Mango Date Muffins

Knock, knock, knock... is anyone still here?  Anybody?  Good news... I'm alive and I have a kitchen again.  Oh wait, I didn't tell you about the fact that we didn't have kitchen for a while because we sold our house!  Oh yeah that was a couple of months ago, we sold our house at the end of May and started what may have been some of the busiest weeks ever. 

We went to Maryland (twice actually) for my friend Michelle's bridal shower and wedding.  I did make some cute personalized sugar cookies (see the recipe here), a bunch of cupcakes (Triple Lemon and Lemon Meringue - lemon's her favorite) and a devil's food chocolate cake with coconut cream filling and frosting - of course I don't have any good pictures.

The next week we packed up our whole house into a Pod container, closed on our house and left for Jamaica for a week for my cousin Blake's wedding - welcome to the family Summer! 

When we got home from Jamaica we were supposed to move into an Extended Stay America for two weeks but as luck would have it, Todd's cousins offered up their house in exchange for petsitting while they went on vacation so we moved there instead. 

Finally mid-June rolled around and we closed on our new house.  Of course the work didn't stop there as we've since been busy remodeling and modernizing our 40ish year old house that was a little bit stuck in the 70's. 

Painting paneling and beams, built-ins and trim, adding French doors, new sectional... it was so much work but worth it and I'm really glad we kept the panelling.

So far we've finished (is a room ever really finished?) the family room and Aubrey's room.

New beadboard and chair rail and soft yellow walls with the pink curtains from her nursery at our first house to make a cozy little girl's room.  We still need some pictures for those frames and to paint and move the chandelier from the dining room.

So the good news is that things are starting to calm down ever so slightly so I'm not making any promises at this point but hopefully I'll get back to blogging with a little bit more regularity.  I do have several recipes that I want to share that have been piling up even though it seems like I'm only cooking when we have guests these days.

For now, I'm going to share one of my favorites from the past couple of months. 

I baked these as jumbo muffins but they could be baked in regular size muffin tins as well.  They are reminiscent of a spice cake or carrot cake but with delicious chunks of mango.  Although the decision to make these muffins was an improvisation with leftover ingredients mostly because I had a couple of mangoes around because of plans to make mango peach salsa that didn't materialize, they turned out to be one of my favorite things I've made this summer.  I've definitely added the recipe to the list for repeat desserts.  And since they are muffins, I vote they even work for breakfast - just hold the ice cream.

Mango - Date Muffins

Inspired by Fresh Mango Bread from Baking: From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan

Yields 18 jumbo muffins

4 eggs + 1 egg yolk
1/3 cup canola oil
3 3/4 cups flour
1 1/2 cups sugar
3/4 cup brown sugar, firmly packed
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
2 tsp ground ginger
1 1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp salt
2 1/2 - 3 cups diced, peeled mango (about two mangoes)

1/3 cup diced dried dates

2 T dark rum

1 T orange zest

Soak chopped dates in dark rum in a small dish until softened.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Spray muffin tins with baking spray or butter and flour.  Whisk together eggs and oil in a small bowl.  In a large mixing bowl, combine flour, sugars, baking powder, baking soda, and spices.  Pour the egg mixture over the dry ingredients and stir just until combined, either by hand with a wooden spoon or on low speed in mixer.  The batter will be thick.  Drain dates and add along with mango and orange zest and stir to distribute.  Spoon batter into muffin tins, filling about 2/3 of the way full. 

Bake the muffins about 25 minutes until golden brown.  A toothpick inserted in the center should come out clean.  Cool for about five minutes in the pan and then transfer muffins to a wire rack to finish cooling.  These muffins are excellent served slightly warm with a scoop of vanilla ice cream.

Breakfast in Bed for Your Valentine

Take advantage of the weekend this year and make your sweetheart breakfast in bed.  But take a couple of shortcuts so you don't have to get up at the crack of dawn to get it done.  These recipes can be made in advance the night before and then just pop them in the oven when you're ready to make them. 

