Food processor cupcakes

Yummy note: Food processor cupcakes, say what?! Yes, I said it right... Actually saw this on the Cooking Channel the other day and couldn't believe it as Nigella Lawson whipped these together in no time.. so I just had to try this recipe out. http://www.cookingchanneltv.com/recipes/nigella-lawson/cupcakes-recipe/index.html

I didn't stray away from her recipe here, as I was afraid what I'd come out with in the end. :)

Seriously, it took no time to measure and dump all the ingredients into the food processor, and in like 15 minutes, we had homemade cupcakes.

So what did I think of this recipe overall, well, I think it was good, fast, and easy. I think the cupcakes tasted best within a day or two of baking them, as I think by day 3, I had one, and it was a bit dry. So eat them sooner than later and I think you'll be fine. The frosting recipe that originally was used, was ok, it was a typical royal icing recipe, which gives you a nice crispy, almost divinity, like frosting on top, which I was hopeful that it would seal in the moistness of the cupcake, but really I didn't think that helped. I honestly think it dried out more, so maybe use your favorite frosting recipe instead of the royal icing one provided. Overall, a fun and quick recipe to do and easy for kids to help out with.

Ingredients:
Vanilla Cupcakes:
1 stick plus 1 tablespoon soft butter
1/2 cup plus 1 tablespoon sugar
2 eggs
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
2-3 teaspoons vanilla extract
2-3 tablespoons milk

Royal Icing:
*2 large egg whites (or substitute powdered egg whites)
3 cups confectioners' sugar
1 teaspoon lemon juice or vanilla extract

Directions:
Take ingredients (eggs, milk, butter) you need out of the fridge in time to get to room temperature. Note, they say this makes a huge difference to the lightness of the cupcakes later, so I went along with that. :) Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.

Put all of the ingredients for the cupcakes, EXCEPT for the milk into a food processor and blitz until smooth. Pulse while adding the milk down the funnel, to make a smoother consistency.

Divide the mixture between a 12-bun muffin tin lined with muffin papers, and bake in the oven for 15 to 20 minutes. They should have risen and be golden on top. Let them cool a little in their tins on a rack, and then take them carefully out of the tin to cool in their papers, still on the wire rack.

Next ice with royal icing recipe or substitute with your favorite frosting. Combine the egg whites and confectioners' sugar in a medium-size mixing bowl and whip with an electric mixer on medium speed until opaque and shiny, about 5 minutes. Whisk in the lemon juice or vanilla extract, this will thin out the icing. Beat for another couple of minutes until you reach the right spreading consistency for the cupcakes.

Pumpkin Scones

Yummy note: This year, I had made some homemade hot cocoa in a jar to give to a few girlfriends, and I wanted something tasty to go along with that for them to enjoy. I thought, what would be delicious with a cup of cocoa.. shortbread, muffins, cookies, or wait.. it hit me, a scone! I mean that was my favorite coffee shop treat when I go. Hello, a Starbucks' like pumpkin scone would hit the spot perfect! A scone also would hold up and taste nice even if I wrapped it up a day ahead of time. Actually this pumpkin scone recipe held up for about 4-5 days before they started to loose their excitement and started to go on the dry side. So I went searching for that perfect Starbucks copycat recipe as I had tried making up a scone recipe before, and well they ended up a little too dry. So no time to play around, I wanted the close to the real deal as I could. And I found this fun little site called Lattes and Life and decided that was the one, since Tiffany had blogged about these pumpkin scones, not once, but twice on her blog, so they must be good, right?! And the verdict.. Guilty, indeed, some wonderfully flavorful pumpkin scones. My dear friends that were lucky enough to get some scones, here is the "famous" recipe that I spoke of... :) I hope you take some time and bake and enjoy another batch.

Pumpkin Scones 

(like those from Starbucks but better since they are made with more love :) 

Original recipe here: Lattes and Life - Starbucks Copycat Pumpkin Scones

Ingredients: 
For the Scones:
2 cups all-purpose flour
7 tbsp sugar
1 tbsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp cloves
1/4 tsp ginger
1/2 cup pumpkin puree (or canned pumpkin)
3 tbsp half and half
1 egg
6 tbsp cold butter (cut into slices/cubes)

For Plain Frosting:
1 cup plus 1 tbsp powdered sugar
2 tbsp milk

For Spiced Glaze:
1 cup plus 3 tbsp powdered sugar
2 tbsp milk
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1/8 tsp nutmeg
pinch of ginger
pinch of cloves


Directions: 
Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Stir together flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, and spices in a large bowl. Place dry ingredients and cold butter in a food processor. If you don't have a food processor, just cut in the butter with forks, as if you were making a pie crust, continue to cut in the butter until the texture starts to look a bit like cornmeal. In another bowl, mix together pumpkin, half and half, and egg with a whisk.

Fold in wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and form a ball.

Place dough onto a lightly floured surface and form into a rectangle or a circle also works ok. Just make sure the dough is about 1 inch thick and begin cutting wedges.

