Blueberry Almond Coffeecake

I went blueberry picking this past weekend and picked over six pounds of blueberries!  Lucky me, I live close to two blueberry farms only a few miles away.  At only $1.25 per pound, it was totally worth the labor.  Blueberries keeps well in the freezer so I stored some in Ziploc bags and froze them for future uses.

Hubby found a blueberry muffin recipe and decided to bake us some goodies! We didn't have enough butter so we halved the recipe.  Also, we didn't have a stand mixer and the hand-held mixer worked just fine.  These were perfect for Monday morning breakfast!

Everlasting Blueberry Almond Coffeecake
From Hungry Rabbit

Yields 12 individual coffeecakes

Streusel Ingredients:
1/2 cup unbleached all-purpose flour
1/4 cup slivered almond
1/2 cup packed light brown sugar
2 T granulated sugar
1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
1/8 tsp table salt
4 T unsalted butter (1/2 stick), cut into 8 pieces, softened

Cake Ingredients:
1 cup unbleached all-purpose flour
1/2 cup almond flour
1-1/2 tsp baking powder
10 T unsalted butter (1-1/4 stick), softened but still cool
2/3 cup granulated sugar
1/2 tsp table salt
1 tsp grated lemon zest
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 tsp almond extract
2 large eggs, room temperature
4 cups fresh blueberries

Directions:
1. For the streusel: In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with paddle attachment, combine flour, almond, sugars, cinnamon, and salt on low speed until well combined and no large brown sugar lumps remain, about 45 seconds. Add butter and mix on low until mixture resembles wet sand and no large butter pieces remain, about 2-1/2 minutes. Spread streusel out onto a small tray (do not press to compact) and freeze for 30 min. Wipe bowl clean for cake preparation.

2. For the cakes: Adjust oven rack to lower-middle position; heat oven to 350 degrees. Line standard muffin pan with paper liners.

3. Whisk flours and baking powder in small bowl to combine; set aside. In the stand mixer fitted with paddle attachment, cream butter, sugar, salt, and lemon zest at medium-high speed until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes; scrape down bowl. Beat in vanilla and almond extracts until combined, about 30 seconds. With mixer running at medium speed, add eggs one at a time; beat until partially incorporated, then scrape down bowl and continue to beat until fully incorporated (mixture will appear broken).

4.With mixer running on low speed, gradually add flour mixture; beat until flour is almost fully incorporated, about 20 seconds. Stir batter manually with rubber spatula, scraping bottom and sides of bowl, until no flour pockets remain and batter is homogenous; batter will be thick.  Gently fold in blueberries with rubber spatula until evenly distributed.

5. Transfer batter to prepared muffin cups; with small off-set spatula or spoon, spread batter evenly to cup edges, gently pushing in to fill all gaps. Remove streusel from freezer, break up in to small chunks with hand and sprinkle streusel evenly over batter. Bake until deep golden brown and toothpick or wooden skewer inserted into center of cake comes out clean, about 35 minutes. Cool until just warm or to room temperature, about 1 hour.

Zucchini Muffins

It's been a while since I baked so I decided to dust off my mixer and muffin pan for some yummy zucchini bread. I was looking back and noticed that I made zucchini bread when I first started this blog. I must have been very lazy at that time because I didn't post the recipe.  I couldn't recall where I found the recipe so I had to sort through all my printouts in my old recipe binder and tada!  I found it!  I've adapted the recipe to include whole wheat flour and less sugar.

Zucchini Muffins
Adapted from Joy Joy of Baking


1/2 cup walnuts, toasted and coarsely chopped
1 medium zucchini, grated
1/2 cup peeled and grated apple (about 1 large apple)
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
1/2 cup canola oil
3/4 cup granulated white sugar
2 large eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 cup shredded coconut (sweetened or unsweetened)


Preheat oven to 350 F and place rack in center of oven. Coat each muffin cup with cooking spray or butter.

In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, ground cinnamon, and nutmeg.