This first recipe is one that we make all the time in my family for holidays and I have to admit that we change up the add-ins pretty much every time we make it.  But the basics stay the same.  This makes a big 9x13 casserole so you may want to cut the recipe back for just a couple people or you'll be eating breakfast casserole for breakfast, lunch and dinner.  This is how we made it on Christmas morning this year.  The recipe was originally adapted from old cookbook that my mom has had for years that I believe was put together by local women as a fundraiser for the country club about 30 years ago. 

Ham and Swiss Breakfast Casserole
Family recipe

8 eggs
2 cups milk
1 tsp salt
1 tsp fresh ground pepper
8 slices sandwich bread
2 cups thawed frozen spinach
1 roasted red pepper, diced
1 onion, diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
8 oz ham, cut into 1/2" chunks
8 oz Swiss cheese, grated

Preheat oven to 375 degrees (if you are going to bake right away).  Spray a 9x13 casserole pan with cooking spray or grease with butter.  In a mixing bowl, beat eggs and milk together.  Add salt and pepper and set aside. 

Cut or tear the bread into about one inch pieces and toss in the pan.  Add vegetables, make sure your frozen spinach is well drained - add it to a double layer of paper towels and wrap it up and squeeze out all the water.  Add garlic and ham and toss everything together in the pan.  Pour egg mixture over the top, pushing everything down if it floats up.  Top with grated cheese.  At this point, you can cover the casserole with aluminum foil and refrigerate overnight if desired.

Bake covered for about 30 minutes, remove foil and continue baking an additional 15 to 30 minutes until casserole is set and golden brown.  Let stand about 10 minutes before cutting. 

Some other recipes to try or serve along with your casserole:

Strawberry Scones

Creme Brulee French Toast Casserole

Cinnamon Crunch Coffee Cake

Oatmeal Peach Scones



Cranberry Orange Muffins

Blueberry Streusel Muffins

Monkey Bread




Apple Cinnamon Monkey Bread

Enjoy -- Happy Valentine's Day!

Cranberry - Orange Muffins

So as it turns out, the very last thing I baked in 2010 ended up being one of my favorites.  I made these cranberry-orange muffins for breakfast on New Year's Eve and they were delicious.  I've been meaning to try them ever since we had a breakfast tailgate for a football game a couple of months ago and we had some muffins from a local bakery here in town.  I hate to brag, but I think mine were better.  This has convinced me once again that I need to make more recipes from The Pastry Queen cookbook.  Everything I've made out of it so far has been delicious. 

The recipe in the cookbook is for "Essence of Orange Muffins" but as suggested, I added fruit.  I used frozen cranberries (like pumpkin I tend to stock up around Thanksgiving when they go on sale).  You could substitute fresh or dried cranberries as well.  I also used an equal ratio of orange juice to milk instead of 2:1 as the recipe suggested and added a little cinnamon and ginger.  I also decided to skip the glaze and topped half with demerara or turbinado sugar and left half plain.  The extra sugar gives the tops a nice sweet crunch so I recommend adding it.  This is one baked good that its fine to use skim or 2% milk instead of whole milk without any issues as well.  I used skim milk and light sour cream with no problems. 

I baked these in a jumbo size muffin pan and the recipe yielded 12 muffins. 

Cranberry - Orange Muffins
Recipe adapted from The Pastry Queen cookbook

3/4 cup milk
3/4 cup orange juice
1/2 cup sour cream
2 eggs
1 cup unsalted butter, melted
1 cup sugar
Zest of 1 orange
3 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 1/2 T baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground ginger
1 cup fresh/frozen cranberries, roughly chopped
Demerara sugar (about a tsp per muffin)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Spray muffin tins with baking spray or line with paper liners.  In a medium bowl, combine milk, orange juice, sour cream, eggs, and butter and whisk until well combined.  In another mixing bowl, add sugar and orange zest.  Use your fingers to rub orange zest into the sugar until distributed and fragrant.  Add in flour, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, and ginger.  Pour the milk mixture into the dry ingredients and stir just until incorporated.  Fold in the cranberries.

