Sweet Cornbread

Ingredients:

1 cup all-purpose flour 1 cup cornmeal 1/4 cup white sugar 1/2 teaspoon baking powder 1/2 teaspoon baking soda 1/2 teaspoon salt 1 egg, lightly beaten 1 cup sour cream 1/3 cup milk 1/4 cup butter, melted

Directions:

1.	Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (205 degrees C). Lightly grease an 8-inch square baking dish.
2.	Combine flour, cornmeal, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a large bowl. Mix egg, sour cream, milk, and butter in a small bowl. Fold egg mixture into flour mixture until just moistened; pour into prepared baking dish.
3.	Bake in preheated oven until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean, 20 to 25 minutes. Serve warm.

Sweet Potato Chocolate Chip Muffins

This recipe is from the blog The Frugal Girl, which I love, love love.  It may be my favorite blog from someone I don't personally know.  I was reading a blog entry she wrote about how she needed to use up an extra sweet potato, and I thought "Hey, I do, too!"  They taste very similar to pumpkin bread.  I made half with chocolate chips and half without.  The chocolate batch disappeared first, but all the kids liked the regular batch, as well.

Photo from The Frugal Girl

4 eggs
2 cups sugar
16 oz. mashed sweet potato (without butter, salt, or milk)
3/4 cup milk
3/4 cup oil
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon salt
1 package chocolate chips

In a large mixing bowl, beat eggs, sugar, pumpkin, milk, and oil until smooth. In a separate bowl, whisk dry ingredients together. Add dry ingredients to liquid ingredients, and stir just until combined. Fold in chocolate chips. Fill greased or paper-lined muffin cups 3/4 full. Bake 16-20 minutes at 350 degrees.  Makes 36.

(I actually made these into two loafs, baked at 350 until they looked done.  :)

Easy Cinnamon Bread

Ingredients

1/3 cup white sugar

2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

2 cups all-purpose flour

1 tablespoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 cup white sugar

1 egg, beaten

1 cup milk

1/3 cup vegetable oil

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Lightly grease a 9x5 inch loaf pan.

In large bowl combine flour, baking powder, salt and 1 cup sugar. Add egg, milk, and oil to flour mixture. Pour half of the batter into your pan.  Then sprinkle a generous layer of white sugar and cinnamon.  Top with the other half of the batter.  Bake for 45+ minutes or until done.

Cinnamon Crescents

I love making (and eating) cinnamon rolls, but it does take a chunk of time.  Last Sunday I quickly made these, and while they aren't the same thing as rolls from scratch, they are still plenty yummy!

1 tube refrigerated crescent rolls

Filling

5 tablespoons butter, softened
¼ cup white sugar
2½ teaspoons cinnamon

 

Glaze

2 tablespoons butter, melted
¼ cup + 2 tablespoons powdered Sugar
½ teaspoon vanilla extract

Unroll crescent rolls.  Mix together filling ingredients and spread onto dough triangles.  Roll up and place tip side down on a cookie sheet.  Bake 10-12 minutes at 375.

Mix glaze ingredients and place into a baggie.  Snip the corner.  Drizzle the glaze over the hot rolls.

Pumpkin Bread

Makes 2 loaves!

Ingredients:

1 (15 ounce) can pumpkin puree
4 eggs
1 cup vegetable oil
2/3 cup water
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
2 1/2 cups sugar
3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt
2 tablespoons pumpkin pie spice

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease and flour two 8.5 x 4 x 2.5 inch loaf pans.
2. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment or in a large bowl with an electric mixer, combine pumpkin, eggs, oil, water, vanilla and sugar until well blended.
3. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, salt, and pumpkin pie spice until well combined.
4. Stir the dry ingredients into the pumpkin mixture until just blended. Pour batter into the prepared pans.
5. Bake in preheated oven for 60-70 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

Sugar Donut Muffins

Sugar Donut Muffins

3/4 cup sugar
1 large egg
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
2 tsp baking power
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
1/4 cup vegetable oil
3/4 cup milk (low fat is fine)
1 tsp vanilla extract

2 tbsp butter, melted
1/2 cup sugar, for rolling

Preheat oven to 350F. Lightly grease a muffin tin with cooking spray or vegetable oil.

