Coffee Break Muffins (TWD)

As a self-confessed coffee junkie, this week's Tuesday With Dorie recipe for Coffee Break Muffins is right up my alley. Rhiani of Chocoholic Anonymous is our hostess this week, and you can find the complete recipe on her blog.

I've been needing this additional boost of caffeine. Insomnia + catching up on DVR backlog = not a lot of sleep.

Dorie goes bold with the coffee in this recipe. Strong brewed coffee plus a healthy amount of instant espresso gives these muffins its pep.

I thought these muffins needed a little something else, so I topped half of the muffins with a sprinkling of mini chocolate chips.

These muffins were super yummy! I actually enjoyed the plain muffins over the chocolate chip topped version. The coffee flavor is not shy, but it doesn't overwhelm. I particularly loved the texture of these muffins - a nice tight crumb, but not overly dense.

These babies will definitely make a repeat appearance at my breakfast table.

Zucchini, Carrot, and Cranberry Muffins

I purchased The SoNo Baking Company Cookbook eons ago, and it has sadly been collecting dust on my bookshelf until now. John Barricelli is one heckuva pastry chef, and I totally admire his accomplishments. With Martha Stewart complementing and backing his talents, you know that he is a pastry rock star.

Yes, I fantasize about opening a bakery like his...

There are so many delicious sounding recipes and drool-worthy photos in the book. Which recipe should I try first? It only took a few page flips to decide.

I love zucchini bread. I love carrot cake. This recipe for Zucchini, Carrot, and Cranberry Muffins combines the best of both worlds.

The recipe calls for a equal portion of shredded zucchini and carrots.
A generous help of cranberries (frozen Trader Joe's cranberries here) are folded in batter. I used Trader Joe's frozen cranberries in this instance, but I think any tart berry or fruit would be a perfect substitution. I might try this with frozen raspberries next time.

The muffins smelled heavenly as they baked in the oven. After a quick rest on the cooling rack, I couldn't wait to sink my teeth into one of these babies.

Yum! The orange and green flecks from the shredded veggies are so pretty, and they gave the muffin a nice, moist texture. The cranberries were really yummy, and I enjoyed the tartness from the fruit.

Wow, I regret that I waited so long to bake from this book.

Better late than never. I can't wait to try more recipes going forward...


Zucchini, Carrot, and Cranberry Muffins
barely adapted from The SoNo Baking Company Cookbook by John Barricelli
makes 12 muffins

2 C AP flour
3/4 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
3/4 tsp kosher salt
3/4 tsp ground cinnamon
pinch ground nutmeg
1 C sugar
1 C canola oil
2 large eggs, room temp
3/4 C finely grated carrots (approx 1 medium)
3/4 C finely grated zucchini (approx 1 medium)
1 1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract
1 C whole fresh or frozen (unthawed) cranberries

Preheat oven to 375F degrees. Grease a standard 12 cup muffin pan and set aside.

In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg. Set aside.

In a large bowl, whisk together the sugar, oil, eggs, and vanilla until combined. Mix in the grated zucchini and carrots.

Fold in the dry ingredients with a rubber spatula until combined. Fold in the cranberries.

Divide the batter evenly among the muffin cups.

Bake for 20-25 minutes, until the muffins are golden brown and a cake tester inserted in the center of a muffin comes out clean. Rotate the pan mid way through the baking time.

Transfer the pan to a wire rack to cool for 10 minutes. Turn out muffins on their side in the muffin cups, and let cool in the pan. Serve warm or at room temp.

Fresh Fig Muffins

When my husband and I purchased our home way back when, we were particularly thrilled that our backyard had a variety of fruit trees growing: orange, grapefruit, lemon, peach and fig.

During the summers, we would gorge ourselves silly with the bounty of peaches and figs that we harvested from our postage stamp sized backyard. I didn't do a lot of cooking and baking back then, so most of the fruit was eaten fresh, and what we didn't eat were shared with family and friends.

Fast forward 10 years, and it was time for us to embark on a massive home remodel. For various reasons, we had to relinquish the fruit trees had to go to make our outdoor living space practical and accessible. It was truly a sad day when our backyard was demo'ed, and we bid adieu to our fruit trees.

