Lemon Poppy Seed Muffins

I kid you not, these may have been one of the BEST muffins i've ever made breakfast wise.

And i've made A LOT of muffins.

This is of course, another Dorie recipe, and I just have to say, that not ONE of those recipes in that book has failed me. Literally everything in there has just been absolutely amazing.

Anyways, I was in the mood to bake something, and i've seen other blogs making these, and they seemed to be getting great reviews. And I LOVE lemon poppy seed muffins, so I was excited to see how these turned out. 

Like I said, absolutely delicious! They were perfectly light, and fluffy, and would be a great little snack, but even better for breakfast with some jam.

In the book, it includes icing, I however, happened to have no confectioners sugar on hand today, so I had to skip the icing =/...but i'm sure the icing would've been really tasty. 

Lemon Poppy Seed Muffins

from Dorie Greenspan's "Baking from my home to yours"

For the muffins-

2/3 cup sugar

Grated zest and juice of 1 lemon

2 cups all purpose flour

2 tsp. baking powder

1/4 tsp. baking soda

1/4 tsp. salt

3/4 cup sour cream

2 large eggs

1 tsp. pure vanilla extract

1 stick(8 tblsp.) unsalted butter, melted and cooled

2 tblsp. poppy seeds

For the icing-

1 cup confectioners  sugar, sifted

2-3 tblsp. fresh lemon juice

Getting ready: Center a rack in the oven and preheat to 400 degrees F.

Butter or spray the 12 molds in a regular-size muffin pan or fit the molds with paper muffin cups. Alternatively, use a silicone muffin pan, which needs neither greasing nor paper cups. Place the muffin pan on a baking sheet.

In a large bowl, rub the sugar and lemon zest together with your fingertips until the sugar is moist and the fragrance of lemon strong. Whisk in the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. In a large glass measuring cup or another bowl, whisk the sour cream, eggs, vanilla, lemon juice and melted butter together until well blended. Pour the liquid ingredients over the dry and, with the whisk or a rubber spatula, gently but quickly stir to blend. Don't worry about being thorough- a few lumps a better than overmixing the batter. Stir in the poppy seeds. Divide the batter evenly among the muffin cups.

Bake for 18-20 minutes, or until the tops are golden and a think knife inserted into the center of the muffins comes out clean. Transfer the pan to a rack and cool for 5 minutes before carefully removing each muffin from its mold. Cool the muffins completely on the rack before icing them.

To make the icing: Put the confectioners sugar in a small bowl and add about 1 1/2 tblsp. of the lemon juice. Stir with a spoon to moisten the sugar, then add enough additional lemon juice, a dribble at a time, to get an icing that is thin enough to drizzle from the tip of the spoon. You can then drizzle lines of icing over the tops of the muffins or coat the tops entirely, the better to get an extra zap of lemon.

Peanut Butter Brownie Cupcake Bites

I think just the name of these just makes your mouth want to waterrrr. ANYTHING involving peanut butter and chocolate HAS to be good, in my book.

Anyway, it is one of my very good friends birthday today, and we are all going out to dinner tonight, but knowing that her FAVORITE thing in the world was chocolate and peanut butter together, AND that I was totally in the mood to bake something, I decided to whip up these little devils, and give them to her as sort of a PRE-happy birthday treat...(along with the nice big cake we're going to have for dessert tonight) I know, i'm such a great friend!

I got this recipe from the Life in a Peanut Shell blog, and SHE got it from the lovely Bakerella blog, and they seemed like the perfect, quick treat for me to bake for my PB obsessed friend, Jordan.

Peanut Butter Brownie Cupcake Bites:

1 box Duncan hines chocolate fudge brownie mix

2 eggs

1/3 cup water

1/4 cup vegetable oil

30 mini reeses cups

1 box mini muffin liners

1. preheat oven to 350 degrees 

2. please liners in mini muffin tins

3. mix brownie mix, eggs, water, and oil

4. stir until well blended 

5. fill each liner with 2 tbls. of batter

6. bake at 350 for 10 minutes and remove from oven

7. gently push 1 reeses cup into center of each brownie bite until it is even with the surface of the batter

8. put back in the oven for another 5-7 minutes longer

9. cool 5-10 minutes in pan, then move to cooling rack to cool completely.

YUM...these turned out great! I'll definitely be making this again.

TWD: Double Crusted Blueberry Pie

MMMM...PIE!

So this weeks TWD recipe was for the Double Crusted Blueberry Pie.

I was really excited when I saw this is what had been picked cause i've never made a big pie like this before, so I was anxious to get started.

When I told my mom I was going to be baking a blueberry pie, she got verrrry excited. And said that blueberry pie was her 2nd favorite pie, next to apple to eat. So I got started right away.

The dough was actually not hard at all to put together, and when rolled out, wasn't difficult to handle. I tasted the filling before I put it into the crust, like Dorie said to do in the recipe, and even the filling tasted amazing!...so I had no doubts this was going to be a pretty good pie.

