Pumpkin Bread

Words cannot describe how excited I am to post about this bread right now. This is the bread that my mom always used to make when we were growing up. To think I used to not even like pumpkin bread is outrageous. Now, I love it. I almost want to get up from my comfy spot just to go get some. Yummm

With just days until Thanksgiving, I realized I hadn't even made pumpkin bread yet, and I'm pretty sure that by this time last year I had made a good 5 or so batches. I decided to make two batches in one to make up for some lost time :). The good news about this bread is that you don't even need a mixer. Just a sifter or superfine strainer. Andddd to the recipe..


Pumpkin Bread
1  3/4 cup all purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
3/4 tsp salt
1 1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1 1/4 cups sugar
1 cup pumpkin pie mix
1/2 tsp vanilla
1/2 cup canola oil
2 eggs
1/3 cup water


Set oven to 350 degrees. In a large bowl, sift together all of the dry ingredients. In a separate bowl, Whisk together the vanilla, oil, eggs, water, and pumpkin pie mix. It's really important to get the pumpkin pie mix rather than the puree. It will look like this...

With a rubber spatula, fold the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients. Stop mixing just as the dry ingredients are fully incorporated. 

For mini muffins: Line a mini muffin tray with foil liners. Fill each 3/4 full

Bake for 10-12 minutes. 

Love these little guys...

For bread: Spray a 7x11 pan with non-stick spray and pour in the batter. Bake for about 22-25 minutes or until a knife/toothpick is pulled out clean from the center. 

See, I did actually make bread! No lying this time. The delicious flavors of cinnamon and pumpkin make for a deliciously moist bread. Since I miraculously made this post BEFORE Thanksgiving, maybe someone will actually make it for their Thanksgiving dinner. That would be nice... 

Anyway, I think my office is really starting to like my obsession with baking. 

Enjoy :)

Banana Bread

Okay, so I lied a little bit. Instead of bread, I actually made them into mini banana muffins. It makes it a lot easier to try my own recipes without ruining the loaf, and it's also a little easier to bring places. See.. I have my reasons

I love Sundays. There's really nothing better than a lazy Sunday, being able to cook and bake and watch football and some foot network (which happens to be the Thanksgiving special today). Seriously,  it's awesome. Now that you know how much I love Sundays, I can go on to tell you the story of my banana bread... 
Two weeks ago I made a banana bread that was straight from a recipe. It was really delicious and moist and super simple. I thought it would make a great base for some more recipes so I got some more bananas last week and waited for them to ripen so I could try changing some things. Yup, I was totally right, so delicious! Here's my twist on attempting to put some wholesome ingredients into banana bread... I'm workin on the butter part


Mini Banana Muffins
1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
3/4 cups quick oats
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup butter
3/4 cups brown sugar
2 eggs
1/2 tsp vanilla
1 2/3 cups mashed overripe banana. 
6 oz. (about 2/3 cup) plain fat-free greek yogurt (I used Chobani)


Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. In the base of a stand mixer beat together the butter and sugar. Beat in the eggs, vanilla, and banana mixture. In a separate bowl combine the flour, baking soda, and salt. Sift together and then add the oats. Combine the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients just until fully incorporated.

For Mini Muffins: line a 24-cup tin with mini cupcake liners and scoop heaping tablespoons into each one. Place in the oven for 9-11 minutes. Let cool in the tins for at least 5-10 minutes. 


For Bread: Grease a 9x5 inch loaf pan and pour batter in. Bake for about 55-65 minutes, until toothpick can be placed in the center and come out clean.

This weekend I also had the privileged of starting to decorate for Christmas. I KNOW I KNOW, too soon. But I leave for NY super early on Wednesday, and by the time I come back on Monday, Thanksgiving will be over and literally everything will have shifted into Christmas mode. So excited.

ANYWAY Now that I have 48 awesome little banana breads, I hope work is ready for them tomorrow morning! I'm also extremely proud of myself for posting something the same day I baked. Just don't get used to it, since I also baked pumpkin bread today, and that post definitely won't be up for a few days. 

Enjoy :)

Apple Cinnamon Strudel Muffins

I said muffins were easy, didn't I? Yes, another muffin! Another apple muffin too. This is because I bought one of those big bags of apples from giant and I needed to use them, hence, awesome apple muffins. Ever since I made the Apple Almond Muffins where I weirdly decided to peel the apples rather then grate them (since I didn't have a good one) or chop them (because that's boring) I've been obsessed with the idea.

