Back to School Baking.....muffins!

September is back to school time.  It is usually at this time of the year I contemplate what sort of baked goods I am going to make for lunches.  I scour the internet and my recipe books in search of new recipes.

A few weeks ago I bought some great B.C. peaches (for those of you not knowing....B.C. is British Columbia - another Canadian province.).  These peaches are so sweet and tasty.  I have made a few peach pies with them.  We also have enjoyed them fresh....cut up and served on ice cream.

I still have some peaches left over and wanted to try to make some muffins out of them.  I am always trying to get my kids to eat fruits and veggies and I have found muffins are a great way to do this.  I have never made peach muffins before so I was up to the challenge.

I came across a recipe here at food.com.  I always am modifying recipes and thought I could tweak this one a bit to suit our tastes.

Here is what I came up with:

Peach Muffins

1 c. all purpose flour

1/2 c. whole wheat flour

3/4 tsp.salt

1/2 tsp. baking soda

1/2 c. granulated sugar

1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon

2 eggs, well beaten

1/4 c. vegetable oil

1/4 c. applesauce

1 tsp. vanilla

1 1/4 c. chopped peaches

Directions:

Preheat your oven to 350F. Grease your muffin tins lightly.

Combine dry ingredients.  Mix well and add the eggs, oil, applesauce and vanilla.

Stir in the chopped peaches.

Distribute batter into your greased muffin tins.  Bake at 350 for 20-25 minutes (this depends on your own oven of course!) until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.

Here are my muffins.  I think I might up the cinnamon to 1 tsp. next time...we like cinnamon here!  I sprinkled a little sugar on the top of each before baking but think maybe next time I will make a cinnamon streusel topping to go on top of each muffin....YUM!

Update:  After DD got home from school she tried one and they are a hit!  I definately will be making these again!

My take on the Rainbow cake.....thanks Pinterest!

This year I told my daughter she could pick out any cake she wanted for her birthday cake.  One day, while she was peeking over my shoulder while I was surfing around on Pinterest she spied the cake she wanted.  A  rainbow cake!

I thought it looked easy enough and was eager to try it out.  Here are some photos of our rainbow cake.  Thanks Pinterest!

If you want to follow me on Pinterest I am found here:

Bowls and cake pans all ready to go

Food colouring is added to the cake batter.....surprisingly it took more than I thought to get the proper colours

Food colouring all mixed into the cake batter

All ready to bake

Our rainbow birthday layer cake

The rainbow cake was such a hit that I decided to make another batch (using a little less colouring) and make rainbow cupcakes.

Rainbow cupcakes

My new cookie recipe!

I was recently going brought the cupboards (spring cleaning) and I came across some boxes of Smarties I had been saving to make cookies with.

I looked through my recipe books and couldn't seem to find a recipe I loved. So, I thought I would try to draft up my own recipe combining some of my favorites but changing it up a bit.

Here are the results. I even managed to sneak some whole wheat flour into these cookies. The addition of smarties makes for a yummy colorful cookie that the kids (and adults) would love.






Here is my recipe:

1/2 c butter or margarine
3/4 c packed light brown sugar
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 c all-purpose flour
1/2 c whole wheat flour
1 c Smarties or other candies

Preheat oven to 350F.

Cream margarine and brown sugar well. Add egg and vanilla.

Slowly add flour and baking soda.

Stir in candy reserving a few to add to the tops of the cookies.

Drop by small scoop onto cookie sheet. Flatten slightly. Press a few candies into the top of cookies.

Bake approximately 12 - 14 minutes depending on your oven. Cool slightly on pan and transfer to racks to cool.

Enjoy!!




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Orange pull-apart bread....yummy!

Last week I mentioned that I was baking a pull-apart orange bread.  It turned out great....as a matter of fact, the kids had devoured almost half a loaf by the time I got to tasting it.  So in my books, if its a fav of the kids, its a "keeper" recipe.


I found this recipe online and am sure glad I did!  There are lots of great colourful photos and the instructions are so easy to follow.  I must say that I got  two loaves out of this recipe....not sure if my loaf pans are really small but the dough rose so lovely considering it was -30 C something outside!


Here is the recipe I used found here.
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Pull-Apart Orange Bread

As found on: Givers log -Pull-Apart Orange Bread or the best hostess gift ever

Ingredients

2 envelopes active yeast (2 scant tablespoons)

1/4 cup warm water mixed with a pinch of sugar

1 cup scalded milk, cooled slightly

2 large eggs

1/4 cup granulated sugar

1 1/2 teaspoons salt

Finely grated zest of 2 oranges

1/4 cup vegetable shortening

3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for dusting

2 1/2 cups confectioners’ sugar

5 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted

2 tablespoons freshly squeezed orange juice

Vegetable oil cooking spray, for bowl and tins

Method

1. In a mixing bowl, sprinkle yeast over sugar water; let stand until foamy, about 5 minutes. Add milk, eggs, granulated sugar, salt, half the zest, and shortening. Slowly add flour, mixing until combined. Knead until shiny and elastic, 3 to 5 minutes. Place in an oiled bowl; cover with plastic. Let rise until doubled in bulk, about 1 1/4 hours.

