Small Batch Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins

There is one very ripe lonely banana sitting on the counter. I refuse to throw it away, let’s transform it into something sweet!

4 Tbl butter, melted and cooled

1 egg

1/2 tsp vanilla

1/4 cup sugar

1/4 cup brown sugar

1 very ripe banana, mashed

1 cup flour

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp salt

1/8 tsp cinnamon

1/2 cup chocolate chips, I used mini and reg

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line or spray 5 or 6 muffin cups, depending if you want 5 smaller muffins or 6 larger muffins (I made 5).

Stir together melted butter, egg and vanilla. Add sugar, brown sugar, and mashed banana, stir until well combined. Add flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon, stir just until dry ingredients are incorporated. Stir in chocolate chips. Scoop into prepared muffin cups. Put a few chocolate chips on top to make your muffins bake shop pretty if desired.

Bake 20-22 minutes, until center of muffins are set. Enjoy your treat!

Cinnamon Maple Granola

A Parker summertime tradition, homemade granola. My husband’s favorite is cinnamon, my favorite is dark chocolate peanut. It’s great for snacking, eating as cereal with milk, or sprinkled on yogurt or ice cream (especially delicious on homemade ice cream!). You can follow the basic recipe and make it your own by adding your favorite ingredients.

 

5 cups rice krispies
4 cups rolled oats
1 cup rough chopped walnuts
2 cups raisins
1 cup coconut
1 cup chopped dates
1 cup craisins
3 Tbl cinnamon
1 tsp nutmeg
1 cup butter
1 cup brown sugar
3/4 cup pure maple syrup
1/2 tsp salt
2 tsp vanilla

Preheat oven to 350°.  In large bowl, mix together rice krispies, oats, walnuts, raisins, coconut, dates, craisins, cinnamon, and nutmeg.  In saucepan, melt butter and brown sugar together.  Add maple syrup, salt, and vanilla.  Pour over dry ingredients and stir gently until thoroughly combined.  Spread out evenly on two cookie sheets that have been sprayed with nonstick spray.  Bake for 8 minutes, remove and gently stir and spread out again.  Bake another 8 minutes, remove, gently stir and spread out again.  Bake 8 minutes more.  Remove and cool completely.  Store in airtight container.

More Granola!

 

Sausage & Egg Casserole

This is a delicious breakfast casserole that we had for Easter brunch. It is an overnight casserole, mix together the night before, cover, refrigerate, and bake in the morning. I mixed it together early in the morning and baked it about 5 hours later, worked beautifully. We also ate the leftovers for dinner, definitely can be an anytime meal. It combines so many of my favorite foods, sausage, cheese, bread and eggs, of course I would eat it anytime.

1 lb pork sausage (I use turkey sausage)
6 large eggs
2 cups whole milk
1 tsp salt
1 tsp ground dry mustard
6 slices white bread, cut into 1/2″ cubes
1 cup shredded cheddar cheese*

In a skillet, brown and crumble sausage; drain and set aside. In a large bowl, beat eggs; add milk, salt and mustard. Stir in bread cubes, cheese and sausage. Pour into a greased 11×7-in. (or 9″x9″) baking dish. Cover and refrigerate for 8 hours or overnight. Remove from the refrigerator 30 minutes before baking. Bake, uncovered, at 350° for 40 minutes or until a knife inserted in center comes out clean. *I sprinkled more cheese on top during baking with about 10 minutes remaining. Recipe found at tasteofhome.com.

Super Moist Chocolate Chip Muffins

Looking for a chocolate snack? These chocolate muffins are so good, and because applesauce is the secret to making them moist, we can call them healthy! Well, while we are in quarantine everything seems skewed a bit, so healthy becomes relative. Recipe from ChefAlli.com

2 cups flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips, divided use
1/2 cup cocoa powder
1 tsp vanila
1 egg
1 cup applesauce
1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup oil

Preheat oven to 350°.  Grease 12 muffin cups or line muffins cups with paper muffin liners. In a large mixing bowl, combine the flour, baking soda, salt, sugar, brown sugar, 3/4 cup chocolate chips, and cocoa powder. In a separate bowl, whisk together the vanilla, egg, applesauce, milk, and vegetable oil until smooth; pour into flour mixture and stir until the mixture is just combined. Don’t over mix!

Divide the prepared batter between the 12 prepared muffin cups, filling each one about 2/3 full. Divide the remaining ¼ cup of chocolate chips between muffins, sprinkling them over the top of each one. Bake muffins, uncovered, on center rack, in preheated oven until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean, 20-25 minutes. s soon as the muffins are removed from the oven, gently place a sheet of foil on top. Let the muffins cool covered, then remove them from the muffin tin. Store in an air tight container.