In a large bowl, beat together sugar and egg until light in color.

In a small bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, salt and nutmeg. Pour into egg mixture and stir to combine. Pour in vegetable oil, milk and vanilla extract.

Divide batter evenly into 10 muffin cups or ~24 mini-muffin cups, filling each about 3/4 full.

Bake for 15-18 minutes for standard-sized muffins or 11-12 minutes for mini-muffins, until a tester inserted into the center comes out clean.

While muffins are baking, melt butter and pour sugar into a small bowl.

When muffins are done, lightly brush the top of each with some melted butter, remove from the pan and roll in sugar. Cool on a wire rack.

Yield: ~10 standard muffins or ~24 mini-muffins

Pasta w/ Creamy Mushroom Sauce and Homemade Garlic Bread

 

 

 

You will need:

1/2 onion finely chopped

2 T chopped garlic

2 T olive oil

1 1/2 cups sliced mushrooms

chicken stock

heavy cream

dill

 

Directions:

Heat up a pan and saute mushrooms, onion and garlic in 2 tablespoons olive oil until the mushroom starts to golden and the onion is soft.
Add 1/2 cup chicken stock, 1 1/2 cup cream and 2 tablespoons chopped fresh dill.
Let it simmer for 5 minutes and season with salt and pepper.  Toss with hot pasta.

 

 

You will need:

• 1 cup warm water (70° to 80°)
• 1 tablespoon butter, melted
• 1 tablespoon nonfat dry milk powder
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 1-1/2 teaspoons salt
• 4-1/2 teaspoons dried parsley flakes
• 2 teaspoons garlic powder
• 3 cups bread flour
• 2 teaspoons active dry yeast

Directions

• In bread machine pan, place all ingredients in order suggested by manufacturer. Select basic bread setting. Choose crust color and loaf size if available.
• Bake according to bread machine directions (check the dough after 5 minutes of mixing; add 1 to 2 tablespoons of water or flour if needed). Yield: 1 loaf, 16 slices (about 1-1/2 pounds).

Oatmeal chocolate chip muffins

Abigail helped make these muffins last week.  We ate them while they were still gooey warm, and a dozen disappeared in one sitting.

1 1/3 cup flour
3/4 cup oatmeal
1/3 cup sugar
2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
Generous handful of chocolate chips (we used mini)

1 beaten egg
3/4 cup milk
1 tsp vanilla
1/4 cup oil

This is a standard muffin recipe.  Mix the wet. Mix the dry.  Combine.  Pour into greased muffin tins.  Bake at 400 for 20 minutes, or until golden.

Focaccia

I made focaccia last night along with Jill's recipe for Penne with Sun-dried tomatoes and spinach.  The bread machine does the brunt of the work, and you get the fun stuff like punching and poking.

Place the following ingredients in your bread machine, following the order your machine recommends.  Use the dough setting on your machine.

Scant 1 cup water
1 Tbl olive oil
3 cups flour
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp sugar
1 tsp yeast

After the dough is done, turn it out onto a lightly floured surface.  Punch it down and flatten it slightly.  Shape the dough into a ball and then roll it into a round of about 10".  Place it into a greased round cake pan.  Cover with oiled plastic wrap and let rise 20 minutes.

Uncover the focaccia.  Using your fingertips, poke the dough to make deep dimples in the surface.  Cover and let rise until double, 10-15 minutes.

Drizzle with 2 Tbl olive oil.  Sprinkle with a combination of garlic powder and kosher salt and a little black pepper, to taste. 

Bake 20-25 minutes, or until golden.  Serve warm.

PW's Cinnamon Rolls

Another recipe from the Pioneer woman. I admit I coped it exactly from her website. Anton made these for breakfast this morning (snow day #3!) He cut the recipe in half and didn't put in as much salt as it calls for. Enjoy!