Spoon batter into prepared pans (I use an ice cream scoop to make it easier) and fill each muffin cup about 2/3 of the way full.  Sprinkle about one teaspoon of demerara sugar over the top of each muffin.  Bake about 20 - 25 minutes until the tops are golden brown and spring back lightly to the touch.  Cool in pans about 5 minutes and then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.   

Cheesecake-filled Coffee Cake Muffins

I love having a random free weeknight where I don't really have anything to do. I mean of course there were things I should have done, like the laundry or cleaning the bathroom or something, but all of those things will still be there tomorrow. Instead of doing those things on my free weeknight, I made up an excuse to bake. I decided that my husband should have some baked goods to take to his co-workers. I wanted something that didn't require frosting since baking time + cooling time + frosting time would have been too much when starting at 7:00 pm. The other requirement was that I had to have everything on hand and not go to the grocery store. So I had to find something with less than 2 sticks of butter, less than 4 eggs, no sour cream, no heavy cream, no buttermilk, etc.


Well, I browsed through my Magnolia Bakery cookbook and when I got to the muffin/breakfast bun section, I knew I wanted to make some sort of coffee cake type dessert. I did have a package of cream cheese in the refrigerator, so this recipe was the winner. And winner it truly is... don't be put off by the fact that I picked the recipe by process of elimination of ingredients because these little muffins are delicious. The gooey filling is perfect and the cake has a great light texture. I added a little cinnamon to the streusel topping and a bit of extra vanilla to the batter, both of which I would recommend doing again. I also cut the recipe for the topping as I ended up with way more than I needed.


This recipe does require three separate processes to make each part but they all come together really easily - the only downside is the couple extra bowls you have to wash. Watch the cooking time carefully so you add the filling at the right time.


Cheesecake-filled Coffee Cake Muffins
Adapted from The Complete Magnolia Bakery Cookbook

Cheesecake Filling:
8 oz cream cheese, softened
3 T unsalted butter, softened
2 T sugar
1 egg yolk
1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray 16 muffin cups with baking spray or butter and lightly flour.

Cream together cream cheese and butter until light and smooth - about two minutes. Add sugar, egg yolk, and vanilla and mix until well incorporated. Set aside.

Streusel Topping:
1 cup all purpose flour
3/4 cup brown sugar, firmly packed
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
3/4 cup unsalted butter, cut into pieces

Combine flour, sugar and baking powder in a medium bowl. Add butter pieces and toss to coat. Using a pastry blender or two forks, mix in butter until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Set aside.

Muffin:
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup shortening
1/2 cup sugar
2 eggs
1/2 cup milk
1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Combine flour, baking powder and salt in a small bowl and set aside. Cream shortening and sugar in a large bowl until light and fluffy, about two minutes. Add eggs, one at a time, mixing thoroughly after each addition. Combine milk and vanilla in a measuring cup. Alternately add 1/3 of the flour mixture and 1/2 of the milk mixture, beginning and ending with flour, beating on low speed until just incorporated after each addition. Use a scoop to transfer batter to prepared muffin tins, filling each about 1/2 full. Bake 10 minutes and remove pans from oven.

Add a spoonful of cream cheese filling to each muffin, pressing lightly with the back of the spoon. Top with a spoonful of streusel topping, filling each muffin cup to the top. Bake an additional 14 minutes and remove. Cool about 15 minutes and use a knife to loosen slightly and continue cooling. Cool completely or serve slightly warm after about 30 minutes.

Smoky Mountain Chili and Cornbread

We spent this past weekend with a lot of friends in the Smoky Mountains in Gatlinburg, Tennessee. While I'm definitely a beach person, the mountains were beautiful too.

We rented a huge cabin and had a great time! I volunteered to bring chili and decided some cornbread muffins would be a good accompaniment.

Of course, I forgot to take pictures of the chili when I made it or on Saturday so scenery and muffins will have to do this time. The chili turned out really well and for future reference if you ever have to transport a large amount of chili (I made about 12 quarts) or you just want to make it ahead of time and freeze it; transfer the cooked chili to gallon size freezer bags and freeze it flat. Then just reheat in a crockpot or on the stove. The recipe below is cut in half to make a "normal" amount of chili but this would still serve about 10 people and fill a 6 qt crock pot.

