Raspberry Muffins

My family likes to eat breakfast for dinner. And on those days that I am super busy, muffins and scrambled eggs are an easy, quick meal I can prepare with the help of my kids. We have a lot of recipes for muffins and we also use boxed mixes if I can get a great deal on them. (We only like these because of the crumb topping that comes in them. But I mastered the crumb topping with these. I may never spend money on boxed mixes again!) We make blueberry quite often but I wanted to try something new. So I combined a couple different recipes to come up with these.

Raspberry Muffins

1 egg
1/2 c. milk
1/4 c. salad oil
1 1/2 c. all-purpose flour
1/2 c. sugar
2 t. baking powder
1/2 t. salt
1/2 c. frozen raspberries thawed and drained

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Grease the bottom of a 12-cup muffin pan. In large bowl, beat egg and stir in the milk and oil. Add flour, sugar, baking powder and salt. Stir just until moistened. Gently fold in the raspberries.



Fill muffin cups 3/4 full.



Prepare crumb topping. Top batter with about 1-1 1/2 t. crumb topping.



Bake 20-25 minutes. Serve warm immediately.



Crumb Topping

1/2 c. flour
3-4 T. brown sugar
2-3 T. butter, softened to room temperature

Combine all ingredients in small mixing bowl. With a fork, gently mix until it is crumbly and yet sticks together if pressed. Sprinkle on top of muffins or breads.

Tips:

-You can use applesauce in place of the oil. Use the same amount. If your applesauce is sweetened, you may want to decrease the amount of sugar.
-My kids love the topping, so if you think you may need extra to appease the kids in your family, you may want to make more.
-Try other berries, blackberries, blueberries, cherries, strawberries. Anything would be great. Mix it up and no one will complain that you are having muffins again!
-I save the juice from the berries. We add it to a fruit smoothie (recipe to come) when we are ready to eat. Or you can hold onto it for another recipe.

Cheesy Bruschetta

I also wanted to have a savory treat at the Scentsy show. I had an idea of what I wanted but could not find a recipe. So I experimented. A little of this, a little of that and the resulting food could be disaterous or turn out pretty good. This time it turned out good. Lucky me since I was serving them to guests.

Cheesy Bruschetta

1-2 loafs French bread
3/4 c. small curd cottage cheese
2 c. shredded mozzarella cheese
3/4 c. parmesan cheese
1/2 c. mayonaise
1 T. lemon juice
1/2 t. garlic powder
2-3 green onions
Olive oil

Slice bread on the diagonal to 1/2-3/4 inch pieces. Lay the peices flat on baking sheet. Brush lightly with olive oil. Place under broiler to lighly brown. Watch closely so you do not burn the bread! Remove and set to cool slightly.
In a bowl combine cottage cheese, mozzarella cheese, parmesan cheese, mayonaise, lemon juice and garlic powder. Slice green onions and add to cheese mixture. Scoop small amounts on to the bread, spread and return to oven broiler. Broil until cheese starts to bubble. Remove and serve hot.

Tips-

-Don't toast both sides of the bread, it gets too hard to bite.
-If you do not like tangy flavors, omit the lemon juice.
-If you do not like the onions you can omit those as well.
-A little paprika sprinkled on top would give it color too.
-Play with this one. Make it your own. And let me know how it turns out!

Little Bites of Heaven

Or as the recipe titles them, Mini Cheesecakes. My family loves these. They are the perfect size for my kids little hands and I do not feel as guilty if I eat one small cake instead of a larger piece from a large cheesecake.

I was having a Scentsy party (www.jackieallred.scentsy.us, if you need anything) and I wanted a few yummy treats for guests to grab on their way out the door. I have experimented with a few varieties of the cheesecakes (we really like the strawberry and vanilla). This time I decided to try making lemon, as well as, the vanilla cheesecake. They turned out pretty good. I was very happy with them. My family and guests seemed to like them too.

Mini Cheesecakes

Place cupcake wrappers in muffin tin and preheat oven to 325 degrees F.

Combine the following in a small bowl:
5 T. melted butter
1 3/4 c. graham cracker crumbs

Stir with fork until all crumbs are moistened. Scoop 1 T. of the mixture into the bottom of the paper baking cups. Press down. Bake for 6 minutes at 325. Remove from oven and cool. Increase temperature in oven to 350 degrees F. Place shallow baking dish or sheet pan on bottom rack in oven and fill with hot water.



In mixer:
3-8 ounce packages of cream cheese, softened to room temperature
Mix until creamy about 1 minute.
Add:
3/4 c. plus 2 T. sugar
Mix until smooth, about another minute.
Add:
1 1/2 t. all-purpose flour, 1 1/2 T whipping cream, 1 1/2 T lemon juice, 2 t. vanilla and mix until creamy. Scrape down sides of mixing bowl. Add 3 eggs, one at a time mixing completely after each addition. Scrape down sides of mixing bowl again during this process.
Fill muffin liners about 3/4 full. Use about half of the batter. To remaining batter add 1/2 t. lemon zest and 3/4 t. lemon extract. Mix slightly to distribute flavor. Fill remaining paper liners.
Bake at 350 for 20-25 minutes. Remove from oven and let cool for 25 minutes and then remove from pans and let cool on rack for 1 hour. Place in refrigerator to cool for 4-6 hours.

