Oatmeal, Banana and Cherry Muffins

Ingredients:
1 1/4 cup whole wheat flour
1 1/4 rolled oats
1 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1 cup mashed banana (about 2-3 bananas)
1 large egg
1/2 cup yogurt
1/2 cup dark brown sugar
2 tbsp. canola oil
1 tsp. vanilla extract
3/4 cup cherries, pitted and halved


Cherries are in season. So of course when asked what to do with them, I would answer without hesitation to make them into muffins. Muffins are what I love to bake the most of.. With these little snacks, there is a bonus. They are actually healthy ! Got the idea for the muffins from bloggers Honey, What's Cooking ? and Joy the Baker. If your looking for muffins that taste good and make you feel good, these are it !


Directions:

Preheat oven to 375 degrees and line muffin tins. In a large mixing bowl combine the flour, oats, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon; whisk together. In another bowl, combine the egg, yogurt, brown sugar, oil and vanilla. Stir to combine. Add to flour mixture. Add the mashed bananas and halved cherries.

Divide the batter. Bake for 18-20 minutes, until browned. Let cool in the pan about 5 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

Classic Coffee Cake

For the Topping

16 tbsp butter, cut up
1/2 cup sugar
3/4 cup packed light brown sugar
1 1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp. ground nutmeg
1/4 tsp. salt
2 2/3 cups flour

For the Cake

3 cups flour
1 1/4 cups granulated sugar
1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
2 eggs
1 cup whole milk
12 tbsp butter, melted
2 tsp. vanilla


1. For the topping, in a large saucepan, melt the butter over medium heat. Remove pan from heat and add the sugar, brown sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, and salt. Stir, pressing when necessary, until there are no lumps of sugar. Add the flour and mix until well blended. Set aside.

2. For the cake, preheat oven to 350 degrees. Lightly grease the bottom and sides of a 9 x 13" baking pan.

3. In a large bowl, combine flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt. Whisk until well blended. In a medium bowl, combine the eggs, milk, melted butter, and vanilla. Whisk until well blended.

4. Pour the wet ingredients with the dry ingredients and gently stir just until blended. Pour batter into the prepared pan and spread evenly. Break up the topping mixture with your fingers into medium sized pieces and sprinkle evenly over the cake batter to form a generous layer.

5. Bake until the cake springs back lightly when pressed in the center and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, about 40 minutes. Transfer to a rack to cool. Serve warm or at room temperature.


Me and my boyfriend ;3

Banana Cupcakes w/ Cinnamon Cream Cheese Icing

"Still hard to believe that my high school life is coming to an end in the next couple days.. Honestly, it's really hard. Extremely hard. I didn't have much of a high school life for a long time, being that I had several health issues that were holding me back. I missed out on a lot, which also made me rebel a lot.. I don't know if I'm really ready to let go of it just yet, though I know that I'm going to have to..

In the end though, I know everything is going to be fine. I don't regret anything. My senior years could have been better, but I loved every bit of it and I wouldn't take back anything if it meant changing how I am now. Everyone that I've met and everything that has happened to me in these past couple years has really shaped me for who I am today. I have really the best boyfriend I've ever had, and new friends that I really love being with. I'm finally getting my head situated and my goals in go, and I'm finally waking up in the morning with a giddy smile on my face and a desire to do anything. I'm definitely looking forward to the years to come and my new school life ahead..

Aside from that, I noticed that a few of our banana's were going bad, so me being me, I always find the need to drop what I'm doing and put those banana's to good use. The recipe is a real simple one. It's the icing that really adds to these. OH do I love this icing! I saw this icing on these cupcakes and decided to try it on a basic banana cupcakes. I think it really complimented these moist cupcakes, as it would with ANY cupcakes I must say! It was just simple really good.

Recipe

Cupcakes

1 1/2 cups flour
3/4 cup sugar
1 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. salt
1/2 cup unsalted butter, melted
1 1/2 cups mashed bananas (about 4 ripe bananas)
2 large eggs
1/2 tsp. vanilla extract

Cinnamon Cream Cheese Icing

2 sticks (1 cup) butter, slightly softened
12 oz cream cheese
6 cups powdered sugar
2 tsp. vanilla
1 1/2 tsp. cinnamon


1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a standard 12-cup muffin pan with paper liners. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.

