Crunchy Baked Apple Stacks

I have been craving sweets a lot lately. But I have been resisting the urge to make things because for two people, it's just so much quantity to make a cake or a batch of cookies. But now that I have found these lovelies, I am really in trouble. This was a marriage of two recipes: one from Martha and one from Donna Hay, two kitchen geniuses so it was bound to be delicious. (Does that make me a super-genius for this recipe?)

Warm, sweet, easy and pretty. It doesn't get any better than this!

Crunchy Baked Apple Stacks

Serves 2

Printable Recipe

Ingredients

• 2 red apples, cored and thickly sliced
• 1/2 cup rolled oats
• 1/4 cup brown sugar
• 1/4 cup melted butter
• 1/4 tsp cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp vanilla

Directions

• Preheat oven to 355 degrees and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
• In a bowl, mix together oats, sugar, butter, cinnamon and vanilla.
• Place the bottom slice of each apple on the tray and top each slice with a spoonful of the oat mixture. Repeat with remaining oat mixture and apple slices.
• Bake stacks for 25-30 minutes or until apple is just soft.
• Serve with whipped or ice cream, if desired.

Recipe adapted from Donna Hay, No Time to Cook and Martha Stewart, The New Classics

Individual Fruit Pies in Cream Cheese Pastry

I'm a fan of foods that come in individual sizes: Timbits, Halloween-sized chocolate bars, Altoids Smalls. It just seems less overwhelming to see a box of Timbits than an entire box of donuts, or if someone offered me a small chocolate bar, I'd be much more inclined to take it over a full-sized one. Now, don't get me wrong, I have no illusions that I'm not going to eat the same amount as a full-sized anything -- in fact, I'm likely to eat more -- but when something comes in a small package, it just seems less overwhelming. Mind over matter, my friends.

Using that theory, I jumped at the chance to make these individual fruit pies instead of making a whole one. With just two of us at home, it seems a little gluttonous to make a whole pie, but four individual ones? A perfect way to satisfy a craving without eating half a pie (though, it's totally possible that by eating two of these individual ones, I did anyway).

This recipe, like any pie recipe, is totally adaptable, and can be filled with whatever you have on hand. I just happened to have the items it called for, but next time, I might omit the Craisins and put in more apple or pear.

Ingredients

Cream Cheese Pastry:

• 1/2 cup butter, softened
• 4 ounces cream cheese, softened
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1 tbsp icing sugar
• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

Filling:

• 2 tbsp orange juice
• 1 large apple, peeled, cored and chopped
• 1 ripe pear, peeled, cored and chopped
• 1/2 cup Craisins (dried cranberries)
• 3 tbsp sugar
• 1 1/2 tsp cornstarch
• 1/4 tsp cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
• 1/2 tsp grated lemon zest
• milk and granulated sugar (for glaze)

Directions

Cream Cheese Pastry

• Using a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, combine butter, cream cheese and salt until smooth
• Add icing sugar and 1/2 cup of flour at a time until just combined
• When the dough starts to ball up around the paddle, stop the mixer and scrape the dough onto a lightly floured surface
• Gently knead the dough. Divide into four balls, flatten each into a 1/2 inch disc and wrap in plastic. Refrigerate until firm enough to roll -- about an hour. 

Pies

• In a medium saucepan, combine the orange juice, apple, pear, cranberries and 2 tbsp sugar. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat, cover and cook for three minutes.
• Meanwhile, in a small bowl, combine the remaining 1 tbsp sugar, cornstarch and spices. Stir the mixture into the fruit and cook, stirring for one minute. Remove from heat and stir in lemon zest.
• Let the fruit cool.
• Use a floured rolling pin to roll each piece of dough into an 8 inch circle.
• Spoon about 1/4 of the filling over half the dough, leaving a 3/4 inch border along the edge.
• Moisten the edge of the pastry with a finger dipped in a little water, then fold the empty half of the dough over the filling. Pinch the edges together to seal.
• Place on baking sheet. Brush each turnover with a little milk and sprinkle with sugar. Poke a few holes in the top to let steam out while they bake.
• Bake at 400 F for 10 minutes, then reduce temperature to 375 F and bake for another 20 minutes or until golden brown. For even browning, rotate baking sheet halfway through baking.
• Transfer the turnovers to a wire rack and let cool.