Every Friday morning, the office gets breakfast. Usually the awesome other female (because yes, there's only 2 of us) brings in the breakfast. This week I decided I wanted to make breakfast instead. Being in an office of all men, they'll eat pretty much anything. It's awesome. There's just over 20, so making 2 dozen muffins is literally perfect, they were all gone in an hour. Ironically enough I was told to open a bakery in the area because I'd make a lot of money... please stop trying to convince me to quit my stable engineering job. It would be greatly appreciated. Point being they went over well, and I will definitely be taking full advantage of this situation. Here's the recipe...

Apple Cinnamon Strudel Muffins
Makes 24 muffins
2 cups all purpose flour
2 cups whole wheat flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1 cup butter
1 1/2 cups sugar
4 eggs
1 Tbsp vanilla
2 tsp cinnamon
3 cups peeled apples

For the strudel:
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
2 Tbsp whole wheat flour
1/4 tsp cinnamon
2 Tbsp butter

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Line a muffin tray with liners or spray with non-stick spray.
In a large bowl beat together butter, sugar, and eggs. Mix in vanilla, followed by the apples. In another bowl whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Gradually add the flour mixture to the large bowl.
For the strudel: In a small bowl, whisk together brown sugar, flour, and cinnamon. Use a food processor, magic bullet, or fork to cut in the butter to the cinnamon-sugar mixture. Sprinkle the strudel evenly on top of the muffins.
Place the tins in the oven for about 18-20 minutes. Insert a toothpick or knife into the center of the muffin to test. If it comes out clean the muffins are finished, if not, return to the oven for 2 minutes, until the toothpick comes out clean.

Serve and Enjoy :)

Chocolate Chip Banana Oat Muffins

Ripe bananas. Now I'm talking about reallyyyyy ripe bananas. I had one sitting in my kitchen that I've been meaning to cut up and put in the freezer for smoothies. I think I let it go a little too long for that. BUT, it was the perfect ripeness for a dessert.. or muffin. 

Anytime I get the chance to bake now, I take it. Muffins seem to be really easy since they are super easy to travel with (aka take to work) and I also always have the ingredients on hand. I always like putting my own twist into recipes, even if it's just adding chocolate chips. In this case, I did that and I also made muffins instead of bread! They are super delicious and moist


Chocolate Chip Banana Oat Muffins
Adapted from Banana Oatmeal Bread
Makes 10 muffins (Double to make 18 bigger muffins)
1/2 cup light brown sugar
1/4 cup canola oil
1 large egg
2/3 cup mashed banana (the one large banana I had)
1/2 cup quick oats
1/4 cup 2% milk
1 cup whole wheat flour (all-purpose flour is fine too)
1/2 Tbsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 cup chocolate chips


Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Mash the banana in a bowl 

Combine with oats and milk. In the base of a stand mixer (or large bowl), beat together brown sugar, canola oil, and egg. Add the banana mixture to the sugar mixture and beat well. Combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon in a small bowl and whisk together. Gradually add the flour mixture into the wet mixture and slowly beat until all dry ingredients are incorporated. If desired, add 1/2 cup of semi-sweet chocolate chips. 

Fold the chocolate chips into the batter and spoon heaping tablespoons into liners or muffins tins sprayed with cooking oil or non-stick spray.

Scrape the bowl clean to get as many muffins as possible, you won't be sorry...

Bake at 350 for 20 minutes. Check the centers of the muffins with a toothpick and if needed, return to oven for 3-5 minutes. If you need to put it back in the oven, I suggest checking on them every 2 minutes or so. Cool them in the tins for 10 minutes then remove to cool on a wire rack. 

You can't tell me those don't look delicious.

As always,

Enjoy :)

Whole Wheat Apple Almond Muffins

So I started writing this post like, 2 weeks ago. Unfortunately/Fortunately, I've been very busy with my big move that I haven't had time to finish. Now I've been officially employed for a whole week now, and I survived! Here's a nice Sunday to catch up on the blogging. The great thing is that since I'm finally employed, my blog is ACTUALLY true. I'm an engineer! Yay! More to come about the fascinating life as an engineer in future posts... but here's some delicious breakfast or snack muffins!

This is definitely more experimenting... and a successful experimentation if I do say so myself. I had some McIntosh apples in my refrigerator that I decided I wasn't so fond of. They were just too soft to pair with my greek yogurt and cinnamon snack!
Anyway I wanted to use them up without wasting them, soo I figured I could make a muffin with them.


One of my awesome friends came over to help me make these and we had a ball to say the least. Things I learned... I apparently don't know how to peel the skin off an apple. I tried peeling from top to bottom... who does that? Of course I learned the better way was to go arounddd the apple, so I let Brit do this job. She was clearly an expert. We experimented with the almonds too, simply replacing tablespoons of flour for tablespoons of ground almonds. I was a fan.
Here it goes!


