Breads, Rolls and Muffins Archives |

Delightful Cranberry Muffins

January 17, 2012 By Laura 2 Comments

The rest of my family loves anything made with cranberries. But loving these muffins came as a big surprise to me, the first time my daughter made them. Reason being, I personally have never cared much for cranberry bread of any kind. I figured, it was cranberries, period, that I didn’t like. And between you and me, that felt a little wrong, and perhaps a bit of info I should keep to myself, living in an area simply surrounded by cranberry bogs, and in the town that until fairly recently) was the home of Ocean Spray Cranberry World. You’ll also never hear me say “Pass the cranberry sauce” at the Thanksgiving table, either. Although, I don’t mind a little spread on 2 slices of toasted bread with plenty of mayonnaise, when making my turkey sandwiches in the following days. I do enjoy cranberry juice now too, and with Ocean Spray still nearby in Massachusetts, there is plenty of that around. At many warm- seasoned waterfront events, representatives of Ocean Spray are often set up giving out free samples of their large variety of juices. So….they were bound to grow on me, so to speak. Cranberries are wonderful to decorate with, too! I especially love using them with my winter ice sculpture yard decor! They add such a beautiful splash of color, against winter.

In the next year or so, we plan to take a cranberry-related field trip or two, with the kids. So you’ll likely be seeing some interesting educational information and photos about cranberries and cranberry bogs around here, in the future. And perhaps more recipes as well. We hope you enjoy this one as much as we have.

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Delightful Cranberry Muffins

Ingredients:

1/2 cup butter, softened
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1 cup sour cream
2 cups all purpose flour
1 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp. salt
1 cup chopped frozen or fresh cranberries

TOPPING:

2 tbsp. sugar
1/8 tsp. ground cinnamon

Directions:

In a mixing bowl, cream together butter and sugar. Add eggs and vanilla; mix well. Fold in sour cream. Combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt; stir into creamed mixture just until moistened. Fold in cranberries. Fill greased or paper lined muffin tins 2/3 full. Combine topping ingredients; sprinkle over muffins. Bake at 400 degrees F for 20-25 minutes, or until a toothpick, or until the muffins test done. Cool in pan 10 minutes; remove to wire rack. When completely cooled, store in a container.

Makes about 18 muffins.

These muffins freeze very well, also. We like to make a couple of batches at a time, and freeze some, to take out and pop in the microwave, on any morning we fancy. : )

cranberry-muffins-recipe Enjoy!…Warm or cold, with or without butter.

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Bruschetta (Bread Topping) – Recipe

September 11, 2010 By Laura 1 Comment

Here’s another delicious little something, to make with some of those fresh summer tomatoes!

Bruschetta!!

Bruschetta topping on toasted bread, is a perfect side to a nice salad (as shown here), or an appetizer for luncheons or cocktail parties. (Well, I’ve heard. I haven’t been to a cocktail party in…..well, I actually can’t think of a time I have ever been to one, come to think of it. Or, maybe I’m not sure what one is. But I know what bruschetta is!)

‘Bruschetta’ is an Italian word (Tuscany, to be exact), that means to ‘toast or burn’. I prefer to toast my bruschetta. ; ) There are many variations that can be made to this recipe, so don’t be afraid to experiment on your own! That’s generally what I did when I made this bruschetta this evening a couple of weeks ago. My father, with his ever-discerning tongue, was here for dinner, and he gave it all gold forks. (He loved my salad too. He’s a natural born food critic. Ask anyone who has ever sat down and eaten with him.)

No complete step by step this time photos for the directions this time, but it’s easy enough to follow. I kind of winged it, with loose measurements, adjusting by eye. You can do that….have no fear. Here’s how (generally) I made it:

Participating ingredients:

Ciabatta bread; (can be found at bakery), sliced thick. French baguette loaf can also be used
1 Garlic clove peeled, and cut in half once. (Optional)
~ 2 cups chopped tomatoes ( I used Early Girls > It’s what I had on hand.)
~ 1/4 cup finely chopped red onion
~ 1 cup chopped cucumber
2 Tablespoons of Balsamic Vinegar
3-4 Tablespoons of Extra Virgin Olive Oil
Shredded Mozzarella Cheese
Salt & Pepper to taste.

1) Put all chopped vegetables into a small to medium mixing bowl.

2) Add olive oil and vinegar, salt and pepper if you choose, and mix well.