** Freezing: You can freeze the unbaked turnovers on a baking sheet until they're firm, then wrap in wax paper and put in resealable freezer bag. Store in freezer for up to one month. To bake from frozen, just add a few minutes to baking time.

Recipe from Ezra Pound Cake

Pork Tenderloin with Apple Crust

We have a freezer stocked full of meat. I buy it at the grocery store when it's on sale, it immediately goes in the freezer and then it is forgotten about until the next week when I add to the stash and inevitably say "OH! I forgot I had that chicken!" It's a vicious cycle.

So last week, T. took out some pork out of the freezer and let it thaw in the fridge. Two days later when I was looking for something to make, I had this lovely, thawed pork tenderloin to dress up.

We don't eat a lot of pork, but I know that it pairs well with apples. I had a recipe in my file that I had made a note to adapt and the apple crust was born.

Ingredients

• 2 pounds of pork tenderloin (where I bought it, two pieces came together)
• 2 cups Italian seasoned bread crumbs (or you could add your own seasoning to plain ones)
• 2 apples peeled and minced
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 1/4 cup of olive oil

Directions

• Preheat oven to 400 degrees
• Mix bread crumbs, garlic and apple in a bowl. Slowly add olive oil to reach consistency that would be moist enough to stick to the meet when pressed.
• Place pork in shallow baking pan and press the crumb mixture onto all sides until pink is no longer showing, usally 1/4 inch thick.
• Bake for at least 35 minutes until a meat thermometer reads 165 degrees F, or until there is no pink when the pork is cut.
• If crust still isn't as crispy as you'd like, leave it under the broiler for five more minutes.
• Let pork rest for 10 minutes covered in tin foil before cutting into 1/2 inch slices.

Recipe adapted from http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Easy-and-Elegant-Pork-Tenderloin/Detail.aspx

Poppyseed Dressing

The summer is coming to an end so I have been craving the last bit of fresh summer goodness. I usually make this salad dressing for a traditional spinach and strawberry salad, but I used the mixed lettuce I had on hand, some last summer berries, goat cheese and walnuts. Refreshing and light -- exactly what I was looking for.

Ingredients

• 1/3 cup white sugar
• 1/2 cup oil
• 1/4 cup white vinegar
• 2 tbsp. sesame seeds
• 2 tbsp. poppy seeds
• 1/4 tsp. paprika
• 1/2 tsp. worcestershire sauce
• 1 1/2 tsp. minced onion

Directions

• Combine dressing ingredients and mix well
• Serve over your favourite salad

Dulce de Leche Peach Tart

Peach season is almost over here in Ontario, so I thought I would take one last kick at a peach dessert. As soon as I found this recipe, I made some dulce de leche so I could try this one out. The flavour of the tart was amazing, but my peaches were so juicy that the presentation was lacking -- a lot. While it is much easier to blanch the peaches, I highly recommend peeling them with a potato peeler. This will keep your peaches in tact, but you may also want to let them sit in a colander for awhile to get rid of the extra juices. There is no thickener in the filling, so no matter how long you leave it, it will not firm up -- trust me.

Ingredients

Crust:

• 1/4 cup unsalted butter
• 1 cup of sugar
• 1 1/4 cup flour
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp baking powder

Filling:

• 3 tbsp unsalted butter
• 2 tbsp dark brown sugar
• 1/4 cup dulce de leche
• 1 egg yolk
• 1 tsp vanilla
• Pinch of salt
• 5-6 large ripe peaches, peeled and thinly sliced
• 2 tbsp dulce de leche
• 1 tbsp sugar

