New Year, New Beginnings - Strawberry Pecan Bread

I've been notably absent these past few weeks. Sadly it was not because I was having such an amazing holiday season that I couldn't be bothered to post. I spent Christmas Eve moving out of the apartment I'd been living at for 4.5 years and into a new apartment, very close to my office. You might ask, "why on earth would one move on Christmas Eve?" And you'd be right to wonder. Basically, the roof in my old apartment caved in and collapsed the day before Thanksgiving, and along with about a thousand other reasons, it was time to move on. I found an apartment and have been dealing with realtors, condo associations, moving, and organizing the past half decade. Then, I got sick on New Year's Eve! So basically I've been a grinch this Christmas but am hoping to return to a somewhat normal, if not very different existence shortly. From all I can tell, turning the oven on to bake this bread is the first time it's been used. I can't wait to put it through its paces. Without further soliloquy, here is tonight's recipe (pictures courtesy of my new 70-300 macro zoom lens).

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup unsalted butter
• 3/4 cup granulated white sugar
• 3 large eggs
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
• 3/4 cup plain greek yogurt
• 1/2 cup pecans, coarsely chopped
• 2 cups chopped fresh strawberries

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (180 degrees C) and place the oven rack in the middle position. Grease a loaf pan and Set aside.
2. In the bowl of your electric mixer, or with a hand mixer, beat the room temperature butter until softened (about 1 minute). Add the sugar and continue to beat until light and fluffy. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition.
3. In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and ground cinnamon. With the mixer on low, add the flour mixture (in three additions) and sour cream (in two additions) alternately, starting and ending with the flour. Mix only until combined. Gently fold in the chopped strawberries and pecans.
4. Scrape the batter into the prepared pan and bake about one hour, or until the bread is golden brown and a toothpick
5. inserted in the center comes out clean. Place on a wire rack to cool and then remove the bread from the pan.

Orange Cranberry Bread

For Thanksgiving I made a pumpkin cheesecake, which seems to have been this year's go-to dessert. However, because I was nursing a massive headache, I did not document my undertaking. For those interested, the recipe, which turned out quite well, can be found here. This week's recipe was found while searching for another recipe. It looks like it was part of a party itinerary that I can't quite recall throwing (must have been a great party). I halved it to make a single loaf. Also had to substitute dried cranberries that had been revived in boiling water for fresh cranberries because my grocery was inexplicably out.

Ingredients

• 2 cups flour
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 3/4 cup orange juice
• 2 tablespoons butter, melted, cooled
• zest of 1 orange
• 1 egg, beaten
• 6 oz fresh cranberries or 1 1/2 cups dried cranberries, boiled in water and drained
• 1/2 cup chopped walnuts

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 and grease a large loaf pan
2. Combine dry ingredients, then stir in the wet ingredients.
3. Stir in the cranberries and walnuts and pour into loaf pan
4. Bake for 45 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.
5. Cool on a baking rack.

Apple Cinnamon Muffin

This week's recipe was written all wrong. It called for self rising flour and additional baking powder, far too many apples and a whole lot of margarine. I made some corrections, including adjusting the baking time (and switching to butter), and I think they came out alright. I had some incredibly large Gala apples, so I only used one but it yielded about 2 cups of finely chopped apples. Adjust the recipe accordingly based on your apple of choice. The cinnamon sugar bakes up to a delightful crunch.

I'm gearing up for Thanksgiving baking and hope to have a bonus post in the next few days.


Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cups flour
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 egg, lightly beaten
• 1 cup milk
• 7 tbsp butter, melted
• 1/4 tsp vanilla
• 3 apples, chopped
• 2 tsp ground cinnamon (for the cinnamon sugar)
• 6 tbsp granulated sugar (for the cinnamon sugar)

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 375, and grease a muffin pan.
2. In a large bowl, mix together the flour, baking powder, salt and sugar.
3. In a separate bowl, mix together the egg, milk, butter and vanilla.
4. Mix the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients, and mix in the apples.
5. Spoon batter into each muffin cup until it is mostly full, then add a layer of cinnamon sugar.
6. Bake for 12-15 minutes, let cool.

Raspberry Coconut Zinger Squares

This week's recipe is supposed to be a homemade "Zinger," which, I gather, is a Little Debbie type snack cake. It looked interesting and I'm going to pass it off as coffee cake. Nothing special to report here, I made it according to the recipe for once (with the exception of using a glass baking dish instead of a metal cake tin because I didn't have one in the right size). It uses a surprisingly small amount of ingredient. Also, it is supposedly low fat.

