Plum Muffins

Tags

cinnamon, cream cheese, muffin, plum, yogurt

A few weeks ago, I was dog/house sitting for my parents while they went on a trip to Hawaii. Lucky them! I therefore had a lot of time on my hands. I was at my parents, an hour and a half from my place, with nothing to do and noone to hang out with other than my parents’ dogs! Needless to say I had a LOT of time on my hands. So what’s a girl to do? Why not make muffins! Lots of them! Some of what I made was by request, and the rest was based on what I had on hand and what would expire before my parents go back, such as the strawberry muffins.

As for the plums that went into these muffins, there is a large tree in the backyard that had so many ripe plums just waiting to be picked. Normally, I just eat plums straight. They’re so good and so hard to resist as a quick snack, but I was determined to find some ways to use them in recipes. I found many options and I didn’t have a chance to try everything I wanted to. Thankfully, I had a chance to make these muffins. Again, I used what I had on hand and I had part of a cream cheese block leftover after making creamy taco mac so I substituted that for some of the butter and yogurt. Cinnamon added a hint of spice to give the muffins a little something extra. They came out wonderfully and were a big hit with the neighbors, who to sample the variety of muffins made! 🙂 So if you ever find yourself with some plums laying around, why not make muffins! And don’t worry, there will be one more muffin recipe on the way soon. 😉One Year Ago: Slow-Cooker Pulled Pork Sandwiches with Homemade Barbecue Sauce

Plum Muffins
Yield: 18 muffins

3 cups all-purpose flour
¾ teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 tablespoon baking powder
½ teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
8 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature
5 ounces cream cheese, at room temperature
¾ cup sugar
2 large eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla
1 cup plain fat-free Greek yogurt
1½ cups chopped plums, about 5 plums
Coarse sugar, for sprinkling tops (optional)

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Line a muffin tin with paper liners or spray with cooking spray; set aside

In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, cinnamon, baking powder, baking soda, and salt; set aside.

In a large mixing bowl, cream butter and cream cheese until blended and smooth. Add sugar and mix on medium-high speed until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add vanilla and eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Mix the flour mixture in two batches, alternating with the yogurt, beating until incorporated; batter will be thick. Gently fold in the plums.

Divide the batter evenly among the prepared muffin cups. Sprinkle tops lightly with coarse sugar, if using. Bake for 8 minutes and then decrease oven temperature to 375 degree F and bake for about 12 more minutes until golden brown and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Let cool 5 minutes in the pan before removing and cooling completely.

Source: Adapted from  Strawberry Muffins

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Pumpkin Cinnamon Roll Muffins, and an Anniversary!

Tags

cinnamon, cream cheese, muffin, Pumpkin

As seems to be the trend for the last few months, I’m behind. Apparently I hit one year of blogging last week! Whoops, but yay! It’s been quite an adventure… and I must say I didn’t have a good start. Somehow, I thought that people would somehow find my blog all on their own and I just had to sit back and write posts. Oh how wrong I was, and how much I’ve learned! I’ve met so many amazing bloggers over the last year, and I want to thank all of you for your support and kind words. Before I post a new recipe, I want to do a little recap of some of the top posts over the last year.The most popular post was this awesome Pull-Apart Cinnamon Sugar Pumpkin Bread with Spiced Glaze, which was derived from the very popular cinnamon sugar pull-apart breads that swept the blogospere.Surprisingly enough, the second most popular post was the very first post I ever made, these Chocolate Cupcakes with Baileys Buttercream. Just goes to show how great it is! It’s also the first recipe that was shared on another blog!Third is Slow-Cooker Pulled Pork Sandwiches with Homemade Barbecue Sauce, because who doesn’t love pulled pork!And fourth is Blueberry Sour Cream Pie, which was another surprising hit. I think I assumed this post was a more unique recipe and hence wouldn’t be as sought after, but maybe that was it’s appeal!

Now before I bore you all to death, I just want to share a couple of my own favorites from this past year, which you might have overlooked or missed.Mango Bread. Tropical, moist, and oh so delicious!Croque Monsieur/Madame. Classic French food which makes for a simple yet indulgent meal.Broiled Shrimp with Tomatoes and Brie. Nuff said. You gotta try this!!