3) Place mixture in fridge or just on counter to all sit together in the bowl, while you prepare the rest.

4) Per-heat oven to broil (My oven requires a temp, so I set it for 375)

5) Line cookie sheet with tinfoil, or whatever you use to protect sheet.

6) Place breads on sheet, spaced evenly.

01_bread

7) Place in oven, and toast for 1-2 minutes, until you see they start to brown or turn golden. (Shown in photo above.)

8) Remove sheet from oven, and brush each bread piece with the olive oil.

9) Rub each piece with the halved garlic clove for added flavor, if desired. (I desired.)

bruschetta
10) Mix mixture in bowl again, and then I drained all of the excess liquid in the bottom.

11) Spoon tomato/vegetable mixtures onto bread slices.

12) Top with some shredded mozzarella. (Show with all toppings on bread, in photo above.)

bruschetta
13) Put back into oven for a minute or so, watching closely, just until cheese is melted, and remove.

Serve up, and enjoy!!

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Food | Easter Photo Series

April 6, 2010 By Laura 4 Comments

Just a handful of photos of our Easter food.

Our triplets helping being a team kneading the hot cross bun dough!
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Homemade hot cross buns. Divine!
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Fruit cups, admittedly, from a can. Lol.
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Glazed spiral ham.
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Easter dinner.
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The celebration of Jesus risen, always offers many edible blessings to enjoy! And we-sure-do!
Bet you all do, too!

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Christmas Gift Jars and Baked Good Ideas

January 1, 2010 By Laura 4 Comments

For those who have been visiting our blog long enough, you’d probably know that we usually get very crafty for Christmas gifts for loved ones. But unfortunately, some years we were low on both time and money, to really craft as much as we would like to for gifts. Still, we prefer to show our love to our loved ones at Christmas, with more homemade sort of gifts, if we can. So we had the idea this year of sending some Christmas gift jars and baked goods. It would be simple, inexpensive, yet appreciated we were sure. Who doesn’t love food…right?

You should know, this post is not sharing the actual recipes we used. We are just sharing with you the idea of gift jars, and some presentation ideas, as inspiration, for your own gift giving. Gift jar recipes are very easy to find though! You can just do a web search, or….check Pinterest for a wealth of jar recipe ideas! Here though, we just want to show you what we came up with.

So some jars we made up with most of the ingredients to make Oatmeal Raisin Cookies.
All they needed to add was the butter, egg and vanilla!

Most of our gift recipients got a jar just like this, with the measured dry ingredients and directions. But we knew my 2 bachelor brothers, and my Dad, were not going to be baking anything. lol. So…..we baked theirs for them, and filled up the jar with the cookies. Cookies in a jar! So there is another idea for you!

We also gave some people the dry ingredients for this Curried Lentil Soup. What a big project THIS turned out to be. Because the recipe calls for red and yellow lentils. After visiting 6 stores all over town, over the course of a week, we settled for red and green. Maybe you know better where to get them? If not, don’t toss the idea all together, if you like the idea of soups. Again, search for recipes, and you’ll find more than you can shake a . . . . . . a . . . . . . spoon at. 🙂

Initially, we could only find tan, and made some soup ourselves to test the recipe. Not being lentil experts, we thought only the color was different. But ummm….not so much. We HOPE the red & green works out alright for everyone.

We also made loaves of fresh homemade bread (not pictured) , and included those in most packages.

And homemade donuts! : D

We got calls and messages from everyone, and they all seemed to really enjoy our tasty gifts! We think they probably ‘tasted the love‘. But one did tell us the bread and donuts were kind of hardish, or heavy, when they arrived. Now….the bread crust is. You can knock on the loaf, but it’s soft on the inside. It makes excellent toast, it’s great for sandwiches, and it goes well with soup, too!

But the donuts, being fried, we really weren’t sure HOW they would fair in shipping. So I guess they arrived….a little dense. Now, we take these things very seriously. So, we asked ourselves what we may have learned from that outcome, and this is what we came up with:

Don’t share our donuts anymore!!
No, seriously, we’ll be working on our recipe, to make them a little lighter. 😀 For the rare occasion we make them again, because they aren’t the healthiest regular food to eat. But they are a real treat, and that’s in part what make the holidays so special.

Some pretty ribbon on your jars, with an attached tag that shares the recipe or directions, is a very warm and thoughtful gift, for anyone who eats!
Your tag can be hand-written as well. It actually makes it all the more handmade-appeal.