Bake scones for about 14-16 minutes on parchment paper or a silicon mat, until they appear done. Let them cool completely before frosting them.

For the plain frosting, mix powdered sugar and milk until smooth. Spoon onto scones and let it set up before drizzling on the spiced glaze. For the spiced glaze, mix powdered sugar, milk, and spices until all ingredients are incorporated. This will be thicker than the plain glaze. If you need to adjust consistency of the glazes, just add in more powdered sugar or milk until you achieve your frosting zen. Haha, do what you like though, I like the thicker frosting, so I went a touch on the heavier side of both, it makes for a prettier set up, plus who doesn't love more frosting??

Back to the spiced glaze, drizzle over white frosted scones. The scones are less messy to eat once the frosting has set up a bit, but hey, I'm not watching so, go ahead and enjoy it as you wish :)

doggy treats

Yummy note: Well, this is a different variety of a "yummy" treat, but I've been hearing rave reviews that the dogs have loved these treats, so it seems to be yummy to their tummies! I got this recipe out of a doggy cookbook from a coworker. I wish I wrote down the name of the book now, but I can't recall... so April, if you see this, can you note what book this was from :) thanks! Back to the treats, this was a simple dog treat recipe that doesn't involve weird ingredients to make it disgusting or expensive to make. The recipe made a lot of treats for us to share. It worked perfect for a bake sale I was helping with at work too, as people love to pamper their pooch! Plus, people said it was a nice alternative that was at the bake sale, as it helped some that didn't want to buy the sweets, but still donate to the cause. I think this recipe made about 60-80 small to mid-sized treats, which was great for some dog presents too! Hope you enjoy making treats for your 4-legged friends!

Doggy Treats

aka "Apple Kissed Peanut Butter Treats"

Ingredients:

1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce

1 large egg

1/2 cup peanut butter

1 1/2 cups water

4 cups whole wheat flour

1/2 cup cornmeal

3/4 cup whole rolled oats (I didn't have rolled oats on hand, so I used old-fashioned oatmeal which worked just as fine)

Directions:

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Combine applesauce, egg, peanut butter, and water in a large bowl. Combine dry ingredients in a separate bowl and add the dry ingredients into the wet mixture. Mix well, and then knead dough on a lightly floured surface until thoroughly mixed.

Roll dough to about 1/8 inch thick and cut out using small cookie cutters. We used a dog bone, a heart, and some little flower shapes for size variety.

Place dough on a lightly greased cookie sheet or parchment paper lined cookie sheet. Original recipe said to bake treats for about 50 minutes and then to turn the oven off and leave biscuits in oven for about 20 minutes to harden. If you don't have enough cookie sheets to bake all your treats at once, you'll have to do it in batches. Basically keep an eye on your treats, and depending on the size, take them out to cool when they appear to be done to your liking.

* note: the original recipe said to use these treats as sandwich treats and suggested to add cream cheese to the middle of two biscuits for an even more special doggy treat. They suggested about 8 ounces of cream cheese to cover all the sandwich treats.

Alicia was very excited to help with the treats for her doggy friends. :)

Cookies-in-a-Jar Gift

Yummy note: I went to a friend's birthday party a month or so ago, and decided this would be a fun gift to give her. It would allow her to make a special treat whenever she felt like making fresh homemade cookies! The best thing about this is I used a smaller sized pint jar instead of the quart one for this recipe, which allows for a smaller batch to be made. I think it makes about a half a dozen or so of the cookie treats. Perfect amount for snacking on fresh warm cookies! This cookie-in-a-jar gift is easy to do and you can make it ahead of time for favors or gifts. Plus, it is fun to make it look pretty and cater to your special person/occasion.

Ingredients:

3/4 cup and 1 tablespoon and 1 teaspoon all-purpose flour

1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 cup white sugar
1/2 cup semisweet chocolate chips
1/2 cup M&Ms
1/4 cup packed brown sugar

Additional supplies:

1 Pint-sized mason jar

Small scrap of fabric and ribbon to decorate

Index card or card to write directions on

Directions:

Combine the flour and baking soda. Place flour and baking soda mixture in a clean pint sized glass jar, and pack firmly. Place white sugar on top of flour. Next, layer with chocolate chips and M&Ms. Cover that mixture with the brown sugar and pack firmly. Cover with the lid.

Additional directions

(write/printout on a card and attach it to your jar)

In a bowl, combine 1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons of butter, 1 egg and 1/2 teaspoon vanilla. Beat until creamy. Add in jar of dry mixture and mix. Drop by tablespoonful onto an ungreased cookie sheet, and bake in a preheated 375 degrees oven for 6 to 10 minutes.

Quiche

Yummy note: What to do with the leftovers?! Don't throw them out, as here's a recipe for you to use up a few leftovers you might have from the holiday season in your freezer or fridge. Have the leftover ham and one of those pre-made frozen pie shells handy gets this recipe halfway done! Seriously, just throw this together and you have a meal ready to go. This quiche recipe can be made with quite the variety, too. I've made it using more of a vegetable theme, while using proteins in this makes a hearty dish too.