In a separate bowl, beat the oil, sugar, eggs, and vanilla extract until well blended (about 2 minutes). Beat in the grated zucchini and apple. Pour in the flour mixture, beating just until combined. Then fold in the nuts and coconut.

Distribute the batter equally into the muffin cups, filling them up to the top. Bake until the bread has risen and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, about 25-30 minutes. Place on a wire rack to cool for about 5 minutes and then remove the muffins form the pan and let cool.

Makes about 12-14 muffins. (I had more batter than was needed for 12 muffins so I made a couple of mini muffins).

Tiramisu Layer Cake

For my sister's 26th birthday, I made a tiramisu layer cake from scratch!  Well, almost.  The recipe I used called for box cake mix instead of lady fingers found in this traditional Italian dessert.  It turned out pretty good but I would do it differently next time by making sponge cake layers.  I think it would work very well to soak up the coffee liqueur mixture.

Tiramisu Layer Cake
From All Recipes with a few tweaks

Cake Ingredients:
1 (18.25 ounce) package moist white cake mix (I used Duncan Hines)
2 teaspoon instant coffee powder
1/4 cup brewed coffee
2 tablespoon coffee flavored liqueur (Kahlua)

Filling Ingredients:
1 (8 ounce) container mascarpone cheese
1/2 cup confectioners' sugar
4 tablespoons coffee flavored liqueur

Frosting Ingredients:
2 cups heavy cream
1/4 cup confectioners' sugar
3 tablespoons coffee flavored liqueur (Kahlua)
cocoa powder

Preheat oven to 350F. Grease and flour 3 (9 inch) pans. Line bottom of pans with parchment paper.  

Prepare the cake mix according to package directions. Divide one third of batter into a pan. Stir instant coffee into remaining batter; pour into remaining pans.  

Bake in the preheated oven for 20 to 25 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean. Let cool in pan for 10 minutes, then turn out onto a wire rack and cool completely. 

In a measuring cup, combine brewed coffee and 2 tablespoon coffee liqueur; set aside.

For the filling: In a small bowl, using an electric mixer set on low speed, combine mascarpone, 1/2 cup confectioners' sugar and 4 tablespoons coffee liqueur; beat just until smooth. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate.

For the frosting: In a medium bowl, using an electric mixer set on medium-high speed, beat the cream, 1/4 cup confectioners' sugar and 3 tablespoons coffee liqueur until stiff. Fold 1/2 cup of cream mixture into filling mixture.

To assemble the cake: Place one coffee-flavored cake layer on a serving plate. Pour one third of reserved coffee mixture over cake, then spread with half of the filling mixture. Top with the plain cake layer, pour another third of the coffee mixture over the second layer and spread with the remaining filling. Top with remaining coffee-flavored cake layer; pour remaining coffee mixture on top. Spread sides and top of cake with frosting. Place cocoa in a sieve and lightly dust top of cake. If you have leftover frosting, you can use it to decorate the cake like I did! Refrigerate at least 30 minutes before serving.

Chewy Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookies

Oatmeal cookies are so delicious and so good for you....that's just wishful thinking on my part.  If you think about it, it's like eating granola - especially if there are raisins and nuts, right?  Maybe that's why I can devour 2-3 morsels at a time without feeling guilty.  

Hubs doesn't like raisins so I searched for a chocolate chip oatmeal cookie and found this from The Repressed Pastry Chef.  The cookies hardly took up any time to whip up.  The wait for the cookies to bake in the oven was the unending part.  I made my cookies a little tinier than the standard size so I cut my baking time short by 2-3 minutes. 