Directions

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees
• To make the crust: Cream butter and sugar for a minute or two until well mixed, but still stiff.
• Sift together flour, salt, cinnamon and baking powder. Add to the butter mixture and briefly mix with your hands until crumbly and moist enough to hold together when pressed.
• Press into an 8 or 9 inch tart pan, making sure all sides are even and strong.
• Bake for about 10 minutes or just until the sides of the crust start to brown. Remove and let cool.
• To make the filling: In a mixer or food processor add the butter, brown sugar, dulce de leche, egg yolk, vanilla and salt. Mix until light colored and smooth.
• Spread the filling into the crust.
• Put the peach slices in a colander to drain excess juices for a minute or two. (Trust me on this, you don't want super juicy peaches or the tart will be runny)
• Place the peach slices on top of the tart, overlapping each other so that they are very close together. Make circles of peach slices until the entire tart is covered. 
• Brush 2 tbsp of dulce de leche evenly over the peaches. Sprinkle with 1 tsp. sugar.
• Bake for 25-30 minutes or until peaches are caramel colored and the tart is heated through. Remove and let cool.
• Serve warm or at room temperature

Adapted from Back to the Cutting Board

Brown Sugar Oatmeal with Berries

It's getting cooler here in the morning. One of my favourite things to do on a Sunday morning is snuggle up with my dog, a hot coffee and a warm breakfast and watch Sunday Morning on CBS. I usually make pancakes, but sometimes I'm looking for something easier so last week I pulled out a bag of Quaker oatmeal and I might not turn back. 

I pretty much followed the recipe until the end when I opted to make it a little more decadent by adding cream and sugar -- balanced out with some blueberries of course. 

Ingredients (makes 2 servings)

• 1/2 cup Quick oatmeal (3-5 minutes to cook)
• 1 cup water
• 1 tbsp brown sugar
• 1 tbsp cream
• 1/4 cup blueberries

Directions

• Bring water to a boil and add oatmeal cooking for 3-5 minutes (or, as per the bag's directions)
• Remove from heat and add brown sugar and cream. Stir in
• Add blueberries and mix in, letting warm up slightly
• Serve in bowls and sprinkle lightly with more brown sugar and a few more blueberries

Mango Chicken Curry

One of my favourite restaurants in Toronto is Salad King. They make the most delicious mango chicken that is sweet with a mango sauce full of chunks of mango and red and green peppers and served with a steaming side of rice. Due to a problem in the building, Salad King has been closed for months and I have been craving this delicious meal so to satisfy my craving, I turned to Google. I think mango chicken as I know it must be a Salad King original but I found a decent recipe on www.allrecipes.com.

This dish was more of a curry (and for those of you who don't know me well, spice and I are not super close), but since I was making it I could monitor the amount of spice I put in. This was also the first time I had cooked with coconut milk and I really liked how it added a light thickness to the meal. And, with the exception of the coconut milk, I had everything else on hand.

Overall, not exactly what I set out to make, but still a really good dish that I will certainly try again. 

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup chopped onion
• 1 medium sweet red pepper, julienned
• 1 medium green pepper, julienned
• 2 tsp vegetable oil
• 3 skinless, boneless chicken breasts, cut into strips
• 1 tbsp curry powder
• 2 tsp minced fresh ginger
• 1 tsp minced garlic
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/8 tsp cayenne pepper
• 1 cup chopped, peeled mango
• 3/4 cup coconut milk (I used lite)
• 2 tbsp tomato paste
• hot cooked rice

Directions

• In a large skillet, saute onion and red and green pepper in oil for 2-4 minutes or until crisp tender
• Add the chicken, curry, ginger, garlic, salt and cayenne. Cook and stir for 5 minutes
• Stir in the coconut mil and tomato paste. Bring to a boil.
• Reduce heat, cover and simmer for 10 minutes or until chicken is no longer pink.
• Add mango and simmer for a couple more minutes. 
• Serve over hot rice.

Recipe from www.allrecipes.com 

Peach and Vanilla Bean Pie

(it was hard to take a pic with eight people watching and wondering what I was doing!)

I love vanilla. It's one of my favourite ingredients to cook with and when I saw this recipe over at Ezra Pound Cake, I was excited for the opportunity to bake with a vanilla bean. I found whole vanilla beans at a local/organic type shop (The Big Carrot in Toronto) and the smell was divine. Even the grocery clerk smelled it and I enjoyed the scent wafting from my bag all the way home.

