Blueberry Muffins - How to make the best blueberry muffins ever!

Blueberry muffins are one of my favorite sweets ever, especially when they are big and moist.  Coincidentally, blueberry muffins were also an item on my co-workers baked goods sign up sheet.  Well, for as long as I have been baking, it has been one of my goals in life to find a moist muffin recipe.  Eureka!  I have found a super moist and yummy blueberry muffin recipe, so good that you won't be able to eat just 2 blueberry muffins!

Blueberry Muffins

1/2 cup butter, softened
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
1/2 cup plain yogurt
1 tsp vanilla
2 cups flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt 2 1/2 cups blueberries, fresh or defrosted frozen
1 Tbs flour
3 Tbs sugar

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
Line muffin tin with paper liner and grease rims with butter (batter may overflow).
Cream butter and 1 cup sugar until light and fluffy.
Add eggs one at a time, mixing well after each addition.
Stir in vanilla.
Sift dry ingredients and add alternately with yogurt.
Mash 1/2 cup blueberries and mix in.
Toss remaining blueberries with 1 Tbs. flour and fold in by hand.
Fill muffin cups to top.
Bake 20-25 minutes or until a tooth pick inserted in center comes out clean.
Cool for 30 minutes.

Note: When I made these, I used a combination of fresh and frozen blueberries.

The blueberry muffin batter.

The lovely cupcake liners from http://www.bakeitpretty.com/

The lovely and oh soooo yummy finished blueberry muffins.



Coconut Cream Pie - A farewell Coconut Cream Pie

Coconut cream pie is something that I have never made before, but I am always up for a challenge-well most of the time.  It is common knowledge at my workplace of almost a year now that I love to bake.  So upon discovering this, a co-worker of mine decided to start a sign up sheet for other employees in our department to put their name and baked good they would like me to bake.  On a list of about 7 items, I think I have baked 2 of those items. So this past March, one of my favorite supervisors-who is a fellow watcher of TLC's Cake boss-got promoted and transferred to a new location.  To celebrate him and wish him well, I made him one of his favorite desserts, though not his requested life size replica of our workplace.  He had told me a while back that he loved coconut cream pie and so is born the farewell surprise pie.

Old Fashioned Coconut Cream Pie

3 cups half and half
2 eggs
3/4 cup white sugar
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup flaked coconut, toasted
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 (9 inch) pie shell, baked
1 cup frozen whipped topping, thawed

In a medium saucepan, combine half and half, eggs, sugar, flour, and salt.  Bring to a boil over loww heat, stirring constantly.  Remove from heat, and stir in 3/4 cup of the coconut and the vanilla extract.  Pour into pie shell and chill 2 to 4 hours, or until firm.
Top with whipped topping, and with remaining 1/4 cup of coconut.

To toast coconut, spread it in an ungreased pan and bake in a 350 degree oven for 5 to 7 minutes, or until golden brown, stirring occassionally.

French Bread- Suggestions for using French Bread before it's no good

It's a frequent occurance in my house: we buy fresh french bread, have a few slices with butter and then it ends up in the garbage after a few days.  So the last time this was about to happen I decided to do something about it.  The first loaf or two (for some reason we had more than one loaf) I cut into cubes and made croutons.  You do this by cubing the bread and tossing the cubes either with melted butter or olive oil. Add some seasonings if you like (italian seasoning or ranch dressing dry mix or garlic powder or just some salt) or keep them plain. Either way homemade croutons are the best on a salad.  Then spread them on a sheet pan and baking until golden in a 400 degree oven. Watch them because it takes 10 minutes give or take.  With the other loaf (that was so hard I could have thrown it at someone and done damage) I cut it as best I could and tossed it in a food processor and voila! bread crumbs. Add some herbs if you like, keep in an air tight container and toss in the fridge for freshness. Enjoy all these different uses for french bread and never throw it away again!

Chocolate Fudge Layer Cake

This chocolate fudge layer cake is a recipe that my sister asked me to make to aid in her job's publishing of a cookbook.  So to help my sister, I made this cake for my dad's birthday which was this past saturday, January 16th.  This is a good, moist, rich cake which I think should be named death by chocolate cake because I am not a huge fan of chocolate cake and this was definitely a lot of chocolate.

Best Ever Chocolate Fudge Layer Cake

1 package (2 layer size) chocolate cake mix

1 package (4 serving size) jell-o chocolate flavore instant pudding & pie filling

4 eggs

1 cup sour cream

1/2 cup vegetable oil

1/2 cup water

1 package baker's semi sweet baking chocolate, divided

1 tub (8 ounces) cool whip whipped topping, thawed

2 tablespoons planters sliced almonds

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Lightly grease 2 (9-inch) round cake pans.  Beat cake mix, dry pudding mix, eggs, sour cream, oil and water in large bowl with electric mixer on low speed just until moistened, scraping side of bowl frequently.  Beat on medium speed 2 minutes or until well blended.  Stir in 2 squares of the chocolate, chopped.  Spoon into prepared pans.

Bake 30 to 35 minutes or until toothpick inserted near centers comes out clean.  Cool in pans 10 minutes on wire rack.  Loosen cake from sides of pan with spatula or knife.  Invert cakes onto rack; gently remove pans.  Cool completely on wire rack.

Place remaining 6 squares chocolate and whipped topping in medium microwaveable bowl.  Microwave on high 1 1/2 to 2 minutes.  Stir until well blended and shiny.  Cool 5 minutes.  Place 1 cake layer on serving plate; spread 1/4 of the chocolate mixture over cake.  Place second cake layer on top; spread remaining chocolate mixture over top and sides of cake.  Garnish with almonds.