Anyways, on to the main attraction! It may not be a very celebratory food, but I do love me some muffins! Yes it’s pumpkin, and yes it’s spring, but I believe I’ve mentioned before that I eat pumpkin year round. It’s a super tasty superfood! I made these muffins once before, following the original recipe exactly and making my own vanilla glaze. They were very good, but the muffin was a little too tender for my liking, and the glaze didn’t quite match up as I wanted. So, on to take two and I was in heaven! I used my go-to family recipe for pumpkin bread, which is a little sturdier of a bread. Topping was the same, since that was perfect the first time around. As for the glaze, a vanilla glaze didn’t quite seem right for a cinnamon roll muffin, so this time around I made a cream cheese glaze. Yum!

So in conclusion, try these muffins and hurray for my first year blogoversary!!

Pumpkin Cinnamon Roll Muffins
Yield: 15 to 16 muffins

Muffins:
1 cup canned pumpkin puree
½ cup vegetable oil
⅓ cup water
2 eggs
1 cup granulated sugar
1¾ cups all-purpose flour
¾ teaspoon salt
1 teaspoons baking soda
½ teaspoon cinnamon
½ teaspoon nutmeg
¼ teaspoon ground cloves
¼ teaspoon ground ginger

Topping:
2 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
¼ cup brown sugar, packed
1 tablespoon ground cinnamon

Glaze:
2 ounces cream cheese, softened
½ cup powdered sugar
½ teaspoon vanilla extract
1 to 2 tablespoons milk

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line muffin tins with paper liners; set aside.

To make the muffins: In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, ground cloves, and ground ginger; set aside.

In a large bowl, combine the pumpkin puree, oil, water, eggs, and sugar. Slowly add the dry ingredients; mix until smooth. Split batter equally between prepared muffin tins, filling about ¾ of the way full.

To make the topping: In a small bowl, combine butter, brown sugar, and cinnamon. Crumble on top of uncooked muffins and swirl into the batter.

Bake the muffins for 17 to 20 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Move muffin pan to wire rack and cool for 5 minutes, then remove muffins and finish cooling on wire rack.

To make the glaze: In a medium bowl, whisk or beat together the cream cheese and powdered sugar. Stir in the vanilla extract; stir in 1 tablespoon of milk, checking the consistency and adding more milk as needed. Drizzle the cooled muffins with desired amount of glaze.

Source: Adapted/inspired from The Teenage Taste

Blueberry and Cream Cheese Filled King Cake

Tags

blueberry, cake, Carnival, cream cheese, King Cake, Mardi Gras

Happy Mardi Gras!

In celebration of Mardi Gras (Fat Tuesday), I made a King Cake! It’s flavor is hard to describe, though wikipedia describes it as a sort of danish. It’s a yeast bread, filled, made into a ring, and covered with a glaze and colored sugars. Being a yeast bread and kind of like a danish makes it a suitable breakfast or dessert in my books! 🙂 Mine didn’t come out as pretty as I hoped, but at least it tasted awesome! For those of you who don’t know, King Cake is part of the tradition of Mardi Gras and Carnival. A fun and festive cake for a fun and festive celebration! In New Orleans, Mardi Gras is full of floats, parades, masquerades, drunken celebration, beads, and coins. Fat Tuesdays refers to the last day before Ash Wednesday and before lent begins, when you can indulge yourself to your hearts content!I’ve been to Mardi Gras once, and I was definitely too young to appreciate it. As in, it actually kind of scared me! I wasn’t a huge fan of crowds, fireworks, loud noises… totally not a good thing in New Orleans around Mardi Gras. My family and I were in town for a family wedding, so might as well celebrate while we’re there, right? So many colors, beads, floats, and people! I at least enjoyed collecting beads from each float. I would love to go back now that I’m older, and can actually drink now (and my childhood fears have gone away)!

Ever since we went, we started ordering a King Cake each year at Mardi Gras. Per our own family tradition, we would order the cream cheese-blueberry filled. It was beautiful, huge, and so delicious! Unfortunately, they started getting to expensive to ship from Louisiana out to California, so we started going without our annual King Cake. Once I went to college, I really started getting into baking and decided to try making a King Cake for the first time. It turned out great, and the shape and everything about it was just perfect.

My very first homemade King Cake, from the college days!

