Glorious Morning Muffins

I've finally figured out what works for us in the mornings. It's only taken 9 years! If you have kids you understands. Mornings are H.E.L.L! No one can ever get it together on time. Getting up is a struggle for one, getting everything together in a timely manner is a struggle for another... getting dressed is something that the third child absolutely does NOT want to do. I have decided to see what would happen if I let them sleep in. Instead of getting the kids up at 7:00 I get them up at 7:30. We leave the house anywhere between 8:00 and 8:15. I have found this way they are very much more efficient with their time. When they got up at 7:00 it was as though there was too much time on their hands and too much dawdling and we were constantly racing the clock. The most time consuming event is breakfast. One doesn't want much... one wants nothing... the other has no idea what she wants. Everyone loves muffins, right? Sometimes I bake them the night before and pop them into the oven to warm for a half hour, and sometimes I make the batter at night and leave the baking until the morning. Breakfast to go... and my version of fast food is healthy. I use local or cage-free eggs, lighter ingredients (milk, sour cream, etc) and pack them with fruit! When I can, I substitute half of the flour for wheat flour. But there are some muffins that simply taste best with regular unbleached flour.

Ingredients:
2 eggs
1/3 cup canola oil
3/4 or less cup sugar
3/4 cup light sour cream
1 tsp baking soda
1 cup unbleached flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
2 large carrots, peeled and shredded
1 zucchini, shredded
1 cup raisins
1 cup dried cranberries

Directions
Preheat oven 325

In a large mixing bowl beat together eggs and sugar. Add in oil and sour cream beat until light and fluffy. Add baking soda and flours. Mix well. Finally stir in carrots, zucchini, raisins and cranberries.

Pour batter, distributed evenly, into 12 nicely greased (we use a non-stick spray) muffin tins and bake 20 - 24 minutes. Tops will get nicely browned and crisp.

Zucchini Muffins with cranberries and chocolate chips

I adapted this Zucchini muffin recipe from Smitten Kitchen. She had adapted hers from several sources. So I guess, this is a mutt of zucchini bread recipes. Whatever you call it I call it delish!

This recipe makes 2 loaves or approximately 24 nicely sized muffins

Ingredients:

3 eggs
1 cup Canola oil
1 3/4 cups sugar
2 cups grated zucchini
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
3 cups unbleached flour
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 cup each dried cranberries, raisins or chocolate chips or a combination thereof (optional -  I wanted to add the raisins but I had run out!)

Preheat oven to 350°F.

Grease and flour  24 muffin cups or spray them with Pam like I do. If I hadn't run out of pretty liners I would have used those.

In a large bowl, beat the eggs with a whisk. Mix in oil and sugar, then zucchini and vanilla.
Combine flour, cinnamon, baking soda, baking powder and as well as chocolate chips and/or dried fruit, if using. Mix well.

Pour batter into cupcake tins. (I used a small cookie scoop.)

Bake for about 25 - 30 minutes until toothpick inserted into the middle comes out clean.

Let cool if you can stand it!

(Healthy) Breakfast, Lunch, Snack or Dinner...

My new favorite sweet treat is Greek yogurt with a little bit of honey drizzled over the top and some home made granola. I could eat this all day long. It's perfect for any meal or a snack. I like Fage or Choban 0 fat and I add the honey and granola myself. I can't wait to have another one for breakfast! Be careful with the granola, however. I have been eating it as though it is going out of style!

Granola

1 container of Quaker Oats (or your preference) - Not quick cook
1 cup of raisins
1 cup of cranberries
1/2 cup of sunflower seeds
1/2 - 1 cup of sliced almonds
1/2 cup of wheat germ
1/2 cup of canola oil
1/4 cup of honey
1/4 brown sugar

In a large bowl mix all your ingredients together until well blended.
Place on a cookie sheet that has been sprayed with a non-stick spray. Spread mixture so that it is evenly distributed. Bake at 300 for 1 hour. Let cool and harden.