I miss those fruit trees, especially the fig tree. I've grown to love the lush, juicy texture, the slight crunch from the seeds, and the earthy sweetness of the ripe fruit. When figs are in season at the farmers market (which is right now), I will pounce on baskets of this delicious fruit.

I've always enjoyed eating figs very simply - fresh figs, chevre and honey is my favorite. Recently, I've started to explore cooking and baking with the fruit.

I've recently discovered that dried figs are a fantastic substitution for raisins and other dried fruits in recipes. Now, before the season is over, I want to explore recipes using fresh figs.
I thought that this recipe for fresh fig muffins would be a great start for me. These muffins are not fussy, and I like that.

These muffins are soft and fluffy, and the figs basically melt into the muffin. The dark brown sugar and cinnamon provide a subtle spiciness to the cake, but still allow the flavor of the figs to shine.

With the success of this recipe, I'll definitely be doing some more cooking and baking with figs with the few weeks left this summer. I found this list of "what to do with figs recipes" while surfing on the web, and I'm definitely going to take some of the suggested recipes for a test drive. If you have a tried and true recipe using fresh figs, I would love to hear about it!
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Fresh Fig Muffins
adapted from The Craft of Baking by Karen DeMasco
makes 12 muffins

1 C AP flour
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp kosher salt
1/2 C buttermilk
1 large egg
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
3/4 C dark brown sugar
4 Tbsp unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 C chopped fresh mission figs (5-6 figs)

Preheat the oven to 350F degrees. Generously butter a standard 12 cup muffin pan or line it with paper liners.

In a small bowl, whisk together the flour, cinnamon, baking soda and salt.

In a second small bowl, whisk together the buttermilk, egg, and vanilla.

Using an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, beat the butter and brown sugar until well combined.

With the mixer at low speed, alternate adding the the dry and liquid ingredients - 1/3 flour mixture, 1/2 buttermilk mixture, 1/3 flour mixture, 1/2 buttermilk mixture, 1/3 flour mixture. Mix until just combined. Do not overmix.

Remove bowl from the mixer and gently fold in the figs.

Divide batter evenly among the muffin cups, filling them 3/4 full.

Bake until the muffins are a deep golden brown in color, 25-30 minutes. Transfer pan to a wire rack and let cool for 10 minutes. Then turn out muffins from the pan and let them cool completely on the wire rack.

Oatmeal Breakfast Bread (TWD)

Things have a bit hazy for me this past week, as I've been fighting a nasty respiratory infection. Feeling under the weather + medication + hot summer weather = yuck!

Under normal circumstances, this week's Tuesdays With Dorie recipe for Oatmeal Breakfast Bread would be a cinch to prepare. However, in my medicated state I was a complete ding dong and left out the most important ingredient - oats. Hello, it's in the recipe title for goodness sake!

For a change of pace, this Dorie Greenspan breakfast bread (you can find the complete recipe at Natalie's blog, Oven Love) leans on the healthy side of things, with applesauce and a little oil taking the place of butter. With an addition of dried fruit (dried figs in my case), oats (unfortunately, no oats this time), and a sprinkling of nuts (sliced almonds topped my loaves), this looks like a semi-healthy breakfast bread. Just ignore the cup of sugar that the recipe calls for.

I put my "once in a blue moon" mini loaf pan to use again, and the full recipe yielded exactly eight mini loaves. These small loaves baked in a 325 degree oven for approx 25 minutes.


True to Dorie's description, this bread is super soft and tender and it needed to cool substantially before I could remove the loaves from the pan.

These unassuming looking loaves were delicious! I did miss the oats, as I think they would have given a nice textural contrast to the soft crumb. The dried figs were fantastic, as they give a nice chew and just a touch of sweetness.

Now if you will excuse me, I'm going back to bed...

Lot's of Ways Banana Cake (TWD)

I've made this week's Tuesdays With Dorie recipe for Lot's Of Ways Banana Cake several times before, and I can tell you that this is a keeper!