Meanwhile melt 1 t. butter with 1/2 c. whipping cream. Once butter in melted remove from heat and add 1 c. semi sweet chocolate chips. Let stand for 1 minute and then stir until smooth. Let cool until pourable, about 30 minutes.

Zest one lemon. Sprinkle with sugar and heat in small saute pan for 1 minute. Remove from heat and let stand to cool.

Once the cheesecakes are cool, remove from refrigerator and on top of vanilla cheesecakes pour chocolate sauce and smooth. Or you can pour the chocolate into a small baggie and cut a small corner off and pipe on in swirls or hearts or any cute shape. On top of the lemon cheesecakes place a little of the sugared zest. Serve cooled. Makes about 30 mini cheesecakes with left over crust that can be frozen for future use.

Tips:

-I use the foil baking liners with the paper removed. I like these because they do not stick to the papers as much if I use the foil.
-Do not spray the liners. I thought this would help them to not stick but all it does is add the spray to your dessert.
-You can use Nilla Wafers or half an Oreo(scrap off the filling) in the bottom of the liner instead of the graham crust. I like the graham crust and it was super easy.
-If you want a smooth cheesecake make sure your cream cheese and eggs are at room temperature. Cold cream cheese will not smooth out very well and adding cold eggs will make the cream cheese seize up. If you get them pout about 4 hours before you make the cheesecake you should be good.
-I used to be a Pampered Chef consultant so I have all of the cooking utensils, so I used the small scoop and the tart press for the crusts, the large scoop for the filling and the zester for the lemon zest. I also used both the PC muffin stone and a couple other metal muffin pans. They both worked the same except I had to cook the PC ones about 3 minutes longer.

I will make the strawberry ones pictured in the header again and post about making those too. Let me know if these work for you!

Blueberry Breakfast Cake

When I got married there were a few recipes I had to get from my mother-in-law. One of them is this recipe for Breakfast Cake. I think is was originally called a coffee cake but my mother-in-law thought breakfast cake would be less confusing for the kids when they were young since we do not drink coffee.

This is my husband's favorite breakfast EVER and we have it about 2-4 times a month. It took me about 4 or 6 or 8 months to get it right. (You know, competing with your mother-in-law's cooking can be stressful.) I finally figured it out after many failed attempts. (I think I may have been trying too hard.)


Over the years we have tried a few variations on the recipe. Our favorite is the blueberry one. It has now become the cake we make most often. LOVE IT! And the blueberries give it some nutritional value. : )

Blueberry Breakfast Cake

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Place rack in middle of oven. Grease sides and bottom of 9 x 13 inch pan.

In a small mixing bowl combine:


1/2 c. butter, softened (I get mine out the night before and set it on the counter)


1 1/3 c. rolled oats


1 1/3 c. brown sugar


1 t. cinnamon


With mixer on low, beat until crumbly. Set aside.

In a larger mixing bowl combine:

3/4 c. rolled oats

2 1/2 c. all-purpose flour

2 T. baking powder

1 t. cinnamon

1/2 t. salt

3 T. brown sugar

1/3 c. vegetable oil

1 egg

2 1/4 c. milk or 1 1/2 c. milk and 1 c. butter milk

3/4 c. fresh blueberries or frozen blueberries that have been slightly defrosted (optional)

Beat on low setting to moisten and then beat for 2 minutes on medium speed.

Pour half the batter onto the baking dish.


Sprinkle half the topping mixture evenly over the batter.



Pour remaining batter over the topping and then top with remaining topping mixture. Sprinkle blueberries over the top.

(We have to leave one end plain for my daughter who is not very fond of blueberries.)

Bake for 25 minutes or until middle is set. Serve hot.

Let's look at it agin. SO YUMMY!

The best part about this breakfast is that there are leftovers in my house so my husband and kids can eat it the next day and I do not have to do much for breakfast Monday morning.

Tips:

-Make sure your oven is preheated for this one. I am notorious for putting foods in before the oven is ready but with this recipe, it just makes the cooking time so hard to gauge.

-Fresh blueberries work the best. But if you don't want to pay the price for fresh in the dead of winter, or your store does not carry them, just use frozen. I take mine out, place them in a bowl and run hot water over them for about 30 seconds. I drain them and then they are perfect when I am ready to sprinkle them. Watch for them to stop sticking when the water is poured off.

-This can also be used as a dessert, maybe serve it warm with a scoop of ice cream. Yum!

I have some dehydrated strawberries that I have not done anything with. I am thinking I may try them one of these days in this recipe and see how it turns out. Look for another post!

Wonderful World of Food

Many people have told me that I should start a food blog. And since my foray into the blogging world in January, I have been surprised at how much easier it is than I thought it would be. And it has been so much fun that I decided to go ahead and start this blog to share all the fun, wonderful food tips and tricks I have learned over the years and that I am still learning. Hopefully I can share some great recipes with you as well. (If you have questions or want recipes for anything specific let me know with a comment so I know people are reading!) Notice the yummy individual cheesecakes at the top of the page. I will do a post on how to make these soon. For now you can go to www.howdoesshe.com and check out the Cook & Bake section. Scroll down and you'll see a tutorial on how to make a cheesecake. It is so good!