White Chocolate and Cranberry Shortbread Cookies

and the holiday baking continues... and this one was a hit as well. We had a hard time keeping our hands out of the cookie jar!

I love shortbread. Because it requires very few ingredients. Because it is easy to make and bake. And I'm lazy. I ought to be called the Lazy Gourmet!

Ingredients:

3/4 lb butter (3 sticks)
1 cup of confectioners sugar
3 1/2 cups of flour
1 cup of white chocolate morsels
1 cup of dried cranberries

In a large mixing bowl (preferably of a large mixer like KitchenAid) beat butter and sugar until creamy. Slowly add the flour, one cup at a time until well blended. Fold in cranberries and chocolate. (See, wasn't that easy?!)

Roll into a log and slice, or cut into shapes using a small cookie cutter. (I also love shortbread because it doesn't spread like sugar cookies do and you can place them close to each other.)

Place on a cookie sheet lined with a Silpat, parchment or wax paper.

Bake at 325 degrees for 20 minutes-  until the edges are a nice light golden brown. Let cool on a cooling rack for a few minutes before serving.

Apple Cider Pumpkin Loaves with Cranberries and Raisins

I got this recipe off the Libby's website. (Even though I did not use their product... Shhhh!) I made a few minor alterations and turned an ordinary pumpkin loaf into something simply spectacular!
 

Ingredients:

• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 tablespoon plus 2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• 2 cups granulated sugar
• 1 can (15 ounces) organic pumpkin
• 4 large eggs
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 1 cup fresh apple cider
• 1 cup sweetened dried cranberries
• 1 cup raisins

Directions

PREHEAT oven to 350° F. Grease and flour two 9 x 5-inch loaf pans.

COMBINE flour, pumpkin pie spice, baking soda and salt in large bowl. Combine sugar, pumpkin, eggs, oil and juice in large mixer bowl; beat until just blended. Add pumpkin mixture to flour mixture; stir just until moistened. Fold in cranberries and raisins. Spoon batter into prepared loaf pans.

BAKE for 60 to 65 minutes or until wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool in pans on wire racks for 10 minutes; remove to wire racks to cool completely.

Recipe makes two loaves.

FOR THREE 8 x 4-INCH LOAF PANS:
PREPARE as above. Bake for 55 to 60 minutes.

FOR FIVE OR SIX 5 x 3-INCH MINI-LOAF PANS:
PREPARE as above. Bake for 50 to 55 minutes.

Apple Cranberry Loaf with Pumpkin Pie Spiced Sugar

So, you've gone apple picking with the kids -- or friends kids... or the boyfriend or the family dog and you've once again come home with more apples than you know what to do with... Apple pies are good and lovely but you can only make so many... and you can only eat so much without spending every waking hour on the treadmill. And your children's teachers don't have any more room left on their desks for the sweet, crisp apples you have kindly given them...

Yes, you have bowls of apples strategically placed around the house to give a fall-like ambiance to your decor. But if not used they will start to break down... and they must be used within... a certain amount of time. And you have some cranberries because you like to decorate with them too and they are on sale... and you realize that apples and cranberries make the perfect combination. It is fall, after all, and the oven is beckoning you... and there is nothing as soothing or as comforting as the aromas of fresh baking from the oven... especially when the aroma comes from apples and cinnamon and sugar...

Ingredients:

2 apples, peeled, cored and cut into bite sized pieces
2 cups of fresh cranberries
1 cup plus 1 tbs sugar
1/8 cup water
2 cups flour
2 eggs
1/3 cup canola oil
1 tsp vanilla
1 tsp baking powder

Directions:

Preheat oven to 325 degrees
In a saucepan place cranberries, water and 1 tbs sugar
Bring to boil and then turn heat off. Let simmer a few minutes. You will hear cranberries start to pop
Meanwhile prep apples
In a large mixing bowl add sugar and oil and beat high until smooth and pale yellow. Add eggs, vanilla and baking powder. Mix well.
Add flour, mix well.
Add apples and cranberries with all the juices.
Mix well. Batter should be moist but not too wet. If too wet add small amounts of flour. If by chance it is too dry add a couple of tablespoons of milk or water.