Here's how it turned out!:

YUMMM...it turned out great! It wasn't too gooey, or runny...just perfect! And the crust turned out grrrreat as well...I served it with some vanilla ice cream. A GREAT way to finish a pretty hectic day!

mmmm...MY PIECE.

Now excuse me while I devour this lovely slice of blueberry heaven. =]

Quick Classic Berry Tart

Last night we had my mom's sisters family (my aunt, uncle, and cousins), my moms parents, and my dads father over for dinner. My grandparents brought over Pattys Pizza from Santa Monica. It's basically a take and bake type of thing, but you can eat there as well. Probably the BEST pizza you will ever have, if you ask me. It's great.

Anyways, my mom's been on my case for a VERY long time, to make some type of tart, she LOVESSS tarts, so I decided i'd bake one for dessert that night. I've never made a berry tart before, and I thought, well since it's summer, and there's SO many fresh  fruits and berries in season, I should try one!

So I did what any baker would probably do, and went to my trusted Dorie Greenspan book. It never fails.

I flipped through the fruit pies, and tarts section, and stumbled upon her recipe called "Quick Classic Berry Tart".

PERFECT!! I thought, I mean it had the word "QUICK" in it, so it's got to be pretty simple, right?

Well I wasnt 100% right about it being simple. But it wasn't hard. The only trouble I had was with the tart shell. It just seemed too crumbly when I was patting it into my tart pan. But after I froze the dough for a half hour, it became less crumbly, and loose. 

The recipe also said to make her pastry cream as well. I've also never made a pastry cream like that before, so I was a little worried about the whole boiling on the stove and all that stuff. But I didnt let that stop me! All in all, I didn't have many problems with the cream, all the ingredients were simple, and the only part that took a little time was just chilling and cooling it off. After it was completely cool, I tasted it, and had my mom taste it, and it was AMAZING. Such a great creamy, texture, and exactly how I'd picture it.

I'm not going to post the recipe for the pastry cream, and tart dough, but I will post the recipe for the overall tart.

This turned out SO wonderful! Everything I thought it'd be! And when I told my family it was the first time i'd made a tart, they were in awe. They ALL said it was a winner, and want me to make it again in the future. Even my dad, who doesn't eat desserts a lot, had more than 1 helping! It really was so extremely tasty, I loved it.

I'd for sure recomend making this!

Quick Classic Berry Tart-

1 1/2 cups pastry cream, cooled and chilled

1 9-inch tart shell made with Sweet Tart Dough, fully baked, and cooled

2 pints fresh raspberries, blueberries, strawberries, or an assortment of berries

1/3 cup red currant jelly mixed with 1 tsp. water, for glazing.

Smooth the pastry cream by giving it a couple of strong turns with a whisk. Spoon enough of the pastry cream into the tart crust to come almost to the rim, then even the surface with a rubber spatula. Carefully lay the berries on the cream, arranging them in any pattern that pleases you. If you are using strawberries, either half them from top to bottom or slice them, depending on the size of the berries and your whim.

Bring jelly and the water to a boil in a microwave oven or stovetop. Working with a pastry brush or pastry feather, dab each berry with a spot of jelly. Or, if you like, you can glaze the entire surface of the tart, including the bit of pastry cream that peeks through the berries.

I just served it as is, and it turned out fine. But the recipe serving suggestion says you can serve it with some tea or an espresso. Whatever your guests, or you, prefer.

My First Tuesdays with Dorie!...

TWD: Apple Chedder Scones

(fresh out of the oven)

This is my first tuesdays with dorie challenge, and to be completely honest, when I saw what the recipe was, I was a little nervous, to say the least.

I've made scones in the past before, but they were always either plain, or had some type of currant, or raisin in them( cause my dad's not the biggest fan of sweets, when it comes to scones)...but nevertheless, I was still very intrigued to see what putting dried apples, and chedder cheese in a breakfast scone. Pretty savory if you ask me!

...But come on, anything Dorie's got in that little amazing book of hers has to be great anyways.

So starts my great adventure of these Apple Chedder Scones.

These weren't all that hard to bake, surprisingly, although, I do really need to work on my "scone shape",(says my mom)...the recipe said to pat the dough out into a 1/2 inch rectangle shape, and you should get 12 equal parts. Well, I guess I shaped it wrong, cause I got 10 scones, which I just cut in half, and made them a little smaller.

With the shapes being totally off, these really did come out great, I served them with some butter, and apricot jam, and they were GRRRRREAT!

They were soft, light, and chewy, without being TOO dry and crumbly like a regular scone could be. My parents, who LOVE scones for breakfast completely ate these up! And said they really really loved these.

My dad also commented that he'd be taking the rest of them to work with him the next morning for breakfast.

I love when my family enjoys what I bake, it makes me feel a sense of accomplishment, and that's truly a great feeling.

I highly suggest making these. You will not be disappointed I guarantee!

By the way, thanks TWD for letting me be apart of this whole thing!

I really appreciate it!! =]]