Chocolate Chip Coffee Cake

Good chilly morning!!

I got a thick pair of socks on this morning. I don't know where that Spring weather went!

Made a very delicious coffee cake this morning. It's very simple & doesn't call for any strange ingredients. It was moist and delicious. I actually followed the recipe to the letter - and that's unusual for me! You know me, the tweaker! The chocolate chips do not seem esential to me, so if you don't happen to have them, bake the cake anyway. It will still be great.

I am sorry I do not know know where in the vast internet universe I even got this recipe. I am not pretending it is original to me. I admit it is someone else's, I just don't know whose!

Chocolate Chip Coffee Cake

1 1/3 cups all purpose flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup butter, room temperature
2 large eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 cup buttermilk
3/4 cup chocolate chips



3 tbsp all purpose flour
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
pinch salt
3 tbsp butter, chilled

Preheat oven to 350F. Lightly grease a 9-inch round cake pan (a springform is a good choice).
In a medium mixing bowl, whisk flour, baking powder and salt together.

In a large mixing bowl, cream together butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in eggs, one at a time, and vanilla extract. Mix in half of the flour mixture, followed by the buttermilk and then the rest of the flour mixture. Stir only until no streaks of flour remain, then stir in chocolate chips.

Pour batter into prepared pan, then prepare the topping.

In a small or medium bowl, combine flour, brown sugar, ground cinnamon and salt. Cut butter into several chunks and add to flour mixture. Rub in with your fingertips until mixture resembles coarse sand. Sprinkle evenly onto cake batter already in pan.

Bake at 350F for 25-30 minutes in a 9-inch round pan, until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean or with only a few moist crumbs attached.

Cool cake completely (in the pan is fine) on a wire rack before serving.

Serves 10.

Pound Cake

Good morning!

It's beautiful here this morning! 62 degrees right now & I love it!

I saw a delicious looking chocolate pound cake on a website and thought I would make it. It was very tasty; kinda like a brownie, but not quite. The crumb was nice, the cake was moist. As you can see, it did not survive being taken out of the loaf pan! What you will see if you look at the original site is that her cake sunk. My cake sunk too, only i turned mine upside down right away so the sinking is on the bottom. It's a very good cake and certainly worthy of being baked. Next time I bake it I am gonna try baking it in a 8" cake pan.

Anyway, give it a try!

http://allthatsleftarethecrumbs.blogspot.com/2011/03/cake-slice-march-2011-chocolate-cream.html

Bread

Don't you just love a good loaf of bread? MMMMMM! Nothin' beats the smell of baking bread. I baked a delicious loaf of white bread today.

The recipe called for whole wheat flour, but I used all white bread flour. I made white because I hate whole wheat bread. Makes sense, right?

I had to swap out the wheat germ for some grounds pecans. That was a good swap out! :)

Try this bread, you'll like it! It is soft and flavorful. Slathered with some real butter & some raw honey, it can't be beat.The only negative is that the crumb is so coarse.

I tried to get a close up picture so you could see the big holes in the bread. Do you know what causes that?

Here's where you can get the recipe-

http://real-women-cook.blogspot.com/2011/02/honey-whole-wheat-bread-step-by-step.html

Fruit & Nut Bread

Hi, couldn't stay away from the oven! Made some delicious bread today. I did change the add ins because I didn't have the called for ingredients.

Definately try this bread. It is moist and delicious. It's not overly sweet either.

This recipe came from www.allrecipes.com

Ingredients:
1/2 cup margarine
1 cup white sugar
2 eggs
1 cup milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon almond extract
2 1/8 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup candied mixed fruit
3/4 cup raisins
1/2 cup chopped almonds

Directions:
1.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease one 9x5 inch loaf pan.
2.
Cream butter and sugar together. Beat in eggs one at a time. Beat smooth. Stir in milk, vanilla, and almond flavoring.
3.
In large bowl combine flour, baking powder, and salt. Stir in fruit, raisins, and nuts. Add all at once to first bowl. Stir only to moisten. Turn into greased 9x5x3 inch loaf pan.
4.
Bake for 1 hour in 350 degree F (175 degree C) oven until it tests done. Let stand 10 minutes. Remove from pan. Cool and wrap.