Place well mixed dough into a well-greased loaf pan and bake for about 1 hour, checking for done-ness with toothpick. (Depending on calibration of your oven you may need a few more minutes.)




My youngest thought the cranberries to be a bit tart. I sprinkled some Pumpkin Pie Spiced Sugar over the warm bread and let it all melt in. It was divine! Pumpkin Pie Spiced Sugar is a wonderful substitute to ordinary Cinnamon Sugar.

Pumpkin Pie Spiced Sugar

1/4 Cup granulated sugar
4 - 5 tbs  Pumpkin Pie Spice
Mix well. Store in airtight jar. If the flavor is too strong or too sweet, adjust either the spices or the sugar.

Cranberry Sweetheart Scones with Almond Essence

This was adapted from a Williams-Sonoma recipe in Holiday Baking. I think this is my new go-to scone recipe.

Ingredients:
3 cups of all-purpose flour
1/3 cup plus 2 tbs sugar
1 tbs baking powder
6 tbs chilled butter cut into 12 pieces
1 cup dried cranberries
1 tsp almond extract
1 cup lowfat milk

Directions:
Position rack in the middle of the oven and preheat to 400 F
In a large bowl combine sugar, baking powder and flour
Add butter and using fingers or pastry blender crumble until the mixture resembles coarse meal
Add milk and cherries and mix well
Transfer onto flour covered flat surface to cut out into shapes with cookie or biscuit cutter
Cut out as many scones as possible
Sprinkle on remaining 2 tbs sugar
Bake in oven for about 15 minutes
Let cool before serving...

Cornmeal Muffins with Cranberry Butter

This recipe is Ina's. So I knew it would be perfect! To give it a festive Holiday flair I served these delicious muffins with my Cranberry Butter. D-lish!

Ingredients

nocoupons

• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 cup medium cornmeal
• 2 tablespoons baking powder
• 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
• 1 1/2 cups whole milk
• 1/2 pound unsalted butter, melted and cooled
• 2 extra-large eggs

Directions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

Line 12 muffin cups with paper liners. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, mix the flour, sugar, cornmeal, baking powder, and salt. In a separate bowl, combine the milk, melted butter, and eggs. With the mixer on the lowest speed, pour the wet ingredients into the dry ones and stir until they are just blended. Spoon the batter into the paper liners, filling each one to the top. Bake for 30 minutes, until the tops are crisp and a toothpick comes out clean. Cool slightly and remove from the pan.

The Cranberry Butter was out of this world good! In fact it was so good that I packaged up a small jar to bring with us to my aunt and uncle's to serve with the not overly sweet orange cranberry bread where it was received with much appreciation!


Cranberry Butter

You might be wondering where I came up with this idea... how strange to mix fruit and butter... but not really! Years and years ago (Ok, centuries ago!) I had my first job at Williams-Sonoma. I loved it there. We were heavily promoting the bread machine at the time and there was always something baking in the store. It smelled heavenly! Whenever we baked simple breads we always had something to serve on them. We concocted all these crazy and delicious spreads. We would combine jam and honey and butter to create the most magnificent Fruit Butters! I can still taste them on the warm, just baked breads... Ahhh... So anyhow, that was the influence behind this creation. I think you will like it a lot!

Directions:

1 stick of butter, room temperature, cut into pieces
1 1/4 (give or take what you have leftover) of home made cranberry sauce or relish (or whole berried canned cranberry sauce)
2 Tbs of honey

In a small food processor (I use my Cuisinart mini chop) place all your ingredients in food processor and pulse until the result resembles raspberry jam. The butter will be blended but you will see white "flecks." This is good!

This was delicious on the cranberry bread as well as the corn muffins... I can't wait to have some more in a bit!

