I realize relatively simple granola seems like a boring thing to post. It's not something that sparks too much excitement on its own. The only reactions I ever have to different types of granola are along the lines of, "I like the dried berries," or "How is the serving size only 1/3 cup?!" It's granola. It shines when combined with other ingredients.

This granola is a different story.

It's just your run of the mill granola in terms of ingredients, but I had no idea how easy it was to make. The honey and coconut are sweet, and the pecans have a nice crunch from being slowly roasted while coated in honey. I added it to a breakfast parfait in the morning and then found myself snacking on it throughout the day plain.

The recipe comes from my mom, who said it "made such a large batch that it lasted for weeks"...mine did not last for weeks. She was right, though, it does make a huge batch. It stores wonderfully in a large mason jar or any sort of jar that can be sealed with a tight lid. You can jazz up the recipe by adding various seeds/nuts and dried fruit at the end, but don't feel the need to change a thing -- simple is a very good thing when it comes to this recipe!

Enjoy!

Coconut Pecan Granola

Ingredients
3 cups rolled oats
1 1/2 cups chopped pecans or other nuts
1 1/2 cups flaked coconut
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1/2 cup honey

Directions
Preheat oven to 250 degrees. Line two baking sheets with sides* with parchment paper.

Combine all ingredients in a large bowl. Mix with a large spoon or sturdy spatula until fully incorporated and all oats are coated. Spread mixture evenly on both baking sheets, breaking up any large clumps. Place in oven for 70 minutes, stirring granola and rotating pans after 35 minutes. Coconut flakes and granola should be toasted.

Loosen granola from parchment immediately after cooking, but leave the granola on the pans until cool.

*Use baking sheets with sides to avoid having the entire sheet of oats sliding off into the bottom of a hot oven.

I would love fall a lot more if it weren't a direct descent into winter. There are just so many things to like about this season -- football, nice temperatures, beautiful colors, pumpkins and, of course, delicious food.

I've mentioned before how I am really not a fan of pumpkin pie. I'd choose cake over pie anyways, but pumpkin pie, in particular, just doesn't do it for me. In fact, if I had the choice of pumpkin pie or no dessert at all, I'd probably choose no dessert (actually, I'd just eat the crust). Pumpkin in any form other than pie? Sign me up. 

This is a perfect, easy pumpkin bread. It is SO moist (there's no getting around using that word in this instance), and it's simple, yet packed with flavor. I bought one of the larger sizes of canned pumpkin, which has allowed me to make/eat this multiple times in the last week. Healthy choices. 

Another great thing about the recipe is that it only uses 2 tablespoons of cream cheese for the frosting, so let's say you buy an 8oz block of cream cheese and a 28-29oz can of pumpkin. You can make this bread 3 times! All of the other ingredients are probably things you have on hand. In a world of expensive baking ingredients, this recipe is a godsend. Just try to block the amount of sugar from your mind, and you'll love every bite.

Enjoy!

Pumpkin Bread with Cream Cheese Frosting

Recipe from Garnish and Glaze

Prep time - 10 mins 

Cook time - 70 mins

Total time - 1 hour 20 mins

Serves: 12 slices

Ingredients

For the Bread:

• 1¾ cup flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• ¾ teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• ¼ teaspoon nutmeg
• 2 eggs
• 1½ cup sugar
• 1 cup pumpkin puree
• ½ cup canola oil
• ⅓ cup water

For the Cream Cheese Frosting:

• 2 ounces cream cheese, softened
• 2 tablespoons butter, softened
• ¾ - 1 cup powdered sugar
• ¼ teaspoon vanilla

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F and grease 1 4½" x 8½" loaf pan.
2. In a large bowl, mix flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon and nutmeg together. Make a well and set aside.
3. In a medium bowl, thoroughly beat together the eggs, sugar, pumpkin puree, oil, and water. Add to the well of the dry ingredients and mix until combined. Pour batter into greased loaf pan.
4. Bake for 60-70 minutes but tent a piece of foil over the top half way through (you need to pinch it at the ends so it forms a dome so the bread can rise) to prevent the top from browning too much. Start checking the bread at 50-55 minutes and if it looks too wet on top, take off the foil and finish cooking without it. Cook until toothpick comes out clean. Let the bread cool completely in the pan before removing.
5. Make the frosting by creaming the frosting ingredients together. Spread on top of bread.

Sometimes you need a little indulgence in the morning. I'm a breakfast person, so I always wake up and have breakfast followed by something sweet. I'm not talking about an entire piece of chocolate cake (though it's been done before), just a little something to round out the meal.

This cake handles my breakfast and sweet craving all at once. Basically it's the king of sweet breakfast cakes. Each slice has rolls of buttery biscuits filled with cinnamon sugar, marshmallow, chocolatey goodness. As if everything going on with the filling wasn't amazing enough, the marshmallow topping is out of this world, too.

It's one of those things you feel slightly guilty eating because it's almost too good. I have a habit of starting out by cutting myself a small piece of something, and the entire time I'm eating the small piece I just think about how I wish I cut a bigger piece. This almost always ends up with me going back for seconds. I wouldn't recommend eating it every morning unless you also want to invest in a new wardrobe for your expanding waist-line, but it's absolutely worth every single minute of cardio you'd need to do to burn it off. For those of you who aren't ready for this kind of sugar high at 9am, it's good any time of day.