Ingredients

Cake

• Cooking spray
• 2 tablespoons canola oil
• ¼ cup granulated sugar
• 2 egg whites
• 1/2 cup reduced-fat sour cream
• 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
• ¼ teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/8 teaspoon salt

Topping

• 2 ounces reduced-fat cream cheese, softened
• 1 tablespoon powdered sugar
• 1 egg white
• ¼ cup low-sugar raspberry jam
  
• ¼ cup sweetened coconut

Directions

• Preheat oven to 350°F. Coat an 8x8-inch baking dish with cooking spray.
• In the bowl of an electric mixer, beat oil, sugar and egg whites about 1 minute, until the mixture is thick and starts to form bubbles on top. On low speed, beat in sour cream. Sprinkle the flour, baking powder and baking soda over the wet mixture, then beat on low speed until smooth. Spread batter evenly in baking dish. Bake 15 to 20 minutes until the cake begins to brown around the edges.
• Meanwhile, place the cream cheese and powdered sugar into a medium bowl. Beat with an electric mixture until smooth. Add the egg white and beat until smooth.
• Pour over the partially baked cake and dot with the jam. Bake 10 to 15 minutes more, until the cream cheese topping is cooked through. Sprinkle with the coconut and bake an additional 5 minutes until the coconut browns.
• Cool cake in the pan on a wire rack, then slice and serve.

Cranberry Sweet Potato Muffins

This week's recipe is something of an unproven frankenstein. It started as a double loaf bread recipe that I cut down to make a single load, then I decided to change it from pumpkin to sweet potato based on last post's stellar results. Then I change it from bread to muffins. Next, I decided to use dried cranberries and cherries instead of cranberries and walnuts. I also soaked the dried fruit in boiling water to soften them prior to baking. I think it came out well despite bearing no resemblance to what the recipe started off as. Be aware this recipe in its current configuration only yields nine standards sized muffins.


Ingredients

• 1 heaping cup of flour
• 1/2 teaspoon ginger
• 1/2 teaspoon allspice
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 egg
• 1 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup sweet potato puree
• 1/2 stick unsalted butter, softened
• 3/4 cup dried cranberries and cherries, softened in boiling water and drained

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 and grease a muffin tin (or bread pan)
2. In one bowl combine flour, spices, salt and baking powder.
3. In another bowl cream butter and sugar. Add egg and mix thoroughly. Add sweet potato and mix until combined. Gently stir in dry ingredients, being careful not to over mix. Gently fold in cranberries and cherries.
4. Spoon batter into prepared muffin cups and bake for 15 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Cool on a wire rack.

Sweet Potato Spice Muffin

This week's recipe is a variation on the muffin that started it all. This past week was my 1 year anniversary, and in celebration thereof I had intended to bake the pumpkin spice muffins that I did on my first day. However, after visiting my local Winn Dixie, (I normally shop at Publix but had an errand in the same shopping center) I was unable to find pumpkin pie filling! However, they had a lovely endcap display with sweet potato pie filling; so I decided to make do. I find pumpkin pie and sweet potato pie so closely associated that they are hard to distinguish and figured that they would be interchangeable in the recipe. While they don't taste identical, sweet potato being somewhere between gingerbread and pumpkin, I believe it to be a solid success. Here is the recipe (if you wish to make the original recipe, substitute equal part pumpkin for sweet potato):

Ingredients

• 1½ c. dark brown sugar
• 1 stick softened unsalted butter
• 2 large eggs
• ½ lb. pumpkin puree (about ½ can)
• 1/3 c. buttermilk
• 1½ c. all-purpose flour
• 1 tsp. baking soda
• 1 tsp. cinnamon
• 1 tsp. ground ginger
• ½ tsp. nutmeg
• ½ tsp. allspice
• ½ tsp salt

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350°. Grease muffin tins, or just put those paper liners in.
2. Cream dark brown sugar and softened unsalted butter.
   
3. Add eggs, pumpkin puree, buttermilk.
4. In a separate bowl, sift together flour, baking soda, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, allspice, and salt.
5. Stir the dry ingredients into the wet pumpkin mixture.
6. Pour into muffin/cupcake tin and bake for 15-20 minutes or until a toothpick tester comes out clean.

Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Muffins

This week's recipe is founded upon the weatherman's promise of cooler air towards next weekend. Florida has been under an unprecedented weather pattern whereby a high pressure ride of hot air is keeping away cold fronts and leading to day after day of record breaking high temperatures. I've been waiting months to begin the Fall baking season and can't wait any longer. I started this baking journey with my signature pumpkin muffins, so it is fitting that nearly a year later I'm also making pumpkin muffins to kick off Fall. This recipe is a bit different in that it should be lighter and I've added chocolate chips to appease the sweet teeth at the office. The instructions say to add up to 1 cup of extra flour if your batter is runny but I didn't add any and think that 3 cups may even be too much batter. In any event, here is the recipe. It can also be used for bread, but I think the consistency is better suited for muffins.

Ingredients

• 1 15 oz. can pureed pumpkin
• 1 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, softened
• 3 eggs
• 3-4 cups all-purpose unbleached flour
• 2 tablespoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 2 cups mini chocolate chips

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 350.
2. Combine the pumpkin, brown sugar, butter, and eggs and mix until creamy. In a separate bowl, combine all of the dry ingredients except the nuts or chocolate chips.
3. Mix 3 cups of the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients, then add as much of the 4th cup as necessary to achieve the proper consistency (moist, but thick enough to stand a spoon in).
4. Add the nuts or chocolate chips and stir in.
5. Pour or spoon the batter into greased muffin tins or bread pans. Bake on the center rack until a toothpick poked into the center comes out dry.
6. Muffins should take between 20 and 25 minutes to bake, small loaves between 25 and 30 minutes, and full sized loaves between 50 minutes and 1 hour.