Cranberry Orange Quick Bread

I used fresh cranberries so this bread is quite tart. Feel free to substitute the dried, sweetened variety if you prefer. I'm looking forward to having a slice in the morning... maybe with a little smear of fresh butter. Mmmm... Maybe I won't be able to wait until the morning!

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees

This recipe makes 2 loaves

Ingredients:

3 cups of flour
1 1/2 cup of sugar, plus 2 tbs
2 tsp baking powder
4 eggs
1 cup of canola oil
1/2 cup of orange juice
1 tsp vanilla
1 1/2 cup of fresh cranberries

Using a knife or mini blender chop cranberries add 2 tbs of sugar and set aside.

In a large bowl mix together eggs and sugar
Add flour and baking powder
Add canola oil and vanilla
Slowly add flour and baking powder and mix until well blender
Stir in cranberries

Pour into 2 well greased loaf pans

Place in oven 1 hour until lightly golden brown. (45 minutes in convection oven.)

Serve with butter, Marmalade or on its own!

Cranberry White Chocolate Chip Biscotti

Nothing less than Aaaaahmazing! Light and yet decadent... this recipe is Giada's (de Laurentis). I opted not to dip the cookies in melted chocolate as I thought they really didn't need anything else!

These would be perfect in any cookie jar... would make a lovely hostess gift or a wonderful accoutrement to any holiday dessert buffet table.

Ingredients

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 3/4 cup sugar
  
• 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
• 1 teaspoon grated lemon zest
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
  
• 2 large eggs
• 3/4 cup pistachios, coarsely chopped ( I made one batch nut-free and used almonds in the other in lieu of the pistachios)
  
• 2/3 cup dried cranberries
• 12 ounces good-quality white chocolate, chopped (I used a good quality white chocolate chip)
  

Directions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

Line a heavy large baking sheet with parchment paper. Whisk the flour and baking powder in a medium bowl to blend. Using an electric mixer, beat the sugar, butter, lemon zest, and salt in a large bowl to blend. Beat in the eggs 1 at a time. Add the flour mixture and beat just until blended. Stir in the pistachios and cranberries.

Form the dough into a 13-inch long, 3-inch wide log on the prepared baking sheet. Bake until light golden, about 40 minutes. Cool for 30 minutes.

Place the log on the cutting board. Using a sharp serrated knife, cut the log on a diagonal into 1/2 to 3/4-inch-thick slices. Arrange the biscotti, cut side down, on the baking sheet. Bake the biscotti until they are pale golden, about 15 minutes. Transfer the biscotti to a rack and cool completely.

Stir the chocolate in a bowl set over a saucepan of simmering water until the chocolate melts. Dip half of the biscotti into the melted chocolate. Gently shake off the excess chocolate. Place the biscotti on the baking sheet for the chocolate to set. Sprinkle with the sugar crystals. Refrigerate until the chocolate is firm, about 35 minutes.

The biscotti can be made ahead. Store them in an airtight container up to 4 days, or wrap them in foil and freeze in resealable plastic bags up to 3 weeks.

Cranberry, Raisin and Apricot Scones

Soft, flaky, light and fruity these scones are a perfect fall afternoon snack or breakfast. You can substitute any fruit you want, as much or as little, but the cranberry-raisin-apricot combination is one of my favorites!

Ingredients:

2 1/2 cups of flour, plus more for rolling and cutting scones
3 Tbs. sugar
2 Tsp baking powder
1/2 Tsp baking soda
1/4 cup butter, cold, cut into pieces
8 oz plain yogurt (I've used vanilla in the past and got the same good results)
1 egg
1/3 cup dried cranberries
1/3 cup dried apricots, cut into pieces
1/3 cup raisins

* In a large bowl stir together sugar, flour, baking powder and baking soda
* Add egg, yogurt and butter, mix well
* Add dried fruit, mix well
* If the dough is too wet add more flour 1 Tbs at a time until your dough is rollable and not too sticky
* If your dough mixture is too dry (crumbly) add water 1 Tbs at a time

* On a clean, flat surface, sprinkle some flour, then roll out the dough and cut out into circles using a cookie or biscuit cutter. Repeat until all the dough is used.

