Savory Ricotta Scones

Catherine and I had a biscuit-off – I made the buttermilk biscuits and she wanted to try and savory biscuit.  She found this recipe off Pinterest – these scones are so flavorful.  They were a little crunchy on the outside, but softer on the inside – a really great consistency.  These were a great addition to our Feast of Christmas Eve, but also as leftovers with our eggs on Christmas morning.

Prep Time – 15 minutes
Cook Time – 20 minutes
Total Time – 35 minutes

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 Tbsp. baking powder
• ¾ Tbsp. sugar
• ½ tsp. salt
• 5 Tbsp. chilled unsalted butter
• ½ cup green onions or scallions, chopped
• ¼ cup fresh parsley, minced
• 1 Tbsp. fresh thyme leaves
• 1 tsp. fresh rosemary, minced
• 1 cup ricotta cheese
• ⅔ cup milk
• 1 egg, beaten with 1 tsp. water (for egg wash)
• sea salt
• black pepper
• smoked paprika

DIRECTIONS

1. Preheat oven to 425°F
2. Whisk together flour, baking powder, sugar, and salt in a large bowl.
3. Grate butter into the flour mixture and stir with a fork until the consistency of coarse meal.
4. Stir in scallions and fresh herbs.
5. Add ricotta cheese, then add milk and stir until just combined.
6. Turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface.
7. Knead 2 to 3 times, then pat dough into a 9-inch rectangle.
8. Dip knife into flour and cut dough into 12 equal pieces.
9. Transfer scones to a parchment-lined baking sheet.
10. Brush tops liberally with egg wash.
11. Sprinkle tops with sea salt, freshly ground black pepper, and smoked paprika.
12. Bake for 15-20 minutes or until scones are golden brown.

Adapted from Life, Love and Good Food blog

 

Nutella Chocolate Chip Banana Bread

My poor husband got such a gift for his birthday this year -- the flu.  ACK!  So, we declared it birthday week and have been doing little things throughout the week to try and celebrate even though he still feels icky.  He got one present two days before his birthday, and the rest on his birthday; and now as he's feeling a little more like himself, and it's the weekend, Catherine and I made today a baking day.  Since we had bananas that went directly from green to brown, Jim said he wanted chocolate chip banana bread.  I went on Pinterest and found this recipe.  The family appears to give it thumbs up!

• ¾ cup sugar 
• ½ cup vegetable oil 
• ½ cup Nutella
• 2 overripe bananas
• 2 eggs 
• ½ cup buttermilk
  (I did not have buttermilk, so I used regular milk, and it seemed to be ok)
• 1 tsp. baking soda
• 2 cups sifted all-purpose flour
• 1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
• 1 cup milk chocolate chips
  (I did not have milk chocolate so I used dark chocolate chips)

DIRECTIONS

1. Preheat oven to 350°.
2. Prepare two loaf dishes by lining with parchment paper and greasing lightly with a nonstick cooking spray.
   (I used four mini-loaf pans, and only used the cooking spray)
3. Mix oil, Nutella, and sugar in a large bowl with a stand mixer.
4. Add the bananas, eggs, buttermilk, and baking soda to the Nutella mixture. Mix well.
5. Slowly add flour and chocolate chips, until just combined. Try not to overmix!
6. Divide the batter evenly between the loaf pans.
7. Bake for 45 minutes to an hour, until toothpick inserted comes out clean.
   (Even with the mini-loaf pans, I still needed close to the 45 minutes.  I suggest setting the timer for 30 minutes and check if it needs additional time.)

 Adapted from Something Swanky blog

Nutritional Data:
(click to enlarge image)

 

Cranberry Eggnog Mini Muffins

When I was a kid, I would have the Pillsbury cranberry bread during the holidays.  I wasn't a huge fan of cranberries, back then, but I loved this bread.  Now that I really like cranberries, I wanted to have this taste again.  I took to Pinterest and found this recipe.  Knowing how much Catherine LOVES egg nog, I thought this would be a great addition to our Thanksgiving feast.  The recipe was for 4 mini loaves, but I thought mini muffins would be easier for people to pop in their mouths and enjoy, and considering they are all gone, I think I made the right choice.