For some, all they see are sad old bananas. For me, I see a delicious banana cake in the making:

In the book Dorie shares that this cake can be baked in a variety of shapes and sizes. I've previously made this recipe into a layer cake and cupcakes, and they turned out perfectly in each case. I wanted to try a different pan, so I dug into my cabinet of "I'll use them once every 5 years" baking pans:

So, what did I find? Mini loaf pan...perfect! I haven't used this pan since 2002.

Dorie share a number of suggestions to play with the ingredients in the cake (thus the "Lot's of Ways" in the recipe title). As I had all of the ingredients readily on hand, I didn't veer off course from the original recipe. I made half the recipe, which yielded me 8 mini-loaves. I also reduced the oven temperature to 325F degrees and baked the cakes for 18 minutes (I think the dark loaf pan expedited the baking time).

To dress up these little loaves, I topped them with some Mascarpone Frosting leftover from another cake I was working on.

This cake is DEEELISH! The cake is beautifully moist and tender, and it does not have that dense, gummy texture that I get with other banana cake recipes. The banana flavor definitely shines, and the toasted coconut gives the cake a nice chew (for those of you who hate coconut, you can easily omit it). The mascarpone frosting's light creamy texture is the perfect complement as it doesn't overwhelm the cake.

If I haven't already convinced you to try making this banana cake, peruse the TWD blogroll to check out all of the beautiful banana cakes - you'll be convinced to try this recipe. For the complete recipe (including all of the variations), please head to Kimberly's blog, Only Creative Opportunities.

Coconut Lime Tea Cake (TWD)

I totally dropped the ball and didn't get my Tuesdays With Dorie post up on time last week (s0rry Carmen!). I promise that I have a good reason, as you can see here (the poor girl looks completely miserable, doesn't she?):

You would think that just after turning a year old that my dog would become older and slighly wiser...wishful thinking! Siena was tearing through the house like a tazmanian devil and caught her leg on something, which resulted with a massive gash on her leg. Fast forward to a emergency visit to the vet's office, and Siena left with nine stitches and this beautiful lampshade. Today, the stitches have been removed and Siena is back to her mischievous ways.

Back to the baking! Last week's TWD selection for Coconut Tea Cake was one that my coconut lovin' hubs was looking forward to sampling, so I couldn't just skip over the recipe. It's a simple cake recipe with a double dose of coconut with unsweetened coconut milk and shredded coconut.

Dorie provides a number of suggestions to play around with the basic recipe. I was torn - the spice and sesame additions sounded delish, but the yummy sounding coconut-lime variation won me over.

The original recipe calls the cake to be baked in a bundt pan. As I've always associated a tea cake with individual little cakes, I ended up using a square muffin pan. I halved the recipe, which was the perfect amount for a dozen mini cakes.As I had extra lime juice leftover, I combined the juice with some powdered sugar to make a simple glaze.
YUM! These cakes were delicious! The cakes were wonderfully moist and the coconut-lime flavor was well-balanced with a hint of rum.

This recipe is definitely a keeper, and I'm looking forward to experimenting with the other suggested variations.

Thanks to Carmen of Carmen Cooks for a great pick! Make sure to visit Carmen's blog for the complete recipe and make this - I promise you won't regret it.

Cocoa-Nana Bread (TWD)

I need to quit this habit of JIT (just-in-time) blogging. Hopefully, I'll get this post up before the day is out.

Fortunately for me, this week's Tuesdays With Dorie selection of Cocoa-Nana Bread was mercifully easy, and I was able to bake and photograph the goods before I polished off my last cup of coffee this morning.

This quick bread recipe is intended as a breakfast treat that combines the flavors of chocolate and banana. You've got to love a recipe that slips in a healthy dose of chocolate into breakfast food.

I was a bit underwhelmed with the final results. The look of this dark brown loaf is deceiving, as the chocolate flavor wasn't very intense, and you could barely taste the two bananas that went into the batter. Still, I did appreciate that it wasn't overwhelmingly sweet, so it wouldn't assult the taste buds first thing in the morning.

Of course, I had my sous chef Siena hovering in the kitchen looking for some crumbs to fall:

Sorry girl...

Please visit Steph's blog, Obsessed With Baking, for the full recipe.

