Tag Archives: baking

Apple-Zucchini Bread

Apple-Zucchini Bread just seems so perfect for this time of year—early fall is when I’m inspired to bake apple-flavored things! This recipe not only has apples, but zucchini too, which is great—you can never have enough good zucchini recipes for all that zucchini from the garden, can you? Or in my case, from the farmer’s market!

This quick bread has a subtle apple flavor and is also flavored with cinnamon and nutmeg. You can add pecans or walnuts in it too (I didn’t add any nuts to the loaf pictured above). It’s a moist, dense loaf on the inside, and a little crispy and crumbly as you cut into it on the outside. Make sure you grease and flour your pan well–I found that I also needed to loosen the edges of the loaf with a knife so it would come out of the pan easily.

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Blackberry Scones

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Hope you are enjoying the last day of your holiday weekend! I haven’t touched my computer for several days and it sure has been nice to unplug for awhile! 🙂 I haven’t done much cooking or baking this weekend either, but I did make another blackberry recipe with those blackberries I picked. I thought blackberry scones would be nice to try, and I actually tried a recipe out last week which did not turn out well at all! But I wasn’t quite ready to give up on blackberry scones, so this was my second attempt. And these scones turned out so much better! They are slightly sweet, moist, brimming with blackberries, and topped with a light creamy glaze…just the thing for a summer breakfast! You’ll need to use frozen blackberries (or freeze your fresh ones) so they won’t get all mushed up when you’re kneading the dough. The frozen blackberries will color the dough a little as you’re kneading it, but fortunately you only have to knead it a few times. If you don’t have blackberries, blueberries will work fine, too!

BLACKBERRY SCONES by NancyC, adapted from Tasty Kitchen

Makes 8 scones

1/2 cup plain or vanilla Greek yogurt

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1 large egg

1 teaspoon vanilla

2 cups all-purpose unbleached flour

1/2 cup granulated sugar

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup (1 stick) cold unsalted butter, diced

1 cup frozen blackberries

LIGHT CREAM GLAZE

1 cup powdered sugar

2 Tablespoons Half & Half (light cream)

Preheat oven to 350˚F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

In a small bowl, blend Greek yogurt and baking soda; set aside.

In another small bowl, blend together the egg and vanilla; set aside.

In a large bowl, stir together the flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt. Cut in the cold butter using a pastry blender until the butter is the size of small peas.

Stir together the yogurt/baking soda mixture and the egg/vanilla mixture; then add this mixture to the flour mixture, stirring just until moistened. Gently stir in the frozen blackberries.

Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured board and knead a few times, just until the dough comes together. Place the dough onto the parchment-lined baking sheet and pat into a round disk about 1/2″ to 3/4″ thick. Score into 8 wedges. Bake for 28 to 30 minutes, or until the scones are golden brown and a toothpick inserted near center comes out clean or almost clean.

Cool scones for 15 minutes, then top with glaze. To make glaze, put 1 cup powdered sugar in a small bowl. Add 2 Tablespoons of Half & Half (light cream) and stir until well blended and creamy. Drizzle over cooled scones–drizzle on as much or as little glaze as you like–you probably won’t need to use all of it.

These scones were probably the most noteworthy thing I made over the 4th of July weekend–did you make any special holiday treats?

Linked to Inspire Me Monday, Show and Share Party, Wow Us Wednesdays, Wonderful Wednesday, Full Plate Thursday, Thursday Favorite Things.

Blueberry Oat Banana Bread

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When blueberry season comes around, I love baking with those fresh berries! So I thought I’d try combining blueberries and bananas in a bread, and I also decided to add a little oatmeal–I thought oatmeal would give it a nice texture and make a nice quick bread for breakfast.

This bread is so moist and packed with blueberries! It’s sweet, but not overly sweet–and the ripe bananas add just the right amount of sweetness and moistness to the bread. I actually didn’t taste my loaf until the day after I baked it, and it was wonderful the day after! I’m not sure what it tastes like while still warm, but I’m guessing it’s pretty good. The flavor of the bread is so good you really don’t need to put anything on it–but you can always add a little dab of butter on a warm slice, or lightly spread some cream cheese on a cooled slice if you want.