Chewy Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookies

Ingredients:

1/2 cup butter (1 stick), softened

1/2 cup packed light brown sugar

1/4 cup white sugar

1 egg

1 tsp vanilla extract

3/4 cup all-purpose flour

1/4 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

1 1/2 cups quick-cooking oats

1/2 cup semisweet chocolate chips

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F.
2. In a large bowl, cream together butter, brown sugar, and white sugar until smooth.  Beat in egg then stir in vanilla. 
3. In a separate bowl, combine the flour, baking soda, and salt; stir into the creamed mixture until just blended. 
4. Mix in the quick oats and chocolate chips.  Drop by heaping spoonfuls onto ungreased baking sheets, about 2 inches apart.
5. Bake for 12-15 minutes then remove sheets from oven.  Let them sit for 5 minutes on the cookie sheets before transferring them to rack to cool.

Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies

I baked cookies!  And lots of them, to share, of course.  I just love the smell and the warmth of freshly baked cookies.  It's so comforting.  I took this recipe from the back of a shortening container and adapted it here.  The cookie came out very crunchy and it stayed that way for days.  Give it a try!

Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies

1/2 cup vegetable shortening
1 cup all purpose flour
6 T brown sugar
6 T granulated sugar
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp vanilla
1 egg
1/3 cup creamy peanut butter
1/2 cup chocolate chips
1/2 cup peanut butter chips
1/4 tsp water

1.  Preheat oven to 375 F.  Cream shortening, sugars, vanilla, water and egg, until light and fluffy.  Beat in peanut butter.
2.  Mix flour with baking soda and salt; blend into cream mixture.  Stir in chocolate and peanut butter chips.
3.  Drop dough by rounded teaspoons 2" apart onto ungreased cookie sheet.  Bake about 10 minutes or until golden brown.  Cool 1 minute on cookie sheets.  Remove to wire rack; cool completely.

Makes about 4 dozen cookies.

Lemon Poppy Seed Muffins

I had a lemon that's been sitting in my fridge for a long time.  I finally decided to make lemon poppy seed muffins with it this past weekend.  Blogger, Elise, from Simply Recipes based her recipe from Cook's Illustrated.  The muffins turned out very light and fluffy.  I followed the recipe to the T except I was a little short on yogurt and I added a teaspoon of almond extract.  I love the smell of almond flavor.

Lemon Poppy Seed Muffins

3 cups all-purpose flour
1 T baking powder (no more than 6 months old)
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
2 T poppy seeds
10 T unsalted butter (1 1/4 stick), softened
1 cup sugar
2 large eggs
1 1/2 cup plain yogurt
1 T lemon zest

Glaze
2 T fresh lemon juice
1 cup confectioner's sugar

Directions:
1.  Adjust oven rack to the middle of the oven.  Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
2.  Whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, poppy seeds, and salt and set aside.
3.  In a large mixing bowl, cream softened butter and sugar together, beating until fluffy (about 2 minutes with an electric mixer).  Add eggs one at a time, beating until incorporated after each one.  Beat in lemon zest.
4.  Beat in one third of the dry ingredients until just incorporated.  Beat in one third of the yogurt.  Keep beating in the remaining dry ingredients and yogurt, alternating between each until just incorporated.  Do not over beat.
5.  Use a standard 12 muffin pan.  Coat each muffin cup with oil or butter with a pastry brush or line the cups with muffin cups like I did.  Distribute the muffin dough equally among the cups.  Bake until muffins are golden brown, about 25-30 minutes.  Test with a toothpick to make sure they center of the muffins are done.  Set muffin pan on wire rack to cool.  After 5 minutes, remove muffins from pan.
6.  While the muffins are cooling, in a bowl, whisk together the powdered sugar and lemon juice for the glaze.  Add more lemon juice if necessary.  While the muffins are still a bit warm, use a pasty brush to brush the glaze over each muffin.  I just drizzled the glaze over the muffins with a spoon.  


Makes 12 muffins.  Best eaten fresh and warm!

Cowboy Cookies

I'm on a tight budget this year so I made these cowboy cookies as Christmas gifts for my co-workers. My sister made these last year for her friends and I thought it was such a cute idea. Bakerella had this recipe for cowgirl cookies. I had most of the ingredients at home so all I really had to buy were Christmas M&M's, chocolate chips, and walnut pieces.