Chelsea has step-by-step instructions on her blog if you want to check that out. The process is simple. Roll out the biscuit, dip it in butter, dip it in cinnamon sugar and add the filling. If you divide everything into little bowls beforehand and make it into an assembly line of sorts it will be a breeze.

I purchased two tubes of the Pillsbury Buttermilk Grands (8 biscuits in each), so I filled up my first pie dish with only 10 biscuits. The recipe calls for 15 because it doesn't use the oversized biscuits. Either will work. I had extra ingredients for the filling anyways, so I just made another little mini cake by using a regular cake pan and making a smaller circle of rolls in that. Since this circle was only about 6 inches across I used tin foil to second off a 6-inch circle within the 8-inch cake pan. It did the trick.

Enjoy!

30-Minute Cinnamon Roll S'mores Cake
Recipe from Chelsea's Messy Apron

Ingredients

• 15 buttermilk biscuits
• 1/4 cup butter, melted
• 3/4 cup white sugar
• 1 tsp. cinnamon
• 3 tablespoons miniature chocolate chips, separated
• 1/2 cup miniature marshmallows
• 1/3 cup graham cracker crumbs, separated
• Optional: 1 chocolate bar

Marshmallow Frosting

• 4 tablespoons butter, softened, not melted
• 1 and 3/4 cups powdered sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/3 cup marshmallow fluff
• 1-2 tablespoons heavy cream

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Spray a 9-inch cake pan with nonstick spray and set aside.
2. Remove the biscuits from the packages.
3. Using a rolling pin, roll each of the biscuits very flat and thin. Stir together the white sugar and cinnamon in a small bowl.
4. Dip each biscuit in the melted butter or brush melted butter over both sides. Shake off the excess and then dip the biscuit in the cinnamon sugar mixture making sure to cover both sides as well, again making sure to shake off the excess.
5. Slice the marshmallows in half.
6. Using the picture in Chelsea's post as a guide, place a small handful of graham cracker crumbs, miniature marshmallows, and miniature chocolate chips on one side of each biscuit.
7. Roll up each biscuit and place the rolled up biscuit on the outside of the cake pan in a circle fashion spiraling towards the inside of the pan.
8. Bake for 18-20 minutes, or until biscuits have slightly browned on the outside and insides are fully cooked.
9. Meanwhile, prepare the frosting by beating together the powdered sugar, butter, and vanilla extract. Beat in the marshmallow fluff.
10. Slowly add in the heavy cream until desired consistency is reached.
11. Remove the cake and let cool for about 5-7 minutes before frosting.
12. Pipe the marshmallow frosting over the cake and cut into slices to serve.
13. Top the cake with any leftover miniature marshmallows, miniature chocolate chips, and graham cracker crumbs that weren't used to fill up the biscuits.
14. If desired, unwrap a room temperature chocolate bar, and “peel” it from top to bottom directly over the cake.
15. Slice into large pieces and enjoy while warm!

I realize this looks like a pie plate of sausages, but trust me, it is much better than that.

I felt the need to overly zoom in so you could see what's going on here. SO MUCH GOODNESS IN ONE SLICE.

Every time I make muffins I find myself wishing I made them more often. I realize there are healthier things I could eat for breakfast than a muffin, but starting the morning with orange juice and a freshly baked blueberry muffin just feels right. It's the one muffin flavor we can all agree on (I'm sure there are some blueberry haters out there who disagree).

There are a few components to the perfect blueberry muffin. It can't be so dense that you need something to wash it down. It has to have blueberries in every single bite, and the top always needs to be the best part. Maybe the top is the best because it has that fully-baked yet still gooey thing going on. Maybe it's sprinkled with sugar. I personally love streusel. These muffins are chock full of berries, they're not too heavy and the streusel on top is amazing. I've never made a blueberry muffin recipe with oatmeal in the streusel, but I've been missing out.

When I went back to grab this recipe for the post, I realized there was a glaze that I completely skipped. Note to self: don't get so distracted by the amazing smell of the muffins coming out of the oven that you forget everything else you were doing. The good news is that they were already great without it, so when you make them they will be even better! Do as I say, not as I do....except the part about making and eating these muffins. Because that part you should absolutely do.

Bakery Style Lemon Blueberry Muffins
Recipe from The Cafe Sucre Farine
Serves: 12

Ingredients

CRUMB TOPPING
    5 tablespoons butter
    ½ cup sugar
    ½ cup flour
    ½ cup oatmeal
    ¼ teaspoon salt

MUFFINS
    2 cups all purpose flour
    1 ½ teaspoons baking powder
    ½ teaspoon salt
    ½ cup butter, softened
    1 cup sugar
    2 large eggs
    ½ cup buttermilk
    finely grated zest of 1 lemon
    1 teaspoon vanilla
    2 cups fresh or frozen blueberries
  