BLUEBERRY OAT BANANA BREAD by NancyC

Makes one 8 x 4″ loaf

1 1/4 cups all-purpose unbleached flour

1/2 cup quick-cooking oats

3/4 cup granulated sugar

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/4 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

2 Tablespoons light olive oil

2 Tablespoons milk

1 large egg

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 cup ripe mashed bananas (2 to 3 bananas, depending on size)

1 cup fresh blueberries

Preheat oven to 350˚F. Grease and flour an 8 x 4″ loaf pan.

In large bowl, whisk together flour, oats, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt; set aside.

In medium bowl, blend olive oil, milk, and egg, blending well, then add vanilla and mashed bananas, blending everything well. Add this mixture to the flour mixture, stirring just until moistened. Fold in the blueberries.

Pour batter into prepared pan and bake at 350˚F for 50 to 52 minutes, or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool in pan for 10 minutes, then remove from pan and cool completely on wire rack.

Fresh blueberries are the best! What types of treats do you like to make with them?

Blueberry Banana Muffins

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Just before I went on vacation recently, I somehow ended up with a LOT of ripe bananas. So I could either freeze them or bake something with them. I decided to do both. I froze some to use in smoothies later and also used some in these muffins!

As you can imagine, these Blueberry Banana Muffins are so good and moist, with both the bananas and blueberries, and the flavors together are great! And the batter has a rich buttery taste. It’s a great recipe for fresh blueberries…and those ripe bananas that always seem to be around! 🙂

BLUEBERRY BANANA MUFFINS adapted from Allrecipes

Makes 12 muffins

2 cups all-purpose unbleached flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 cup fresh blueberries (if you substitute frozen blueberries, fold them in the batter at the end, after everything else is mixed together; your baking time may be slightly longer, too)

1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened

1 cup granulated sugar

2 large eggs

2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

1 cup mashed, very ripe bananas (2 to 3 bananas, depending on size)

Preheat oven to 350˚F. Line a muffin tin with paper liners; set aside.

In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, and salt. Add in the blueberries, gently tossing them to coat them with flour; set aside.

In large bowl, cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs one at a time, beating after each addition. Stir in vanilla and mashed bananas.

Add flour/blueberry mixture to butter/sugar/egg mixture and stir just until moistened. Spoon batter into lined muffin cups, dividing batter evenly among the cups (your muffin cups will be almost full).

Bake for 21 to 24 minutes, or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool in pan 10 minutes, then remove from pan and serve warm or cool completely on a wire rack. Note: I think these taste best warm (after cooling for about 10 minutes).

Even though these muffins do brown quite a bit on top, they are not dry; they’re very soft and moist on the inside. And the browned muffin tops are also slightly crusty if you eat them warm, which I really liked! I took some of these along with me on my road trip vacation to visit family! Are you planning any road trips this summer?

I’m linking this to Fiesta Friday and Inspire Me Monday.

Lemon Raspberry Muffins: Sugar-Crusted or Lemon-Glazed

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Lemon is such a great springtime flavor and this past weekend seemed like the perfect time to make some lemon-flavored muffins!

I found a recipe on Pinterest that inspired me, and it also inspired one of my friends to convince me to make them so she could taste-test them! 🙂 So I ended up making these Lemon-Raspberry Muffins with some changes of my own. I used Half and Half (light cream) and yogurt to make them a little more rich and creamy and used lemon extract instead of vanilla for a little extra lemony flavor. And I made two batches with different toppings–sugar-crusted, like the original recipe, and lemon-glazed, which gives the muffins an extra zing of lemon flavor. The glaze I used is the one from my Lemon Zucchini Loaf, which is another good recipe if you are a lemon-lover!