We hope these ideas make your Christmas gift-giving season fun, delicious, and budget-friendly.

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Paula’s Rolls | Recipe

November 25, 2009 By Laura 1 Comment

This wonderful (and I mean wonderful!) dinner roll recipe was sent in by our friend Paula, from A Catholic Harvest. She’s a great gal. I adore her for so many reasons, but to sum it up, she’s a mixed bag. I love people who are full of wonderful qualities, but also full of surprises. For instance, recently I learned that she’s a ‘closet head-banger’. Inside this sweet, funny, supportive and faithful girl, is an inner rock-n-roll chick!! It’s true! Who knew?!

So speaking of rolls…lol….I love this recipe she sent us. I have a few recipes sent in that I’ll be making, now that I have more time to cook and bake. But here is one for now. She sent it, we made it, we photo’d it, and now we’re bloggin’ it!! I wanted to be sure I posted it at least by today, because really, these are perfect Thanksgiving Day rolls to have on your table! And chances are, you already have all of the ingredients you need, to make some last minute. (But please don’t hold us to that. lol) Regardless, these are truly wonderful ANYTIME rolls. So here we go.

Participating Ingredients:

***1/2 c shortening (or unsalted butter)
1/2 c sugar
1 tsp salt
4-1/2 tsp yeast
5+ c flour
2 eggs
stick of butter (not shown)
*** Since the sharing of this post, we have revised our family’s diet, for a healthier lifestyle.
Therefore, we substitute the shortening now for unsalted butter. We believe it’s a better choice.

NOTE: If you have a kitchen mixer, you are welcome to do this part using that. But did not have one at this time, so we mixed the dough by hand.
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In a large bowl, combine flour, yeast, sugar, salt, and shortening, mixing up and cutting up with pastry cutter.

Now, the next step in the directions is to beat 2 eggs in a measuring cup , and then fill the cup to the 2 cup mark with hot water. However, we did not have a 2 cup measuring cup, we only had a 1 cup Pyrex measuring cup. So, we measured out the eggs, dumped them in a small bowl, and added the remaining needed hot water, to collectively make 2 cups of eggs and hot water. I sure hope you followed that.

So here are our two measured, beaten eggs.

Adding the remaining measurement of how water.

Beat together.

Pour hot water, over dry ingredients in big bowl, and mix together. Slowly add 3 more cups of flour. Once all of the flour is in, and as you mix, you may realize that the mixture is really very wet, and is not really going to form a dough mixture at any point. This means you need to add even more flour, little by little, until it becomes more dough-like.

Once all combined well, cover the dough bowl, and let rise in a warm oven until doubled. (Paula uses 170 because it’s the lowest setting on her oven. Ours is 150, and that worked too.)

On a floured surface that you can cut on, knead the dough.

Flatten the dough out with your hands, or with a rolling pin, into a large pizza shape. Then cut with a pizza cutter into 16 triangle shaped slices, like seen above.

Roll each piece from the wide end of a slice, to the point. They’ll look like crescent rolls.

Place in greased pan (Paula uses Pam spray), allowing enough space for rolls to double in size again. Paula says you can use 2 9×13 pans and put 8 on each as we did, or she also has a large pan she thinks is about 11×20.

Cover and let rise in a warm oven again, about 20-30 minutes. When doubled, remove from oven, and heat oven to 375. Bake in 375 oven for 20-30 minutes, depending on how dark you want them.

Immediately rub on, or brush, with 1 stick of melted butter. ( Paula says, “Yes, 1 whole stick!”).

Do these look savory, or what?!!

Paula states at the end of the recipe, “YOU WILL NOT BE DISAPPOINTED!” And indeed, we were not!!

We loved them so much, that we’ll be making them again and again. In fact, I am making more today. However, since we don’t normally eat all white bread, I am going to try this time making them with about 1/3 wheat flour, and see how those come out. I can keep you posted!

We hope you’ll find this recipe a new favorite in your home. Paula also sent a recipe for Indian Fry Bread, which we have plans to make in the next few days. I’ve got a list of recipes we’ll be sharing, actually. Meanwhile, if YOU have a recipe you’d like to see featured on our blog, please use the e-mail button in the sidebar on the right, and send it along! If it remotely appeals to us, we may just Make it-Photo it-Eat it & Blog it! And we’ll link to your blog too, if you’d like!

Now if you’ll excuse me, I have rolls to make. And Taco Soup!

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