More Snacking Muffins!

 

Biscuits

This is new to me, I have never made biscuits without cutting shortening or butter into the flour, the recipe just uses heavy cream. This is recipe #14 of the kingarthurflour.com Best Basic Recipes. The recipe says you will get 9-11 biscuits, I feel like to get even 9 biscuits, I had to roll the dough too thin and the biscuits are pretty flat. They do have really good flavor and reminded me of getting Fisher Scones at the Ellensburg Rodeo! A tasty breakfast that took me down memory lane.

1¾ cups flour
1/4 cup cornstarch
3/4 tsp salt
1 Tbl baking powder
2 tsp sugar
1-1¼ cups heavy cream
1-2 Tbl melted butter

Whisk together the flour, cornstarch, salt, baking powder, and sugar. Stir in enough heavy cream to moisten the dough thoroughly. You’ll probably use about 1 cup in the summer, 1 1/4 cups in the winter, and 1 cup + 2 tablespoons at the turn of the seasons. You want to be able to gather the dough together, squeeze it, and have it hang together easily, without dry bits falling off.

Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured work surface, and very gently pat it into an 8″ circle about 3/4″ thick. If you’re uncertain about your ability to make a nice freeform 8″ round, pat the dough into a lightly floured 8″ round cake pan, then turn it out onto a lightly floured surface.

Use a sharp 2 ¼” biscuit cutter to cut rounds (I prefer to make a large square and use a pizza cutter and cut 9 squares, you’re only working the dough once). Place them on a lightly greased (or parchment-lined) baking sheet. Brush the biscuits with butter, if desired, for extra flavor. Place the pan in the freezer for 30 minutes. This will improve the biscuits’ texture and rise.

Preheat the oven to 425°F while the biscuits are in the freezer. Bake the biscuits for 20 minutes, till they’re golden brown. Remove from the oven. If you have any melted butter left over, brush it on the baked biscuits. Serve immediately.

More Delicious Biscuits!

Famous Department Store Blueberry Muffins

It’s 1:30 pm, I’m still in my pajamas, and I have eaten four blueberry muffins. Just being honest about how quarantine is going. Hope you’re doing well, maybe bake some muffins and enjoy! This is recipe #12 on kingarthurflour.com‘s Best Basic Recipe Collection.

   

1/2 cup (8 Tbl) butter, softened
1 cup sugar
2 large eggs
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla
2 cups flour
1/2 cup milk
2½ cups blueberries, fresh preferred
1/4 cup sugar, for topping

Preheat the oven to 375°F. Lightly grease a standard 12-cup muffin tin; or line the tin with papers, and grease the papers. In a medium-sized bowl, beat together the butter and sugar until well combined. Add the eggs one at a time, scraping the sides and bottom of the bowl and beating well after each addition. Beat in the baking powder, salt, and vanilla. Add the flour alternately with the milk, beating gently just to combine. Scrape the bottom and sides of the bowl. Mash 1/2 cup of the blueberries. Add the mashed and whole berries to the batter, stirring just to combine and distribute.

Scoop the batter by the heaping 1/4-cupful into the prepared muffin pan; a muffin scoop works well. Sprinkle about 1 teaspoon granulated sugar atop each muffin, if desired. It’s traditional — go for it! Bake the muffins for about 30 minutes, until they’re light golden brown on top, and a toothpick inserted into the middle of one of the center muffins comes out clean. Remove the muffins from the oven, loosen their edges from the pan, and after about 5 minutes transfer them to a rack to cool.

More Muffins to Enjoy!

         

Whole-Grain Banana Bread

Moist and flavorful is what I will say about recipe #10 on kingarthurflour.com‘s Best Basic Recipe list. I say that after much grumbling about the burned overflow in the bottom of my oven and the burned smell that exists in my house. I am following these recipes as exact as I can to see if I agree with the word BEST given in the title.

So, as I poured the batter of this banana bread into the loaf pan and it goes scarily close to the top rim, I say to myself, this isn’t going to work. In my mind there is a battle brewing, that is way too much batter for that pan, no, trust the recipe and the pan size it says, follow the recipe as exact as possible, you better use a larger pan or separate into two smaller pans. You add quarantine to this situation and it’s not good!