These muffins are so moist and have a light, sweet lemon flavor. And they’re packed with lots of raspberries! If you decide to glaze the muffins (shown in the photo above), adding fresh raspberries as a garnish is a nice touch (just slice the berries in half lengthwise).

I love this little bowl that holds some of the berries I used-it’s actually a sugar/candy bowl, but it works great for berries, too! It’s part of the Daily Grace Collection by (in)courage, sold on DaySpring.com. The platter, square salad plate and pitcher are also from this collection. I really like the clean simplicity of these pieces and the simple, sweet messages of grace and gratefulness!

Here’s a close-up of the sugar-crusted muffins. Granulated sugar is all that’s needed as a topping for these. I can’t decide if I like the sugar crust or lemon glaze best…you may just have to try these muffins both ways and see what you think! 🙂

LEMON RASPBERRY MUFFINS: SUGAR CRUSTED OR LEMON-GLAZED by NancyCreative, adapted from Pink Polkadot Creations

Makes 12 muffins

2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour, divided

3/4 cup sugar

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup unsalted butter (1 stick), melted

1/2 cup Half and Half (light cream)

1/4 cup plain or vanilla yogurt

1 large egg

1 teaspoon lemon extract

zest of 1 lemon, plus 1 Tablespoon of lemon juice

1 1/2 cups fresh or frozen raspberries (use frozen raspberries with no sugar or syrup added and do not thaw)

For Sugar-Crusted muffins: use 2 to 2 1/2 Tablespoons of granulated sugar for sprinkling on top of muffins before baking

For Lemon-Glazed muffins: see Lemon Glaze recipe below; use raspberries cut in half lengthwise as an optional garnish

Heat oven to 400˚F. Line a 12 cup muffin tin with paper liners or spray with cooking spray.

In medium bowl, combine 1 3/4 cups of the flour, 3/4 cup sugar, baking powder, and salt. Add butter and stir to mix together (this will give you a crumbly-looking mixture).

In another medium bowl, whisk together the Half and Half, yogurt, egg, lemon extract, and lemon juice (you’ll add the lemon zest a little later). Gradually add this mixture to the flour mixture and stir until just combined (batter will be lumpy).

In small bowl, toss the raspberries and lemon zest with the remaining flour. Gently fold the berry mixture into the batter.

Divide batter evenly in the 12 muffin cups (they’ll be about 3/4 full). Then here’s what you do, depending on if you want sugar-crusted muffins or lemon-glazed muffins:

For Sugar-Crusted muffins: Using 2 to 3 Tablespoons of sugar, sprinkle tops of muffin batter before baking. Bake at 400˚F for 17 to 20 minutes or until toothpick inserted in centers comes out clean. Transfer pan to wire rack to cool for 10 minutes before removing the muffins. Then you can serve the muffins warm or let them cool completely–they taste great both ways!

For Lemon-Glazed muffins: Bake at 400˚F for 17 to 20 minutes or until toothpick inserted in centers comes out clean. Transfer pan to wire rack to cool for 10 minutes, then remove muffins from pan and cool completely on wire rack. Mix Lemon Glaze and drizzle over each muffin, then top with a fresh raspberry half if desired (raspberries should be cut in half lengthwise for garnish).

LEMON GLAZE

1 cup powdered sugar

Juice of 1 lemon (or 2 Tablespoons lemon juice)

In small bowl, mix powdered sugar and lemon juice until well blended. Spoon glaze over cooled muffins (or loaf). Let glaze set, then serve.

These muffins are great for breakfast, brunch, an afternoon snack, or even dessert. And since I was in a lemon-raspberry mood, I also made a pitcher of Raspberry Lemonade to go with them. Yum! I’ll share that recipe with you in my next post!

Do you like lemon-flavored goodies, and what is your favorite lemony treat?

Linked to Inspire Me Monday, Nifty Thrifty Tuesday, Wow Us Wednesday, Full Plate Thursday, Favorite Things Thursday, I’m Lovin’ It, Six Sisters’ Stuff.