2. Make a well in center of flour mixture. In the well, mix together the butter, mashed bananas, eggs, and vanilla. Stir to incorporate flour mixture, being sure not to over mix. Spoon batter into muffin cups.

3. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in center of a cupcake comes out clean. Remove cupcakes from pan; cool completely on a wire rack.

4. T H E I C I N G; In the bowl of an electric mixer, beat the butter and cream cheese until smooth. Slowly add the powdered sugar and mix until everything is combined. Add the vanilla and the cinnamon. Ice the cooled cupcakes and enjoy!

Makes 12 cupcakes

Summer of 2009 is just around the corner! OH YEAH!

Banana Muffins w/ Streusel Topping

Muffin lover here.

I've come to realize that when it comes to baking lately, I'm always wanting to make muffins. Though, I don't necessarily find that to be a bad thing. Muffins are amazing!! I guess I'd prefer portion sized treat compared to craving tall, calorie filled cakes... which sounds good, now that I'm thinking of it...

The weather is starting to rise here (or should I say, it's gradually getting hotter and hotter here in Floirda!!) and we've bee stocking up on our fresh fruits and veggies. We've been buying tons of bananas more so compared to everything else (my mothers on this banana diet, strange as it might sound). So, me being me, taking any opportunity to bake with bananas, I decided to make Banana Muffins. I came across this post for Banana Muffins with a streusel topping not to long ago. Decided to give it a try to day.

What really makes these muffins is the topping. Oh the topping is so good! I could use this topping on other things (which I'm going to) and it'd taste fantastic! These are a must make when bananas are ripe!

Recipe

Streusel

1/2 cup finely chopped walnuts, toasted
1/4 cup old fashioned oats
1/4 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
2 tbsp. flour
1/4 tsp. baking powder
1/8 tsp. salt
2 tbsp. unsalted butter, cut into tiny pieces

Muffin

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/4 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp.baking soda
1/4 tsp. salt
3/4 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp. ground ginger
1/4 tsp.freshly grated nutmeg
2 medium mashed ripe bananas
1 large egg
1/2 cup half-n-half or whole milk
1/4 cup unsalted butter, melted
1/3 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
1 tsp. vanilla extract

1.Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line 10 muffin cups with liners.

2To make the streusel, in a medium sized bowl, stir together walnuts, oats, brown sugar, flour, baking powder and salt, until well combined. Knead in butter using fingertips until well combined and clumpy; set aside.

3.To make the muffins, in a medium sized mixing bowl, sift together flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, ginger and nutmeg.
In a large mixing bowl, whisk together banana, egg, half-n-half, butter, brown sugar and vanilla until well combined; whisk in dry ingredients until just combined.

4Divide batter into muffin cups and evenly top with streusel. Bake for 25-30 minutes, or until golden brown and well risen. Cool for 5 minutes before transferring to wire rack to cool completely.

Makes 10 muffins


My reaction once I tried these muffins...

Coffee Cake Muffins

It's been awhile since I've posted anything, has it not!? Life got in the way, honestly. Way to many things going on that I really have no found the time to bake and/or cook at all. From family issues to friend issues, to relationship issues to illness issues, it's been really nonstop in the life of Tarah. For the past week though, slowly but surely, things have been starting to slow down. Not so unbalanced as it was last month.

Really, it all started getting worst once Christmas came around. It seemed like everything was headed straight down the gutter. Nothing seemed to be going right, no one knew what to do. The whole time threw all this chaos, I've been staying away from the house. I felt it'd be better that way. It was a good things I did, honestly.

The whole time I spent my time with my boyfriend, who really always up-ed my mood. It became hard for me to even be negative after being with him, even when I came home to news I really didn't want to hear. I've just been telling myself "Think of the beauty still left around you and be happy." I started to cherish everything a bunch more, and stopped looking at the negativity of things. I almost feel like a new person, I guess you could say.

"You have to put up with a little rain to get to the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow."

Recipe

For Streusal Topping

1 cup packed brown sugar
1 cup flour
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/2 cup chilled butter, cut into small pieces

For Muffins

1/2 cup butter, room temperature
1 3/4 cups flour
2 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. baking soda
1 cup sour cream
1 cup granulated sugar
1 tsp. vanilla extract
2 large eggs


1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter and flour a muffin pan.