Using the bean was easier than I thought and I simply sliced it open and scraped out the paste. I feel like I've crossed another culinary milestone by using this fresh ingredient!

The vanilla took this basic peach pie over the top and I was excited to bring it up to a friend's cottage as a "thank you." I found it a little nerve-wracking taking up a dessert I myself had never tried (it's rude to cut a slice out before bringing it, right?), but the response was an overwhelming success! Whew!

Ingredients

• 2 basic flakey pie crusts
• 1 vanilla bean
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 3 tbsp cornstarch
• 5 cups peeled, pitted, and thickly sliced
• 2 tsp fresh lemon juice
• 2 tbsp cold, unsalted butter, cut into small pieces

Directions

• Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.
• Slit the vanilla bean lengthwise. Scrape the seeds from the bean and place them in a food processor. Add the sugar and process for about a minute. (I did this with my hand mixer/immersion blender and it worked fine). 
• Take 1/2 cup of the sugar and put in another bowl and mix with cornstarch. Set aside.
• In a large bowl, combine the peaches, sugar-cornstarch mix and lemon juice. 
• Roll the bottom layer of the pastry and place in pie plate. 
• Fill pie shell with peaches and dot the top of the fruit with butter.
• Drape top layer of pastry over filling. Cut off excess pie crust and tuck top layer over bottom layer and fold into pie plate. Flute edges with fingers and then poke steam vents in top of pie with a paring knife.
• Place the pie in the centre oven rack and bake for 30 minutes. Reduce the temperature to 350 degrees and continue to bake for 40-45 minutes, untill pie is browning and you can hear the juices bubbling. 
• Transfer the pie to a wire rack and immediately sprinkle half the remaining vanilla sugar (about 1/4 cup) over the top.
• Let cool for at least two hours.

** have some extra vanilla sugar? Try it in your coffee!!!

Recipe adapted from Ezra Pound Cake

Summer Fruit Crostata

When I make my flakey pastry dough, it makes five shells. This means I get two double crust pies and one pie bottom. Last time, I made butter tarts with the left over shell, and this time, I delved into the rustic pie or what Ina Garten calls a Crostata.

Hours before we had company for dinner, I pulled the pastry out of the freezer, let it thaw, threw in some fruit, loosely "closed" it and baked it. It was definitely rustic looking but something I would be proud to take as a dessert to a barbecue or picnic.

In mine, I used peach and blueberries because that's what I had on hand, but you could use any kind of pie filling and it would be great. Glad I have this quick and easy dessert in my back pocket for emergencies!


Ingredients

• 1 flakey pie crust
• 1 pound ripe peaches, peeled
• 1 pint blueberries
• 1 tbsp flour, plus 1/4 cup
• 1 tbsp sugar, plus 1/4 cup
• 1/4 tsp orange zest
• 2 tbsp orange juice
• 1/4 tsp kosher salt
• 4 tbsp cold butter, diced

Directions

• Preheat oven to 450 degrees and line a sheet pan with parchment paper.
• Roll the pastry into a large circle on a lightly floured surface and transfer to sheet pan.
• For the filling, cut the peaches into wedges and mix with blueberries. Toss them with one tbsp of flour, one tbsp of sugar, the orange zest and the orange juice. Place the mixed fruit on the dough circle, leaving a 1 1/2 inch border. 
• Combine the 1/4 cup flour, 1/4 cup sugar, salt and butter. Using two knives or a pastry blender, cut the butter into the dry ingredients until mixture is crumbly. Rub with your fingers until it starts to hold together. Sprinkle evenly over the fruit. Gently fold the border of the pastry over the fruit, pleating it to make an edge.
• Bake for 20-25 minutes until the crust is golden and the fruit is tender. Let cool for five minutes then use two large spatulas to transfer to a wire rack.
• Serve warm or at room temperature.