But stupid me… I didn’t save the recipe and the site has long since disappeared. The recipe below is the one I’ve used twice now. The flavor tastes just like I remember, and though I kind of make a mess with the blueberry filling, each year it seems to come out better. This year, it rose a lot and blobbed out, so I decided that next year I’ll make the cake rolls more narrow and longer, which I reflected in the recipe. So, sorry this post was longer than usual, but I hope you have a wonderful Mardi Gras! Throw me some beads, mister! 🙂

Blueberry and Cream Cheese Filled King Cake

Cake:
1 (16-ounce) container sour cream
⅓ cup sugar
¼ cup butter
1 teaspoon salt
2 (¼-ounce) envelopes active dry yeast
½ cup warm water (100° to 110°)
1 tablespoon sugar
2 large eggs, lightly beaten
6 to 6½ cups all-purpose flour

Fillings:
8 ounces cream cheese, softened
1 cup powdered sugar
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon milk
1 cup blueberry pie filling, slightly mashed

Glaze:
3 cups powdered sugar
3 tablespoons butter, melted
2 tablespoons lemon juice
¼ teaspoon vanilla extract
2 to 4 tablespoons milk

Colored Sugar Topping:
1½ cups granulated sugar, divided
Food coloring (red, blue, green, yellow)

To make the cake: In a medium saucepan over low heat, combine sour cream, ⅓ cup sugar, butter, and salt. Cook until butter melts, stirring often. Set aside, and cool mixture to 100-110 degrees F.

In a 1-cup measuring cup, stir together yeast, warm water, and 1 tablespoon sugar; let stand 5 minutes.

In the mixing bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat sour cream mixture, yeast mixture, eggs, and 2 cups flour at medium speed until smooth. Reduce speed to low, and gradually add 4 to 4½ cups flour until a soft dough forms. Change to the dough hook and knead until smooth and elastic, about 10 minutes. Form dough into a ball and place in a well greased bowl, turning the dough to grease all sides. Cover and let rise in a warm place, free from drafts, 1 hour or until dough is doubled in bulk.

To make cream cheese filling: In a medium bowl, beat cream cheese until smooth. Add powdered sugar, flour, vanilla, and milk and beat until creamy and smooth; set aside.

To make the glaze: In a medium bowl, combine powdered sugar, butter, lemon juice, vanilla, and 2 tablespoons milk. Stir until smooth, adding additional milk 1 teaspoon at a time, until pouring consistency.

To make the colored sugars: Pour ½ cup sugar into 3 separate sealable sandwich bags. Add 3 to 5 drops of food coloring to separate bags, adding red and blue to the same bag to make purple. Seal the bags and shake to distribute the color, using your fingers to break up any colored clumps of sugar; set aside.

To assemble: Punch down dough, and divide in half. Roll each portion into a 30 x 9-inch rectangle. On one rectangle, spread the cream cheese filling, leaving a 1-inch border. One the other rectangle, spread the blueberry filling, leaving a 1-inch border. Roll up each dough rectangle, jelly-roll fashion, starting at 1 long side. Place dough rolls, seam side down, on a lightly greased baking sheet. Bring ends of both rolls together, and twist the two rolls to form a spiral. Shape the spiral into an oval ring, moistening and pinching edges together to seal. Cover and let rise in a warm place, free from drafts, 20 to 30 minutes or until doubled in bulk.

Bake at 375 degrees F for 20 to 25 minutes, or until golden. Slightly cool cake on the pan on a wire rack, about 10 minutes. Drizzle glaze evenly over warm cake; sprinkle with colored sugars, alternating colors and forming bands. Let cool completely before serving.

Source: Cake adapted from Southern Living, everything else from a source long since lost and forgotten!

Red Velvet Cheesecake Brownies

Tags

brownie, cheesecake, chocolate, cream cheese, red velvet

Happy Valentine’s Day!!

