Cinnamon Toast Crunch Bundles

Here is a quick and easy treat. Cinnamon, peanut butter, and chocolate crunchy bundles of happiness!

Cinnamon Toast Crunch Bundles

6 cups Cinnamon Toast Crunch Cereal

1 cup sugar

1 cup light corn syrup

1 cup peanut butter

Line a cookie sheet with parchment, wax paper, or Silat. Place cereal in large bowl. In a saucepan, combine syrup and sugar over medium heat. Bring to boil (stirring constantly) remove from heat and stir in peanut butter. Pour over cereal and gently fold until cereal in completely covered. Scoop out onto prepared cookie sheet, I use an ice cream scoop. When cool and set up, make drizzle.

Drizzle

2 Tbl peanut butter

1/2 cup milk chocolate Chips

In microwave-proof small bowl, melt together peanut butter and chocolate chips in microwave. Drizzle over each bundle.

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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!

 

Apple Cinnamon Snack Cake

We just needed some cinnamon comfort food tonight.

Cake Batter:
2½ cups flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
3/4 cup butter, softened
1¼ cups sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
3 eggs
1/2 cup sour cream
2 tsp vanilla
2 medium granny smith apples, peeled, cut into small pieces

Cinnamon Filling:
2 Tbl sugar
2 Tbl brown sugar
2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg

Glaze:
1 cup powdered sugar
1 Tbl butter, melted
2 Tbl milk
1/2 tsp vanilla

Heat oven to 350°. Spray 13”x9” pan with non-stick spray. In small bowl, combine ingredients for cinnamon filling, set aside. In another small bowl, combine flour, baking powder, and salt, set aside. In large bowl, cream butter, sugar, and brown sugar with electric mixer. Add eggs, sour cream, and vanilla, mix until combined. Add flour mixture to creamed mixture and mix just until combined.

Spoon 2/3 of batter into pan, spread evenly. Sprinkle chopped apple pieces evenly all over the batter. Sprinkle cinnamon sugar filling evenly over apples. Drop tablespoon size amounts of remaining batter evenly over cinnamon filling.

Bake 35 to 45 minutes until pick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool completely. In small bowl, stir glaze ingredients until smooth. Drizzle over cake.

One Dozen White Cupcakes

This recipe makes 12 tender, fluffy white cupcakes, just the right size batch for the Fam while in quarantine! There are so many things to be grateful for, make cupcakes to celebrate! Also, it’s our 35th Wedding Anniversary!

Cupcake Batter:
1½ cups flour
1 cup sugar
1½ tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
3/4  cup milk (can use water)
1 Tbl oil
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 cup sour cream
1 egg

Vanilla Buttercream:
1/2 cup butter, softened
2½ cups powdered sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla
1½-3 Tbl whole milk or cream

Preheat oven to 350°. Put 12 cupcake papers in a 12 cup pan. In a large bowl, stir together flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt. In another smaller bowl, whisk together milk, oil, vanilla, sour cream, and egg. Add liquid mixture to dry ingredients and mix together with electric mixer until well incorporated. Scoop mixture into prepared cupcake pan. Bake for 16-20 minutes, watch them and take them out just as cupcakes start to get a little golden and the top of the cupcakes are set. Transfer cupcakes to a wire cooling rack to cool completely.

To make buttercream, whip butter with electric mixer until light in color. Mix in powdered sugar, vanilla, and 1½ Tbl milk and whip together. Add more milk to achieve desired piping consistency. Pipe or spread frosting on completely cooled cupcakes and sprinkle!

More Cupcakes:

Chocolate Cornflake Candy

I debated whether I wanted to do this to you or not. I don’t know if this picture is even that appetizing or not…but DANG! This stuff is dangerous! If you have these ingredients in your pantry, make this recipe and you will be happily eating your way through quarantine.

 

1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
1 cup butterscotch chips
1/2 cup peanut butter
5 cups cornflakes

In a large microwavable bowl melt together chocolate chips, butterscotch chips, and peanut butter, approx. 1½-2 minutes (microwaves vary) stirring after every 30 seconds. Gently fold in cornflakes, making sure to try to get all the cornflakes covered with the chocolate mixture. Press cornflake mixture into buttered pan, use 8″x8″, 9″x9″, or 7″x11″. Cool thoroughly, until totally set. Cut into small squares to serve.

More Snacking!

Chocolate Waffle Cookies

This is a fun and delicious treat to try during quarantine or anytime! Stir batter together while waffle iron heats, cook for 1-2 minutes, and you have a chocolate treat that’s a little crunch on the outside and tender fudgy on the inside.

4 Tbl unsweetened cocoa
1/2 cup butter
2 eggs
3/4 cup sugar
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup flour
dash of salt

Heat waffle iron to medium heat. Melt cocoa with butter in small bowl in microwave. In large bowl, beat eggs. Add sugar, vanilla, flour, and the cocoa mixture. Spread some batter in hot waffle iron and bake 1-2 minutes, depends on your waffle iron, take a peek after 1 minute. Cool on rack.

