Tuesdays with Dorie: Pumpkin Muffins

I love fall! This recipe was the perfect recipe to ring in the fall season. There's nothing like the sweet aroma of pumpkin, allspice, ginger, cinnamon, and nutmeg all mixed together in one concotion that made up Dorie's Pumpkin Muffins--a recipe chosen by Kelly of Sounding My Barbaric Gulp. If you share my love for all things pumpkin--pies, muffins, rolls--head on over to her blog for the recipe! The recipe called for sunflower seeds and golden raisins, neither of which were in my pantry. I did have red raisins though and if I had done a little bit more thinking, I would have done what most TWD'ers did and added the chocolate chips I had on hand. Next time! When Rosie (my Kitchenaid) mixed up the batter, it was quite thick. Not surprising since I piled on the raisins and chopped pecans.

I used my cookie scoop to distribute the batter evenly (and with minimal mess!) into my muffin cups. I really packed the batter in. The recipe calls for about 20 minutes baking time and it's a good thing I thought to check in on the muffins a little early. Around 17 or 18 minutes, they had reached a very golden brown. I immediately pulled them out!

And this is what I got. I immediately took a taste test...well, both Lucy (my dog) and I did and we agreed that these muffins truly rock! They were warm, moist and so flavorful!

Since I didn't want to get stuck with a butt-load of muffins for the next week, I bundled the muffins up and took them to my Auntie's house for her potluck. I guess they were a hit because I didn't have any left over. I am definitely going to make these again...probably on Halloween because I plan on having some company over and the goal for that evening is to pig out on a smorgasbord of junk food! I can't wait!

By now, you should be dying to try these muffins! Then get on over to Kelly's blog for the recipe. And Kelly, you are to be commended for choosing it!

Strawberry Cream Cheese Muffins

I borrowed this recipe from Susan's blog, She's Becoming DoughMessTic. I've found some of the most creative, delicious recipes on her blog, so you should check it out. If you click on the link I've provided, it'll take you directly to the recipe for these delicious Strawberry Cream Cheese Muffins. I baked these, not only because my family came over for dinner last night and I needed to prepare a dessert, but because I needed something to cheer me up since my husband departed earlier that day (he'll be leaving for his deployment sometime this week)--and it sure did the trick!

What I liked was that they were so simple to put together. I was able to make a dozen and a half of these muffins. The sweet cream cheese in the center was the perfect compliment to the tart fresh strawberries and they were just so moist. All in all....they're to die for!

So if you're big on strawberries like me, or just want something to tickle your sweet tooth--this is it! Scoot on over to Susan's blog and check the recipe out!

Classic Banana Bundt Cake by Dorie Greenspan

As I mentioned in the this week's Tuesdays With Dorie post (which I posted earlier today), I had an inkling that I was going to struggle with the creme brulee recipe. In all honesty, I didn't struggle. It just didn't come out the way I had wanted it to. Oh well, it happens! So, over the weekend I experimented with Dorie's Classic Banana Bundt Cake as a back-up to the creme brulee--in case it went haywire. The recipe came from Dorie's cookbook, Baking From My Home to Yours.

I happened to have some extremely ripe bananas to use for the recipe, all of which I mashed up and added to the fluffy batter. There was so much batter, I was afraid it wasn't going to fit into the bundt pan!

It was an early Sunday morning when I made this cake, so invited my family over to share a few slices of the cake with me before going to church. The cake was an instant hit and I have to admit that I had more than one slice. In fact, I've had a slice for breakfast every morning since then--and there's still enough for two more slices! Here's a picture of my grandma enjoying her slice of banana cake!

If you're bonkers for bananas, you definitely need to try this recipe! It is so moist and the sour cream truly accentuates the flavor of the bananas. The recipe can be found on page 190 of Dori's book.

Tuesdays With Dorie: Dimply Plum Cake (for real this time)

I'm technically not late...when I removed the cake from the oven, it was 11:50 p.m. In any case, most of you saw my previous Dimply Plum Cake post where I featured the Peach/Basil version of this week's recipe challenge. I didn't want anyone to think I was copping out on the original recipe. I just had a huge test to prepare for. I took the test today and it totally knocked the wind out of me that I almost have no business baking a cake this late. What happens when it's late and you're tired? Yeah, silly things. Like accidentally dropping half an egg shell into the batter. Sure did. I did my best to get it all out, but if someone happens to feel a little crunch (or two, or three...) well.....my bad! I just didn't want all those ingredients to go to waste, you know? Looking at this picture, you wouldn't know anything had been dropped into the batter.

Anyway, I also had to bake the cake tonight because the plums I bought over the weekend were about to go bad. Now I've never used cardamom in any recipe before, but it smelled so good! When I took the cake out of the oven, the scent of the cardamom permeated the kitchen and my mouth was watering! This is what it looked like when I set it out to cool. You'll notice that I still didn't need as much fruit as the recipe recommended and the plums give the cake a nicer color.

I don't exactly know what happened during the transfer process. By the time the cake reached the plate, it had cracked around the edges, but you would never notice. I took the effort to make sure no one would notice by taking a semi-aerial photo of the cake. How did I do?

After slicing a small portion of the cake for myself, I decided that plum beats peaches, hands down.

The plums are tart, but subtly so. I think the cardamom does a great job of evening that out. The breaded part of this cake was so much more moist than the peach version too. Maybe that's just a baker error! So this wraps up yet another TWD week. Again, this recipe is featured on Michelle's blog--Bake-en! Enjoy!