Well, I went with trust the recipe and the pan size it says. All is cleaned up now, it’s not the prettiest loaf you will ever see, and you have the full story. Use a larger pan or two smaller ones, and you will have a moist and flavorful Whole-Grain Banana Bread. Ü

Batter
2 cups mashed banana, about 4-5 medium bananas
1/2 cup oil
1 cup brown sugar
2 large eggs
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup white whole wheat flour
1 tsp baking powder
3/4 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 cup chopped walnuts, optional

Topping
1 Tbl sugar
1/2 tsp cinnamon

Preheat the oven to 350°F with a rack in the center position. Lightly grease a 9″ x 5″ loaf pan; if your pan is glass or stoneware, reduce the oven temperature to 325°F. In a large bowl, stir together the mashed banana, oil, sugar, eggs, and vanilla. Weigh your flours; or measure them by gently spooning into a cup, then sweeping off any excess. Mix the flours, baking soda, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, and chopped walnuts into the banana mixture. Scrape the bottom and sides of the bowl and mix again to thoroughly combine the ingredients. Scoop the batter into the prepared pan. Mix together the sugar and cinnamon, and sprinkle over the batter.

Bake the bread for about 60 to 75 minutes, until the bread feels set on the top, and a paring knife (or other thin knife) inserted into the center comes out clean, or with just a few moist crumbs (but no wet batter). If you have a digital thermometer, the bread’s temperature at the center should register about 205°F. If the bread appears to be browning too quickly, tent it with aluminum foil for the final 15 to 20 minutes of baking. Note: If baking in a glass or stoneware pan, increase the baking time by 10 to 15 minutes. Remove the bread from the oven. Cool it in the pan for 15 minutes, then loosen the edges, and turn it out of the pan onto a rack to cool completely. Store leftover bread, tightly wrapped, at room temperature for several days. Freeze for longer storage.

Simply Perfect Pancakes

How about a stack of pancakes to make quarantine a little better? This is recipe #9 on kingarthurflour.com list of Best Basic Recipes. I have to admit, I haven’t had pancakes since…well, I don’t know when. So, this was a treat! Light and fluffy, an amazing vehicle for getting butter and pure maple syrup into my mouth!

2 large eggs
1¼ cups milk
3 Tbl melted butter or oil
1½ cups flour
3/4 tsp salt
2 tsp baking powder
2 Tbl sugar or 1/4 cup malted milk powder*

Beat the eggs and milk until light and foamy, about 3 minutes at high speed of a stand or hand mixer. Stir in the butter or oil. Whisk the dry ingredients together to evenly distribute the salt, baking powder and sweetener (*I used powdered French vanilla coffee creamer). Gently and quickly mix into the egg and milk mixture. Let the batter rest for at least 15 minutes (hard to wait, but an important step), while the griddle is heating; it”ll thicken slightly.

Heat a heavy frying pan over medium heat, or set an electric griddle to 375°F. Lightly grease frying pan or griddle. The pan or griddle is ready if a drop of water will skitter across the surface, evaporating immediately. Drop 1/4 cupfuls of batter onto the lightly greased griddle. Bake on one side until bubbles begin to form and break, about 2 minutes; then turn the pancakes and cook the other side until brown, about 1½ to 2 minutes. Turn over only once. Serve immediately.

 

Scones

Recipe #3 of kingarthurflour.com Best Basic Recipe Collection is SCONES! I will eat any scone from plain to savory to sweet (sweet will always be the favorite, of course). The secret with scone dough is to handle it as little as possible to keep those littles bits of butter nice and cold until they hit the oven. This is a basic recipe and you can choose your mix-ins and flavoring, this time I used 1/2 cup mini chocolate chips and vanilla. Next time I might use raisins, pecans, and maple, oh, that sounds amazing!

Dough
2¾ cups flour
1/3 cup sugar
3/4 tsp salt
1 Tbl baking powder
1/2 cup cold butter
1-2 cups chopped dried fruit, chocolate or other flavor chips, nuts, or combination
2 large eggs
2 tsp vanilla or flavoring of choice
1/2 – 2/3 cup half-and-half or milk

Topping
2 tsp milk or half-and-half
2 Tbl sparkling sugar or cinnamon-sugar, optional

In a large mixing bowl, whisk together flour, sugar, salt, and baking powder. Cut in butter just until mixture is unevenly crumbly; it’s OK for some larger chunks of butter to remain unincorporated. Stir in the fruit, chips, and/or nuts, if you’re using them. In a separate mixing bowl, whisk together eggs, vanilla or other flavor, and half-and-half or milk. Add liquid ingredients to dry ingredients and stir just until all is moistened and holds together.