Adapted from the Barefoot Contessa at Home

Mixed Berry Muffins

It's berry season here in Ontario and I had an absolute abundance of berries on hand when I decided to make these. I laughed when I looked at these half way through cooking because the recipe told me "these muffins hide a sweet surprise" -- but the surprise of the berries were bursting all over my muffin tin. I actually think they looked better than if they were just a plain looking muffin. 

I will note that the "muffin" was pretty dense though -- more like a shortcake or even a scone. These would work really well as a summer dessert too -- add some fresh whipped cream and some extra berries on the plate and you're done!

Ingredients

For the filling:

• 2 1/2 cups mixed berries (I used blackberries, strawberries and raspberries)
• 3 tbsp sugar
• 2 tbsp water
• 1/4 tsp lemon zest

For the muffins:

• 3 cups self-rising flour
• 3/4 cup packed brown sugar
• pinch of salt
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 cup  butter, melted
• 1 1/4 cups milk
• 1 egg

Directions

• Preheat the oven to 400 degrees
• Combine all the filling ingredients in a small saucepan. Gently bring to a simmer and cook for five minutes until the berries give some of their juices. Set aside.
• For the muffins, combine the dry ingredients in a large bowl. Combine the butter, milk and egg in a small bowl. Add the egg mixture to the dry ingredients and stir until just combined.
• In a 12 tin muffin pan, use half the batter and spoon into each cup. Then spoon a layer of the filling and the add the remaining batter.
• Bake for 20 minutes.

Recipe from 500 Cupcakes

Plum Tart

Black plums are my favourite. They're in season right now and they're just massive in size and ridiculously delicious. We went to a new grocery story the other day that sells mainly local and organic foods and the plums were calling my name. As much as I love them though, I couldn't eat as many as I bought before they went too mushy so I decided to make a plum tart and boy was it incredible.

First of all, as a new baker, my presentation isn't always the best, so I love anything that is not only simple, but is easy to make look impressive. This one hit all the senses: it smelled amazing, it looked incredible and it tasted heavenly.

The decadent part of this tart is the sweet crust and the creamy custard. Sigh. This didn't last long in our house!



Ingredients

• 2 cups thickly sliced plums (pitted, but not peeled)
• 1/3 cup sugar
• 1/3 cup whipping cream
• 2 egg yolks
• 1/2 tsp vanilla

Pat-in Sweet Pastry:

• 1 1/2 cups flour
• 2 tbsp sugar
• 4 tsp cornstarch
• 3/4 cup cold butter, cubed

Directions


Pat-In Sweet Pastry: In large bowl, whisk together flour, sugar and cornstarch. Using pastry blender or 2 knives, cut in butter until mixture clumps together. With floured hands, press evenly into 9-inch (23 cm) round tart pan with removable bottom. Cover and refrigerate until chilled, about 1 hour.


Arrange plums, cut side up and slightly overlapping, in circular pattern over pastry. Sprinkle with all but 1 tbsp (15 mL) of the sugar.


Bake tart in centre of 400°F (200°C) oven for 15 to 20 minutes or until plums are softened.

Meanwhile, in bowl, whisk together cream, egg yolks, vanilla and remaining sugar; pour over fruit.


Bake tart for 25 to 30 minutes longer or until set, golden and knife inserted in centre of filling comes out clean. Let cool on rack. (Make-ahead: Set aside at room temperature for up to 3 hours.)

Apple Pie with Caramel Sauce

T. was going away for a boys weekend, so I thought I'd make something special for the guys to enjoy. He was kind enough to bring me back one slice (as I could hardly send a pie with one slice missing -- could I?) and it was delicious!

This amazing recipe had nearly 3,000 people give it five stars on www.allrecipes.com. What's special about it is that you pour a caramel sauce over the lattice top and then as it cooks, it seeps into the spaces between the slats and leaves a nice glaze on top. The presentation was amazing and it was a great opportunity to try out a new way to top a pie. 

