Caramelized Onion, Sage, and Cheddar Muffins -- Sweet Melissa Sundays

This week for Sweet Melissa Sundays, Hanaa of Hanaa’s Kitchen picked these delicious savory muffins for us to try. You can find the recipe here on her site or in Melissa Murphy's Sweet Melissa Baking Book.

Savory muffins and quick breads are a favorite for me! Even though I love sweet and fruity muffins, if I had the choice I would probably grab a savory. This recipe calls for caramelized onions as a star ingredient and I have to be honest and say that onions are my least favorite veggie! I usually order and make everything sans onions, but lately I've been trying them more and more and thinking maybe it was just the fact that I didn't like them as a child which has led me to avoid them as an adult. The caramelized onions surprised me and were pretty good, I had a few from the pan and they did make the kitchen smell absolutely delicious.

Since I love savory muffins so much and wasn't sure if I would like the onion, I decided to do half of the batch with "caramelized" mushrooms, which are a favorite veggie for me. I cooked the mushrooms in the same pan that I had caramelized the onions in so I could get a nice onion flavor (it has always been only the onion texture I did not like) infused into the delicious mushroom bites. You really couldn't tell the difference between the onion muffins and mushroom muffins in appearance.

I ended up having to use dried sage because I couldn't locate any fresh. And my other change was to leave out the black pepper and up the cayenne, which gave these a nice kick. We really enjoyed these muffins, even picky husband :) These are perfect to serve with a creamy soup, thanks for a great pick Hanaa!

Cottage Cheese Pufflets & Flaky Apple Turnovers -- Tuesdays with Dorie

I'm late for TWD! My oldest started pre-k on Monday and we've been so busy this week I didn't get a chance to post yesterday. Our treat this week is Cottage Cheese Pufflets, picked for us to try by Jacque of Daisy Lane Cakes, thank you Jacque! You can find the recipe here at her site. These fun little turnover pastries were delicious but like many people have mentioned, the dough was a little tricky to work with, possibly because of the humidity here lately. I ended up filling mine with blackberry jam, but any jam or even a savory filling would work with these.

I also have a Tuesdays with Dorie treat that I missed posting last Tuesday, Flaky Apple Turnovers, picked for us by Julie of Someone’s in the Kitchen, thank you Julie! You can find the recipe for these delicious turnovers here at her site.

Apple turnovers are a favorite here, so I was really excited to make these. This recipe was great! I loved the flaky sour cream dough and the simple apple filling. My husband gave these 4 out of 5 stars, a star was apparently lost because the turnovers weren't big enough, ha!

We really liked both treats. I personally have a soft spot for filled things, whether they be raviolis, mini pies, turnovers, cookies, whatever they are if they have a filling they have already won me over :)

Orange Scented Scones -- Sweet Melissa Sundays

Time for Sweet Melissa Sundays! Today's treat was picked by Robin at Lady Craddock’s Bakery -- you can find the recipe for these delicious Orange Scented Scones here at her wonderful blog :) I baked these up in my Lodge cast iron wedge pan and they turned our beautifully.

Here is the crumbly scone dough before pressing together and into the wedge pan...just enough dough to fit!

Before and after baking shots...

We really enjoy scones and I was very excited to make these, in the Sweet Melissa Baking Book you have the option of using oat flour or grinding up your own oats in the food processor. I used the food processor and purposely left my oats a little chunky, I love oatmeal in baked goods.

I accidentally skipped brushing the tops of the scone dough with cream and sprinkling with sugar before I put them in the oven, so I made a glaze to drizzle on top after they were baked with 1/4 cup frozen orange juice concentrate (warmed up in the microwave) and about 1 1/2 cups powdered sugar, I added about 1/2 cup powdered sugar at a time to the melted orange juice concentrate and just kept adding until I reached the right consistency. This glaze was great and packed a strong orange punch.

The scones were amazing. Light and fluffy and a little crumbly from the oats. Very tender and flavorful, I'm the kind of person who loves scones with butter and jam or honey but these didn't need any toppings and were wonderful plain with hot tea for breakfast. Thank you for a wonderful pick, Robin! This is a recipe I would make again for sure :)

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One year ago today: Lithuanian Dinner -- Mushroom Stuffed Cepelinai

Banana Pecan Pancakes -- Tyler Florence Fridays

Time for a breakfast edition of Tyler Florence Fridays! This morning I made Tyler's Banana and Pecan Pancakes, this was a quick and easy recipe to follow, and the pancakes were wonderful.