* Place on a baking sheet, about 1 inch apart, brush lightly with water, sprinkle sugar over the top and bake for about 12 minutes at 400 degrees F until lightly golden. (1o minutes in convection oven)

Let cook about 5 minutes and serve!

Quick, Easy & Fantastically Delicious Oatmeal Bars with White Chocolate, Almonds and Cranberries

You're in a rush and you need to come up with something sweet and filling for an afternoon snack as you know your kids are going to roll their eyes at you if you offer what's in your pantry-- rice cakes, pretzels, Goldfish crackers or what's in your fridge -- cheese sticks, yogurt and apples... "So sick of those!"

I keep packaged cookie and cake mixes on hand for various occasions. I am a huge fan of the Betty Crocker cookie mix. You can totally pull these off as homemade (and I think I am going to one day!) especially when you add your own fixins...

To the packaged oatmeal cookie I added butter and egg as the recipe indicated. Instead of water I added a couple of tablespoons of apple cider! Then I tossed in:

1/2 almond meal
1 cup slivered almonds
1 cup of white chocolate chips and
1 cup of dried cranberries

I tossed all ingredients (in no particular order) into the KitchenAid bowl and mixed away until all was well blended.

I took a brownie pan, greased it up really well with non-stick spray and applied the cookie mix to the pan, making sure that it was all evenly spread out.

In my preheated (375 degrees) oven I baked the bars for about 30 minutes.

When they were ready I took them out to cool, and cut them into squares when they were slightly warmer than room temperature.

And then, when you are running late for school and don't have time to make the kids breakfast hand them a cranberry bar and make up some nonsense about them being good for you because they contain oats, nuts and cranberries!

(I have a recipe for an amazing crispy, chewy oatmeal raisin cookie... I thought it was on the blog. But it's not. I'll take care of that over the next couple of days. That recipe can be used for these bars as well.)

Pumpkin Granola

We're back in the kitchen! After a couple of weeks of illnesses with symptoms much like those of N1H1 (was it or wasn't it?) we are all coming along and I stepped back in the kitchen today and it felt great. I woke up this morning with a hankering for granola. Pumpkin granola, to be exact. I thought I had read on Facebook that one of my friends had gone off to Trader Joe's to get some. But I found none there. So I decided I would make my own. I already had the oats at home. I picked up some pepitas (shelled pumpkin seeds), more Pumpkin Pie Spice, some dried cranberries, raisins and, for the pumpkin touch Pumpkin Butter which is a blend of pumpkin and lemon and honey and maple syrup and spices. I picked up a few ingredients for dinner and made my way home.

This recipe is delicious and could not be any easier to make!

You'll need:

18 oz. of Oats (not the quick cooking kind)

1/2 cup of canola oil

2 cups of pepitas

1 cup of raisins
1 cup of dried cranberries
(optional, semi sweet chocolate chips)

1 tbs of pumpkin pie spice
1 jar of Pumpkin butter

Preheat oven to 275 degrees

In a medium sized bowl add the pumpkin and the oil and mix well, set aside

In a large bowl add all the other ingredients, except for the spices. Toss to mix well.

Pour the pumpkin mixture over the oat mixture and mix well.

Line a brownie pan or jelly roll with wax or parchment paper.

Pour in oat mixture and press firmly into all corners.

Bake for 1 hour. After 1 hour increase the heat to 300 and bake another 20 minutes until nicely golden brown.

Remove pan from the oven onto a cooling rack for 20 - 30 minutes to let the oatmeal harden.

When cool break off into chunks into your large bowl. Sprinkle the Pumpkin Pie Spice, more or less, as your tastes prefer. I love the flavor of the granola. It's pleasantly pumpkin-ny, just a hint, without being too much so.