Cowboy Cookies

You'll need:
1 quart Mason jar
Dry ingredients:

• 1 1/3 cup all purpose flour, spooned into measuring cup & leveled
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup cooking oats
• 3/4 cup m&ms
• 3/4 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
• 1/2 cup brown sugar, packed
• 1/2 cup white sugar
• 1/3 – 1/2 cup chopped pecans (I used walnuts)

Method:

Layer the ingredients in the following order:
1st - Flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt
2nd - Oats
3rd - M&M's
4th - Semi-sweet chocolate chips
5th - Brown Sugar
6th - White Sugar

7th - Chopped nuts

Pack everything down tightly or it won't fit.  Seal the jar with the lid and tie a ribbon around it to make it pretty.  

Include these directions with your gift: 

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Empty all the dry ingredients in a large mixing bowl and stir together.  Add 1 slightly bean egg, 1/2 cup melted butter, and 1 tsp vanilla.  Mix wet ingredients into dry ingredients.  Use the back of a large spoon to work it all together.  Use hands to get everything incorporated if necessary.  Then roll the cookie dough into 1 1/2 inch balls, place on a parchment lined baking sheet and bake for about 10 minutes.  Makes 26-28 cookies.

Pecan Tarts

We had a company potluck last week and I decided to make dessert.  Hubs picked up a great local dessert cookbook from Hawaii when he went back to visit last fall.  I found a recipe in there for pecan tarts.  My sister made pecan tassies using a different recipe a while back and I've always wanted to make them after I tasted how good they were.  I was excited that I could finally put my mini muffin pan to work!  The recipe was quite simple and did not call for a lot of ingredients.  The only time consuming part was having to press the dough into each individual cups.  The recipe yielded 4 dozen tartlets which was more than enough for everyone at work so I had extra to take home and bring over to share with my family.

Pecan Tarts
From Hawaii's Best Local Desserts

Ingredients:

1 package cream cheese (8 oz.), softened
1 cup butter or margarine, room temperature
2 cups flour
2 eggs, beaten
1 1/2 cups brown sugar, packed
2 tsp vanilla
1 1/2 cups pecans, chopped

Directions:

Preheat oven at 325 degrees.

Combine cream cheese and butter, mixing until well blended.  Add flour, mix well.  Divide dough into 4 parts; divide each part into 12 balls.  Press each ball onto bottom and sides of miniature muffin pans.

Combine eggs, brown sugar and vanilla; stir in pecans.  Spoon into pastry shells, filling each cup.  Bake for 30 minutes or until pastry is golden brown.  Cool 5 minutes; remove from pans.

That's it!  Enjoy!

Banana Bread

This past weekend, my mom gave me some bananas to take home since they had a lot. Apparently, my dad saw a sale and bought a box full of them. They were pretty ripe so I decided to let them sit a few more days to make banana bread. This is a foolproof recipe and the bread is incredibly moist. Except one time I mistook tapioca starch for baking soda and I was puzzled for days before I realized why my bread didn't rise. Funny story. Anyway, I love this recipe because no mixer is needed which means one less thing to wash! I substituted 1/2 cup sugar with brown sugar and added some walnuts to the recipe.



Banana Bread
Adapted from Simply Recipes

Ingredients:
3 or 4 ripe bananas, smashed
1/3 cup melted butter
3/4 cup sugar
1 egg, beaten
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 teaspoon baking soda
Pinch of salt
1 1/2 cups of all-purpose flour
1/2 cup chopped walnuts, toasted [optional]

Directions:
Preheat the oven to 350°F. With a wooden spoon, mix butter into the mashed bananas in a large mixing bowl. Mix in the sugar, egg, and vanilla. Sprinkle the baking soda and salt over the mixture and mix in. Add the flour last, mix. Pour mixture into a buttered 4x8 inch loaf pan and sprinkle walnuts on top. Bake for 1 hour. Cool on a rack. Remove from pan and slice to serve.