Ingredients:
1 quart Whole Milk
1 cup Vegetable Oil
1 cup Sugar
2 packages Active Dry Yeast, 0.25 Ounce Packets
8 cups (Plus 1 Cup Extra, Separated) All-purpose Flour
1 teaspoon (heaping) Baking Powder
1 teaspoon (scant) Baking Soda
1 Tablespoon (heaping) Salt
Plenty Of Melted Butter
2 cups Sugar
Generous Sprinkling Of Cinnamon
_____
MAPLE FROSTING:
1 bag Powdered Sugar
2 teaspoons Maple Flavoring
½ cups Milk
¼ cups Melted Butter
¼ cups Brewed Coffee
⅛ teaspoons Salt
Preparation Instructions
For the dough, heat the milk, vegetable oil, and sugar in a medium saucepan over medium heat to just below a boil. Set aside and cool to warm. Sprinkle the yeast on top and let it sit on the milk for 1 minute.
Add 8 cups of the flour. Stir until just combined, then cover with a clean kitchen towel, and set aside in a relatively warm place for 1 hour. After 1 hour, remove the towel and add the baking powder, baking soda, salt, and the remaining 1 cup flour. Stir thoroughly to combine. Use the dough right away, or place in a mixing bowl and refrigerate for up to 3 days, punching down the dough if it rises to the top of the bowl. (Note: dough is easier to work with if it’s been chilled for at least an hour or so beforehand.)
Preheat the oven to 375°F.
To assemble the rolls, remove half the dough from the pan/bowl. On a floured baking surface, roll the dough into a large rectangle, about 30 x 10 inches. The dough should be rolled very thin.
To make the filling, pour 3/4 cup to 1 cup of the melted butter over the surface of the dough. Use your fingers to spread the butter evenly. Generously sprinkle half of the ground cinnamon and 1 cup of the sugar over the butter. Don’t be afraid to drizzle on more butter or more sugar! Gooey is the goal.
Now, beginning at the end farthest from you, roll the rectangle tightly towards you. Use both hands and work slowly, being careful to keep the roll tight. Don’t worry if the filling oozes as you work; that just means the rolls are going to be divine. When you reach the end, pinch the seam together and flip the roll so that the seam is face down. When you’re finished, you’ll wind up with one long buttery, cinnamony, sugary, gooey log.
Slip a cutting board underneath the roll and with a sharp knife, make 1/2-inch slices. One “log “will produce 20 to 25 rolls. Pour a couple of teaspoons of melted butter into disposable foil cake pans and swirl to coat. Place the sliced rolls in the pans, being careful not to overcrowd. (Each pan will hold 7 to 9 rolls.)
Repeat the rolling/sugar/butter process with the other half of the dough and more pans. Preheat the oven to 375°F. Cover all the pans with a kitchen towel and set aside to rise on the countertop for at least 20 minutes before baking. Remove the towel and bake for 15 to 18 minutes, until golden brown. Don’t allow the rolls to become overly brown.
While the rolls are baking, make the maple icing: In a large bowl, whisk together the powdered sugar, milk, butter, coffee, and salt. Splash in the maple flavoring. Whisk until very smooth. Taste and add in more maple, sugar, butter, or other ingredients as needed until the icing reaches the desired consistency. The icing should be somewhat thick but still very pourable.
Remove pans from the oven. Immediately drizzle icing over the top. Be sure to get it all around the edges and over the top. As they sit, the rolls will absorb some of the icing’s moisture and flavor. They only get better with time… not that they last for more than a few seconds.

Pumpkin bread revisited

Marla posted a yummy recipe for pumpkin bread 2 autumns ago.  It is my go-to pumpkin bread recipe now.  Or at least several times a year after I've bought the 3 pack of jumbo cans from Costco.  It is really tasty, but something about the cup of oil in each recipe makes it seems extra not-so-healthy.  So today I made two batches; one using half oil and half applesauce, and the other subbing all the oil out for applesauce.  Both batches turned out great, so I think I'll go with all applesauce from now on.  There is a link above for the original post, and I'll copy it again below.

Ingredients
1 (15 ounce) can pumpkin puree
4 eggs
1 cup vegetable oil (substitute some or all with applesauce)
2/3 cup water
3 cups white sugar
3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
1/4 teaspoon ground ginger

Directions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).

Grease and flour two bread pans. In a large bowl, mix together pumpkin puree, eggs, oil, water and sugar until well blended. In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves and ginger. Stir the dry ingredients into the pumpkin mixture until just blended.

