Libby's Cranberry Pecan Muffins

These are the muffins Libby made for our breakfast with our families. They were fantastic!!!

Libby's Cranberry Pecan Muffins

Makes 12 muffins

If fresh cranberries aren't available, substitute frozen: Microwave them in a bowl until they're partially but not fully thawed, 30 to 45 seconds.

INGREDIENTS

STREUSEL TOPPING

• 3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 4 teaspoons granulated sugar
• 1 tablespoon packed light brown sugar
• 2 tablespoons unsalted butter , cut into 1/2-inch pieces, softened
•   Pinch salt
• 1/2 cup pecan halves

MUFFINS

• 1 1/3 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 1/4 cups pecan halves, toasted and cooled
• 1 cup plus 1 tablespoon granulated sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 6 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted and cooled slightly
• 1/2 cup whole milk
• 2 cups fresh cranberries
• 1 tablespoon confectioners' sugar

INSTRUCTIONS

• 1. FOR THE STREUSEL: Adjust oven rack to upper-middle position and heat oven to 425 degrees. Process flour, granulated sugar, brown sugar, butter, and salt in food processor until mixture resembles coarse sand, 4 to 5 pulses. Add pecans and process until pecans are coarsely chopped, about 4 pulses. Transfer to small bowl; set aside.
• 2. FOR THE MUFFINS: Spray 12-cup muffin tin with baking spray with flour. Whisk flour, baking powder, ¾ teaspoon salt together in bowl; set aside.
• 3. Process toasted pecans and granulated sugar until mixture resembles coarse sand, 10 to 15 seconds. Transfer to large bowl and whisk in eggs, butter, and milk until combined. Whisk flour mixture into egg mixture until just moistened and no streaks of flour remain. Set batter aside 30 minutes to thicken.
• 4. Pulse cranberries, remaining ¼ teaspoon salt, and confectioners’ sugar in food processor until very coarsely chopped, 4 to 5 pulses. Using rubber spatula, fold cranberries into batter. Use ice cream scoop or large spoon to divide batter equally among prepared muffin cups, slightly mounding in middle. Evenly sprinkle streusel topping over muffins, gently pressing into batter to adhere. Bake until muffin tops are golden and just firm, 17 to 18 minutes, rotating muffin tin from front to back halfway through baking time. Cool muffins in muffin tin on wire rack, 10 minutes. Remove muffins from tin and cool for at least 10 minutes before serving.

TECHNIQUE

 

• RAMPING UP NUTTINESS, TONING DOWN TANG
  
  MAKE NUT FLOUR Instead of chopped nuts, we incorporate homemade toasted pecan “flour” into the batter, which lends the muffins richer, heartier flavor. 
• 
  CHOP CRANBERRIES WITH SUGAR—AND SALT Processing the berries with confectioners’ sugar sweetens them; a dash of salt masks their bitter edge.
• 
  TOP WITH STREUSEL A classic nut streusel sprinkled over the top of the muffins adds rich buttery crunch and just a hint of sweetness.

TECHNIQUE

 

• THICKENING THIN BATTER
  We thought a lack of gluten was causing our nut flour-base muffin batter to be thin and runny, leading to muffins that baked up flat. But when we accidentally let the batter rest briefly—a fluke occurrence when we walked away for 30 minutes—the batter thickened and the muffins baked up nice and tall. Could the rest be what improved the muffins' structure? We prepared another batch, this time deliberately letting the batter rest for 30 minutes before baking, and compared the results with muffins we baked right away. Once again, the rested batter thickened considerably and produced muffins with nicely domed tops, while the unrested batter was thin and created predictably flat muffins that spread across the tin.
  After a chat with our science editor, we understood why: As batter rests, a small amount of gluten develops, providing structure. But the main effect is that water more fully hydrates the starches, causeing them to swell. This swelling thickens the batter and helps prevent it from spreading during baking.

Libby's Sugar Cookies

Libby and I hosted a little Halloween Party the other night for our friends. We had so much fun cooking and baking and then having everyone over to decorate cookies, carve pumpkins and just hang out!

We used Libby's family's sugar cookie recipe and WOAH, were they were good! They stayed perfectly soft after coming out of the oven and tasted fantastic! So here's the recipe for all those Christmas cookie baking that is going to be coming up!

Libby's Sugar Cookies

Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups butter
2 cups white sugar
4 eggs
1 tsp. vanilla
5 cups flour
2 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. salt

Directions:
1. Cream together butter and sugar. Add eggs and vanilla. Mix well.
2. Add flour, baking powder and salt. Mix well. Cover and chill dough for at least an hour (or overnight).
3. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
4. Roll out dough on floured surface to 1/4-1/2 inch thick. Cut with cookie cutters. Bake 6-10 minutes on ungreased pan. Cool completely.

