Blueberry Muffins

Recipe courtesy of Paula Deen

2 cups all-purpose flour (I used whole wheat)

2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 cup sugar
1 stick unsalted butter, melted
1 egg, slightly beaten
3/4 cup whole milk
1 1/2 cups fresh blueberries
1/2 cup granulated brown sugar or white sugar

Directions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Grease a 12-cup muffin tin.

In a bowl, combine the flour, baking powder and sugar. In another bowl, combine butter, egg, and milk and mix well. Pour the wet ingredients into the flour mixture and with a spatula, stir until just combined. Do not beat or over mix; its okay if there are lumps in the batter. Gently fold the blueberries into the batter.

Spoon the batter into the muffin tray, filling each cup about 2/3 full. Bake for 10 minutes and remove from the oven. Sprinkle the tops of the muffins with the granulated brown or white sugar and return the muffins to the oven to bake for an additional 10 to 15 minutes, until the tops are golden brown and a toothpick inserted into the center of a muffin comes out clean. Cool for about 10 minutes in the pan before turning the muffins out.

July 16, 2012 0

Pumpkin Whoopie Pies

Ingredients

1 stick butter melted
1 cup packed light brown sugar
2 large eggs, at room temperature, lightly beaten
1 cup canned pure pumpkin puree
1 tablespoon pumpkin pie spice
1 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 teaspoon salt
1-2/3 cups flour (I use 2/3 cup whole wheat and 1 cup all purpose)

Get ahead
Freeze the whoopie pies for up to three days.

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 350°.
In a large bowl, whisk together the melted butter and brown sugar until smooth. Whisk in the eggs, pumpkin puree, pumpkin pie spice, 1 teaspoon vanilla, the baking powder, the baking soda and 3/4 teaspoon salt. Using a rubber spatula, fold in the flour.
Using an ice cream scoop or tablespoon, drop 12 generous mounds of batter, spaced evenly, onto each baking sheet. Bake until springy to the touch, about 10 minutes. Transfer to a rack to cool completelely
Spread the flat side of 12 cakes with the cream cheese frosting. Top each with another cake.

I got this recipe from http://www.rachaelraymag.com/Recipes/rachael-ray-magazine-recipe-search/dessert-recipes/pumpkin-whoopie-pies

January 21, 2012 0

Buttermilk Chocolate Cake

2 cups flour (I use whole wheat)

2 cups sugar

3/4 cup cocoa

2 teaspoons baking soda

2 eggs

1 teaspoon salt

1 cup buttermilk

1/2 cup oil

1/2 cup applesauce

1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla

1 cup boiling water

1. Preheat oven to 300ºF (this is a slow bake chocolate cake recipe)

2. Grease and flour a 9 in x 13 inch baking dish

3. Place all the ingredients into a mixing bowl and mix at medium speed until all the ingredients are blended and smooth.

4. Pour into the greased and floured pan and bake for 1 hour, or until done.

5. Frost as desired with your favorite frosting.

Recipe for homemade buttercream frosting

3 1/2 cups powdered sugar, 1/2 cup butter softened, 1 tsp vanilla, 3 tbsp evaporated milk. Combine all ingredients and enjoy. I got this recipe from a blog friend https://holcombfamilyrecipes.wordpress.com I am not a big fan of chocolate but this cake is really good.

January 13, 2012 1

Banana Bread

Betty’s Banana Bread

1/2 shortening (can substitute applesauce), 1 cup sugar, 3/4 cup mashed banana (2 overripe bananas), 1 1/4 cup self rising flour(I use whole wheat), 2 eggs, nuts. Combine all ingredients. Bake at 350 until done. Approx. 45 min.

December 8, 2011 1

White Christmas

Well, the snow did come yesterday-about 4″. So no family coming today. Hopefully, Dave, Jess and the boys will get to come about the middle of the week. I’m not sure when Chuck will come. The girls are excited today. There is enough snow to make snow cream, which is a favorite around here. There probably will be some sledding today too. The winds are supposed to start later today so we’ll just have to see how everything goes. The cows don’t seem to mind the snow at all.

I took these pictures from our dining room window. Later today, we will be going down to the barn to get milk. I will try to take more pictures then.

Hubby completely surprised me yesterday morning. We very seldom get each other gifts at Christmas but this year he got me this wonderful mixer. He even braved Wal-Mart on Christmas Eve to get it for me. Complete surprise! I got up yesterday morning, went to turn the coffee pot on and there it was. I squealed out loud and he just smiled that beautiful smile of his that always says “I love you”. He said with all the cooking and baking I do, he thought it would come in handy. Well, it certainly will. I made a batch of banana nut muffins in it this morning. I used a different recipe than I normally use and I think I like it much better. The recipe is:

1 1/2 cups all purpose flour (I used whole wheat), 2/3 cup sugar, 1 tsp baking powder, 1/2 tsp. baking soda, 1/2 tsp. salt, 1/3 cup applesauce, 2 eggs, 1/4 cup sour cream, 1 tsp. vanilla, 1/2 tsp cinnamon, 1/4 tsp. allspice, 2/3 cup mashed bananas, 1/3 cup chopped walnuts. Combine all ingredients. Pour into muffin tin. Bake at 400 degrees for 20-25 min. I used my large muffin tin and got 6 muffins. Very good.