Note: If I make this cake again, I would melt the 2 pieces of chocolate put into the cake batter because they do not completely melt while baking. Also do not freak out like I did when melting the cool whip and chocolate.  The cool whip will completely melt into liquid and yes, there will be enough to fill and cover the entire cake.  Work quickly when covering the cake because the chocolate mixture will start to harden.  Had fun making this cake even though I dropped the container of sour cream on the floor causing it to bust and splatter everywhere.  In this situation, I just used the sour cream that didn't have any floor on it.

Red Velvet Cupcakes - A great recipe to make Red Velvet Cupcakes with Martha Stewart's Cream Cheese Frosting

It is an annual tradition that I make red velvet cupcakes for our favorite holiday party.  I usually use the Mccormick recipe for cupcakes and icing, but forever in a rush this year I used Martha Stewart's cream cheese frosting recipe.  Gotta love Martha, you can always count on her to have a recipe for everything!

Red Velvet Cupcakes

2 1/2 cups flour

1/2 cup cocoa powder

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

1 cup butter, softened

2 cups sugar

4 eggs

1 cup sour cream

1/2 cup milk

1 bottle (1oz) red food color

2 tsp pure vanilla extract

Mix flour, cocoa, baking soda, and salt.  Beat butter and sugar in large bowl with electric mixer on medium speed 5 minutes or until light and fluffy.  Beat in eggs 1 at a time.  Mix sour cream, milk, food color and vanilla.  Gradually beat in flour mixture on low speed just until blended.  Spoon batter into paper-lined muffin cups, filling each 2/3 full.  Bake in preheated 350 degree oven 20 to 25 minutes.  Cool in pans 5 minutes.  Remove from pans; cool sompletely.  Spread with frosting.  Makes 30.

Martha Stewart's cream cheese frosting

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature

12 ounces cream cheese, room temperature

1 pound (4 cups), confectioner's sugar, sifted

3/4 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

With an electric mixer on medium-high speed, beat butter and cream cheese until fluffy, 2 to 3 minutes.  Reduce speed to low.  Add sugar, 1/2 cup at a time, and then vanilla, and mix until smooth and combined, scraping down sides of bowl as needed.  If not using immediately, frosting can be refrigerated up to 3 days in an airtight container; before using, bring to room temperature, and beat on low speed until smooth again.

Fudgy Brownies

Fudgy brownies are something I don't have a lot of experience with, so for Halloween I tried this recipe. For Halloween this year I made cupcakes, cookies and these really good brownies. While shopping at Target one day I happened to find these aluminum foil little ghost shapes.

Fudgy Brownies

1/4 cup butter
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips or 60z semi-sweet baking chocolate
2/3 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
3 eggs, slightly beaten
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon coarse salt
2 tablespoons cocoa powder
1/2 cup all purpose flour

Heat your oven to 325 degrees. Spray bottom of a 8x8 glass pan with non-stick spray.

Put the butter and chocolate chips in a medium microwaveable bowl and heat on high for 1 minute;stir. Heat for 30 seconds more and stir until the chocolate is completely melted.

Add the sugar and stir until the sugar and chocolate mixture is completely combined.

Add the vanilla and eggs, and stir until the mixture is completely combined.

In a small bowl, combine the baking powder, salt, cocoa powder and flour;mix well to break up any lumps in the cocoa powder. Add to the chocolate mixture and stir until completely combined.

Bake for 26-28 minutes, or until the top of the brownies are flat and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out almost clean (you want a few moist crumbs to cling to the toothpick). Cool completely before cutting to get the best looking pieces.

Note: I just dusted them with powdered sugar and they were great. Carefully watch the baking time if you want moist brownies.
This recipe was found online on another blog (I forget which one).

Creme Brulee

My sister absolutely loves creme brulee and has been asking me to make it for her since the beginning of time. So this year for her birthday I decided to surprise her and make creme brulee. Of course I bought the wrong size ramekins because they were huge and could have fed two people instead of just one. Ooops!


Creme Brulee

2 cups heavy cream
1 vanilla bean, split
2 oz granulated sugar
5 egg yolks
granulated sugar, as needed

Heat the cream and the vanilla bean in a medium saucepan over medium high heat until bubbles appear along the sides of the pan.
Quickly whisk the sugar into the yolks.
When the cream is hot, slowly pour it into the yolk mixture. Whisk until well combined.
Strain the mixture through a fine sieve into a pitcher or large measuring cup. Scrape the vanilla bean with the tip of a paring knife to remove the remaining seeds; stir the seeds into the custard.
Preheat the oven to 325 degrees. Arrange the ramekins in a 2 inch deep pan. Pour the custard into the ramekins. Set the pan of ramekins inside the preheated oven and then carefully pour enough water into the pan to come 2/3 of the way up the sides of the ramekins. Bake until just set, 45 to 50 minutes. The custard should be set, not soupy, with only a small area of jiggle in the center.
When the custards are done, carefully remove the baking dish from the oven and allow the ramekins to cool in water bath. Refrigerate at least 4 hours before service or up to 2 days.
At service, sprinkle tops of custards with granulated sugar, then immediately caramelize the sugar with a blowtorch or broiler.
recipe from On Baking

Tips: Before putting custards into the oven, turn on your blowtorch and gently go over custards. This removes air bubbles.
I have never heard of letting the custards sit in the water bath after taking them out of the oven, I always dump the water right away. When you are doing this at home, I used a baster to remove the water because my oven is too low and too far from the sink. Plus, I am not a fan of hot water (too many bad memories and physical scars).