Whole Wheat Apple Almond Muffins
1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
1 1/2 oz. roasted Almonds (will need to be ground up) (4 Tbsp ground Almond for the batter)
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup butter
1 cup sugar
1 1/2 tsp vanilla
2 eggs
1 1/2 cups peeled apples* (about 2 medium sized apples)


Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. In either a food processor or using a magic bullet, place the roasted almonds in and grind up until a powder is formed. If you over beat, it will become more of a paste (a little bit of this is okay). You'll want to take out any large chunks that may still exist. Set aside. In the bowl of a stand mixer, beat the sugar and butter together until smooth. Add both eggs and vanilla and beat together. Slowly add in the flour, ground almonds, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Finally, fold in the peeled apples*. 


*[With a vegetable peeler, remove the skin of an apple by starting in the center, rotating, and moving outward. once the skin is gone, use the peeler to make slivers of apple. You can also use a coarse cheese grater, but I found out that I personally like the apple slivers. they have a lot of surface area, making it easy to thoroughly incorporate the apple into the batter, unlike chunks.]


Using heaping tablespoons and a 12-cup regular sized muffin tin, divide the batter evenly. With any remaining ground almonds, sprinkle on top of each muffin. Place in the oven for 18-20 minutes. Remove from tins and let cool!


These muffins were definitely super delicious

Enjoy! :)

Cinnamon Roll Muffins

I'm falling more and more in love with my Kitchen-Aid stand mixer one recipe at a time. 

I'm only on number 2 yet the love is growing. How else would I have been able to make this big hunk of dough?! The absolute best thing about this recipe is that there's no yeast required. Yeast is one of those ingredients I haven't ventured to yet since well, I'm really impatient and don't know how to sit around waiting for dough to rise quite honestly. I'm also semi-nervous because who knows what kind of can of worms using yeast could open. Bread and doughnuts and different types of muffins, endless possibilities.... yea I'm just going to hold off as long as possible. 

So my one mistake for this recipe was not realizing that I needed large muffin tins until I was already cutting the rolls into 2-inch pieces. So what, I compromised the appearance a little - but they still taste absolutely delicious. I couldn't keep my hands off one for longer than 5 minutes. I think I had my cinnamon-sugar fix for the next few days. Anyway, if you don't have a large tin, you can cut the pieces smaller, probably around one or one and a half inches long so they'll be smaller, but they will also be pretty. If you don't care about look and don't have a large pan, you can just do what I did! 


I came across the recipe on The Comfort of Cooking and all I did was add some cinnamon into the dough (because you can never have enough cinnamon) and used some whole wheat flour. I also added more cinnamon into the filling. Seriously, cinnamon is awesome. If you're up for the challenge, try out this delicious breakfast treat!


Cinnamon Roll Muffins
1 cup buttermilk
1/2 cup light brown sugar
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp vanilla
1 egg
2 cups all purpose flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
(about an extra 1/2 cup of flour while rolling out the dough)


For the filling:
2 Tbsp butter, room temp
2/3 cup light brown sugar
1/2 Tbsp ground cinnamon

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. In the base of a stand mixer (I love saying that...) or a large mixing bowl, measure the brown sugar, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon. Next add the egg and vanilla. Pour in the buttermilk until everything is fully incorporated. 

Slowly add in the flour until a smooth dough forms. Scrape the side and bottom of bowl as necessary. 

Roll dough out on a lightly floured surface. I probably could have made my life easier by rolling it out on a floured piece of parchment paper instead. Anyway, you want to try and make this into a 12" x 24" sheet of dough.

In a small bowl combine the brown sugar and cinnamon. Take a rubber spatula and spread the butter along the entire surface. Sprinkle the cinnamon and brown sugar on top of this layer. Here comes the fun part, seeing whether or not you use enough flour on the surface. Roll the dough along the longer edge.

Once rolled, cut in into 2-inch pieces and place into a greased large muffin tin. 

(This shows the actual cut size in the wrong sized pan, you can see how the tops of the muffins tower over the top edge of the pan!)

Bake for about 15 minutes. Let stand for 5 minutes, then eat! Recipe adapted from here. You can also find the recipe for the icing there if desired. I think these are sweet and moist enough as-is. 


My dad is officially the happiest person to have me home since this will be his breakfast for the next week. Or it may only last him a couple days. Before I make these again, I'll be sure to purchase the large muffin tins. I'm actually surprised I don't have them already... 