Banana Pecan Pancakes

2 cups buttermilk I used 1 1/2 cups buttermilk and 1/2 cup skim milk
3 eggs
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 pinch salt
4 tablespoons sugar
1/2 cup pecans, toasted and finely ground (not chopped) I left mine a little bigger than finely ground for more texture
1/2 stick unsalted butter, melted
3 bananas, peeled and sliced in 1/4-inch circles I roughly mashed these instead of slicing


Confectioners' sugar, to garnish

Preheat the oven to 200 degrees F.

In a large mixing bowl whisk the buttermilk, eggs, mashed banana, and vanilla together so they are well combined. In a separate bowl mix the flour, baking powder, soda, salt, and sugar. Combine the wet ingredients with the dry and stir with a spoon to get rid of the lumps.

Fold in the pecans, most of the melted butter and whisk until batter is smooth. Heat a griddle or skillet over medium low heat and swirl around a little melted butter to keep the pancakes from sticking. Using a ladle pour the batter into the pan, see Cook's note*

Cook the pancakes on 1 side until they are set and then lightly press the bananas into the batter. When small bubbles appear on the uncooked surface, flip the pancakes and cook until golden on both sides, about 8 minutes. Transfer pancakes to a warming plate in the oven while you make the rest.


*Cook's note: The trick to perfect round pancakes is pouring all the batter in the same spot and letting it roll out to a complete circle.

Love that 'Grade B' maple syrup!

We are huge pancake fans here and these are a new favorite for us (except picky husband who does not like pecans, I made these after he went to work :) ) My four year old gave an unsolicited, "thanks for making these delicious pancakes, mom!" -- quite a surprise from a very picky little one. I loved the chunks of banana and crunchy pecans in every bite. We will be making these again for sure!

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One year ago today: Ina Garten's Apple Turnovers for Barefoot Bloggers

Mini Perfect Pound Cakes -- Sweet Melissa Sundays

Time for Sweet Melissa Sundays! This week we tried Perfect Pound Cake, picked by Michele at Veggie Num Nums, thanks Michele! You can find this pound cake recipe here at her wonderful blog.


I was excited to give Melissa Murphy's Perfect Pound Cake recipe a try, pound cake is a family favorite although I don't make it that often. When I was pregnant with my daughter I craved pound cake and baked so many she was nicknamed 'little poundcake' for a while :) I was always trying to find that perfect recipe and never really got that 'never want to try another pound cake' recipe, but I did learn that my favorite pound cakes were made with buttermilk. It makes them extra moist and gives then a little tangy kick. This recipe doesn't have buttermilk but does have cream.

I made two batch of this recipe, the first one I used cream and baked it in a 'rose' bundt pan that is smaller than the usual bundt but was way too big for this recipe. I thought I would be able to invert it and see the shape but it rose so much that that didn't really work out. My husband tried this one and thought it was pretty good.

The next batch I made into mini pound cakes in the mini loaf pan. I swapped out the cream for buttermilk but must say that with this pound cake recipe, cream does work better than buttermilk, but both versions were still tasty. I have to admit that I tend to wince a little when a recipe title says 'perfect' -- such high standards! Can there really be a perfect pound cake?

The mini pound cakes were definitely cuter and my kids loved them :)

One year ago today: Indonesian Pan Fried Noodles -- Mie Goreng

Mini Chocolate Soufflés -- Tuesdays with Dorie

I know it's Wednesday and I'm a day late, but late is better than never, right? I just couldn't miss Dorie's Chocolate Soufflé, picked for TWD to try by Susan at She's Becoming DoughMessTic. A huge thank you to Susan for picking this recipe, which you can find here at her wonderful blog.


I halved the recipe and used four mini baking flower pots, I also cut down the baking time from 40 minutes (for a full recipe in one dish) to 18 minutes and it was perfect! I have to admit I was not that excited about this recipe at first, for starts, I just made Mini Fallen Chocolate Soufflé Cakes for another baking club, secondly I'm not usually a fan of desserts with so many eggs. I have to say this recipe completely changed my mind about soufflés and really knocked my socks off with how good it was.

My one change was to use semisweet chocolate instead of bittersweet -- personal preference. I cannot say how impressed I was by these, they were cute, fun, amazingly light, perfectly chocolaty, and delicious with powdered sugar and whipped cream. Who knew? Dorie, obviously!

Oven shot...

out of the oven and sprinkled with powdered sugar, they fell quickly!