 GLAZE
    3 tablespoons lemon (juice)
    1 cup powdered sugar

Instructions

1.     Preheat oven to 350˚F. Line a 12-cup muffin pan with paper liners
2.     Make the crumb topping by combining the melted butter, sugar, flour, oatmeal and salt. Stir with a fork until crumbs form. Set aside.
3.     Combine flour, baking powder and salt in a medium size bowl. Set aside.
4.     If using frozen blueberries, place them in a small bowl and return to freezer until ready to use. If using fresh berries, place in a small bowl and set aside.
5.     In the bowl of an electric mixer, beat butter for 1 minute until soft and fluffy. Add sugar and continue to beat for 3 minutes. Add eggs, one at a time and beat just until incorporated. Add buttermilk, vanilla and lemon zest and mix on low until combined.
6.     Remove bowl from mixer. Add flour mixture and stir, by hand, until flour disappears. Do not over mix or muffins will be tough. Gently stir in blueberries.
7.     Divide mixture evenly in the prepared muffin pan. Sprinkle with the crumb topping.
8.     Bake at 350˚F for 22 to 25 minutes or until light golden and a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Allow muffins to cool for 5 minutes in the pan before removing to a wire rack. Drizzle lightly with the lemon glaze.
9.     For lemon glaze, combine powdered sugar and lemon juice in a medium size bowl. Stir with a fork or whisk until smooth.

 

I've never understood coffee cakes that skimp on the crumb topping. That seems to me one of the most essential parts of a coffee cake. Then again, when I come across a recipe that doesn't seem to have enough topping I just double it, so it's not like I let those crumbless cakes interfere with my high crumb standards anyways.

This recipe takes the topping to a whole new level. It is piled on there to the extent that it ends up being about 2/3 cake and 1/3 crumb. I guess that's what makes it New York-style? I'm from the south, so that's just my best guess based on the title. Per usual, I tried pieces at all temperatures over the course of the time it was on my counter (just so I could report back, obviously), and my favorite was heated up for about 15 seconds. The cake itself is relatively dense when it's just room temperature, though not in a bad way. Heating it makes it seem much lighter and the cake flavor came through stronger as well.  That's just my personal preference for this recipe. That's not to say I didn't like it room temperature. I ate it that way day one and two, and heated it after that to combat the inevitable drying out that usually occurs as coffee cakes sit out. All-in-all, this is a delicious coffee cake, and I highly recommend everyone trying it out!

As a side note - sorry for the delay in posts. I was out of town for a few weekends, moved to a new house which meant everything was a bit chaotic in the kitchen realm for awhile, and then my computer decided to start moving at a snail's pace, which in turn meant I couldn't go through my pictures without wanting to smash it into a million pieces. The computer issue hasn't been resolved, but I'll work on my patience or stop being lazy and take it by the Apple Store. The good news is my new house has plenty of light so hopefully you'll start getting pictures that look much better than these (...which were taken in a basement apartment that was pretty much void of sunlight).

New York Style Crumb Cake
Recipe from Kitchen Meets Girl
Ingredients

For the crumb topping:
• 1/3 cup sugar
• 1/3 cup packed dark brown sugar
• 3/4 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/8 teaspoon salt
• 8 tablespoon butter, melted
• 1 3/4 cup cake flour

For the cake:
• 1 1/4 cup cake flour
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 6 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into 6 pieces, softened
• 1 large egg plus 1 egg yolk
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup buttermilk

For the glaze:
• 1 cup powdered sugar
• 2-3 tablespoons Green Mountain Vanilla Iced Latte (I just used

Instructions

1. Place the oven rack in the middle position and preheat oven to 325 degrees. Spray an 8x8 pan with baking spray and then line with parchment paper, allowing a few inches of excess to hang over the edges of the dish.
For the topping:
2. Whisk both sugars, cinnamon, salt and butter in a medium bowl. Add flour and stir until the mixture resembles a thick dough. Allow to cool to room temperature, about 10 minutes.
For the cake:
3. Meanwhile, combine flour, sugar, baking soda and salt in the bowl of a stand mixer on low speed. With the mixer running, add in butter pieces one at a time. Beat until mixture resembles moist crumbs and no butter pieces remain. Add the egg and egg yolk, vanilla and buttermilk. Beat until light and fluffy.
4. Pour batter into prepared pan and spread evenly. Break apart crumb mixture and spread it evenly over the batter, starting at the edges and working in towards the center. Bake 35 to 40 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Allow to cool on a wire rack for 30 minutes, then remove cake from pan.
For the glaze:
5. While the cake is cooling, whisk together powdered sugar and the Green Mountain Vanilla Iced Latte. If the glaze is too thick, add in more liquid until desired consistency is reached. Drizzle over cooled cake.

Breakfast is by far my favorite meal of the day. I don't know whether it's because I like breakfast foods, or I'm just hungriest in the morning, but I think about breakfast from the moment I wake up. Shoot, sometimes I even think about it before I go to sleep. I'm pretty much always pressed for time in the mornings, so during the week I keep my breakfast foods in the office fridge because the last thing I want is to skip breakfast. On the weekends when I have a bit more time, I like to up my game a bit.