Chocolate, Raspberry, Walnut Breakfast Quinoa

Libby bought an induction stove for our suite this weekend :D It is so great! We can make so many things now - including basically every kind of meal! Now that we have a world of opportunities... I returned to some of the pinterest recipes that I had thought I'd need to "save for later" (when I had access to a stove). This was the first thing I decided to try! I had made a similar dish this summer, except with strawberries and almonds I think but this one looked great too! And it turned out really great!!!

Photo Curtesy of Once Upon a Cutting Board - This is made with cherries and almonds. 

Chocolate, Raspberry, Walnut Breakfast Quinoa
Serves 1 (easily doubled)
Recipe adapted from Once Upon A Cutting Board

1/2 cup vanilla almond milk (or unsweetened milk + sweetener of choice)
1/4 cup quinoa, rinsed
1/2 cup raspberries
2 Tablespoons chopped walnuts
1 Tablespoon chocolate chips

Bring milk to a boil in a small saucepan. Add quinoa, cover, reduce to a low simmer and cook for 15 minutes.

Meanwhile, toast almonds in a dry skillet over medium heat until golden brown and fragrant - should only take a few minutes.

Remove quinoa from heat, keep covered, and let sit for 5 minutes, until milk is absorbed. If using unsweetened milk, you may wish to add a bit of sweetener at this point (to taste, you could use honey, agave nectar or brown sugar), then recover and let sit 5 minutes.

Add raspberries, almonds, and chocoalte chips to the quinoa, stir and serve warm!

Substitutions:
The original recipe called for cherries instead of raspberries and almonds instead of walnuts. I used raspberries and walnuts because I had them and they sounded good :) Any fruit or nut would work great in this!

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies

The latest treat in our suite! 

Photo courtesy of Vintage Dutch Girl

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies

Recipe adapted from Vintage Dutch Girl

Ingredients:

1 cup canned pumpkin

1 cup white sugar

1/2 cup vegetable oil

1 egg

1 cup all-purpose flour

1 cup whole wheat flour

2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon milk

1 tablespoon vanilla extract

3 cups semisweet chocolate chips

Directions:

1. Combine pumpkin, sugar, vegetable oil and egg. In a separate bowl, stir together flour, baking powder, ground cinnamon and salt. Dissolve the baking soda with the milk and stir in. Add flour mixture to pupmking mixture and mix well.

2. Add vanilla and chocolate chips and lightly stir until combined.

3. Drop by spoonful on greased cookie sheet and bake at 350 degrees for approximately 10 minutes or until lightly brown. 

Whole Grain Pumpkin Pancakes with Apple Maple Compote

Well this was a dinner straight from Heaven. And it must be Fall up in Heaven because this meal was full of fall's favorite flavors.

Libby and I had a blast getting creative with this recipe. The pancakes were easy since we could mix everything in the room and cook them on the griddle in our room. The compote however, was a different story. The nearest stove top is in the basement of the building next door - down 3 flights of stairs out the main door, into the building next door, down a flight of stairs and into their "kitchen", all the while praying that nobody is using it. Libby and I have grown tired of running up and down those stairs so we had a brainstorm idea! Can we put the pot on top of the griddle and see if it will conduct enough heat to cook the apples and warm the compote?

Well, guess what? It worked fabulously!!! And it didn't just warm the apples and the compote, it actually got the compote almost boiling! A WORLD of possibilities has been opened to us!! Imagine what we can do with a "stove" in our room :D

Anyways, back to the recipe :) The pancakes have a delicious, savory pumpkin flavor but topped with the apple maple compote, you've got a fantastic combination of fall flavors. I highly recommend making this for a weekend breakfast or dinner sometime soon! I know we'll be making it again very soon!

(Photo courtesy of Honey and Jam)

Whole Grain Pumpkin Pancakes with Apple Maple Compote

Recipe from Honey and Jam

Whole Grain Pumpkin Pancakes

2 cups whole wheat pastry flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/3 cup sugar
1/2 tsp. sea salt
1 tbsp. pumpkin pie spice
1 1/4 cups organic buttermilk
1 cup pumpkin puree
2 large eggs, lightly beaten
2 tbsp. butter, melted
butter, to serve and for pan

To make the pancakes, combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda, sugar, spice and salt in a large bowl. Add the buttermilk, pumpkin, eggs and melted butter. Stir all the ingredients until they are just blended. Don't worry if the batter is a bit lumpy, you don't want to over mix.

