Recipe Exchange

Ok, I'm pretty late on this. The deadline was last Sunday. Only a week late, right? I do have a good excuse - I fell on my rib cage and was really sore most of last week! I'm finally feeling a little better. I want to apologize to my recipe giver...I had great intentions. Until I came in contact with a two foot wide wooden bench.

Chocolate Chip Muffins

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/3 cup firmly packed light-brown sugar
• 1/3 cup granulated sugar
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt (I just realized I forgot the salt...hmm...)
• 2/3 cup milk
• 1/2 cup lightly salted butter (or margarine) melted & cooled
• 2 eggs, lightly beaten
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 package (11.5 oz) jumbo or regular-sized
  milk-chocolate chips (about 2 cups) (I actually did 1 cup milk chocolate chips, and 1 cup chopped Hershey's Dark Chocolate Bar)
• 1/2 cup chopped pecans

Preheat oven to 400F. Grease 12 muffin cups. In a large bowl, stir together flour, sugars, baking powder, and salt. In another bowl, stir together milk, eggs, butter, and vanilla until blended. Make a well in the center of dry ingredients; add milk mixture and stir just to combine. Stir in chocolate chips and optional nuts.

Spoon batter into prepared muffin cups; bake 15 to 20 minutes or until a cake tester inserted in center of one muffin comes out clean. Remove muffin tin or tins to wire rack. Cool 5 minutes
before removing muffins from cups; finish cooling on rack. Serve warm or cool completely and store in an airtight container at room temperature.

They tasted fantastic! I was worried about the dark chocolate, but it was a hit. I think. Jason managed to share one with me and then have another on his own, so I guess they were good!

Spring is on the way!

Well, at least in Houston it is. Yesterday was a beautiful 83 degrees at my house. Perfect for yard work and cleaning house with the windows open. This is when I pity the people in the north who are still shoveling snow.

In honor of the warmer weather, I decided to bake something light and springy. A fellow What's Cooking Nestie suggested Paula Deen's Lemon Blossoms. They are delish! Plus, it gave me the perfect chance to use my mini-muffin pan that I got for Christmas. I think it should be a crime to get a kitchen item and wait more than 2 months to use it, so I just slid in the deadline.

Lemon Blossoms from Paula Deen

Cake Batter

• 1 package yellow cake mix
• 1 3.5oz package instant lemon pudding
• 4 eggs
• 3/4 cup vegetable oil

Glaze

• 4 cups powdered sugar
• 1/3 cup lemon juice
• zest of 1 lemon
• 3 T vegetable oil
• 3 T water

Preheat the oven to 350. Combine the ingredients above for the batter and mix well. Lightly spray the mini-muffin pan and spoon 1 teaspoon full for each muffin. (My first batch was 1 Tablespoon, and those did not bake pretty.) Bake for about 12 minutes, until they are golden brown around the edges.

Sift the powdered sugar into a large bowl and add the remaining ingredients. Stir gently. Remove the muffins from the oven and cool slightly before flipping them onto a tea towel. While they are still warm, completely coat the muffins in the glaze. Let them dry completely on a cooling rack and store in an airtight container.

Lucky for Jason I had a few that fell apart when I flipped them. Since I'm taking them to a friends house for dinner, he usually only gets to keep a couple for himself. He was very happy that some were broken!

Weight Watchers Points: 3 points for 1 muffin, if you make 48 servings. I actually think that I could have gotten 72 had I used 1 teaspoon for the batter in each. The point value would drop to 2 if that was the case.

Breakfast Baking

I've been dying to bake for a while now, but have opted not to because I really don't need to eat it! However, this weekend the in-laws will be in and I like to have a breakfast-type thing around for us to eat instead of resorting to cereal!

This recipe came from my great-aunt. My mom and I made it a few times, but the problem is that you can't really just eat a little of it. Well, we can't. I would eat anything with almond extract in it, so I have a hard time limiting myself when it comes to this recipe!

Almond Danish Puff

Preheat oven to 350. Cut 1/2 cup butter (softened) into 1 cup flour. Sprinkle in 2 T water and mix. Round into a ball and divide in half. On a baking sheet, put each 1/2 in strips of about 12*3" each. Heat 1/2 cup butter and 1 cup water to a rolling boil. Remove from heat and quickly add 1 cup water and 1 t almond extract. Stir vigorously over low heat until mixture forms a ball, about 1 minute. Remove from heat and beat in 3 eggs, until smooth and glossy. Divide in 1/2 and spread over other dough strips. Bake for about 60 minutes, or until the top is crisp and brown. Cool and frost with glaze of 1/2 cup powdered sugar, 2 T butter, 1 1/2 t almond extract and 1-2 T water (as needed).

I honestly did not intend on baking anything else, but...I left a stick of butter on the stove to soften and instead ended up with very melted butter! After digging around for something that called for only 1 stick of butter and other stuff that I actually had, I found the following recipe

Pecan Pie Muffins (Southern Living)

• 1 cup packed light brown sugar
• 1 cup chopped pecans
• 1/2 cup flour
• 1/2 t baking powder
• 1/4 t salt
• 1/2 cup butter, melted
• 2 eggs, lightly beaten
• 1 t vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 425. Combine first 5 ingredients in a large bowl. Mix butter, eggs and vanilla and add to the dry ingredients. Stir until just moistened. Spoon into lightly greased muffin pans and bake 8-10 min. Makes either 1 dozen regular muffins or 2 dozen mini-muffins.