The recipe my mom uses for pancakes and waffles has always been my absolute favorite. When I think of what the perfect pancake or waffle is supposed to taste like, I immediately jump to Sunday mornings growing up when the smell of fresh breakfast would fill the house. She's used this recipe for as long as I can remember, and I believe it came from the Hints from Heloise column that used to run in the paper. The secret ingredient is club soda. Club soda makes for light, fluffy, almost airy pancakes and waffles. I'll post about club soda pancakes sometime in the future, but for now I'll stick to the waffles.

I rarely order waffles because they end up being too hard on the outside or too dry in the middle. That said, with this recipe I'd eat waffles for breakfast every morning (I'm sure my waistline would love that). I just got a Belgian waffle maker, so I used this recipe with that with great results, but I honestly prefer it with a regular waffle maker because they are even lighter. It's hard to get a super light waffle in a Belgian waffle iron regardless of the recipe since they are thicker. I also only was able to get about four waffles out of the batter, whereas with a regular iron I'm sure that number jumps to eight or so. Either way, this recipe is very little effort with fantastic results. It also saves you a few calories since you're subbing out milk...which I think is really all the justification you need to dress the waffles up with whipped cream and fruit, bacon and syrup, butter, etc. Enjoy!

Club Soda Waffles
Recipe from Hints from Heloise

Ingredients
2 cups Bisquick or good quality baking mix
1 egg
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 1/3 cups club soda

Heat waffle iron. Combine all ingredients together with a spoon, being careful not to overmix. Pour over hot waffle iron immediately, and cook per your individual irons instructions. You need to use the batter right away, as it will go flat if you let it sit too long. You can freeze the waffles if you have more than you need.

Of all the sandwiches, breakfast sandwiches are my favorite. There's something comforting about taking everything that's great about breakfast and putting it in between two pieces of buttered bread. It's also possible I find it comforting because I grew up eating breakfast sandwiches on Sunday after church. My mom is the queen of the fried egg sandwich. I guess I have her to thank for the fact that I find plain eggs and bacon boring and unsatisfying. At least these things are acceptable in North Carolina.

You can really do whatever you'd like with a breakfast sandwich. Be as creative or as simple as you'd like. Change up the choice of bread. Use ham instead of bacon. Spread cream cheese on the bread instead of adding a slice of regular cheese (I promise this is amazing). This seems like a pointless recipe to put up because it's so simple, but I've realized that a shockingly large number of people haven't been clued in on the sheer joy that comes from a good breakfast sandwich. So, I am posting two variations.

The variation I want to explain first is the Pimento Cheese, Egg and Bacon Breakfast sandwich. There are few, and I mean very few, things in the world that are better than a grilled pimento cheese sandwich. If you're not from the south, I'm sure this is a completely foreign concept to you and that's ok.

You may agree with me that the trick to a great, gooey grilled cheese sandwich is hand shredded cheese and adding a small layer of mayo to the inside of the bread.  Well, the same thing goes for using homemade pimento cheese in your egg sandwich. I combined this with soft scrambled eggs and bacon which results in a blending of flavors that is seriously out of this world. You start out with spreading the pimento cheese on the unbuttered side of a slice of bread, and once your eggs are done, you spread them over the pimento cheese, add a few slices of bacon on top and then sandwich it with the other piece of bread and grill it in the pan. Putting it back in the pan is essential, as it gives you the good buttery crunch and it also melts the ingredients together.

The second sandwich I've shown is much simpler, and it's my go to since sadly I do not always have homemade pimento cheese around. I sometimes leave out the bacon or the ham if I'm out of those ingredients. The pan I used was pretty bad, so the egg stuck too much to make it a perfect over medium fried egg, but my suggestion is to do it over easy if you're up for the mess or over medium. You can either use egg, mustard and cheese (with or without meat), or do egg and cream cheese (with or without bacon). I'm always rushing in the mornings, so if I have time to fry up a quick egg sandwich I promise you do too!

Enjoy!

Homemade Pimento Cheese*
Makes a full serving, feel free to cut this amount in half

2 10-ounce blocks Cracker Barrel Cheese, one Sharp White Cheddar, one Sharp Cheddar, grated
2 heaping tablespoons diced pimentos (not sliced!)
1 to 2 ounces cream cheese
1/2 cup Duke's Mayo
1 teaspoon cracked pepper
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
1/4 teaspoon cayenne (optional)

Grate the sharp white cheddar and sharp yellow cheddar cheeses together in a bowl. Do not buy pre-grated cheese, as these cheeses come with a waxy coating on the outside and will not melt as well (or taste as good). Throw remaining ingredients into bowl, and blend gently with a spatula, forks, spoons, or whatever you have on hand. Keep refrigerated until ready to use. Leftover pimento cheese is delicious on crackers, veggies, burgers, sandwiches, pretzels, etc.

*Adjust amount of cream cheese and mayonnaise to suit your personal preference. If you prefer a creamier and tangier cheese use slighly less mayo and 2 ounces cream cheese.

Grilled Pimento Cheese, Bacon and Egg Sandwich
Makes 1 sandwich (double, triple, quadruple as needed)

2 pieces cooked bacon
2 large eggs
1 tablespoon milk
2 slices sourdough bread
1/8 cup pimento cheese
Salt and pepper for taste
Butter for the bread

Cook bacon in pan or in oven until crispy. Spread one side of each piece of bread lightly with softened butter. On the non-buttered side of one slide, spread a generous layer of pimento cheese, it should be about a 1/2-inch thick. Break bacon slices in half an set on top of pimento cheese. You can also crumble the bacon on top if you want to make sure to have it in every bite (or bacon lattice it if it's that kind of a day!).