Cinnamon Pecan Coffee Cake (TCS)

After a year of baking some really delicious and TALL cakes from Sky High: Irresistable Triple Layer Cakes, The Cake Slice group has switched gears and has moved on to a new cake baking book. After a vote (we're so democratic, aren't we?), the group has chosen to bake recipes from Southern Cakes by Nancie McDermott. In the introduction of the book, Nancie shares the following:

"I invite you to take a little journey through this collection of Southern cakes. Perhaps you will come across some old friends and meet some new neighbors, since the South, like all the world, grows and changes every day, while still remaining essentially its same old self. I hope that while sampling these pages you will remember something about a cake you once ate or a person who taught you something about cooking and eating and the sacred nature of food."

I couldn't have said it any better.

Cinnamon-Pecan Coffee Cake is the first recipe selected from the book, and it's a perfect recipe to bid summer adieu and welcome fall. Mind you, we have yet to cool down in Southern California, so I'll have to imagine the crisp, cool autumn weather as I enjoy this cake.

Cinnamony and buttery (3 1/2 sticks of buttery goodness --- this is not a typo), this decadent breakfast cake is total comfort food. I didn't have any raisins in the house, so I opted for mini bittersweet chocolate chips. I would recommend not shortchanging on the nuts, as it really provided and nice crunch and flavor to the cake.

Cinnamon Pecan Coffee Cake
from Southern Cakes by Nancie McDermott

For the Cake
3 cups all purpose flour
1 tbsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup milk
1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened
1 cup sugar
2 eggs

For the Cinnamon Raisin Filling
1½ cups light brown sugar
3 tbsp all purpose flour
3 tbsp cinnamon
1½ cups raisins
1½ cups coarsely chopped pecans
¾ cup (1½ sticks) butter, melted

Method
Heat the oven to 350 degrees F. Grease and flour a 13 by 9 inch pan.

To make the filling, combine the light brown sugar, flour and cinnamon in a bowl and stir with a fork to mix everything well. Combine the raisins and pecans in another bowl and toss to mix them. Place the cinnamon mixture, nut mixture and melted butter by the baking pan to use later.

To make the cake batter, combine the flour, baking powder and salt in a bowl. Stir the vanilla into the milk. In a large bowl combine the butter and sugar and beat with a mixer on high speed until pale yellow and evenly mixed, about 2 minutes. Scrape down the bowl to ensure a good mix. Add the eggs and beat for another 2 minutes, scraping down the bowl now and then, until the mixture is smooth and light.

Use a large spoon or spatula to add about a third of the flour mixture to the butter mixture and stir only until the flour disappears. Add a third of the milk and mix in. Repeat twice more until all the flour and milk mixtures have been incorporated. Stir just enough to keep the batter smooth.

Spread half the batter evenly into the prepared pan. Sprinkle half the cinnamon mixture over the batter followed by half the melted butter. Scatter half the raisins and nuts over the top. Spread the remaining batter carefully over the filling, using a spatula to smooth the batter all the way to the edges of the pan. Top with the leftover cinnamon, butter and nut mixture, covering the cake evenly.

Bake for 45 to 50 minutes, until the cake is golden brown, fragrant and beginning to pull away from the edges of the pan. Place the pan on a wire rack and allow to cool in the pan for 5 to 10 minutes before serving in squares right from the pan. The cake is delicious hot, warm or at room temperature.

Allspice Crumb Muffins (TWD)

I treasure the early morning hours, especially on the weekends. Most people I know do whatever they can to squeeze in a extra hour or two of zzzzz's. I happily buck that trend, looking forward to the quiet pre-dawn hours on Saturday and Sunday. Once I get a humongous pot of coffee going, I dive into the pile magazines and books that accumulate on my my nightstand and leisurely read the morning paper (which is a rare treat for me).

Dorie Greenspan's Allspice Crumb Muffin was a delicious bonus to my early morning ritual. The prep work for this recipe was mercifully easy (I didn't even need to bring out a knife!), and for that minimal effort, I was rewarded with this yummy breakfast treat. To top it off, the house was filled that wonderful smell of something delicious baking in the oven.