2. In a medium bowl, stir together brown sugar, flour, and salt. With a pastry blender or two knives, cut in butter until mixture resembles large coarse crumbs; refrigerate until ready to use.

3. In a small bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, and baking soda; set aside.

4. Using an electric mixer on medium speed, beat together butter, sour cream, granulated sugar, and vanilla until light and fluffy. Beat in eggs, one at a time, until well combined. With mixer on low, beat flour mixture into butter mixture.

5. Divide half the batter among prepared muffin cups. Top with half the streusel mixture, then remaining batter, and top with streusel. Bake 25 to 30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in center of a muffin comes out clean. Cool in pan 5 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

Pumpkin Bread Pudding

Fall is here! Even here in Orlando, Florida you can feel it! We reach our newest lows for the season; Lows of 36 degrees and highs of 65. It's been so beautiful out for the past couple days! I love the cool weather! Makes me wonder some times as to why I'm living in Florida..

I actually plan to move soon once I start attending college. I really want to go live on NY. I've always loved it up there, so why not live there? I love the city, the scenery, the people; I love so much about it. Whether I move there soon, or a few years from now, I know that I want to live there.

But anyways, a bit of topic! To celebrate the fact that fall is here, I decided to bake something that just screams autumn; pumpkin. What better than a comforting pumpkin bread pudding to celebrate with, yea? I've been holding on to this recipe that I found not to long ago, waiting for the right time to try it out. Let me tell you, it didn't disappoint.

Recipe

1 cup heavy cream
3/4 cup canned solid-pack pumpkin
1/2 cup whole milk
1/2 cup sugar
2 large eggs plus 1 yolk
1/2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp. ground ginger
1/8 tsp. ground allspice
Pinch of ground cloves
2 tbsp. bourbon
5 cups cubed (1-inch) day-old baguette or crusty bread
3/4 stick unsalted butter, melted

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees with rack in middle.

2. Whisk together pumpkin, cream, milk, sugar, eggs, yolk, salt, spices and bourbon, if using, in a bowl.

3. Toss bread cubes with butter in another bowl, then add pumpkin mixture and toss to coat. Transfer to an ungreased 8-inch square baking dish and bake until custard is set, 25 to 30 minutes.

Pineapple Bundt Cake

Before summer officially ends in my book and I let the wonderful fall season roll on threw, I had to bake something that had a summer sense to it. The heat is still already looming around in Florida (no surprise), so it really does feel like it's summer still (which, honestly, kind of sucks).

My boyfriends has been wanting me to bake a Pineapple Cake forever. I just haven't had time for the past couple weeks. I've been so busy that I never have to much time for myself, sadly. School is getting pretty hectic and it doesn't help that I'm attending night school as well. So I'm always at school.

Since I had a little time at hand and I too was craving sweets (since I've been on the school diet!!), I finally came around to bake the Pineapple Cake that someone has been nagging at me to bake. I didn't do the traditional Pineapple Cake, I guess you could say. Honestly, I don't like the idea of Pineapple on top. I much preferred the idea of the Pineapple being inside the cake. So I used shredded pineapple.

The cake was dense, but moist and sweet. Really great with morning tea (which is what I've been doing for the past couple morning). A great way to end the summer and let in the flavors of fall crawl in.

Recipe

Pineapple Cake

2 2/3 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp. baking powder
1 cup butter, softened
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 tsp. cinnamon
1 tsp. salt
2 eggs, lightly beaten
2 egg whites
2 tsp. lemon extract
1 (16 ounce) can crushed pineapple, undrained

Glaze

1 cup powdered sugar
1 tbsp. milk
1/2 tsp. lemon extract


1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 10 inch bundt cake pan.

2. In a mixing bowl, cream butter and sugar until soft. Add cinnamon and salt. Add eggs, egg whites. Add lemon extract. Beat together until fluffy.

3. In another bowl, combine flour and baking powder. Slowly, combine wet ingredients with dry ingredients. Stir in pineapple. Pour into greased bundt pan.

4. Bake at for 55-60 minutes. Cool in pan 10 minutes before removing to a wire rack. Cool. For the glaze, get a small bowl. Sift the powdered sugar. Add milk and lemon extract. If needed more, add in small drops (1/4 to 1/2 tsp. drops). Drizzle over cake.