Muffin Monday- Glazed Doughnut Muffins

Happy Monday! I'd say happy if the high for today weren't 67..but that does give me the opportunity to go to the mall and hunt down heels I found for 60% off, making them only $20 woohoo!

After my day with my long lost friendsys, I was exhausted. Talking takes a lot out of you. Or maybe that I don't think I slept a wink Saturday night in anticipation for Sunday. But, I had a job to do, make muffins for my momma. After running out of vanilla, thankfully I had enough for the batter and could pop those in the oven while I waited for the trusty neighbors to come to pop on over and borrow some for the icing.

Apparently they are pretty darn good, as my brother devoured one sans frosting and then another once frosted. Good thing I made a few extra or mom would look kind of funny going into work with a handful of muffins.

I came across Sweet Pea's Kitchen recently and does it have a million good recipes let me tell you. That and the fact that it's called Sweet Pea's Kitchen I was instantly drawn to it. Good thing it does the name well.

Glazed Doughnut Muffins

makes 12-14
source: Sweet Pea's Kitchen

Ingredients:

Muffins:

1/4 cup butter

1/4 cup vegetable oil

1/2 cup granulated sugar

1/3 cup brown sugar

2 large eggs

1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1/4 teaspoon baking soda

3/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg

1 teaspoon cinnamon

3/4 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 2/3 cups all-purpose flour

1 cup milk

Glaze:  

3 tablespoons butter; melted

1 cup confectioners’ sugar; sifted

3/4 teaspoon vanilla

2 tablespoons hot water

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees F. Line 12 muffin cups with muffin liners or spray with nonstick cooking spray.
2. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat together butter, vegetable oil, and sugars till smooth. 

3. Beat in eggs, one at a time. With the mixer on low speed, baking powder, baking soda, nutmeg, cinnamon, salt and vanilla until just combined. 

4. Stir the flour into the butter mixture alternately with the milk, beginning and ending with the flour and making sure everything is thoroughly combined.
5. Spoon batter into cups, filling the cups, and smooth tops. Divide batter equally among prepared muffin cups. 

6. Bake until muffin tops are a pale golden and springy to the touch, 15 to 17 minutes, rotating halfway through baking time. Cool muffins in muffin tin for 5 minutes, then transfer to wire rack and cool 10 minutes before glazing.

Glaze:

1. In a medium bowl mix together the melted butter, confectioners’ sugar, vanilla and water. Whisk until smooth.
2. When muffins have cooled slightly, dip the muffin crown into the glaze and allow the glaze to harden. Once hardened, dip a second time  and allow to harden then serve.

Brown Sugar Oatmeal Cookies

I have a lot of time on my hands. When I say a lot, I mean a whole-heck-of-a-lot-read-a-new-book-every-three-days-amount-of-time-on-my-hands.

I wish I was kidding. I've spent the majority of my time with people under the age of 10 and the amount of time is only going to increase starting June 22nd. Hence why I am reading and taking Calc online. To keep my brain from becoming fluff and thinking of other things other than applying sunscreen to squirmy children, keeping track of who ate the last packet of mini muffins and who can swim across the pool the fastest.

And the whole Calc thing, clearly not my choice to spend my summer doing limits and derivatives. Alex Gerling time to come home and do this nonsense for me, since I know its enjoyable to you. The sole purpose is so that come May 2013 I will be walking through the Dome with a cap and gown on. Much to my dismay. 3 more years of college would be just fine with me, not so much for my parents and that hefty sum Syracuse feels the need to charge.

Today I get to have interaction with people above the age of 10 and under the age of 40. Hooray! (Not there is anything wrong with people above the age of 40, love spending time with you mother and father.) But I need a little bit interaction, you know, gossip, mindless chatter and planning our next semester and just how fabulous it will be. 

Clearly, I needed to bring some sort of baked good to this gathering. What kind of roommate/ neighbor would I be if I didn't?

I had huge elaborate plans to make Lofthouse Style Frosted Cookies because every time we went to the store we would stop and remember our childhoods and how we consumed these high fructose, preservative packed cookies in one bite. Then I realized that you had to refrigerate them over night and quite frankly this morning I'd be too excited to have the patience to be baking and frosting cookies of any sort. So yesterday morning I decided to make some cookies I came across last week and put my own spin on them.


Anything brown sugar calls out to me. And cinnamon. And oats. Well quite frankly because it is the only breakfast that I like. Breakfast, if I wasn't a starved Sally in the mornings, would be skipped. 




Brown Sugar Oatmeal Cinnamon Chip Cookies
makes 20+
adapted from How Sweet It Is

Ingredients:

1 stick Butter, at room temperature

3/4 cup Brown Sugar

1 Egg

1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract

1 3/4 cups Flour

1/4 teaspoon Salt

1/2 teaspoon Baking Powder

1 1/2 teaspoons Cinnamon

1 tablespoon Milk

3/4 cup Oats

1 cup Cinnamon Chips

Directions:

1.Preheat oven to 375.

2. Beat butter and sugar with an electric mixer until smooth. 

3.Add egg and vanilla, mixing well until combined. 

4. Stir in flour, baking powder, salt, and cinnamon on low speed. Mix until dough comes together. 

5. Add in milk. If dough is still crumbly, add milk 1 tablespoon at a time until it comes together.*

6.Stir in oats and cinnamon chips.

7. Refrigerate for 30 minutes.

8. Remove dough from fridge and roll into 1 1/2 inch balls or scoop out with an ice cream scooper.    

9. Bake at 375 for 10-12 minutes. Let cool completely. 

* My cookies did not spread, literally stayed in the balls I scooped them into. But, they stayed moist and still tasted good. Many people commented on this in the original post, it may be due to the different amount of milk added. My dough came together with only 1 tablespoon, but it may vary.