Potato Pie

Have you ever heard of a mashed potato pie?! Am I the only one in the world who thinks that's a disgusting thought? I had visions of another flop. Come on, really, mashed potato pie?!

Surprisingly, the pie turned out fine. I did have to do some substituting. I didn't want to buy booze so substituted lemon juice for the booze and vanilla. I also left out the nutmeg. I hate nutmeg. No nuts either. Frankly, I didn't want to use too many good ingredients just in case it was a flop. I also didn't want to make a pie shell for that reason; so I bought a graham cracker one.

Everything went together fine, I just couldn't get all the lumps out of the pie filling with the mixer.

This pie tastes just like a custard pie. I actually hate custard pies, but my husband likes them and he gave it a thumbs up.

So if you're up for something out of the ordinary, give it a try.

http://havethecake.blogspot.com/2011/02/march-challenge-irish-potato-pie.html

Irish Potato Pierecipe from http://www.almanac.com/recipe/irish-potato-pie Yield: 8 to 10 servings

3 eggs

2 cups half-and-half or light cream

2 cups mashed potatoes (whipped smooth with no lumps) I'm assuming they mean without milk or butter... that's what I did any way.

1 cup sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 tablespoon Irish whiskey, brandy, or sherry (optional)

1 unbaked 10-inch deep-dish pie shell with high fluted edge

Freshly grated nutmeg

Toasted slivered almonds

DirectionsPreheat the oven to 350°F

In a mixing bowl, beat the eggs slightly. Stir in the half-and-half or cream, potatoes, sugar, vanilla, salt, and liquor (if using). Beat well until smooth.

Cover the fluted edge of the pie shell with aluminum foil to prevent overbrowning. Pour the filling into the shell and sprinkle with nutmeg.

Place on the center rack of the oven and bake for 40 minutes. Remove the foil and bake for 15 to 18 minutes more, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool on a wire rack. Sprinkle the almonds around the outer edge and dust with additional nutmeg. Serve at room temperature; store in the refrigerator.

Lemon Loaf

Hi!

It's another chilly morning here.

Before I set out to do my errands, I thought I post the loaf I made. They call it a loaf, but I don't know if it's a bread or a cake. Tastes like a combo to me. I didn't care for it. The crumb was kinda coarse. It did bake up into a pretty loaf. The lemon syrup was good though, don't leave that off. The loaf really needs it. You can see in the picture where the syrup had soaked up into the loaf. We did end up eating it all, but we put strawberries in syrup over our slices! Who wouldn't it that!?

That said, I wouldn't make this again.

the recipe is from :http://mennonitegirlscancook.blogspot.com/2011/03/lemon-loaves.html

3 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup butter, softened
2 cups sugar
4 large eggs
lemon zest from 4 large lemons
1/4 cup lemon juice
3/4 cup sour milk (1 teaspoon lemon juice put in a 1 cup measuring cup and filled with milk to 3/4 cup and allowed to sit for 5 minutes)

Lemon Syrup
1/2 sugar
1/2 cup lemon juice

Lemon Glaze
2 cups powdered sugar
the remaining lemon juice and enough water to make a thin glaze

Preheat oven to 350 F and spray two 7 1/2 X 4 X 2 loaf pans with cooking spray and line the bottom and two long sides with parchment paper.

Sift together the dry ingredients onto a piece of parchment paper for quick clean up or into a bowl.
In a large mixing bowl, beat together the butter and sugar on medium speed until very light. .several minutes for sure.
Add the eggs one at a time, beating until combined and then the lemon zest.
Combine the wet ingredients and them alternating with the dry ingredients to the butter and sugar mixture until just combined.