Line a baking sheet with parchment or silpat; if you don’t have either, just use pan without greasing it. Sprinkle a bit of flour atop the parchment or pan. Put dough onto floured parchment or pan, and divide it in half. Round each half into a 5″ circle. Brush each circle with milk, and sprinkle with coarse sparkling sugar or cinnamon-sugar, if desired. Using a knife or bench knife that you’ve run under cold water, slice each circle into 6 wedges. Carefully pull wedges away from center to separate them just a bit; there should be about 1/2″ space between them, at their outer edges.

For best texture and highest rise, place pan of scones in freezer for 30 minutes, uncovered. Chilling scones relaxes the gluten in the flour, which makes scones more tender and allows them to rise higher. It also chills fat, which will make scones a bit flakier. While scones are chilling, preheat oven to 425°F with a rack in the upper third.

Bake scones in upper part of your oven for 18 to 23 minutes, or until they’re a light golden brown. Remove scones from oven, and cool briefly on pan. Serve warm. They’re delicious as is, but add butter and/or jam, if you like.

When scones are completely cool, wrap them in plastic and store at room temperature for up to several days. To reheat room-temperature scones, place on a baking sheet, tent lightly with foil, and warm in a preheated 350°F oven for about 10 minutes.

Soft Cinnamon Rolls

This last week I saw a post on Instagram by kingarthurflour.com, it is a collection of their 16 Best Basic Recipes. I have decided to make all 16 of these recipes from beginning to end. It’s a great way to pass the time while quarantined. I see some people on Instagram challenging others to organize drawers or closets, that’s a lovely idea, but I prefer to BAKE! Maybe if we are in this long enough I will have to give in and organize. But, for now, let’s begin with the first of the 16 Best Basic Recipes.

  

Ingredients

Tangzhong (starter):
5 Tbl water
5 Tbl milk
3 Tbl + 1 tsp bread flour

Dough:
All of the Tangzhong (above)
4 cups + 2 Tbl bread flour
3 Tbl nonfat dry milk
1¾ tsp salt
1 Tbl instant yeast
3/4 cup lukewarm whole milk
2 large eggs, beaten
6 Tbl butter, melted

Filling:
3/4 cup brown sugar
4 tsp cinnamon

Icing:
2 cups powdered sugar
pinch of salt
2 Tbl melted butter
2-3 Tbl whole milk, to make a thick spreadable frosting

To make the tangzhong: Combine all of the starter ingredients in a small saucepan, and whisk until no lumps remain. Place the saucepan over medium heat, and cook the mixture, whisking constantly, until thick and the whisk leaves lines on the bottom of the pan. This will probably take only a minute or so. Remove from the heat, and set it aside for several minutes.

To make the dough: Mix the tangzhong with the remaining dough ingredients until everything comes together. Let the dough rest, covered, for 20 minutes; this will give the flour a chance to absorb the liquid, making it easier to knead. After 20 minutes, knead the dough — by hand, mixer, or bread machine — to make a smooth, elastic, somewhat sticky dough. Shape the dough into a ball, and let it rest in a lightly greased covered bowl for 60 to 90 minutes, until puffy but not necessarily doubled in bulk.

To make the filling: Combine the brown sugar and cinnamon, mixing until the cinnamon is thoroughly distributed.

To put it all together: Gently deflate the risen dough, divide it in half, and shape each piece into a rough rectangle. Working with one piece at a time, roll the dough into an 18″ x 8″ rectangle. Sprinkle half the filling onto the rolled-out dough. Starting with a long edge, roll the dough into a log. With the seam underneath, cut the log into 12 slices, 1 1/2″ each. Repeat with the second piece of dough and the remaining filling. Lightly grease a 9″ x 13″ pan. Space the rolls in the pan.

Cover the pan and let the rolls rise for 45 to 60 minutes, until they’re crowding one another and are quite puffy. While the rolls are rising, preheat the oven to 350°F with a rack in the bottom third. Uncover the rolls, and bake them for 22 to 25 minutes, until they feel set. They might be just barely browned; that’s OK. It’s better to under-bake these rolls than bake them too long. Their interior temperature at the center should be about 188°F.

While the rolls are baking, stir together the icing ingredients, adding enough of the milk to make a thick spreadable icing. The icing should be quite stiff, about the consistency of softened cream cheese. Remove the rolls from the oven. Spread them with the icing; it’ll partially melt into the rolls. Serve the rolls warm. Store completely cool rolls for a couple of days at room temperature, or freeze for up to 1 month.