**I wrote this before I went, and when I arrive home I got a text from Emily saying.."Holy shit soooo good! I've already had 3"

Grilled Vegetable Naan Pizza

Thinking of something every night for dinner to make can be a daunting task.

There's some nights when all I want to do is hit up Campus Food.

And some nights I just make up wild and crazy concoctions.

I had this one night at school. Then recreated it the other night for dinner for my mother and I.

The kitchen was filled with smoke. Good thing the alarm didn't go off.

And good thing it was super tasty. 

Grilled Vegetable Naan Pizza 
2 pizzas


Ingredients:

2 pieces of Naan (we used whole wheat)

Any vegetables you'd like (we used cherry tomatoes, zucchini, onions, peppers, mushrooms)

Olive Oil

Garlic, minced

Salt and Pepper

Blue Cheese (you could really use any cheese you wish, but not feta-doesn't melt..been there done that)
Balsamic Vinegar (optional)

Directions:

1. Slice up your veggies and coat them with olive oil, salt and pepper.

2. Grill veggies until tender.

3. Place the naan on the grill to get nice grill marks.

4. Pour olive oil onto the naan (side with the grill marks) and brush to coat.

5. Add a generous amount of minced garlic and spread around.

6. Place your grilled veggies onto and crumbled cheese.

7. Throw the pizzas onto a baking sheet, under the broiler until cheese melts.

8. Splash with balsamic vinegar and serve!

Granola Bars

I once made the most killer granola bars, ever. 

We had a granola bar addiction in our apartment all year.

Always on a quest to make the best kind. Because, well the store kind are packed with weird ingredients and half them contain nuts. No can do for me.


Last night I tried to make granola bars half as good as the ones I made last semester, that I clearly didn't write down how I made them.


Chocolate Chip-Craisin Granola Bars

Ingredients:
2 cups rolled oats
1 cup plus 1 tablespoon whole wheat pastry flour (or 1 cup regular flour)
1 cup chocolate chips
1/2 cup craisins
1/2 cup sunflower seeds
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon 
1 egg, beaten
1/2 cup yogurt (I used honey-Greek yogurt)
1 cup pumpkin
2 teaspoons vanilla


Directions:
 1. Preheat the oven to 350 and line a 9x13 pan with parchment paper.
2. Mix oats through cinnamon together.
3. Add the beaten egg, yogurt, pumpkin and vanilla. Mix until combined.
4. Spread in pan and bake 15-20 minutes (or 20-25 if you prefer crispy bars)

Coconut White Chocolate Chunk Cookies

I stumbled across these from Two Peas and Their Pod and knew I just had to make them. 

Well quite frankly anything with coconut has to be made.

Saturday it was gloomy and rainy, what better to do than make cookies.

And today  I am going to melt as I bask by the pool in the record high heat.

Ingredients:

1 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
3/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup granulated sugar
3.4 oz. package Coconut Creme instant pudding mix
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup sweetened shredded coconut
2 cups white chocolate chips

Directions:
1.Preheat oven to 350 and line pan with parchment paper.
2.Beat together eggs and sugars until creamy
3.Add the pudding, eggs and vanilla, mix until combined.
4. In a separate bowl mix the flour, baking soda and salt together.
5. Add the dry ingredients to the  wet and mix until combined.
6. Add the coconut and white chocolate chips.
7.Drop rounded tablespoons onto the baking sheets and bake for 9-11 minutes, or until sides are slightly golden.
8. Cool completely on a cooling rack after sitting for 2 minutes on the baking sheet.

They are perfectly studded with coconut and white chocolate chips in every bite. Yum.

Muffin Monday

Banana Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Muffins
adapted from "Canalfront Cuisine" aka Bryan's pre-school cook book

makes 22

Ingredients:

3 Mashed Bananas

 1 cup sugar
1/2 cup margarine, melted and cooled
1/4 cup milk (any kind will do, I used 2%)
2 eggs
2 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup oats
1 cup chocolate chips

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350 and line a muffin tray or spray with nonstick spray.

2. Melt butter and cool

3. Beat mashed bananas, sugar, margarine (melted and cooled), milk and eggs until combined.

4. Add flour, baking soda and salt. Beat until combined.

5. Stir in oats and chocolate.

6. Fill muffin tin and baked for 20-22 minutes.

 

A Break From Food

On temporarily. Naturally I cannot break from the kitchen for long. But, I do have an odd obsession with crafting. Crafting and cooking is all I need to be happy. Clearly it's the simple things in life.

I came across this back in March during school and fell in love. It was the first project I wanted to tackle upon returning home for the summer.

How cool is that?? (The middle part is a mirror if you can't quite make it out)

So the other night after dinner with Tess and my mother, we needed something to do. What better than to make the Starburst mirror? So, Tess, me and my giant fat lip (allergic reaction to..who knows, with me the possibilities are endless) were off to Joann's, Target and the Dollar Store (after calling and asking if they had silverware, then buying a 14 packages of silverware)

First stop was Target for a plate, then JoAnn's for a mirror, which they didn't have so we decided to improvise and buy different sizes and shapes of little mirrors and make a mosaic, and instead of beads we picked up some colored rocks instead then headed to the Dollar Store for the silverware.

It's kind of a tedious task, definitely helps with two people. I'm not crazy about the lengths of all the spoons, some got glued in a bit too far but it's okay I think it still looks good. I can't wait to hang it up in our apartment! Wee!!


The instructions can be found here


Also, mom if you're reading this, which I know you are, I want need these :) :)