Lattice was time consuming but surprisingly easy. I simply rolled out a pastry crust like I would if I was going to put on a regular top. Then, using a fork, I measured out even sections, and then I used a pizza roller and a box of tin foil as a guide to cut them. Then I draped every other piece over the pie -- this is important so they're even on the pie. Then, going the other direction, I wove slats through the pieces already on the pie -- one over, one under. What I found really helpful is each time I went to weave a new piece, I flipped up all the slats that it was going to go under, then I could just put it down, and flip the pieces back over. I found www.youtube.com very helpful for this visually!

Ingredients

• 2 flakey pie crusts
• 1/2 cup unsalted butter
• 3 tbsp flour
• 1/4 cup water
• 1/2 cup white sugar
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 6 baking apples, peeled, cored and sliced (I used Royal Gala)
• 1 tbsp cinnamon

Directions

• Preheat oven to 425 degrees.
• Melt the butter in a saucepan. Stir in flour to make a paste. Add water, white sugar and brown sugar and bring to a boil. Reduce temperature and let simmer, stirring often until forms a caramel consistency.
• Toss apples with cinnamon.
• Place the bottom crust in pie plate. Fill with apples, mounded slightly.
• Cover with a lattice work of crust. When finished latticing, tuck top crust into bottom crust and tuck into pie plate. Pinch crusts together with two fingers.
• Gently pour the sugar sauce over the crust. Pour slowly so it doesn't run off. Pour right over crust too, as it will seep into holes while cooking, but will leave a nice glaze on crust.
• Bake 15 minutes at 425 degrees. Reduce temperature to 350 degrees. Continue baking for 35 to 45 minutes, until apples are soft.

Blueberry Pie

I made another pie! This time it was made with fresh Ontario blueberries and I learned a few tricks along the way.

I spent some time on YouTube to learn how to roll the crust out and better make edges. The first time I made pie, I just cut off all the edges -- resulting in a pretty thin crust. This time, I learned to trim off the excess crust but to leave about an inch of dough around the edges, and then fold the top layer over the bottom layer and tuck inside the pie plate. I didn't do a great job, but I also tried fluting the edges here. So two pies down and already a vast improvement. 

I had this pastry dough in the freezer from the first batch that I made and it still tasted delicious. I had frozen the remaining pastry dough into balls (each ball makes one pie crust). To use it, I just left it in the fridge for a couple of days to thaw, then I rolled out as normal. 

With the pastry already made, this pie really just took about 20 minutes to prepare and then I popped it in the oven! Like the strawberry-rhubarb pie though, the fruit is really runny when it comes out of the oven, so it needed to sit for about three hours to firm up before I could cut it. It was worth the wait, for sure!

Ingredients

• 1 Flakey Pastry Crust
• 4 cups blueberries
• ¾ cup white sugar
• 3 tbsp cornstarch
• ¼ tsp salt
• ½ tsp ground cinnamon

Directions


1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees.
2. Mix sugar, cornstarch, salt and cinnamon and sprinkle over blueberries. Toss together.


3. Line pie dish with one pie crust. Pour berry mixture into the crust.


4. Cover with remaining pie crust. Cut off excess dough and fold edges (top over bottom) and tuck into pie plate. Slice air vents into top of pie.
5. Bake pie on lower shelf of oven at 425 for 15 minutes. Turn oven down to 375 degrees and bake for another 35 minutes, or until crust is golden brown.

Download printable recipe for Blueberry Pie

To Die For Blueberry Muffins

This recipe came from one of my favourite sites to scout recipes: www.allrecipes.com. On this site, someone will post a recipe and then other bakers and cooks can rate the recipe and write in what they liked about it -- or didn't like about it -- and often what recommendations they had for it. I like this site in particular because I enjoy other new chefs commenting on recipes and appreciate the feedback they offer.

This blueberry muffin recipe had 3,750 comments and received 4.5 out of 5 stars. And let me tell you, that many people certainly weren't wrong! This recipe is oustanding, ridiculously easy and full of ingredients I already had on hand (huge bonus). Plus, the crumble topping was a nice treat!

One of the things in particular I noticed when mixing this was how thick the batter was. It was unlike anything I had ever made before -- really dense and more cake-like than muffin. It bakes up really well and I wouldn't call the muffins light and fluffy, but they have a nice substance to them. Don't be shy on the blueberries either!