2. If you’re making the dough the night before, like I did, so it is all set to roll and bake in the morning, this is the part where you can cover your dough and let it rise in the fridge overnight.

3. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Make filling: In a small bowl, mix remaining zest, 1/2 cup confectioners’ sugar, and butter. On a well-floured work surface, gently knead dough 3 to 4 times to release air pockets. Roll out dough to an 18-by-14-inch rectangle, dusting with flour as needed. Brush some of the filling over bottom half; fold to enclose. Brush half with filling, and fold again to enclose. Let rest about 5 minutes.

4. Lightly roll out dough again to a 12-by-8-inch rectangle. Brush half with remaining filling, and fold. Cut into squares. Place squares in coated pan with layers facing up. Let rise until almost doubled in bulk, 12 to 15 minutes.

5. Bake until golden, about 30–35 minutes. Remove from oven; let rest 5 minutes in pan, then transfer loaf to a cooling rack.

6. Make a thick icing by whisking together remaining 2 cups confectioners’ sugar and the juice. Drizzle over loaf. Pull apart and taste pure heaven.

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Here are a couple photos from my own breadmaking session.

In the oven....smells yummy!

Ready to eat.....its still warm!

After the kids had some.

My two loaves drizzled with the glaze

Halloween baking!

My daughters and I did a little fun Halloween baking.  We used sugar cookie dough and smarties and almonds and created our own "monster fingers".

Aren't they fun?

Happy Halloween!!!

Baking....Zucchini Bundt Cake

Last night was our first frost. It actually got down to minus 5 Celcius...brrr! Considering last week it was plus 30!

I have a few zucchini left that from the garden that have to be used up or grated and frozen. I thought I would share this recipe that I love to make every fall.

I have yet to find oodles of zucchini recipes that I love. I did find this one recipe from FabulousFoods.com for a chocolate zucchini bundt cake. I must say it is very dark and rich and tastes wonderful. It is not really sweet either, which I like. This is definately a keeper! I make a chocolate icing glaze for the top but it would be just fine sprinkled with icing sugar.

Here is the recipe:

3 cups shredded zucchini
3/4 cup cocoa
1 2/3 cup flour
2 cups sugar
1 tsp. cinnamon
1 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
3 eggs (or 3/4 cup egg substitute)
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 tsp. vanilla

Preheat oven to 350 F. Coat a 9" bundt pan with cooking spray and lightly dust with 2 tbsp. cocoa powder. (I just dusted with flour as I was low on cocoa powder)

In a large bowl combine cocoa, flour, sugar, cinnamon, baking powder, baking soda and salt.

In a small bowl combine eggs, oil and vanilla.

Add egg mixture to dry ingredients and beat vigourously to combine until well blended. This mixture is VERY STIFF!!

Stir in shredded zucchini until well blended, pour batter into pan and bake for 50 - 55 minutes until cake tester comes out clean. Cool on wire rack for 20 minutes. Remove from pan and cool completely.

Do you have any favorite zucchini recipes? Please feel free to share them!

Baking Day! Banana Bread Recipe

Woo hoo! Today I am going to share my first, hopefully of many recipes with you! I love banana bread as do my kids and of course hubby too. This recipe has become a staple in my recipe box. I hope you enjoy it as much as I do.

I am not sure where I got it from...I have had this recipe forever though. Here it is:

5 tbsp. butter
1/2 c. firmly packed brown sugar
1/2 c. granulated sugar
1 large egg
2 egg whites
1 tsp. vanilla
1 1/2 cups mashed banana
1 3/4 c. flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 cup heavy cream
1/2 cup chopped walnuts

Preheat oven to 350 F. Grease a loaf pan.
Beat butter in a large bowl until light and fluffy. Add sugars and beat well. Add egg, egg whites and vanilla and mix until well blended. Add mashed banana and beat on high for 30 seconds.

Combine flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt. Add flour mixture to butter mixture alternating with cream and ending with flour. Add walnuts and mix well.

Pour into a loaf pan and bake until browned and toothpick inserted in center comes clean (about 1 hour 15 minutes).

Cool in pan on wire rack for about 10 minutes. Remove from pan and cool completely.

I love to put margarine or butter on the loaf when its warm and enjoy it that way. You can also eat it with jam which is also tasty. I omitted the nuts as my dd's school is nut-free and I cannot send anything containing nuts.

This is the result, complete with melting margarine (it was still warm and very yummy).




I hope you try this out and enjoy it! Let me know what you think it!