What a fun TWD pick! I'm so glad I made these, even if they were a little late :)

One year ago today: Chocolate Malted Whopper Drops for Tuesdays with Dorie

Mini Fallen Chocolate Soufflé Cakes -- Sweet Melissa Sundays

This week for Sweet Melissa Sundays Sarah at Blue Ridge Baker picked Fallen Chocolate Soufflé Cake for us to try from The Sweet Melissa Baking Book. This is a special recipe because it is the cover recipe for the book, and I was excited to give it a try. Thanks for the pick, Sarah! You can find the recipe here at Sarah's site if you do not have the book. I'm so glad to be back baking with SMS, I've missed most of the recipes this summer but can't wait to catch up and am looking forward to the rest of the SMS September recipes, we have some great picks coming up!

before baking

I was planning to make the whole cake then got the idea to make minis in my head because I was running low on eggs and thought the mini cakes would be fun for the kids. I noticed on the SMS site that a few other bakers did minis and had positive results so figured I would give it a go. I halved the recipe and used my jumbo muffin pan -- which is called a Texas muffin pan by the manufacturer but I don't like that name because I feel that a pan called a Texas muffin pan should make muffins in the shape of Texas, right? :) Anyway, I have two of these pans and they are great for making mini cakes and pies along with jumbo muffins, and I love that they clean up easily. I'm the kind of person who wants to toss everything in the dishwasher and be done with it. Even though these are dishwasher safe, they are just as easy to wash by hand.

After baking shot...these baked up and fell just like they were meant to.

But after unmolding from the pan I had quite a surprise...

Aren't those crazy? I've never had anything turn out like that before! They did not stick, but were very oddly shaped. It was almost as if they were tied around the middle of the muffin while baking. So instead of a fancy schmancy Fallen Chocolate Soufflé Minis, I had funny looking UFO shaped chocolate treats. The kids absolutely loved them, yay! I'm glad I wasn't making them for a dinner party or something or I'd have been a little embarrassed -- because of the shape only though, the flavor and texture were right on to me, and me not being a big egg or soufflé person thought these were pretty good.

Thanks to Sarah for a wonderful Sweet Melissa Sundays pick :)

One year ago today: Indonesian Dinner with Tofu Satay -- My Kitchen My World

Brown Sugar Banana Muffins -- Tyler Florence Friday

Time for Tyler Florence Fridays! I really missed participating in TFF over the summer and am so glad to be back. Today for breakfast we made Tyler's Banana Nut Muffins -- only I left out the nuts, I was planning on using walnuts but completely forgot, oops!

Brown Sugar Banana Muffins

Tyler Florence

2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
4 overripe bananas (I used three large ones)
1 cup brown sugar
3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, melted and cooled
2 eggs
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/2 cup pecans, chopped

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F -- I dropped the oven temperature down to 350 -- and lightly butter 2 muffin tins -- I used cooking spray with flour .

In a large bowl, combine the flour, baking soda, and salt; set aside. Mash 2 of the bananas with a fork in a small bowl so they still have a bit of texture. With an electric mixer fitted with a wire whisk, whip the remaining bananas and sugar together like you mean it, for a good 3 minutes. Add the melted butter, eggs, and vanilla and beat well, scraping down the sides of the bowl once or twice. I skipped the mixer and mixed these all with a wide-set whisk.

Mix in the dry ingredients just until incorporated. Fold in the nuts and the mashed bananas with a rubber spatula. Spoon the batter into the muffin tins to fill them about halfway. Give them a rap on the counter to get any air bubbles out.

Bake until a toothpick stuck in the muffins comes out clean, 18 to 20 minutes. Let cool for a few minutes before turning the muffins out. Serve warm or at room temperature.

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These muffins were buttery, moist, and delicious, with crispy edges that my husband loves. I had enough batter to use one jumbo muffin pan and one mini fluted muffin pan. For the jumbo muffins I baked for 20 minutes and the mini ones took about 15 minutes. The kids loved having these for breakfast and loved the strong banana flavor. The mini muffins vanished so fast I didn't even get a photo :) I would make these again for sure, they were a nice easy morning muffin recipe.

Espresso Cheesecake Brownies -- Tuesdays with Dorie

Time for Tuesdays with Dorie! I sure have missed participating in TWD during my little blog summer vacation -- I did bake along on a couple of recipes though, the banana bundt and the brownie buttons, both were great. The treat of the week featured today are brownies! Espresso Cheesecake Brownies to be exact, picked for us to try by Melissa of Life in a Peanut Shell, thank you Melissa! You can visit her site here for the recipe.

I decided to bake these in a 9 1/2 inch heart shaped springform pan (Wilton) instead of the square pan as suggested. Since my base was a little wider, I had to use all of the brownie mixture to line the bottom and didn't have any left for swirling with the cheesecake. Not a big deal because these were delicious swirled or not. I did swap out the bittersweet chocolate in the base and use semisweet instead, just personal preference.

I liked the contrast of the sour cream topping with the cheesecake layer and the brownies and think these make these more of a dessert brownie than a grab and go snack brownie that we are used to. My kids all loved these, my husband does not like anything cheesecake so he passed on tasting, silly guy. These were a fun pick and I enjoyed making them :)