The original recipe said this made eight muffins, but I stretched it to 10 (in a regular muffin tin) so I had room on top to add the crumble mixture.

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 3/4 cup white sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/3 cup vegetable oil
• 1 egg
• 1/3 cup milk
• 1 cup fresh blueberries
• 1/2 cup white sugar
• 1/3 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/4 cup butter, cubed
• 1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

Directions

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Grease muffin cups or line with muffin liners.



Combine 1 1/2 cups flour, 3/4 cup sugar, salt and baking powder. Place vegetable oil into a 1 cup measuring cup; add the egg and enough milk to fill the cup. Mix this with flour mixture. Fold in blueberries. Fill muffin cups right to the top, and sprinkle with crumb topping mixture.


To Make Crumb Topping: Mix together 1/2 cup sugar, 1/3 cup flour, 1/4 cup butter, and 1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon. Mix with fork, and sprinkle over muffins before baking.


Bake for 20 to 25 minutes in the preheated oven, or until done.




Print recipe for To Die for Blueberry Muffins

Blueberry Buttermilk Pancakes

Every sunday morning, I make the same pancake recipe. It's easy and delicious, but this weekend, I had buttermilk in my fridge so I whipped out a brunch cookbook and found this new recipe. 

These pancakes are light and fluffy but rich and decadent at the same time. The batter -- which was full of air holes -- should have been a good indication of how light these were going to be. They were certainly a nice change to my regular stack and the kind of special occasion pancake you'd serve with warm maple syrup and whipped cream. Mmmm...

The trick to these is in the mixing. If you overmix the batter, the pancakes won't be moist and delicate. The batter, according to the recipe, should be thick and lumpy, but by the time I went to put my second batch on the skillet, it was light and airy. 

Ingredients

• 2 cups flour
• 1/4 cup white sugar
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 2 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 2 large eggs
• 2 cups buttermilk
• 1/4 cup butter, melted and cooled
• 1 cup fresh blueberries
• some butter to grease the skillet

Directions

In a large bowl, sift together the flour, sugar, salt, baking powder and baking soda.

In a separate bowl, beat the eggs with the buttermilk and melted butter.

Using a spatula, combine the dry and wet ingredients to make a thick, lumpy batter, being careful not to overmix.

In a non-stick skillet, melt some butter over medium heat. Ladle 1/3 cup batter into hot skillet and sprinkle with blueberries. Do not overcrowd the skillet because the pancakes will puff up and out as they cook.

When bubbles appear on the surface of the pancakes, and the edges begin to brown, flip the pancakes and cook the other side. 

Smother with maple syrup and a dollop of whipped cream.

Print recipe for Blueberry Buttermilk Pancakes

Recipe from Out to Brunch: A Mildred Pierce Restaurant

Orange Cranberry Muffins

These muffins were extremely moist and the batter was even really not like any other muffin batter that I've made before. The orange muffin on its own would have been really good, but I decided to add some craisins (cranberry raisins). For T, this put the sweetness scale over the top, but I really enjoyed them. So much in fact, that I forgot to take a picture of the finished product.

Either way, I'd definitely make these orange muffins again but instead of the craisins, I would maybe add some walnuts or raisins instead, just to try something different.

Ingredients

• 1 cup rolled oats
• 1 cup orange juice
• 1/2 cup butter
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1/2 cup white sugar
• 2 eggs lightly beaten
• 1 cup flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp taking soda
• 3/4 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp nutmeg
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 cup craisins (optional)

Directions

1. In a small bowl, soak oats in warm orange juice for 15 minutes.
2. In a large bowl, cream together butter and sugars. Beat in eggs and mix in oat mixture.
3. In a separate bowl, blend flour, baking powder, soda, salt and nutmeg. Stir into batter.
4. Stir in vanilla and craisins.
5. Spoon batter into prepared muffin pans (greased or with paper liners). This batter will be really liquidy, but the muffins will be soft and moist!
6. Bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes.

Recipe adapted from www.allrecipes.com