In a nonstick skillet, melt a small amount of butter. Whisk eggs and milk with a fork until combined, then add a dash of salt and pepper. Pour into pan over medium-low heat. Stir with a heatproof spatula until small curds begin to form, increase heat to medium high. Begin to fold the eggs over themselves until they are still soft, but fully cooked and no liquid remains. This will happen VERY quickly, so make sure not to overcook. Remove eggs immediately and place on top of the pimento cheese and bacon slice of bread. The key is to start with a pan that is the right temperature and not take your eyes off of the eggs while cooking. This will give you a flavorful, soft scrambled egg.

Place the remaining slice of bread on top, butter side up, and add to the pan over medium heat. Slightly press down to make sure the ingredients come together without compressing them too much. Flip once sides are lightly brown. Cut in half and enjoy! Keep napkins nearby.

*Note: To make a fried egg sandwhich, everything is the same except for you spread a thin layer of mustard on the bread instead of pimento cheese. Then you can top with your choice of cheese, bacon or ham, and a fried egg. Throw in a pan and lightly brown on each side. This works well with the soft scrambled eggs, too, but I wouldn't recommend swapping fried for scrambled on the pimento cheese version.

One of my favorite things about summer is fresh fruit. As much as I love chocolate and all other unhealthy foods, if fresh fruit wasn't such a rarity at all times except summer, I'd probably be much healthier (I can say this since it'll never happen). Blueberries work with everything: breads, muffins, pies, pancakes, ice cream, smoothies. What a dynamic little fruit.

Back in the day when I was applying to colleges I saw an essay contest for the North Carolina Blueberry Festival (because apparently I come from a blueberry-loving state) where you could win some sort of scholarship just for writing about blueberries. I remember thinking, seriously...an essay about blueberries? That's it? I LOVE BLUEBERRIES! How could I not win?

Well, procrastinating and never writing the essay is one way. A few months down the road I was talking with a friend of mine who was laughing about how he won a scholarship for writing an essay about blueberries, and that he didn't even like blueberries. Naturally I've been kicking myself ever since. I'll spare you all from my long-overdue essay on blueberries, but I will give you this amazing blueberry muffin recipe.

Blueberry muffins should be bursting with fresh blueberries. The key is not to have a single bite without a blueberry. This recipe takes things up a notch by adding a homemade blueberry jam on top and swirling it around a bit. And just in case you still felt like taking things up even more, you then add a crunchy lemon sugar topping. You can taste the crunch of the sugar, and oh is it good. I added about 1/4 cup extra blueberries to the pan while cooking down the blueberries because I wanted as much blueberry flavor as possible. I doubt that was necessary, but mission accomplished.

Enjoy!

Blueberry Muffins

Recipe from The Little Kitchen
Yield: 12 Muffins

Ingredients

Lemon-Sugar Topping:

1/3 cup sugar (2 1/3 ounces)
1 1/2 tsp finely grated zest from 1 lemon

Muffins:

Non-stick cooking or baking spray, I used Baker's Joy
2 cups fresh blueberries (about 10 ounces), picked over
1 1/8 cups sugar (8 ounces) plus 1 tsp
2 1/2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour (12 1/2 ounces)
2 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp table salt
2 large eggs
4 Tbsp (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, melted and cooled slightly
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1 cup buttermilk
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Directions:

FOR THE TOPPING: Combine sugar and lemon zest in a small bowl and stir. Set aside.

FOR THE MUFFINS: If not already done, move oven rack to upper-middle position and heat oven to 425 degrees. Spray muffin tin with baking spray.

Add 1 cup blueberries and 1 teaspoon sugar to a small saucepan at medium heat. Allow to simmer and cook, mash the berries with the back of a spoon until all of the berries are broken down. Stir frequently and cook until mixture is thickened and reduced to about ¼ cup, about 6 minutes. Set aside and allow to cool to room temperature, about 15 to 20 minutes.

Add flour, baking powder, and salt to a large bowl and whisk.

To another bowl, add 1 1/8 cups sugar and eggs and whisk until thick, about 45 seconds. Whisk in butter and oil slowly, until combined. Then, whisk buttermilk and vanilla in, until combined.

Using rubber spatula or a wooden spoon, fold in egg mixture and remaining cup blueberries into flour mixture until just moistened. (Do not overmix. The batter will be lumpy and that's fine.)

Using an ice cream scoop or cookie scoop, add batter evenly to each of the muffin cups. The muffin cups will be full. Take one teaspoon of the cooled blueberry jam and add to the top of each mound of batter. Using a chopstick or skewer, swirl the jam into the batter a few times. (Cook's Illustrated says to use figure eight motions.)

Add the lemon-sugar topping evenly over all of the muffins.