Pour into the prepared pans.

Bake for about 60 minutes in the preheated oven. Loaves are done when toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.

Quick breadsticks

I like this breadstick recipe because it makes yeasty breadsticks, but is ready from the idea to the table in an hour.  You could mix it by hand or in the stand mixer, but my favorite way is in the food processor.

1 cup warm water
3 Tbl brown sugar
2 1/2 tsp yeast (or 1 packet)
1 tsp salt
1/4 cup oil
3 cups bread flour


In a small bowl mix the water, sugar and yeast.  Leave it for a few minutes until it gets bubbly.

Put the flour and salt in the food processor.  Mix a bit.  Slowly add the oil thru the chute and let it mix.  Slowly add the yeasty water until it is all combined.  Continue to mix until the dough becomes a ball and goes round and round the food processor bowl 25 times.

Roll the dough out into a rectangle.  Cut with a pizza wheel into 3/4" strips.  For each strip, grab the ends and pinch together, then give it a twist, and place onto a greased cookie sheet.  (I also end up making an 'A,' 'Z,' 'S,' and 'B.')

Let them rise about 20 minutes, covered.

Bake at 375 for 10-15 minutes, until golden.

Brush with butter.  Add any optional toppings like garlic salt or parmesan cheese.

Bruschetta

1 loaf french bread sliced into 1-inch slices
3 T butter
1 pint cherry tomatoes
4-5 cloves of minced garlic
6 large basil leaves
3 T olive oil
juice of 1/2 lemon
salt and pepper

Butter slices of bread and place on baking sheet. Bake at 350 for 5 min until golden brown.
In a bowl, mix all other ingredients. Top each bread slice with a spoonful.

Homemade Croutons

Cube 4-5 slices of bread. I used a variety of white/brown. In a saucepan, melt 2 T butter and 2 T olive oil. Sprinkle "italian seasoning" combo over the top. Mix well until bread is coated.
Spread on a baking sheet and bake at 425 for 10-15 min.

Banana Bundt Bread

I was looking for something fun to do with ripe bananas, and this recipe was a winner. Nathanael isn't a big banana fan, but he found this recipe "a very acceptable use of bananas."

1 cube butter, softened
3/4 cup sugar, plus 2 T sugar
2 eggs
1/2 tsp vanilla
1 cup mashed bananas
1/2 cup sour cream
2 cups flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup chocolate chips

1. Grease a bundt pan, and coat sides (like you would flour a pan) with sugar.
2. Cream butter and 3/4 cup sugar. Beat in eggs and vanilla. Stir in banana and sour cream.
3. In another bowl combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Slowly add to banana mixture.
4. Spoon half of batter into the bundt pan. Sprinkle with chocolate chips and remaining 2T sugar. Add other half of batter.
5. Bake at 350 for about 40 minutes. Test with a toothpick for doneness, keeping in mind the gooey chocolate layer.
6. Cool for 10 minutes before inverting onto a plate.

Braided breadsticks

I like this bread recipe because it makes a good, yeasty bread stick, but from start to finish they are done in about an hour. (Or more, depending on how much "help" I have.) Abigail learned to braid last week, so I made the dough and she shaped them.

Combine and let get bubbly:
1 cup warm water
3 tbl sugar
2 1/2 tsp yeast

In mixer bowl, stir together:
3 cups bread flour
1 tsp salt

Turn on the mixer with the bread hook.
Drizzle in 1/4 cup oil. Slowly add the yeasty water and then let the mixer combine and then knead the dough.

Roll out into a 10x12 rectangle.
Cut into strips. (About 1/4 inch wide.)
Use three strips and braid, place onto a greased cookie sheet.
Let rise for about 20 minutes.
Bake at 375 for 10-15 minutes, depending on how thick they ended up.
Brush with butter, and sprinkle with garlic salt and parmesan cheese.

Pumpkin bread

Lucas found the recipe on-line... it's really easy and really yummy.