We love to snack on granola. We eat it with apple sauce, yogurt and ice cream. Eating it plain is good too. For a sweet treat add some chocolate chips to it!

(Rebecca's) Colonial Cranberry Cake

Rebecca's social studies assignment has to do with New England. She has two N.E related projects. The first is to create a brochure for a ski resort. The other is to bake something using either cranberries or blueberries, both native to New England. Since cranberries are seasonal we decided that we would bake something using cranberries. This recipe is two-fold. One of the key ingredients in this cake is cranberry sauce. The children will learn how to make a cranberry cake as well as cranberry sauce that they can serve for Thanksgiving!

Ingredients:

2 cups fresh cranberries

2 1/2 cups sugar

2/3 cup of water
3 cups of flour, unbleached and unsifted

2/3 cup of orange juice

1 cup of canola oil (it is heart healthy!)

4 eggs

2 tsp. vanilla

3 tsp baking powder

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

In a medium sauce pan pour cranberries, water and 1 cup of sugar.

Bring to boil. Reduce heat and simmer. Cranberries will start to pop open. You can help them along by using a potato masher and smash all the fruit. Bring the mixture back up to a boil so that it thickens to resemble the consistency of cranberry sauce. (Hey, guess what you have just made!)

When sauce has thickened remove from heat and set aside.

In a large bowl combine (in no particular order):

Flour
the remainder of the sugar
Canola oil
orange juice
eggs
vanilla
baking powder and
your home made cranberry sauce

Mix well. Mixture will turn pink. Pour into 2 well greased loaf pans or 1 bundt pan.

Loaf pans bake for 1 hour and bundt pan bake 75 minutes. Test for doneness. Let cool 20 - 30 minutes before serving.

Cranberry Raisin Cake

I told my friend Beth I would watch her kids this afternoon (my kids love her kids) so that she could pack for her family trip to the Outter Banks. I was more than happy to offer to do so. Suddenly I panicked that I had nothing for the kids to snack on. Her son is highly allergic to peanuts and I was terrified of serving anything potentially dangerous, anything that might contain traces of peanuts -- heck, even anything that might contain traces of traces of peanuts. I thought the best thing to do was to bake something from scratch so that I could have control over all of the ingredients.

I wanted to bake my Blueberry Cake but had neither the blueberries nor the orange juice that the recipe called for. I decided to improvise. I found some raisins and some cranberries. I substituted the orange juice for milk and added a bit more. The result was incredible. So much so that I have less than a quarter of the cake left! I gave a slice to Don, and after his first bite he said "Go get a camera. You need to put this on your blog!" And so here it is.

Ingredients:

3 Cups of all purpose flour
slightly less than 2 cups of sugar, plus
*5 Tbs of sugar mixed with
1 Tbs of ground cinnamon
1 cup of salad oil
1/3 cup of low fat milk
4 eggs
3 tsp vanilla
3 tsp baking powder
3/4 cup of dried cranberries (Use 1 + cup of fresh cranberries if you can!)
1 cup of raisins

-- Place all ingredients in a bowl except the ground cinnamon and sugar mixture, put those in a small bowl separately.

-- Mix all the mixing bowl ingredients together until all is well blended.

-- Grease a bundt pan well with butter and flour or Pam

-- in the small bowl mix the Cinnamon sugar mixture

-- pour batter by large spoonfuls (creating at least 2 layers) with the batter

-- in between each layer spoon generous amounts of Cinnamon sugar mixture, covering the layer completely.

-- spoon in remaining batter and repeat (as necessary) with the Cinnamon sugar to create Cinnamon swirls.


-- Cook in a preheated oven for 1.5 hours

-- Let pan cool completely before trying to remove cake. (Otherwise it will crack and split. It will still be delicious but not as beautiful!)

I have a silicone bundt pan that I adore. This cake comes out beautifully in it. And removing the silicone bundt pan is much easier than removing a regular bundt pan from a cake!