No church today because of the snow. I sure am glad we got to go Friday night to the candlelight service. Enjoy your day and God bless.

December 26, 2010 4

Apple Muffins

Here is a picture of the apple muffins I made this morning. They were very good. I definitely will be making them again. Thanks for sharing the recipe, Cheryl. Here is the recipe:

2 cups flour (I used whole wheat), 1/2 cup sugar, 1 tbsp baking powder, 1/2 tsp salt, 1 tsp cinnamon, 3/4 cup apple juice, 1/3 cup oil, 1 egg and 1 cup diced apples. Combine all ingredients and put into muffin pan. Bake at 400 degrees for 20 min. Next time I make it I will add nuts but I didn’t this time. Anyway they were really good.

Today has been rain, rain, and then some more rain. Extremely dreary. Hubby is having trouble with the van but has been unable to work on it because of the rain. We did manage to sneak in a picnic lunch over at the park. They have a shed there and we were fortunate enough to get to use the shed, otherwise we would have had to come home. We had hamburgers on the grill, pasta salad and yogurt. We got some more good pictures to share.

I hope you all enjoy your day and God bless.

October 27, 2010 1

Soft Molasses Cookies

The girls and I made molasses cookies today. They are one of my favorites. I thought I would share the recipe I use:

1 cup butter- softened, 1 1/4 cup sugar, 1/2 cup molasses, 2 eggs-slightly beaten, 1/4 tsp salt, 2 1/4 tsp. baking soda, 2 1/4 tsp. ground ginger, 1 1/4 tsp. ground cloves, 4 cups flour (I use 3 cups whole wheat and 1 cup unbleached all purpose) Combine all ingredients and drop by spoon onto cookie sheet. Bake at 350 degrees for 10 min. Sprinkle tops with sugar.

These cookies always make me think of fall, however it has been pretty warm here today, upper 80’s. The night temperature though has been cooling down nicely. It was mid 50’s this morning, nice sleeping weather.

Enjoy your day and God bless.

August 31, 2010 2

Blackberries

Here on the farm we are blessed to have lots of blackberries. They are not the thornless kind, however, so they can be difficult to pick. They are domestic though and have huge berries on them, so it doesn’t take long to pick a gallon. They looked so pretty with the snow on them. My thanks to Julie for the pictures. We got about 3-5″ of new snow yesterday. More shoveling! My peach pie was very good. I also made homemade rolls. I kinda made up a recipe for supper. We had some chicken left over from Sunday. I sauteed onions, garlic, italian seasoning, and spinach. Added the chicken. Next I added a can of my homemade spaghetti sauce. Then I added cooked whole wheat penne noodles. Mixed it all together, added cheese to the top and baked covered 30 min. at 350 degrees.(cast iron skillet of course) It tasted really good. Well time for school. Take care and God bless.

March 3, 2010 2

More Snow Pictures

A picture of the field. I was hoping it would show how the sun was glistening off the snow. It was absolutely beautiful.

Our road after the tractor had made a path.

Going up the hill beside the hay barn. Yes, that brown spot proves there is still dirt under all this snow.

Guess what? We’re supposed to get more snow tomorrow. Not much though-about 3″. After all this, we probably won’t even notice 3 more inches. Anyway, we have company coming over today. My brother-in-law and his wife are coming. I made homemade vegetable beef soup(cooked on the wood stove, of course)and I’m making rolls as I type this. I use my bread machine to mix and knead the dough. I love this machine. It is a Zojirushi.

I bought it used several years ago and consider it a very valuable helper. I put 1 cup lukewarm water into the machine, 1/4 cup butter-cut into chunks, 1egg beaten, 3 1/4 cups bread flour, 4 tbsp sugar, 3 tbsp powdered milk, 1tsp salt, 1 1/2 tsp yeast. Set the machine to dough cycle and walk away. It takes the machine l hr 50 min. to run through this cycle. Then I take the dough out, punch it down and form the rolls. I get about 15 rolls from 1 batch. Then I spray them with olive oil and let them rise for about 1 hr. Bake 12 min. at 425 degrees. When I take them out of the oven, I brush them with melted butter(being generous with the butter). Half of these never make it to the table. They get eaten as soon as the butter is spread on them. One thing I do a little different from this recipe is I put 1 1/4 cup fresh ground wheat flour and 2 cups bread flour instead of using all bread flour. My family doesn’t care a lot for whole wheat so I mix it. I guess I better go check on my rolls and get ready for company. God Bless.

February 8, 2010 3