Like I previously said, I’m not a huge fan of this holiday. Though my husband did get me some nice gifts, so I guess I can’t complain! 🙂 But I will take any excuse to bake something! Due to my lack of planning, I needed a sweet treat for Valentine’s Day that was fast and easy, and that I already had all the ingredients for. Red velvet is so traditional, and though I’m not a big fan of it, I decided to give it another try. I’m determined to like red velvet!! It’s so pretty and everyone else loves it… I just want to fit in! Hehe.These red velvet brownies are amazing. Red velvet fan or not, I love these. The dark chocolate adds a delicious hint of chocolate flavor, and the cheesecake layer is the perfect compliment to the red velvet brownie. Who knows, maybe I’m becoming a red velvet fan after all! If you need a quick and easy last minute treat for Valentine’s Day, give these a try! Your loved ones will surely love them, and love you for making them, too!Red Velvet Cheesecake Brownies
Yield: 9 to 16 brownies

Red velvet layer:
½ cup butter
2 ounces dark chocolate, coarsely chopped
1 cup sugar
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1½ teaspoons red food coloring
⅔ cup all purpose flour
¼ teaspoon salt

Cheesecake layer:
8 ounces cream cheese, room temperature
⅓ cup sugar
1 large egg
½ teaspoon vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line an 8×8-inch square baking dish with foil, leaving a little overhanging on each side to create a sling; coat foil with cooking spray.

To make the red velvet layer: In a small, heatproof bowl, melt butter and chocolate together. Stir until combined and smooth; set aside to cool for a few minutes.

In a large bowl, whisk together sugar, eggs, vanilla extract and red food coloring. Add chocolate mixture and whisk until smooth. Add flour and salt; with a rubber spatula, stir until just combined and no streaks of dry ingredients remain. Pour into prepared pan and spread into an even layer.

To make the cheesecake layer: In a medium mixing bowl, beat cream cheese until smooth. Add sugar, egg and vanilla extract and beat until smooth. Distribute the cheesecake mixture in 8 dollops over batter in the pan. Gently swirl with a knife.

Bake for 35-40 minutes, until brownies and cheesecake are set; the edges will be lightly browned. Let cool to room temperature in pan on a cooling rack then transfer to the refrigerator to chill completely. Use the foil to remove the brownies then slice into squares.

Source: Sweet Pea’s Kitchen, via Baking Bites

Spinach-Artichoke Stuffed Portobello Mushrooms

Tags

artichoke, breadcrumbs, cream cheese, garlic, portobello, sour cream, spinach, vegetarian

When I first tried spinach-artichoke dip, I wasn’t a huge fan. I think I just wasn’t a big fan of artichokes. But thankfully, tastes change every 7 years or so and I have since come to learn that even if I don’t love the dip, I love the spinach-artichoke combo whether it be on pasta or pizza, and even on mushrooms! This recipe has been circulating a lot of blogs lately, and it caught my eye every time. When I finally saw portobellos were on sale, I knew what I wanted to do with them! And thankfully, I had everything on hand already once I got the mushrooms. This is a very simple recipe, and there is something elegant seeming about stuffed portobellos. You can dress them up or dress them down, as needed. We even had stuffed portobellos at our wedding, and they were so good! I actually preferred that over the steak I requested, they were that good! But the point is, these spinach-artichoke stuffed portobello mushrooms are awesome and you should definitely make them soon!!Spinach-Artichoke Stuffed Portobello Mushrooms
Yield: 4 servings

3 tablespoons olive oil, divided
4 garlic cloves, minced and divided
4 medium portabello mushrooms, stems and gills removed
4 ounces cream cheese, softened
3 tablespoons sour cream
2 teaspoons fresh thyme, divided
Pinch of red pepper flakes
10 ounces frozen chopped spinach, thawed and squeezed dry
1 (13.75 ounce) can artichoke hearts, drained and chopped
½ cup Panko breadcrumbs
½ cup grated Parmesan cheese

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees F.

In a small bowl, combine 2 tablespoons olive oil and 2 cloves minced garlic. Brush the insides of the mushroom caps with the mixture and season with salt and pepper. Arrange the mushrooms in a single layer on a baking sheet, oiled-side up. Roast until just tender, about 8 to 10 minutes. Use a paper towel to blot up and accumulated moisture in the mushroom caps.

Meanwhile, combine the cream cheese, sour cream, and 1 teaspoon thyme in a medium bowl. Stir in the spinach and artichokes and season with salt and pepper.

In another medium bowl, combine the Panko, Parmesan cheese, 2 cloves minced garlic, 1 tablespoon olive oil, and 1 teaspoon thyme.

Spoon the artichoke mixture evenly into the mushroom caps and sprinkle generously with the breadcrumb mixture. Bake 10 to 12 minutes, until the crumbs are golden-brown and the filling is hot. Serve immediately.

Source: Slightly adapted from Pink Parsley