Quiche

Ingredients:

Pastry for 9 inch pie shell

3 eggs

2/3 c. milk

1 tsp. salt

Dash of pepper

1 1/2 c. (6 oz.) shredded cheddar (or another variety) cheese, divided

approximately a pound of protein/meat (ie: cooked breakfast or pork sausage, bacon, or diced ham)
* Optional varieties - Easily make a vegetable quiche by using broccoli, mushrooms, and tomatoes in lieu of the protein or add it into the meat to make a supreme quiche.

Directions:

Line 9 inch pie pan with pastry. Bake at 400 degrees for 3 minutes. Remove from oven and gently prick with fork. Bake 5 minutes longer. Let cool on rack.















Decrease oven temperature to 375 degrees. Prepare/cook protein, if not already cooked.















Combine eggs, milk and seasonings in medium mixing bowl, beat lightly. Stir in protein or desired vegetables. Sprinkle 3/4 cup cheese over the pastry shell. Then pour the egg mixture on top of the cheese. Top with the remaining 3/4 cup cheese.















Bake at 375 degrees for 50 minutes or until set and serve! Enjoy.

"pretty" easy waffles/pancakes

Yummy note: I enjoy involving my daughter in the kitchen. I find it to be a good learning experience, besides it being totally fun for her to help out like a big girl! So with this recipe, we found something that can easily be "prettied" up and look "cool," while she is enjoying a homemade meal. The simplicity of this waffle/pancake recipe makes it easy to have little helpers in the kitchen, while not making the meal preparation too complicated. I think I found this recipe originally on a kids or pregnancy website, which actually called it a kid's activity, but I like to call it a pretty easy waffle/pancake recipe to keep on hand. :)

"pretty" easy waffles/pancakes

Ingredients:

1 egg

3/4 cup milk

2 tablespoons oil

1 cup of self-rising flour**

1 tablespoon sugar

optional "pretty" things to add in: sprinkles and/or mini chocolate chips

** Note, if you don't have self-rising flour on hand, you can make your own substitute by using 3/4 cup of regular all-purpose flour and mixing in 1 tsp baking powder and 1/4 tsp salt.

Directions:

Mix flour and sugar in a bowl. In a separate bowl, mix egg, milk, and oil together. Pour liquid ingredients into the dry ingredients and stir.

(If you want, you can just add the egg, milk, and oil directly into the other bowl with the dry ingredients, but it is sometimes more fun for the helpers to pour things.)

Stir the ingredients together until mixed slightly, some lumps are ok, as too much stirring can toughen the pancake or waffle. Add in optional pretty ingredients if you'd like, such as the handful of mini chocolate chips and/or colorful sprinkles to make a special treat.

For waffles, preheat your waffle iron and spray lightly with cooking spray. Pour waffle batter into iron and cook until waffles are crisp and brown or until waffle maker indicates it is done. If making pancakes, preheat a lightly greased griddle/frying pan and pour as much pancake batter as desired into the hot pan. Flip pancake once it begins to bubble and finish on other side until brown. Note: Recipe makes about 8 pancakes or 3-4 waffles depending on size of waffle maker. I usually double the recipe when I make waffles, so we can have leftovers.

Enjoy with your favorite toppings, such as butter, syrup, jelly, or whipped cream!

pumpkin cranberry nut muffins

Yummy note: I am always looking for those versatile recipes that are good morning, noon, or night... This muffin recipe fits it quite well. It is not only great for breakfast, but it is also a nice flavorful treat for a snack or dessert even. This recipe also hit my other top qualifier of easy to eat on the go. Muffins, bread, scones, you know, those little things that you can grab and run out the door with in the morning and snack on later when you don't have time to eat it at home. This muffin has a nice fall flavor of pumpkin and other spices, combined with the dried cranberries and nuts, it makes for a nice combination. I think this would make a perfect little housewarming goodie to bring to your Thanksgiving holiday parties for your host as a nice thank you!

Pumpkin Cranberry Nut Muffins

Ingredients:
2 cups flour
3/4 cup sugar
3 tsp baking powder
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1/4 tsp salt
1 cup canned pumpkin (not the pumpkin pie filling kind, just the pureed canned pumpkin)
1/2 cup vegetable oil
2 eggs or 1/2 cup egg beaters substitute
1 cup dried cranberries
1/2 cup chopped pecans, if desired
decorating or coarse sugar, if desired



Directions:
Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Prepare your muffin pan with either 12 paper cup liners or grease muffin pan. In a large bowl, mix the flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, and spices. Next, stir in the canned pumpkin, oil, eggs, cranberries, and pecans until just moistened. Divide the batter evenly among the 12 muffin cups.


A nice tip is to use a large cookie scoop or an ice cream scooper worked great for keeping the muffin batter evenly distributed. Plus it makes for easy cleanup and less batter spills :-)

Sprinkle the optional decorating sugar or coarse sugar over the muffin batter before baking to make a nice finished look. Bake muffins 20-25 minutes or until a tester inserted in the center comes out clean. Remove baked muffins from pan to cooling rack and enjoy.