• 2¼ cups all-purpose flour
• 1 Tbsp. baking powder
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 2 large eggs 
• ¾ cup eggnog
• 1/3 cup melted butter
• 1 tsp. almond extract
• 1 cup coarsely chopped frozen cranberries
• 2 Tbsp. granulated sugar

Streusel

• ¼ cup granulated sugar 
• ¼ cup all-purpose flour
• 2 Tbsp. butter, slightly softened

DIRECTIONS

1. Preheat oven to 350°F.  Grease 2 mini muffin pans.
   (You can also use regular muffin tins, mini loaf pans or a regular loaf pan) 
2. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour and baking powder; set aside.
3. In a large bowl, mix eggs, sugar, eggnog, butter and almond extract.
4. Mix in dry ingredients just until combined.
5. Toss cranberries with 2 T. sugar and then stir into batter.
6. Prepare streusel topping by combining topping ingredients using a mixer, pastry cutter, or two knives until crumbly.
7. Fill prepared pans until about 1/2 – 2/3 of the way full (this batter rises a lot!).
   (For the mini muffin pans, I used the Pampered Chef small scoop for each muffin)
8. Top with streusel topping.
9. Bake 40-50 minutes, or until the breads test done with a toothpick inserted in the center coming out clean.

Adapted from The Nifty Food blog

Cinnamon Sugar Munchkin Muffins

My fabulous neighbor, Colleen, has invited us to the annual "neighborhood game", where she gets game passes to the BC Football game.  Tomorrow there is plans for tailgating before the early afternoon game.  Wanting to come up with something to contribute to the festivities, I turned to Pinterest.  I had pinned this recipe off a blog a few weeks back.  When I pinned it, I thought it said "French Toast Muffins", but it really said "French Breakfast Muffins".  Reading through it, the recipe seemed relatively easy, but also seeing the comments by the blogger and others, it seemed like an "anytime" type of treat, and someone referred to it as a "cinnamon sugar donut", so I am calling it a "Cinnamon Sugar Muffin".  Might I say, it reminds me of bite-sized bits of Monkey Bread.  I hope they will taste just as good tomorrow!  GO EAGLES!

• 2/3 cup butter, melted
• 1 cup sugar
• 2 eggs (preferably room temperature)
• 3 cups flour
• 3 tsp. baking powder
• 1 tsp. salt
• ½ tsp. nutmeg
• 1 cup milk

DIRECTIONS

1. Preheat oven to 350 Degrees F. 
2. In a medium-large bowl, sift together all dry ingredients. 
3. Add wet ingredients and stir just until combined, but still a bit lumpy. Do NOT overmix; overmixing will ruin the texture of the finished muffins. Also? Don't overmix the batter. Finally, don't overmix. 
4. Scoop batter into muffin tins that have sprayed with cooking spray. 
5. Bake for 18-20 minutes, or until they just start to turn a bit golden at the edges.

Topping:

• 1½ cup sugar
• 3 tsp. cinnamon  
• 1-1½ cup butter, melted

 DIRECTIONS

1. For the topping, mix sugar and cinnamon in a small bowl. 
2. Place melted butter in another small bowl. 
3. Dip the warm muffins in melted butter (you can dip just the top, but it's even tastier to dip the whole muffin!), then dip/roll the muffin in cinnamon sugar. 
4. If there is left-over topping, the extra topping can be used for dipping, while eating the muffins.

Yields:

If you use a large scoop, you can get 8 medium-large muffins out of this batter; you could get 10-12 muffins by distributing the batter a little less generously.

If you use a small scoop, you can get at least 48 mini muffins 
(This is what I did -- picture above)

Adapted from Velvet Lava Cafe blog

Pumpkin Bread

Getting ready for Timmy's 5th Grade Bake Sale, I asked my friends what would be good items to have for sale. Being that it is now Fall, there were some shout outs for anything pumpkin. Guess who volunteered their Pumpkin Bread recipe? You guessed it -- Martha! My friend LaDawna amped up the WOW factor, by suggesting that we slice it horizontally at the center and at the top, and then add Cream Cheese Frosting. GENIUS! Huge seller at the bake sale, not to mention extremely scrumptious!

