Completely Incredible Fruit-of-Your-Choice Muffins

These are from the March issue of Southern Living magazine.  I tried some variations and have determined that you can use just about any fruit that suits you, and these muffins will still rock!  We like the original peach best, but I made them with blueberries the second time and was just as happy.

Streusel:
½ c chopped pecans or walnuts
1/3 c firmly packed brown sugar
¼ c all-purpose flour
2 T melted butter
1 t ground cinnamon

 Muffins:
1 ½ c allpurpose flour
½ c granulated sugar
2 t baking powder
1 t ground cinnamon
¼ t salt
½ c butter, melted (1 stick)
¼ milk
1 large egg
1 cup frozen sliced peaches, thawed and diced OR blueberries/strawberries/pear/whatever you want!
12 paper baking cups
Vegetable cooking spray

Prepare Streusel by stirring pecans and next 4 ingredients until crumbly; set aside.

Preheat oven to 400.  Combine flour and next 4 ingredients (all dry) in a large bowl.  Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients.  Stir together the butter, milk and egg; add to dry ingredients, stirring just until moistened.  Gently stir in fruit.

Place paper baking cups in a muffin tin and lightly spray them with the cooking spray.  Spoon batter into the cups, filling about 2/3 full.  Sprinkle the streusel over the tops.

Bake at 400 degrees for 20-25 minutes or until a toothpick stuck in the middle comes out clean.  Cool (or not) and enjoy!!

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Memorable Biscotti

This is the first biscotti I ever baked, made during the experimental college years.  I fell in love with it instantly.  It does have that licorice hint because of the anise extract.  I will post variations of this recipe later. 

1 c. softened butter (no substitutes)
1 c. sugar
3 eggs
1 t. vanilla extract
1 t. anise extract
3 c. all-purpose flour
1 T baking powder
½ t. salt
1 c. chopped almonds

In a mixing bowl, cream butter and sugar.  Beat in eggs, one at a time.  Stir in extracts.  Combine flour, baking powder and salt; add to creamed mixture.   Stir in almonds. 

Line a baking sheet with foil and grease the foil.  Divide dough in half. On the foil, form dough into two 11×3” rectangles.  Bake at 300° for 35 minutes or until golden brown and firm to the touch. 

Remove from oven and increase temp to 325°. 

Using the foil, lift rectangles onto wire racks.  Cool completely.  Place on a cutting board and cut diagonally with a serrated knife into ¾-inch slices.  Place with cut side down on ungreased baking sheet.  Bake for 10 minutes.  Turn over; bake for 10 more minutes.  Cool completely on a wire rack.  Store in airtight container.

Yield: about 2½ dozen.

Mom's Sweet Cornbread

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Mexican cornbread

This is the cornbread I grew up on, sweet and tasty. I can remember my dad crumbling a slice of cornbread into a glass, pouring milk over it and eating it like cereal. (Man, it’s been years since I thought of that!)

1 c. all-purpose flour
1 c. cornmeal
¼ c. sugar
4 t. baking powder
1 egg
1 c. milk
¼ c. oil
½ tsp. salt

Mix dry ingredients together and wet ingredients together (separate bowls). Make well in the center of dry ingredients and pour wet ingredients into it. Blend together with fork until lumps are gone; pour into greased 8”square baking dish. Bake at 425° for 20-23 minutes.

VARIATION: I make Mexican cornbread by stirring in 3 oz. chopped and drained green chiles (or chopped fresh jalapeño) and 1 cup frozen sweet organic corn. I would add chopped red bell pepper too, except Dom hates bell peppers with a passion. 🙂

Italian Herb Bread (1½ pound)

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bread, bread machine, herb, italian

1c + 2T   Milk
2T           Butter
3c            Bread Flour
3T           Grated Parmesan Cheese
1T           Sugar
2t            Italian Seasoning
1½t         Salt
2t            Active Dry Yeast (OR 1½ t Fast Rise/Bread Machine Yeast)

This is from my bread machine cookbook.  It says to use the French Bread setting. While I don’t have oven settings for this recipe, I will eventually figure it out and re-post.  😉  I use milk in my breads because I never use the delay bake setting on the bread machine.  (It takes long enough, right?)  If you want to use a delay setting, you will want to subsitute the same amount of water for the milk, and add 1T powdered milk.

Happy Thanksgiving!!!