See, they're still pretty cute

Enjoy :)

Blueberry Buttermilk Muffins

I have been on a serious baking frenzy lately. I'm moving out at the end of the week and well, I have a ton of ingredients that I've been trying to use up. Not to mention baking helps me to relax when I start thinking about the fact that I'll be leaving my nice, safe, college style life and apartment. Tears. 
Anyway, I had a huge bag of frozen blueberries and a container of buttermilk. Not to mention the butter that has accumulated in my refrigerator since i would just buy it practically every time it was on sale since I used it so much. 
I was trying to think of something practical to make, so I don't need a bunch of people to eat them right away. Instead I thought about freezing them and having them be a great breakfast. Using all 3 ingredients that I'm trying to get rid of led me straight to blueberry buttermilk muffins, and they surely don't disappoint. 


I substituted 2 cups of all purpose flour for whole wheat flour (in an attempt to add something wholesome to them) and sprinkled sugar on top to add some crunch without adding a ton of calories for a crumble topping.

Blueberry Buttermilk Muffins (about 18 medium-sized muffins)
2 cups whole wheat flour
1/2 cups all purpose flour
3/4 cup sugar
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
2 eggs, beaten
1 cup buttermilk
1/2 cup butter
1 tsp vanilla
1 1/2 cup blueberries (frozen and thawed)


Set oven to 375 degrees. Sift dry ingredients together in a large bowl. In another bowl, whisk eggs, buttermilk, melted butter, and vanilla. Create a well in the dry ingredients and pour in the liquid ingredients. Incorporate mixture quickly. Finally, fold in the blueberries. Grease a 12-cup medium muffin/cupcake tin and drop heaping tablespoons into each one as seen below.

If desired, sprinkle sugar over the top of each muffin. Bake until cupcakes are golden brown and a toothpick comes out clean, about 20-30 minutes. After a few minutes, remove muffins from tin and let them finish cooling on a tray. 

Like cinnamon? Mix some cinnamon and brown sugar together and sprinkle it on top of the muffins before putting them in the oven. (Approximately 1/4 to 1/2 tsp cinnamon for each tablespoon of light brown sugar used).

Sprinkled with cinnamon and sugar

Muffins stay well in airtight containers, but if you're like me and enjoy feeding other people, throw a bunch in freezer safe bags and tell whoever you give them to, to pop them in the microwave for 30 seconds. They are probably the best when cut, tossed in the toaster or a toasted oven, and spread with a little bit of whipped butter. Deeeeeelicious 




Enjoy! :)

Corn Muffins

Up to this point, this blog has been more of a personal website in order to keep track of what I baked over the semester and take pictures, since that's probably my favorite part. I decided that I would try to improve my posts, so rather than being embarrassed of sharing this with anyone, I would actually be proud. Also, as a slight update, I graduated! So the name of the blog will have to change at some point, but I'm not quite a professional engineer yet, so we'll see what happens. 


This weekend Andrew and I went to a crab style BBQ. Since many of my original taste-testers of the semester have graduated and moved away, I will literally find any excuse to bake for a large group of people (basically just enough people so I know I won't be sitting with a huge batch of dessert in my apartment going to waste). I was obviously going to bake a dessert (post to follow), but I wanted to do something else. The answer came pretty easily after I asked myself "What goes well with crabs?" Corn muffins, that's what. 

Corn Muffins

3 cups all-purpose flour

• 1 cup sugar
• 1 cup medium cornmeal
• 2 tablespoons baking powder
• 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
• 1 1/2 cups whole milk
• 1/2 pound unsalted butter, melted and cooled
• 2 extra-large eggs

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line 18 regular sized muffin cups with paper liners. In a bowl, use a wide spatula to mix the flour, sugar, cornmeal, baking powder, and salt (If you have a stand mixer you can use the paddle attachment). In a separate bowl, combine the milk, melted butter, and eggs. With the mixer on the lowest speed, pour the wet ingredients into the dry ones and stir until they are just blended. Spoon the batter into the paper liners, filling each one to the top. Bake for 10 minutes and rotate the pan. Bake for another 10 minutes. Let stand for 5 minutes then serve warm. 

It's the butter and milk that help these babies stay moist and perfect!

If there are leftovers, they stay fresh for a few days in an airtight container. Suggestion: place muffin (without liner) in a toaster oven for about 3 minutes, or until center is warmed. 

These can also be placed in freezer bags and frozen until ready to eat. Suggestion: cut the muffins in half prior to freezing. Thaw or place in microwave for 10-20 seconds, then place in the toaster oven for 3 minutes to regain that delicious crunch,

Enjoy!