini-loaves and one 7-1/2×3-¾ loaf for approximately 50 minutes (check mini-loaves at 35 minutes).

Allow bread to cool in pans for 5 minutes, then remove to cool completely on a rack.

This is one quick bread that could easily be a dessert.  It’s rich, chocolatey, moist and full of crunchy nuts.  But the most important thing to me in 1987 was that it used 2 cups of zucchini.

My picture was taken for the fair’s publication, “The 132nd Annual Hamilton County Fair Salutes its 1987 Best of Show Winners”.  (I had won Best of Show with three different items that year.)

Orange Walnut Muffins

I first made these muffins in 1987, adapted from a recipe I found in a library book, Colonial Old Treasures. The muffins are nice for breakfast or snacking – not too sweet, a good texture, and a “must” for me – full of walnuts.

ORANGE WALNUT MUFFINS

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 tsp. salt
• 1 tsp. baking soda
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 egg
• 1/4 cup oil (Canola)
• 1/2 cup orange juice concentrate plus 1/2 cup water
• 1 tsp. grated lemon peel
• 1 cup chopped English walnuts

In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, salt and soda.  Set aside

In a separate medium bowl, whisk together the sugar, egg, oil, orange juice and lemon peel.  Stir in the reserved flour mixture just until the dry ingredients are absorbed.  Stir in the chopped nuts.

Divide among 12 greased muffin tins or 12 silicone baking cups.  Bake @ 350 degrees F for approximately 25 minutes, until tops are golden brown and a tester inserted in the center of a muffin tests done.

Let rest in the pan for 5 minutes, then remove and let cool on a wire rack.

Serve warm.

Yield:  12 muffins.  Leftovers can be warmed in a 350 degree F oven.  Muffins can also be frozen.

Irish Brown Soda Bread and Colcannon

I have a very slim Irish line in my ancestry, but I married a man who was was fiercely proud of his Irish lineage.  Frank used to take off work on St. Patrick’s Day so he could grab his green derby and head for the nearest pub to spend the day.  One St. Patrick’s Day, he showed up on the evening news coverage at Hap’s Irish Pub with his derby slightly askew,  surrounded by his cronies, waving a big mug of beer and bellowing out, “When Irish Eyes are Smiling”.  His mother said, “Jesus, Joseph and Mary, I’m mortified to death” that her friends saw him in such a state, but this is the woman who was doing the Irish jig for her grandchildren well into her 80s and who said her grandmother washed her clothes on the banks of the river Shannon.

So, I raised four mostly-Irish children and celebrate St. Pat each year with some Irish food.  My oldest daughter was in an Irish dance group and I loved going to the competitions and the annual Feis.  In 1990, they had a food competition and I entered the Scone, Soda Bread and Brown Soda Bread contests.  I won a first-place gold medal in each of the divisions.  I was particularly pleased because the judges were some visitors from Ireland.

IRISH BROWN SODA BREAD

• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 cup whole wheat flour
• 2 Tblsp. dark brown sugar
• 2 tsp. baking powder
• 1 tsp. baking soda
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 3 Tblsp. softened butter
• 3/4  cup raisins
• 1 cup buttermilk

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F

Lightly grease a flat baking pan

In a large bowl, sift together the flour, brown sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt.  Cut in the softened butter until mixture looks like fine crumbs.  Add raisins.

Add buttermilk, mixing with a fork until dry ingredients are absorbed.  Turn out onto a lightly floured board and knead gently until smooth, adding flour as needed (about 1/2 cup).  Dough will still be slightly sticky.  Shape into a ball and place on the greased baking pan, forming  into a 7 x 1-1/2 inch circle.  Press a large floured knife into the center of the loaf almost through to the bottom.  Repeat at right angles to divide the loaf into quarters.

Bake @ 375 degrees F for 30-40 minutes until top is golden and loaf sounds hollow when tapped.  Remove to wire rack to cool.  Brush top with melted butter.

Makes one loaf.  From a cookbook published by the Cincinnati Hoxworth Center called Adventures in a Culinary Vein.

The recipe for Colcannon comes from a cookbook my daughter brought back from Ireland, A Taste of Ireland by Theodora Fitzgibbon.  I adapted the recipe by using half of the butter and cream it called for.  Having tasted Ireland’s wonderful butter and cream, I can only imagine how rich the original dish is.  My family likes this version with a little less fat.

COLCANNON

• 4 cups shredded cabbage
• 6 medium potatoes, peeled and quartered
• 2 green onions with tops
• 1/2 cup cream
• 1 tsp. salt, divided
• Grindings of black pepper
• Pinch of mace
• 1/4 cup butter, divided

Cook cabbage until tender.  I like to steam it for approximately 20 minutes.

Cover potatoes with cold water and cook on medium high heat for 20-30 minutes until potatoes are done, then drain.

While potatoes are cooking, cut up the green onions in small pieces.

Place in a small saucepan and cover with cream (about 1/4 cup).   Simmer on low until onion is soft.

Beat drained potatoes with 1/2 tsp. salt, grating of black pepper, mace, 2 Tblsp. butter and green onions with cream.  Add additional cream to get desired consistency (about 1/4 cup).