Bake the muffins until they are just about gold on top, about 17-19 minutes. Halfway through the baking time, be sure to rotate the muffin tin. Allow muffins to cool in the muffin tin for about 2-3 minutes. Using a butter knife or offset spatula, remove the muffins from the tin and allow them to rest at an angle. Cool for another 5 minutes and place on a cooling rack. Serve with softened butter.
These muffins can be stored in a zippered plastic bag for 2-3 days.

I'm all about any excuse to justify chocolate with breakfast. Truthfully it doesn't take much, as I usually have some sort of chocolate stashed in my desk that I eat before 10am anyways, but that's neither here nor there. There's something about biting into a muffin or piece of coffee cake that seems to start the day off right. I'd be in trouble if I kept either around the house on a regular basis because I love breakfast sweets so much I end up eating them all day long. I don't know how some people skip breakfast. It's literally the first thing I think about every morning. 

I brought these muffins into work today and everyone kept calling them cupcakes because they are chocolate...with chocolate chips. I've always thought muffins and cupcakes differed in two main ways. I'm sure Google could answer this question as well, but I won't bother looking it up. The first is that muffins don't have icing. It doesn't matter this muffin is rich and chocolatey. It doesn't have icing. It's a muffin! The exception: coffee cake muffins with any sort of glaze. It can still be a muffin even with a sweet glaze. Go ahead and eat it for breakfast. No one's judging. The second is the way in which the ingredients are combined. Here's where these delicious chocolate muffins tip toe the line.

I got this recipe from Dough Puncher, and though she originally combined the ingredients according to a standard cupcake method, she suggested that she might like it better if she switched to the cake method next time. Well, she may not have tried her recommendation yet, but I'm here to vouch for these muffins mixed according to the cake method. These are so good I see no reason to go back to the original method next time. They are most certainly muffins, but they're sweet enough that you wouldn't imagine spreading a piece of butter or jam on them like some people do with muffins.

The flavor is rich and chocolatey. The texture is denser than some of the lighter muffins (which, let's be real, we could eat like five of anyways), but lighter than most cakes. They stayed moist (sorry) beyond the first day and a half, and that's a big accomplishment with muffins. You will LOVE these. Make them and find any way to share them..because keeping them around the house is a dangerous thing!

Double Chocolate Muffins

Recipe from Dough Puncher (adapted from Barbara Bakes)

1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened

1 cup sugar

2 teaspoons vanilla

2 teaspoons baking powder

2/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 eggs

1 cup milk (skim, 1%, 2%, whatever you have works)

1/3 cup sour cream

2 cups all-purpose flour

1 1/2 cups chocolate chips (I used mini chips)

1) Preheat oven to 350F. Line a muffin pan with paper liners to make 12 muffins.

2) Cream together the butter, sugar, sour cream, and vanilla until light and fluffy - about 3 minutes. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating until incorporated between each addition.

3) Stir together the flour, baking powder, cocoa powder, and salt. Add flour mixture to butter mixture alternately with the milk, in 2-3 additions each (so add a third of the flour, half of the milk, another third of the flour, etc.).

4) Divide batter between 12 muffin cups and bake 24-27 minutes, until toothpick comes out clean (a little melted chocolate is fine - the toothpick may hit a melty chocolate chip). 

Oh, coffee cake. Sweet, cinnamony, delicious, coffee cake. I try to avoid making it with any frequency because I honestly can't pull myself away (I still make it A LOT). There is just no time of day to completely rule it out. It's sweet enough to be dessert, but it also doubles as breakfast or a snack. Maybe this is just a personal problem. I have put a lot of things in this category.

I've tried a lot of coffee cake recipes over the years. I want something that will keep moisture for a few days and has very few bites without cinnamon crumble or filling...a little glaze never hurt either. This coffee cake as is already has plenty of cinnamon sugar topping, but I added a layer of cinnamon sugar to the middle as well. You may think that's a bit overboard, I personally do not. I have been called a diet-killer for reasons such as this. 

I have a few go-to coffee cakes, and this is now going to be one of them. It's easy to whip up, and it has everything you'd want in a coffee cake. I may even add some mini chocolate chips instead of the middle layer next time and try that out (...ok, I might add them and keep the middle layer as well). The point is, take it from a self-proclaimed coffee cake aficionado, this recipe is a keeper.

 

Cinnamon Roll Coffee Cake with Cream Cheese Glaze

Recipe slightly adapted from Love Veggies and Yoga

Yield: one 9-by-3-inch cake

Warm buttery cinnamon rolls, a moist and dense cake with a crumble topping, and cream cheese glaze are all favorites of mine, and I rolled all of them into this one easy-to-make cake. You don't actually need to make cinnamon rolls to make the cake. Rather, the finish cake just tastes like a cinnamon roll. Although there are three components - the cake, filling-topping, and the glaze - this is a very fast and straightforward cake to make and isn't fussy at all. In just one hour, including baking time, it's ready and in that one hour, your house will smell amazing while it bakes.