Ingredients
1 (15 ounce) can pumpkin puree
4 eggs
1 cup vegetable oil
2/3 cup water
3 cups white sugar
3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
1/4 teaspoon ground ginger

Directions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease and flour two bread pans. In a large bowl, mix together pumpkin puree, eggs, oil, water and sugar until well blended. In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves and ginger. Stir the dry ingredients into the pumpkin mixture until just blended. Pour into the prepared pans.
Bake for about 60 minutes in the preheated oven. Loaves are done when toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.

Bread Machine Dinner Rolls

These rolls were so tasty, especially in PB+J's with homemade strawberry jam!
1 cup water
1 egg
4 1/2 tsp vegetable oil
3 1/4 cups bread flour
1/4 cup sugar
1 1/2 tsp salt
2 1/4 tsp yeast

Place the ingredients into bread machine in order according to your bread machine. (Mine is wet, then dry, putting the yeast in a well in the middle, but some may be different.) Select the dough setting on the machine.

Lightly grease a 9x13.

When dough is finished, shape into 15 dough balls, and place into pan. (Spraying your hands with pam helps the dough from sticking and getting too dried out.)

Cover and let rise until double, about 30 minutes.

Bake at 350 for 12-15 minutes, until golden brown.

Brush the tops with melted butter. (Or if your kids have hidden your pastry brush somewhere, drizzle with melted butter.)

Cinnamon Rolls

This cinnamon roll recipe uses the bread machine to make the dough, and makes just the very best cinnamon rolls. It takes just under 3 hours, start to finish, but each step is quite simple. The recipe below is straight from RecipeZaar.com, which a few notes added from me in purple.

Super Fantastic Cinnamon Rolls, recipe 203785 from RecipeZaar.

Dough

• 1 cup warm milk
• 2 eggs, room temperature
• 1/3 cup margarine or butter, melted
• 4 1/2 cups bread flour
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup white sugar
• 2 1/2 teaspoons bread machine yeast

Filling

• 1 cup brown sugar, packed
• 2 1/2 tablespoons ground cinnamon
• 1/3 cup margarine or butter, softened

Frosting

• 3 ounces cream cheese
• 1/4 cup butter
• 1 1/2 cups confectioners' sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/8 teaspoon salt

1. Place all ingredients in bread machine in order recommended by manufacturer. Select DOUGH cycle press Start.
2. In separate bowl combine cinnamon and sugar.
3. After dough has finished, turn it out onto lightly floured surface and roll into a 16x24 rectangle. Spread dough with butter and sprinkle evenly with cinnamon and sugar mixture. Roll up dough (start on the long side) and cut into 12 rolls. (Sometimes I make 18 rolls, and put into two 9x9 pans, and freeze one after cutting.) Place rolls in lightly greased 9x13 pan. Cover and let rise until almost doubled (about 30 min). Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.
4. Bake rolls for 14-16 minutes. While rolls are baking, beat together cream cheese, 1/4 cup butter, confectioners sugar, vanilla extract and salt. Spread frosting on warm rolls.

*********
I used half whole wheat dough, to make them a bit healthier. I know, I know.... But that is why they look a bit darker than regular dough.

After cutting, before rising:
After the rise:
Fresh out of the oven:
Frosted:

Elephant Ears

Don't get too excited, these aren't state fair quality elephant ears. They are more like tasty cinnamon biscuits. But they are from the Alpha-Bakery cookbook, and they needed something for "E." It was a very hands on project for the kids, to say the least.

1/4 cup of margarine or butter - melted
1 cup flour
2 tbl sugar
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/3 cup milk
3 tbl sugar
1 tsp cinnamon
more sugar

1. Heat the oven to 425.
2. Grease a cookie sheet.
3. Stir flour, 2 tbl sugar, baking powder and salt together. Add milk and 3 tbl of the melted butter.
4. Knead dough 10 times on a lightly floured surface.
5. Pat out dough into a 9x5 rectangle.
6. Brush remaining butter onto dough with a pastry brush.
7. Sprinkle with mixture of 3 tbl sugar and the cinnamon.
8. Roll up tightly, starting with narrow end. Pinch edge of dough to seal.
9. Cut into 4 equal pieces with a sharp knife and place on the cookie sheet.
10. Pat into 6 inch circles, and sprinkle with more sugar.
11. Bake 8-10 minutes, or until golden brown. Immediately remove from cookie sheet and let cool on a wire rack.