Place cooked cabbage in a large pot, add 1/2 tsp salt, grating of black pepper.   Add the mashed, seasoned potatoes.

Mix well and turn into a large serving bowl.  Make a well in the center and place 2 Tblsp. butter in the cavity.

Serve piping hot.

I started making this dish in 1993.  The cookbook suggests frying leftovers like potato pancakes in bacon fat or butter.  I haven’t tried this because we never seem to have leftovers.

HAPPY ST PATRICK’S DAY.

P.S.  I came out to the kitchen this morning to find two handmade gifts from my daughter.

Maple Walnut Muffins

This is how it looked outside today – two inches of snow on the ground and four to six more inches due by suppertime.

This is how it looked inside.

Yesterday,  my daughter had brought home these daffodils, bright with the promise of spring.

Meanwhile, we need something warm and comforting.  How about some Maple Walnut Muffins?

I copied this recipe from a muffin cookbook that I sent my daughter-in-law as a birthday gift in the early 1980s.  We have enjoyed this muffin ever since.  It has a good maple flavor and the crunch of toasted walnuts.

MAPLE WALNUT MUFFINS

• 1 egg
• 1/2 cup maple syrup
• 1/2 cup buttermilk
• 1/2 tsp. vanilla
• 1/2 tsp. maple extract/flavoring
• 1/3 cup margarine, melted and cooled
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1-1/2 tsp. baking powder
• 1/2 tsp. baking soda
• 2 Tblsp. dark brown sugar
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1 cup toasted, coarsely chopped walnuts*

*To toast walnuts:  Spread in a single layer on a baking sheet and bake at 350 degrees F for 6-7 minutes, stirring once or twice.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F

Grease 12 muffins cups or use paper or silicone liners.

In a large bowl, whisk together the egg, maple syrup, buttermilk, vanilla and maple extracts and cooled melted margarine.

In a separate medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, brown sugar and salt.  Add to the egg mixture and stir just until blended.  Stir in the chopped walnuts.

Spoon batter into 12 prepared muffin cups.  Bake at 400 degrees F for 15-20 minutes until a tester inserted in one of the muffins comes out clean.  Place muffin pan on rack and cool for 5 minutes…

…then remove the muffins from the cups/silicone liners and continue cooling on a wire rack.

Serve warm from the oven or wrap and store for 2-3 days.  These muffins also freeze well.  To warm stored or thawed muffins, place on a pan in a cold oven.  Turn heat to 350 degrees F and after 10 minutes or so when it has reached 350, turn off heat and remove from oven.  They will be just right to eat.

The Best of 2010

It’s been another fun year of blogging and on this last day of 2010, I revisited the 10 most popular of the past year’s posts.

Farmer’s Wife Sampler Quilt

Round Patchwork Tablecloth

The Next Best Thing to Robert Redford Dessert

Irish Lemon Blackberry Sponge Pudding

Pork-Apple-Sweet Potato Casserole

Peach Crumble Pie

Creamy Ham Tetrazzini

Vintage Hanky Heart Pillow

Light Pineapple Cheesecake

Tasty Gingerbread Muffins

Happy New Year to All!

Cappuccino Chip Muffins and Spread

This recipe is from a book on muffins which I bought for my daughter-in-law in 1982.  I copied a lot of interesting recipes before I sent the book on to her and have just gotten around to baking this one.  I should have done it earlier – they’re really good.

CAPPUCCINO CHIP MUFFINS

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 3/4 cup granulated sugar
• 1-1/2 tsp. baking powder
• 2 tsp. instant espresso coffee powder
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon
• 1 cup milk
• 1/2 cup butter, melted and cooled
• 1 egg, lightly beaten
• 1 tsp. vanilla
• 3/4 cup chocolate chips (I like Ghirardelli milk chocolate chips)

Preheat oven @ 375 degrees F

Grease or place paper cups or silicone liners in  a 12-cup muffin tin

In a large bowl, stir together flour, sugar, baking powder, espresso coffee powder, salt and cinnamon.

In another bowl, whisk together milk, butter, egg and vanilla until blended.

Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients; add milk mixture and stir just to combine.  Stir in chocolate chips.

Spoon batter into prepared muffin cups; bake approximately 20 minutes @ 375 degrees F or until a cake tester inserted in the center of one muffin comes out clean.

Remove muffin tin to wire rack.  Cool 5 minutes before removing muffins from cups.  If using silicone liners, remove the muffins in the liners to a wire rack to cool for 5 minutes, then remove from liners.  Continue cooling muffins on the rack.

These muffins freeze well.

They are delicious plain or extra-delicious served with an Espresso Spread:

ESPRESSO SPREAD

• 4 oz. cream cheese, softened
• 2 Tblsp. chocolate chips (Ghirardelli Milk Chocolate Chips)
• 1 Tblsp. granulated sugar
• 1/2 tsp. instant espresso powder
• 1/2 tsp. vanilla

Mixing can be done by hand, but a small food processor makes quick work of it.  Place the chocolate chips in the food processor and grind into small pieces.  Add sugar and espresso powder and process to blend.  Add cream cheese and vanilla and process until smooth

Remove spread to a small bowl.  Serve immediately or cover and refrigerate.  To serve, let stand 10 minutes at room temperature to soften.

Makes approximately 1-1/2 cups.