Divide the mixture between the two loaf pans and bake until a toothpick comes out clean.. .about 45 - 50 minutes.
While the cake bakes, simmer the syrup ingredients together for just a minute or so until the sugar melts.

When the toothpick comes out clean of the lemon loaf. Put the pan on a rack to cool for 10 minutes and then remove from pan.

Brush the syrup over all the sides of the loaves until all the syrup has been used up.
Allow to cool completely and make the glaze while you are waiting.
Drizzle the glaze over the loaves and allow it to set.

Bran Muffins

Hi, hope you're keeping warm. It's cold today! Brrrr!

Had a hankerin' for some muffins so I baked some bran muffins. I had some All Bran cereal I needed to use up. No one likes it for breakfast.

These muffins were supposed to be regular sized, but I made 6 jumbo muffins instead. I think it took about 27 minutes to bake at 375. I was surprised at how little they rose. But that didn't seem to affect the texture. They weren't dense.

They are good. The only change I made in the recipe was that I added 1/2 cup peanut butter chips. It was all I had. I didn't have any dried fruit or I would have put that in.

They turned out fine. Not dry or overly sweet. I would definately make these again.

Enjoy.

classic bran muffins ( from allrecipes.com)

Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups wheat bran
1 cup buttermilk
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1 egg
2/3 cup brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup raisins
Directions:
1.
Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Grease muffin cups or line with paper muffin liners.
2.
Mix together wheat bran and buttermilk; let stand for 10 minutes.
3.
Beat together oil, egg, sugar and vanilla and add to buttermilk/bran mixture. Sift together flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt. Stir flour mixture into buttermilk mixture, until just blended. Fold in raisins and spoon batter into prepared muffin tins.
4.
Bake for 15 to 20 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of a muffin comes out clean. Cool and enjoy!

Melting Moments

Hi, again.

I've been baking, but not blogging. I keep forgeting to post my items. Today I baked a shortbread cookie called Melting Moments. It is from the website Joyofbaking.com. I love, love, love Mexican wedding cookies so I assumed I'd like these too. Melting moments are not as good. I miss the flavor the ground nuts add. The cookies were very tender and quite crumbly. They are supposed to be rolled in confectioners sugar when they are done baking. I did that with some of them, but wanted to add some flavor in the second batch, so I sprinkled cinnamon on them. That didn't do too much for the cookies. I think I'd stick with the powdered sugar.
Anyway, here's the recipe, but I am not advocating baking these. Stick with the Mexican wedding cookies. They are classics for a reason.



Melting Moments


1 1/2 cups (195 grams) all purpose flour
1/2 cup (60 grams) cornstarch (corn flour)
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup (30 grams) confectioners sugar (powdered or icing)
1 cup (227 grams) unsalted butter, room temperature
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
Topping:
1/2 cup (60 grams) confectioners sugar (powdered or icing)



In a medium sized bowl whisk together the flour, cornstarch and salt.

In the bowl of your electric mixer (or with a hand mixer), beat the butter and sugar until creamy and smooth (about 2 minutes).

Beat in the vanilla extract.

Add the flour mixture and beat just until incorporated.


Cover and refrigerate the batter for an hour or two, or until firm.


Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (177 degrees C) and place rack in center of oven. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.


When batter is firm, form into 1 inch (2.5 cm) balls and place the cookies on the prepared baking sheets, spacing about 1 inch apart.

Bake for about 10 - 14 minutes or until the edges of the cookies just start to brown. Remove from oven and place on a wire rack to cool for about 3-5 minutes.

Transfer the cookies to a wire rack that is placed over a sheet of parchment or wax paper. Put the confectioners sugar in a fine strainer or sieve and sprinkle the tops of the cookies with the sugar.


These cookies store very well. Place in an airtight container between sheets of wax paper and they will keep a couple of weeks. If desired, just before serving, sprinkle the tops of the cookies with confectioners sugar.

Makes about 3 dozen cookies.