Smoky Mountain Chili

2 lbs ground beef
1/2 lb chorizo
1/2 lb Italian sausage
1 large onion, diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
6 oz dark beer
1 green pepper, diced
3 jalapenos, finely diced
2 cans diced tomatoes
1 can tomato sauce
1 small can tomato paste
1 can black beans, rinsed and drained
1 can light red kidney beans, rinsed and drained
1 can dark red kidney beans, rinsed and drained
1 cup corn kernels (frozen)
1 T ancho chili powder
1 tsp cayenne pepper
1 tsp garlic salt
1 tsp ground cumin

Brown meat in a large dutch oven or skillet over medium high heat, crumbling with a wooden spatula. Drain off grease and transfer meat to a bowl. Return pan to heat and add onions and garlic. Cook about 2 minutes and add beer to deglaze the pan, scrape any brown bits off the bottom of the pan and let the majority of the beer cook off. Transfer to a crockpot if desired. Reduce heat to medium-low and add tomatoes, tomato sauce, and beans and stir to combine. Add corn, peppers and spices and cook for at least 60 minutes covered on the stove, stirring occasionally or 3-4 hours on low in the crockpot. Stir in tomato paste as necessary to thicken to desired consistency.

Top with shredded sharp cheddar cheese, sour cream, Fritos, etc. as desired.


Cheesy Jalapeno Cornbread Muffins
Recipe slightly adapted from Elly Says Opa originally from Cooks Illustrated
Makes 18 muffins

1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 cup yellow cornmeal (I used Martha White)
2 tsp baking powder
3/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 cup brown sugar
3/4 cup frozen corn kernels
1 cup buttermilk
2 large eggs
1/2 cup butter, melted
1/2 cup shredded Mexican blend cheese (Monterrey jack, colby, and cheddar)
1-2 jalapeno peppers, finely diced

Preheat oven to 400 degrees and spray muffin tins with baking spray. Combine flour, cornmeal, baking powder, salt, and baking soda in a large bowl and whisk together. Make a well in the center.

In a food processor, combine, corn, sugar and buttermilk and pulse several times. Add eggs and blend until well mixed, the batter will be lumpy from the corn. Pour wet ingredients into well in dry ingredients and begin to gently combine. Add melted butter and continue mixing just until dry ingredients are all mixed in. Stir in cheese and jalapenos.

Spoon into muffin tins, filling each about 2/3 of the way full and bake about 20-25 minutes until the tops spring back when touched. Cool in pans for about 5 minutes and then transfer to wire racks to cool completely. Serve warm with chili and butter or store in an airtight container.

Streusel-topped Blueberry Muffins

I've wanted muffins for a while... first I didn't have any blueberries, then I forgot to buy butter, etc. Finally on Friday I was able to make some. These blueberry muffins are pretty classic, but the streusel topping adds a little something extra. You can use frozen blueberries to make these muffins, but if you do, use them directly from the freezer. If you let them thaw, you'll have blue muffins.

Streusel-topped Blueberry Muffins
Recipe from Vintage Victuals

Muffins:
1/3 cup sugar
1/4 cup unsalted butter, softened
1 egg
2 1/3 cups all-purpose flour
4 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1 cup milk
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups blueberries

Topping:
1/2 cup sugar
1/3 cup flour
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 cup unsalted butter, softened

Preheat oven to 375 degrees and line 18 muffin cups with liners or spray with baking spray. Mix together butter and sugar in mixing bowl until light and fluffy. Add egg and vanilla and beat well. In a separate bowl, combine flour, baking powder, cinnamon and salt. Add flour mixture in 4 additions, alternating with milk, mixing until just combined. Stir in blueberries. Spoon mixture into prepared muffin tins, filling each cup about 2/3 of the way full.


In a separate bowl, mix sugar, flour, and cinnamon. Cut butter into small pieces and cut in with a pastry blender until mixture forms a crumbly topping. Top each muffin cup with a spoonful of topping mix until evenly distributed.

Bake about 25 minutes until the muffins are golden brown.