This was the first time that I've made a recipe that calls for allspice to be front and center. I think I've been missing out, I loved the complex cinnamon-clove flavor of this spice. The muffin itself is very moist, and the streusel topping provides nice slightly crunchy texture contrast. The addition of lemon zest is an optional ingredient in the recipe, but I thought it provided essential flavor to complement the spice.

I used large muffin liners for this recipe, and the recipe yielded 8 jumbo muffins.

Thanks Kayte of Grandma's KitchenTable for this week's TWD selection. Please visit Kayte's blog for this recipe, or better yet go get yourself a copy of Dorie Greenspan's Baking: From My Home To Yours.

Applesauce Spice Bars (TWD)

This week's Tuesdays With Dorie recipe for Applesauce Spice Bars are technically bar cookies, but as you can see in these photos, mine turned out thick and cake-like.

The reason - I totally misread the pan requirements and used a smaller 8"x8" pan (versus a 9"x13" pan called for in the recipe). Aside from the pan snafu, I did follow the recipe with the following notes (for the full recipe, please visit Something Sweet by Karen):

- increased baking time to 35 minutes
- used a Granny Smith apple
- doubled the amount of cinnamon and allspice
- soaked the dark raisins in rum (it really helped plump and rehydrate them)
- in addition to soaking the raisins in rum, I opted to add 1 tbsp of dark rum into the batter
- doubled the brown sugar glaze recipe. Instead of pouring the hot glaze over the cake, I let the glaze cool. At room temp the glaze was much thicker, and this was spread like frosting over the cake.
I loved how soft and moist this bar turned out, and I'm glad that I added the raisin and pecans, as it gave it some textural interest. I loved the flavors of cinnamon and allspice, and they went wonderfully with the apples.

My only minor issue with this recipe was the sweetness --- it was really too sweet for my personal taste, which I think was contributed by the glaze.

Still, this bar didn't go to waste at my house, as we enjoyed it a la mode with Dorie Greenspan's Vanilla Ice Cream.

There are a lot of things that I liked about this recipe, and I'm definitely going to give it another try with a couple of adjustments (ie. omitting the glaze and using the proper pan).

Thanks Karen of Something Sweet by Karen for a terrific selection this week. Karen is always cooking and baking delicious treats which she shares through her beautiful blog.

I can't believe I'm actually writing this, but next week will be MY turn to host Tuesdays With Dorie. I'm looking forward to baking and visually feasting with all of you!

Classic Banana Bundt Cake (TWD)

I think this week's TWD recipe, Classic Banana Bundt Cake, is one the best banana bread/cake recipes that I've ever made. I know, it's a pretty bold statement, isn't it? I have made this recipe numerous times since I've gotten my hands on Dorie Greenspan's Baking: From My Home To Yours, and this banana cake has never failed me. To me, what makes this recipe fantastic is the simplicity of the ingredients and instructions. In no time, you are rewarded with a comforting treat that you can have with your morning coffee or as an afternoon snack.

I had originally intended on sharing with you a photo of the full bundt cake, but the top photo was the best I could do. Why, you ask? This was the reason...I had absolutely no patience, and I ended up cutting a generous hunk and devoured it before I had a chance to take pictures. :(

If you've had this cake before, you will understand why I couldn't wait to eat it. The cake is tender and moist, and it is chock full of banana flavor.

This time around, I tried topping the bundt with a glaze mentioned in the book. It didn't do much for taste or presentation, so I ended up frosting the cake with a bittersweet chocolate ganache and then topping it with bittersweet mini-chips. (That's why you see the white glaze drizzled down the sides of the cake along with the chocolate ganache.)

A huge shout out to my homegirl Mary of The Food Librarian for a fantastic pick this week. Mary is a fantastic baker and blogger, fellow Angelino, UCLA Bruin, ...in another word, she ROCKS!

You have to make this cake! For the recipe, you can find it at Mary's blog, or you can find a half-batch version for cupcakes at Dorie Greenspan's blog. I've made this recipe into cupcakes here, which was met with great success.

I know that my fellow TWD bakers were all over this recipe, so make sure to visit the TWD blogroll to see more of this absolutely delicious cake.

Now, you'll have to excuse me as I indulge with another piece of cake...