Ingredients:

For the Cake

1/4 cup unsalted butter, softened (half of one stick)

3/4 cup granulated sugar

3/4 cup sour cream (Greek yogurt may be substituted)

2 large eggs

2 tablespoons canola or vegetable oil

1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt, optional and to taste

For the Filling-Topping

1 cup and 2 tablespoons unsalted butter, extremely soft and almost melted

1 1/4 cup light brown sugar, packed

3 teaspoons cinnamon

For the Glaze

2 tablespoons cream cheese, softened (whipped or light are okay)

2 tablespoons cream or milk

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 cup+ confectioners' sugar, sifted is ideal

Directions:

For the Cake - Preheat oven to 350F and prepare a 9-inch springform pan (at least 3 inches high; a 9-inch square baking pan may be substituted if it's at least 3 inches in height; don't use a 9-inch round cake pan because it's too shallow) by spraying well with floured cooking spray (I use Pam for Baking) or grease and flour the pan; set aside. 

To the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, combine butter, granulated sugar, and cream together until pale, light, and fluffy, about 3 minutes on medium-high to high speed. Add the sour cream, eggs, oil, vanilla, cinnamon, and beat until smooth and incorporated, about 3 minutes on medium-high to high speed. Add the flour, baking soda, salt, and beat until just incorporated and batter is smooth, about 1 minute on medium speed. Spread 1/2 of the batter into prepared pan; set aside.

For the Filling-Topping - In a medium-microwave safe bowl, add the butter and heat on high power until it just begins to melt, about 1 minute. Add the brown sugar, cinnamon, and beat with a spoon or whisk until combined. Spread/sprinkle filling over the top of the first half of the cake batter. You don't need to make sure the filling covers every part of this layer--just make sure it's evenly distributed. Next, add the second half of the cake batter. Spread remaining filling in an even, smooth, flat layer, as if you're frosting a cake. Then, using a table knife, swirl back and forth to marble the filling into the cake batter, going over the cake and going up and back a few times. Place pan on a baking sheet (as insurance in case your springform pan doesn't have a perfect seal) and bake for about 45 to 50 minutes, or until topping has set and a toothpick inserted into the center of cake comes out clean. Note that in the final minutes of baking, topping may have a tendency to burn near the edges as the butter browns and the brown sugar caramelizes; watch cake closely. Allow cake to cool in pan and rest on baking sheet for at least 30 minutes before glazing it, or before removing it from the pan and serving. 

For the Glaze - In a medium bowl, combine cream cheese, cream, vanilla and whisk until combined and smooth. Slowly add the confectioners' sugar, whisking to incorporate and until smooth. Based on desired glaze consistency, playing with the sugar and cream ratios may be necessary. Evenly drizzle the glaze over cake and serve. Note - If you prefer to refrigerate cream-cheese based glaze, you may wish to only glaze individual pieces of cake immediately prior to serving them and store the glaze in small container in the refrigerator, as opposed to refrigerating the entire glazed cake, which will cause it to dry out. Or, you can glaze the cake and store it at room temperature anyway, as everyone has different food storage comfort levels. Cake will keep in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 5 days.

When life gives you blueberries, you make blueberry muffins. Unfortunately, life (or your neighborhood grocery store in this case) does not always give you blueberries. I'm not one to shy away from out of season fruit--with the exception of watermelon--so when I decided a week ago that I was making blueberry muffins I didn't even consider that I wouldn't be able to find any. What I did find was 2 for 1 strawberries. Order was restored and I took this delicious blueberry muffin with blueberry jam recipe and just subbed in strawberries.

The only thing I didn't like about these is that I "forgot" to give any away and I couldn't eat them all on my own. Strawberries tend to hold a lot of moisture, so you won't be able to get away with eating them a few days in unless you happen to enjoy mold. I'm sure keeping them in the fridge would help. I've never frozen muffins before, but I popped a few of these in the freezer to test out the results. I'll update the post when I try them.

Enjoy!

Strawberry Lemon Muffins
Recipe Adapted from Damn Delicious

Yields 12 muffins

Ingredients:

• 2 cups sliced strawberries, divided
• 3/4 cup and 1 tablespoon sugar, divided
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2/3 cup buttermilk
• 1/4 cup (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, melted
• 1/4 cup vegetable oil
• 2 large eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

For the lemon sugar topping:

• 1/4 cup sugar
• Zest of 1 lemon

DIRECTIONS:Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Line a 12-cup standard muffin tin with paper liners or coat with nonstick spray; set aside.

In a medium saucepan, combine 1 cup strawberries and 1 tablespoon sugar. Bring to a boil; reduce heat to low and simmer, stirring occasionally, until sauce has thickened, about 10 minutes. Let cool 10-15 minutes.

To make the lemon sugar topping, combine the sugar and lemon zest, rubbing the zest into the sugar with your fingertips; set aside.

In a large bowl, combine the flour, remaining 3/4 cup sugar, cinnamon, baking powder and salt.
In a large glass measuring cup or another bowl, whisk together the buttermilk, butter, vegetable oil, eggs and vanilla.
Pour mixture over dry ingredients and stir using a rubber spatula just until moist.
Add the remaining 1 cup sliced strawberries and gently toss to combine.
Scoop the batter evenly into the muffin tray. Top each muffin with 1 teaspoon strawberry jam, swirling into the batter using figure eight motions. Sprinkle with lemon sugar mixture.

Place into oven and bake for 15-17 minutes, or until a tester inserted in the center comes out clean.
Remove from oven and cool on a wire rack.

ps - Sorry for the lack of creative place settings. This is what happens when you rush pictures.