Heat your skillet, pan or griddle to medium hot and brush it was a bit of butter. Test for the right temperature by dropping a drip of water onto the surface of the pan. If the starts to dance, you are in the ballpark. Pour 1/3 cup of batter into the skillet, wait until the pancake is golden in color, then flip with a spatula and cook the other side until golden and cooked through. Repeat with remaining batter. Serve with Apple Maple Compote. Makes about 12 large pancakes

Apple Maple Compote

1/2 an apple per person (roughly), cut into slices
Pat of butter
Cinnamon
Maple Syrup

Add a pat of butter to a medium sized pan, enough to cover the entire thing. Next, add the apples to the pan and sprinkle the cinnamon over. Let the apples get soft, turning them over once, and sprinkle the other side with cinnamon. Add enough maple syrup to cover the apples. Let it bubble away for a minute or so. Pour over warm pancakes. 

Ser

Pumpkin Coffee Cake with Brown Sugar Glaze

It's fall and that means pumpkin! I bought 4 cans of pumpkin at the store a few weeks back and have been itching to make something with them! The golf team requested this coffee cake and so I made it for practice one day last week and it was delicious!!

(Photo courtesy of Six Sisters' Stuff)

Pumpkin Coffee Cake with Brown Sugar Glaze
Recipe adapted from Six Sisters' Stuff
Makes one 9x13

Ingredients:
1/3 cup water
1 (15 oz) can pureed pumpkin (not pie filling!)
2 eggs
1 tablespoon vanilla
2 teaspoons pumpkin pi spice
1 (18 oz) box yellow cake mix
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup all purpose flour
4 tablespoon butter, melted

Prehead oven to 350. In a large bowl, mix water, pumpkin, eggs, vanilla and pumpkin pie spice. Mix in cake mix (just the dry mix not the other ingredients it calls for) and baking soda and mix until combined. Pour batter into a greased 9x13 baking pan. In a small bowl, mix together brown sugar, flour and melted butter. Sprinkle over the top of the cake. Bake for 25-30 minutes or until an inserted toothpick comes out clean. Serve your cake when warm or cooled to room temperature.

Sweet Potato Biscuits

I saw this recipe on pinterest a week or so ago and thought they looked delicious! Plus, I have a weird love of sweet potatoes so that made me even more excited about them :)

I was thinking of trying these out at Thanskgiving, but when Libby and I were at Trader Joe's yesterday we decided to make dinner for ourselves and so I suggested we try these out! And they were fantastic!!! We'll definitely be making these at Thanksgiving!

(Photo curtesy of cookme)

Sweet Potato Biscuits:
Recipe adapted from Cookmee
Makes 6 good sized biscuits

1 cup whole wheat flour
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons brown sugar
2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp baking soda
6 tablespoons chilled unsalted butter, cut into pieces, plus 1/2 tablespoon melted butter and more for pan
3/4 cup Sweet Potato Puree (see below), chilled
1/3 cup buttermilk

1. Make the dough: In a large bowl, whisk together flour, sugar, baking powder, salt and baking soda. With a pastry blender or two knives, cut in utter until mixture resembles coarse meal, with some pea-sized lumps of butter (I blended in food processor). In a small bowl, whisk together sweet potato puree and buttermilk; stir quickly into flour mixture until combined (do not overmix).
2. Shape the biscuits: Turn out dough onto a lightly florued surface, and knead very gently until dough comes together but is still slightly lumpy, five or six times. (If dough is too sticky, work in up to 1/4 cup additional flour). Shape into a disk and pat to an even 1-inch thickness. With a floured 2-inch biscuit cutter (or cup!), cut out biscuits as close together as possible. Gather together scraps and repeat to cut out more biscuits.
3. Bake the biscuites: Preheat oven to 425 degrees with rack on lower shelf. Butter an 8-inch cake pan. Arrange biscuits in pan (to help them stay upright). Brush with melted butter. Bake until golden, rotating once, 20-24 minutes.

Sweet Potato Puree
Recipe from marthastewart.com
Serves 4 (makes probably 4x what you need for the sweet potatoes but they are yummy to snack on!)

3 large sweet potatoes
2 tablespoons melted butter
2 tablespoons maple syrup

1. Peel and cut 3 large sweet potatoes into 2-inch chunks. In a large saucepan, cover potatoes with water. Bring to a boil; cook until tender when pierced with the tip of a paring knife, 15 to 20 minutes. Drain; puree in a food processor, with butter and syrup. Season with salt and pepper.