Carrot Bread

Sliced

Last night after dinner I wanted to bake. It wasn’t that I wanted a specific food, I just wanted to bake. The problem was that without wanting something specific it was difficult to settle on a recipe. Another hurdle was finding a recipe that used ingredients that I had on hand.  The final factor was I didn’t want three dozen cookies or an entire cake. I decided to log onto Cookie Madness to see if anything would grab me. The first thing I did was go to the section “Scaled Down Recipes”.  This carrot bread recipe was the first recipe that I saw and I had all the ingredients!

The bread is baked in two 3″x5″ loaf pans.  Just perfect for a household of two! The batter rises to make a nice dome, and the top has just a bit of crust. The slight crustiness might be my favorite part of the bread. Nuts, carrots, and spices on the moist inside. What’s not to like?

No mixer is required, but you do have to grate some carrots. Otherwise this comes together really fast. I chose not to make the icing and I don’t really think it needs it unless you’re looking for more of a carrot cake like experience. This worked well for me since I wasn’t looking for something super sweet.

You can find the recipe here.

Sour Cream Chocolate Chip Scones

Sour Cream Chocolate Chip Scones

In my last post I mentioned all the great recipes I’ve recently made from Cookie Madness and this is one of my favorites. I have all kinds of ideas swirling around in my head for future variations. These have a great texture. A little crust on the outside, but soft and moist on the inside.

I’m easily entertained, so I grated the very cold butter. This was fast, easy, and fun to do and the grated butter made the scones especially easy to mix without over mixing which can lead to toughness. This is a good technique that can probably be applied to other recipes.

I like to bake my scones in a circle. I place the dough on a piece of parchment paper on top of the baking sheet and pat the circle out. Then I cut the circle into wedges with a bench scraper and pull the wedges apart so there is about a half inch between the wedges. I like the way the scones turn out when I bake them this way.

This will be my go to scone recipe for those times when I can’t make the eggnog scones, which I also love!

For the complete recipe click here.

Pumpkin Muffins

Pumpkin Spice Muffins

The cheesecake brownies in the previous post left me with part of a can of pumpkin. This recipe used most of the rest of the can. It turns out I’m going to be on the go a lot this week. One of these muffins stashed in my purse will be a great breakfast or snack when I don’t have time for a sit down meal.

This recipe is easy to stir up and yields 12 nicely crowned, perfectly moist muffins. For me the spices were right on, and they made the house smell wonderful while they were baking.  My changes to the recipe were minimal. I used dark raisins instead of golden raisins, and 1/4 c. chopped walnuts instead of the pumpkin seeds.

Here is the link to the recipe.

Pumpkin Spice Muffin

Cinnamon Goodness

When I saw the recipe for Cinnamon Eggnog Scones on the Baker’s Banter blog I knew I would have to make them. The cinnamon chips and Cinnamon-Flav-R Bites were in my cupboard patiently waiting their turn to shine. They definitely shine in these scones. I only baked off a few of the scones and the remainder are nestled away in the freezer. Maybe I’ll bake them Christmas morning. They would be a wonderful way to start the day.

If you make these and use the Cinnamon-Flav-R Bites be careful not to soak them too long. Mine all but dissolved. I think I was doing too many things at once and left them soaking longer than I thought I did. It didn’t matter. The flavor was still wonderful. If you look at the photos at the Baker’s Banter Blog you’ll notice that theirs are much whiter than mine. That’s because of the melted cinnamon bits.

I might mention that these have a wonderful balance of spices, and don’t seem at all egg like to me. You see I don’t like egg nog in the least. In fact this is the first time I’ve ever purchased it. So, if you’re afraid of the egg nog like I was, don’t be. This is a great place to use it. The scones turn out with a moist but not wet interior and a melt in your mouth crust on the exterior. They are so much better than anything you can purchase at a store or coffee shop. I would make these again, and in fact will probably look for excuses to make them in the future. Just in case you’re wondering, I purchased organic egg nog. The ingredient list seemed a little less frightening to me.

You’ll find the recipe here.

A twist on corn muffins

Savory Corn Muffins

These muffins are based on Bobby Flay’s, Mesa Grill, Blue Corn Muffins. I found the original recipe here, but I made a lot of changes based on what I had available.

For starters I traded out the red onions for chives from our garden. The chives are beautiful this year and I’ve been trying to dream up ways to use them. I omitted the red bell peppers because they don’t agree with either of us, and I accidentally omitted the corn. I would like to make them again and I’ll be sure to put the corn in next time, even though they are excellent without it. My local grocery store doesn’t carry blue corn meal so I subbed some course ground yellow corn meal.

Historically I’ve leaned toward sweeter corn breads while my husband has always preferred less sweet corn breads. These are great because they don’t have much sweetness but the savory additions made it so that I didn’t miss the sugar.

The cilantro came up on it’s own this year, and that makes me happy because last year we hardly got any cilantro from the garden. I was a bit timid with the jalapeno and seeded it because I was afraid it would be overpowering but next time I’m using seeds and all because while the jalapeno was there, the cilantro was the dominant flavor despite the amount of garlic and jalapeno in the recipe.

Here is the recipe as I made it, and I’m going to rename it Savory Corn Muffins.

Savory Corn Muffins

3/4 c. coarsely ground yellow corn meal (I used stone ground Hodgson Mill)

1/2 c. all purpose flour

1 1/2 t. baking powder

1/4 t. baking soda

1/4 t. salt

1/2 stick of butter (4 tablespoons)

1/4 c. chopped chives (I was quite generous with this measurement)

1/2 c. milk

2 large eggs

1 jalapeno, finely diced

1 T. finely chopped cilantro

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Spray a six cup muffin tin with non stick cooking spray.

In a small bowl stir together the cornmeal, flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.

Melt the butter in a small skillet over medium heat. Add the chives and the garlic and saute until the garlic just starts to turn golden on some of the edges.

In a large bowl whisk together the milk, eggs, butter mixture, honey, jalapeno and cilantro.

Add the dry ingredients to the milk and egg mixture, and mix until just combined.

Divide the batter evenly to make six muffins. Bake for 14-16 minutes.