Blueberry Buttermilk Coffee Cake

Okay, so this is actually the second time I'm typing this. I somehow pressed the wrong key and the previous entry just vanished before my eyes. Yeah, figures. Anyway, would I be considered a recipe thief if I've borrowed more than one recipe from a good friend's blog? I actually kinda feel guilty for it. But in my defense, Melissa's got so many simple and delicious recipes on her blog, Love at First Bite, that I totally believe call out, "make me! make me!", every time I'm on her site. Check it out...you'll probably end up doing it too.

Apparently, Melissa made this for her family while on vacation and they totally devoured the whole thing--which was no different in my household. The only problem...there was only my sister and I to do the eating. Thankfully, we couldn't eat the whole thing, but if I had absolutely no control, I probably would have. But Melissa, thanks so much for introducing me to another great recipe, which she found from a Good Housekeeping magazine. I'm going to try your Spaghetti Pie recipe next!

Well, I knew I had blueberries waiting in the refrigerator to be used. Not surprisingly, they'd been in there long enough to have a small patch of mold developing in the bottom corner of the container. Yikes! Yuck! Conveniently, we have a Safeway less than half a mile down the road and Roz and I set out to get blueberries and buttermilk, which the recipe also calls for. Duh--Blueberry Buttermilk Coffee Cake! Correct me if I'm wrong, but blueberries must be out-of-season, because they weren't where they usually are in the produce section--next to the packaged strawberries and raspberries. Or maybe I was just losing my mind--who knows? That happens a lot! Highly disappointed, we set out to the freezer section to get frozen blueberries. We got enough of those and buttermilk to make another batch on the weekend and headed home.

The frozen blueberries, just slightly thawed, folded into the batter so easily. The batter was just so creamy and rich when we poured it into the pan and even more enticing when we scattered the streusel topping on. Yummy!

Oh my gosh! And when it came out, the smell was just heavenly. I can't even describe it! You're supposed to cool the cake for a while before digging in, but we couldn't help it. We totally just scooped ourselves out a generous serving.

This is seriously how much the two of us ate all by ourselves. I'm taking it to my mom's house before I head out to school, just so I'm not at home alone munching on it! I have my uncles coming back out to my house this weekend to finish up my fence. They're just going to love it to start out their morning! Here's the recipe and I do hope you enjoy it. Thanks again to Melissa for sharing this recipe!

Blueberry Buttermilk Coffee Cake

(from Good Housekeeping magazine)

Streusel Topping:

2/3 cup packed brown sugar

1/2 cup all-purpose flour

4 Tbsp. cold butter or margarine, cut up

Coffee Cake:

2 and 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1 and 1/2 tsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp. baking soda

1/2 tsp. salt

1 and 1/4 cups granulated sugar

10 Tbsp. butter or margarine (1 and 1/4 sticks), softened

2 large eggs

1 tsp. vanilla extract

1 and 1/4 cups buttermilk

1 pint blueberries (about 2 and 1/2 cups)

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease 13" by 9" metal baking pan; dust with flour.

2. Prepare streusel topping: In medium bowl, combine brown sugar, flour and butter. With fingertips, work in butter until mixture is crumbly. Refrigerate streusel while preparing cake.

3. Prepare coffee cake: On waxed paper, combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. In large bowl, with mixer at low speed, beat sugar with butter until blended. Increase speed to medium-high; beat until creamy, about 2 minutes, frequently scraping bowl with rubber spatula. Reduce speed to low; add eggs, 1 at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in vanilla.

4. At low speed, beat in flour mixture alternately with buttermilk, beginning and ending with flour mixture. Beat just until batter is smooth, occasionally scraping bowl with rubber spatula. With spatula, fold in all but 1/2 cup blueberries.

5. Spoon batter into prepared pan; spread evenly. Sprinkle batter with reserved blueberries. With fingers, press streusel into clumps; sprinkle evenly over batter. Bake coffee cake 35 to 40 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool cake in pan on wire rack 1 hour to serve warm, or cool completely to serve later.

Makes 16 servings.

Baked Eggs in Maple Toast Cups

I "borrowed" this recipe from my friend, Melissa Devoe, whose cooking blog is on my blog list and let me tell you--it's a simple and delicious recipe that you'll want to make almost on a daily basis!

I've made batches of these cute, yummy treats about three times and my husband absolutely loves them. It was just a nice variation to the typical 5-scrambled egg and bowl of cereal breakfast that he's so accustomed to. I typically don't wake up in time to even make myself breakfast, but these are definitely worth the time and effort!

The recipe says to bake for approximately 8 to 10 minutes. If you're like me and like firm eggs and a crunchy crust, then you should time the oven for 15 to 20 minutes. The saltiness of the bacon combined with the sweetness of the maple syrup is so mmmm.....good! Oh, I even doubled the sweetness by using maple bacon.

Try it and enjoy! And thanks to Melissa for sharing such a lovely treat!

Baked Eggs In Maple Toast Cups
(adapted from Dakin Farms)

1 and a half Tbsp. butter
1 and a half Tbsp. pure maple syrup
6 slices thin sandwich bread
3 slices bacon, cooked until crisp and broken into small pieces
6 large eggs

1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Grease 6 muffin cups. In a small saucepan, melt the butter and add the syrup.

2. Remove the crusts from the bread. Flatten each slice with a rolling pin. Brush both sides of the bread with the syrup mixture. Pat the bread into the muffin cups and sprinkle the bacon pieces into the bottom of each cup. Break an egg into each cup and bake until the eggs are set; this will take approximately 8 to 10 minutes, check regularly.

3. Lift the toast cups from the tin and serve immediately, drizzled with additional syrup, if desired.Serves 3 to 6.