For more information on Martha's recipe, you can visit the post in her blog at:http://www.throwingspoons.com/2007/10/great-pumpkin-bread.html

• 3 ½ cups flour
• 2 ½ cup sugar
• 1 ½ tsp. salt
• 2 tsp. baking soda
• 1 ½ tsp. ground cinnamon
• 1 tsp. ground nutmeg
• 1 can (15-16 oz.) pumpkin puree
• 1 cup vegetable oil
• 4 eggs

DIRECTIONS

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Grease and flour TWO 9x5x3" loaf pans.
3. In a large mixing bowl, combine flour, sugar, salt, baking soda, cinnamon, and nutmeg.
4. In a separate bowl, stir together pumpkin and oil (it will look curdled -- it's ok!)
5. Add one egg at a time, beating well after each.
6. Make a well in the flour, adding pumpkin, and stirring to moisten.
7. Bake at 350 degrees for one hour.
8. Cool in pans for 10 minutes, then remove from pans and cool completely.

Cream Cheese Frosting

• ½ cup (1 stick) of butter, room temperature
• 8 oz. (1 package) Philadelphia cream cheese, room temperature
• 2 - 3 cups powdered sugar
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract

Cranberry Bread

My friend Martha seems to be my go-to person for recipes. For Thanksgiving 2009, she gave me her recipe for Cranberry Bread, that she calls "Fred's Cranberry Bread". I also pulled this recipe out for Timmy's 5th Grade Election Day Bake Sale, and they sold out almost immediately.

To read more about Martha's recipe, visit her website:
http://www.throwingspoons.com/2007/11/cranberry-bread.html

• 2 cups flour
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 ½ tsp. baking soda
• 1 tsp. salt
• 2 Tbsp. vegetable oil
• Approximately ¾ cup orange juice
• 1 egg, well beaten
• 2 cups fresh cranberries, washed, picked over, and halved (not chopped)
• ½ cup chopped walnuts (optional)

DIRECTIONS

1. Preheat oven to 350 Degrees.
2. Sift together flour, sugar, baking soda and salt.
3. Combine vegetable oil with enough orange juice to make ¾ cup
4. Stir egg into juice mixture and pour into dry ingredients. Mix enough to dampen.
5. Gently fold in cranberries (and walnuts, if using).
6. Spoon into greased loaf pan, spreading sides slightly higher than center.
7. Bake at 350 Degrees for 50-60 minutes.
8. Turn out of pan to cool on rack.

Yields 1 Large Loaf, or 3 Mini-Loaves

Banana Bread

This recipe came from Nick's grandmother. I've used it to make it in bread loaves, as well as muffins (mini and regular size).

• 3 bananas, mashed
• ¾ cup sugar
• ½ cup soft shortening
• 2 eggs
• 2 cups flour
• ½ tsp. baking soda
• 1 ¼ tsp. baking powder
• ½ tsp. salt

Directions
Mix first four ingredients in mixing bowl.
Sift last four ingredients and add to banana mixture
Mix well
Bake at 350 degrees in greased loaf pan until done – approximately 60 minutes

Jordan Marsh Blueberry Muffins

I found this recipe a long time ago in the Boston Herald. I would venture to guess that it was sometime around 1990. I suppose the recipe dates itself, in a way, since there is no longer such a store as Jordan Marsh. I was working for an environmental company in Cambridge. It was in the earlier days of working at this company. I remember that we were at the old location, and I was still an administrative assistant. It was summer... a lot of people were on vacation, and there was virtually nothing to do. Someone had brought in a Herald, which I thought was cool, since I grew up in a Boston Globe family. The Herald, to me at that age, had all of the entertainment gossip and fun stuff, like regular recipes (not fancy gourmet stuff). Me, being more of a baker at heart, thought this was so cool. I have been using this recipe ever since -- gosh, looking at the year, pretty darn close to 20 years. ACK!

• ½ cup butter
• 1 cup sugar
• 2 cups flour
• 2 eggs
• 1 tsp. vanilla
• ½ tsp. salt
• ½ cup milk
• 2 tsp. baking powder
• 2 ½ cups blueberries
• Sugar for tops of muffins

Directions
Cream butter and sugar until fluffy
Add eggs and mix until blended
Sift in dry ingredients
Mix in milk and vanilla
Mash in ½ cup of the blueberries and stir in
Add rest of the blueberries
Grease muffin tins
Spoon batter into muffin tins(Note: these muffins are large and tend to overflow; if you want smaller muffins, use two muffin pans)
Sprinkle tops with sugar
Bake at 375 degrees for 30 minutes