I have a morning routine. It's pretty standard M-F. I wake up, brush my teeth (yes, before breakfast), go downstairs, pour cereal and milk in a cup and go sit in bed with my portable breakfast. If you're wondering, this whole process would be ruined by using a bowl. It's just not practical. At 22, I think I can only get away with this for a few more years. But whenever I try to change up that morning routine, I find myself craving cereal for the rest of the day. I think having this for breakfast is one of the very few exceptions.

First of all, what's not to love about coffee cake? My rule with coffee cakes is that they absolutely must be moist (does anyone actually like that word?). A dry coffee cake is no coffee cake at all in my book. This particular recipe passes all of my tests and more. It provides a good excuse for chocolate in the morning, is sweet enough for dessert and there is not a bad bite in the pan. I usually try to outside pieces first since those are my least favorite. If something is great even on those outside I'm a happy camper. I devoured this, outsides and all. My only piece of advice would be to avoid making this just as a casual thing to have around the house for breakfast. It's a 13x9--it stays around the house. If it stays around the house you'll eat all of it. The good news is that with this large of a serving you'll have enough to make everyone around you worship you for a day or two. Work, friends, significant other, family...happiness for everyone!

Chocolate Chip Sour Cream Coffee Cake
Recipe from The Cherry on Top (Originally from Smitten Kitchen)

Ingredients

Cake

• 1/2 cup unsalted butter at room temperature
• 1 1/2 cups (300 grams) granulated sugar
• 3 large eggs, separated
• 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 2 cups (16 ounces) sour cream
• 3 cups (375 grams) all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
• 3/4 teaspoon table salt

Filling and Topping

• 2 cups or 12 ounces semi- or bittersweet chocolate chips
• 1/2 cup (100 grams) granulated sugar
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350°F. Butter a 9-x-13-inch baking pan. If not nonstick coated, cover the bottom with a rectangle of parchment paper. Set pan aside.
2. In a large bowl, cream butter and 1 1/2 cups sugar. Beat in egg yolks and vanilla. Sift flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt together into a separate bowl. Alternately mix in sour cream and then dry ingredients into butter mixture until both are used up and the batter is smooth and very thick. In a medium bowl, beat eggs whites until stiff, then fold into batter.
3. In a small dish, whisk together sugar and cinnamon for filling and topping.
4. Spread half the cake batter in the bottom of prepared pan. Sprinkle with half of cinnamon-sugar mixture and 1 cup of chocolate chips. Dollop remaining cake batter over filling in spoonfuls. Use a rubber or offset spatula to gently spread it over the filling and smooth the top. Sprinkle batter with remaining cinnamon-sugar and remaining chocolate chips. With the palm of your hand, ever-so-gently press the chocolate chips a bit into the batter. No need to submerge them, you just want to make sure they adhere bit.
5. Bake for 35 to 45 minutes, rotating halfway through, until a tester inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean.

I lived in France for a summer before my senior year of high school. It took two minutes after I arrived to realize I should've practiced up on my French beyond the basics in a Lonely Planet book if I was going to live with a French family for a month and a half. My first words to them were, "I am getting married." Whoops. And so began my awkward summer in France.

I ended up learning a good deal of French, mainly because only one person in my host family spoke any English. It made me feel like an idiot, which was good for my high school self. One of my favorite things to do was to sneak in their cabinet and take some of the delicious bread (even their hotdog buns taste better than American bread) and pop a piece of Kinder chocolate in the center. In hindsight I'm sure they knew I was doing it since no French person eats four hot dog buns of Kinder a day. When I finished the summer they gave me 10 boxes of Kinder. I thought I had died and gone to heaven. I long for that metabolism again.

The point is, I enjoy the little moments that bring me back to that summer on the southern coast of France. It was probably great for me to take some time to listen instead of always doing the talking. I was painfully out of my element but it was an incredible experience. These crescent rolls filled with nutella and cream cheese remind me of France. They are super easy to put together and deliciously rich. The other day I heard they are now making seamless crescents. Pillsbury must've been reading my mind. I will definitely be buying those next time, but the seamed ones work just fine as well!

Cheesecake Nutella Twists
Recipe from Inside BruCrew Life

Ingredients (8 twists)

• 2 cans refrigerated crescent rolls (8 oz. each)
• 1 package cream cheese (8 oz.)
• 1 egg
• 1/4 c. sugar
• 1 c. Nutella
• 1/4 c. white chips, melted

Instructions

In a mixing bowl, beat the cream cheese, sugar and egg until creamy. Unroll the crescent rolls and separate into triangles. Press two triangles together to form a rectangle. Spoon a large tablespoon of Nutella down the right side of the center. Repeat with a large tablespoon of cheesecake filling down the left side of the center. Fold the edges of the rolls over the filling. Press the seams together at the middle and the end. Flip the roll over so that the seam is underneath. Gently twist the roll. Press together any seams that come undone. Bake at 375* for 10-11 minutes. Let cool on a wire rack. Drizzle with melted white chips. Let set. Refrigerate leftovers.

For some reason the cream cheese didn't show up in the pictures, but as you can see above it's in there!