PB&J Bars

I feel like making a treat, looking around for what I have in the kitchen and here we go! Chewy peanut butter and raspberry jam goodies, I am a sucker for raspberry anything.

2¼ cups brown sugar
1 cup butter, melted
3 eggs
2¾ cups flour
2½ tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
3/4 cup peanut butter chips
1/2 cup peanuts, optional
3/4 cup raspberry jam

Preheat oven to 350°. In large bowl, by hand, mix brown sugar and melted butter. Add eggs, mix well. Add flour, baking powder, and salt; mix just until combined. Stir in peanut butter chips, and peanuts. Spread 1/2 of batter in sprayed 9″x13″ baking pan. Gently spread raspberry jam over batter layer, careful to get jam almost to edge of pan without touching. Layer the remaining batter on top of jam by flattening spoonfuls and laying evenly over the entire surface, take a few minutes and patience, but it works. Bake 30-35 minutes or until center is set and edges start to brown. Cool completely for clean cutting. The bars tasted even better to me the next day.

More Yummy Bars:

Oatmeal Cookies

I love oatmeal cookies, so I was glad to see this recipe in kingarthurflour.com‘s Best Basic Recipe Collection. As bakers, I think we tend to have our favorite go-to recipes, so it’s fun to bake through this collection and try some new things. I love raisins in oatmeal cookies, but in my family there are a few who think it is a crime to put raisins in cookies. A poor, unsuspecting person sees dark brown lumps in their oatmeal cookie and they think they will bite into a chunk of chocolate and then aaaaahhhhhh! It’s a raisin! Trickery of the worst kind! This is why I usually put butterscotch or chocolate chips in my oatmeal cookies. ;o)

4 Tbl butter
1/4 cup shortening
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 tsp vanilla
1¼ tsp cinnamon
1/8 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp vinegar
1 large egg
1/2 tsp baking soda
3/4 cup flour
1½ cups oats, old-fashioned or quick
1 cup raisins (or other mix-in, chocolate chips, nuts, etc)

Preheat the oven to 350°F. Lightly grease (or line with parchment) two baking sheets, light-colored preferred. Beat together the butter, shortening, sugars, vanilla, cinnamon, nutmeg, salt, and vinegar until fairly smooth; a few tiny bits of butter may still show. Beat in the egg, again beating until smooth. Add the baking soda and flour, beating until well incorporated. Add the oats (and raisins), stirring to combine.

Drop the dough in 1 1/4″ balls onto the prepared baking sheets; a tablespoon cookie scoop works well here. If you’re measuring, this is about 2 level tablespoons (using a tablespoon measure, not a dinner spoon). Space the cookies 2″ apart; they’ll spread. Bake the cookies for 12 to 14 minutes, reversing the pans halfway through (top rack to bottom, bottom to top). For softer cookies, bake the lesser amount of time; for crunchier, the longer amount. At 12 minutes, especially if you’re baking on a dark pan without parchment, a few of the cookies on the edge should just barely be showing a pale brown around their edges. At 14 minutes, they should be starting to color all over. Remove the cookies from the oven, and let them cool right on the pan. Yield: 22 to 24 cookies.

More Oatmeal Cookies!

    

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.

Pizza Rolls

Born from my love of bread and pizza. This is a pretty yummy snack or dinner.

Roll Dough:
1 cup warm milk
1 Tbl yeast
2 Tbl sugar
3 Tbl butter, softened
1 large egg, beaten
1 tsp salt
3 cups flour

Pizza Fillings:
1 (6oz) can tomato paste
dry seasonings (oregano, basil, Italian Seasoning, garlic)
1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
1 cup sharp cheddar
1 cup cooked sausage crumbles
1 cup mini pepperoni
1 (3.8oz) can sliced olives

In mixer bowl, sprinkle yeast over warm milk, sprinkle sugar over yeast, let sit until bubbly. Add butter, egg, salt and flour. Mix until well combined. Knead. Turn out into oiled bowl, cover and let rise until doubled. In small bowl, mix tomato paste and seasonings to taste.

Punch down dough, turn out onto floured surface and roll out to 12″x20″ rectangle. Spread tomato paste mixture evenly over dough. Sprinkle cheeses, sausage crumbles, mini pepperoni, and olives. Roll up gently to keep filling in place and seal edge. Cut (I use a thread to neatly cut through) into 12 rolls. Place rolls in sprayed 9″x13″ pan (or can use a 10″x15″ pan). Let rise about 45 minutes to 1 hour. Bake at 350° for 30-35 minutes or until browned on top and bread looks well baked. You can sprinkle a little cheese on top and put back in the oven for a couple minutes to melt. Eat just as is or you can dip in marinara sauce.

P.S. These Pizza Rolls warmed up the next day are just as delicious! I put the leftover rolls on a piece of foil in the oven preheated to 300° and baked until warmed through. Serve with green salad, yum!