Bagels

When I was in junior high, we had to take a home economics class, I think it was called 'life skills', and part of that class involved cooking.  I remember our teacher passing out recipes, many of which I still have today, and I would go home and make the recipes on the weekend.  One of those recipes she passed out was a recipe for bagels.  I have no idea where that particular recipe went but I remember the bagels being very good.  Unfortunately, it probably got thrown away somehow in the years since.  I've been wanting to make bagels again and found a recipe recently online that I made a few days ago.  The bagels turned out okay, but I think there are better recipes out there for bagels.  Therefore, the search continues for a good bagel recipe.  Anybody have one?

So, no recipe for this post, only pictures.  Enjoy!

Ready to be boiled and baked.

Right out of the oven

Who doesn't love a freshly baked bagel?!

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Mini Muffins

Is it cake, or muffins, or cookies?  I'm not really sure, but I'm going to call them muffins.  The original recipe is for cookies, but I put them in in mini muffin tins because they seem more cakey than cookie-y to me.  Plus, I am always thinking "I wonder if I can make that in a muffin tin"--and that's exactly what I did with this recipe. 

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Mini Muffins (Or Cookies)
1 box spice cake mix
1 small can pumpkin (15oz)
1 12 oz bag of chocolate chips

Directions:
Mix pumpkin and cake mix together.  (You don't need oil or eggs, just the dry mix.)
Add chocolate chips and mix together well.
Spray cookie sheet or mini-muffin tins with non-stick cooking spray and scoop mix onto cookie sheet or into mini-muffin tins.
Bake at 350 degrees for 10-12 minutes. 

Amy's Notes:
It's been in the 90's here since about May, with a few days in the 80's thrown in.  Growing up in the Pacific Northwest, I am craving cooler days, sweaters, pumpkin spiced lattes, and pretty much anything 'fall' related.  These muffins are my hot weather protest.  I have been wanting to make these for several weeks now, but have not been able to find pumpkin anywhere.  Thankfully, one of my co-workers knew I was looking for it and told me where to find it today.  (Yay Rachelle!) I stopped on my way home from work and made these a few hours later.  I couldn't wait any longer to try them.  Delicious!  A super easy recipe, for a fast fall baked treat!

Start with pumpkin.

Add cake mix.

Stir it all together

Add some chocolate chips

Stir it all together again.

Scoop it up. 

Bake it.  Let cool.

Eat. 

Oh my gosh.  I love pumpkin.

Berry Cobbler Cupcakes

Oh my gosh, these are so easy!  Seriously, the pan takes longer to clean than actually making them!  Plus, they are delicious.  This recipe is originally for a cake pan (11 x 7) but I decided on my way home from work today that I was going to try making them as cupcakes.  I made them as regular cupcakes and mini cupcakes since I didn't know which would be better (I like the mini cobblers better, mostly because they are so cute!).  Beware though, the mini cupcake cobblers are so cute and tiny, it is easy to eat way too many!

Berry Cobbler Cupcakes
Source: Terry Collette

Ingredients:
1 Cup sugar + 1/4 cup additional
1 Cup flour
1 Cup milk
1/2 Cup butter, melted
2 Cups frozen berries

Directions:
Whisk together the sugar, flour and milk. Add butter and stir together. 
Pour into lightly greased cupcake tins or cake pan.  Fill each cupcake tin about 2/3 full.
Sprinkle a few berries on top of each cupcake (or batter if in cake pan).  Dust 1/4 cup of sugar over top of berries.
Bake at 350 degrees for about 25 minutes or until edges begin to brown.  (Or about 1 hour if in cake pan.)

Amy's Notes:
I wasn't sure whether to use a cupcake liner or not when I made these.  I am going to try using them next time but I might double line them and will definitely spray a little bit of cooking spray on the liners before I add the batter.  Also, I didn't use all 2 cups of berries.  I just sprinkled them until it looked like each cupcake had enough.  I used blackberries, but have been wanting to try these with raspberries, blueberries or even mixed berries.  They would all probably be good!

Forgot to take a 'before' picture, so here the oven picture.

A little spilled over but still delicious.

Mini Berry Cobbler Cupcake... yummm

Cinnamon Roll Cupcakes

I had planned to make vanilla cupcakes with chocolate frosting for this post, but the flour sifter I just bought was broken.  Ugh!  So I searched through all my cupcake recipes to find one that sounded good and that I had all the ingredients for since I had already been to the store once to buy the ingredients for my vanilla cupcakes.  This recipe won out, mostly because I remember seeing a picture of it and it looked delicious.  And they are!  My husband thought these were the best cupcakes I've made so far!  They go great with a cup of coffee and are super handy because unlike a regular cinnamon roll, you can eat them without a fork!

Cinnamon Roll Cupcakes
Makes about 24 cupcakes

Ingredients:
Dough:
2 1/4 tsp or 1 package dry active yeast
1/2 cup granulated sugar, divided
1 cup warm milk (approx. 110 degrees Fahrenheit)
2 eggs, room temperature
1/3 cup butter, melted
1 teaspoon salt
4 1/2 cups bread flour
Filling:
1 cup brown sugar, packed
2 1/2 tablespoons ground cinnamon
1/2 cup butter, softened

Dissolve the yeast and 1/4 cup of the granulated sugar in the warm milk in a large bowl and let stand for about 10 minutes until foamy.
Mix in the eggs, butter, salt, and other 1/4 cup of granulated sugar.  Stir together.  Add flour and mix until well blended and the dough forms a ball.  Put in a bowl, cover and let rise in a warm place until doubled in size (about 1 hour).
After the dough has doubled in size, turn it out onto a lightly floured surface, cover and let rest for 10 minutes.  In a small bowl, combine the brown sugar and cinnamon.
Roll dough into a 12x22 inch rectangle.  Spread dough with 1/2 cup butter and sprinkle evenly with cinnamon/sugar mixture.  Roll up dough and cut into 24 rolls. 
Fill two cupcake pans with doubled up cupcake liners and lightly spray with cooking spray.  Place each roll in a cupcake liner.  Cover and let rise until nearly doubled, about 30 minutes.  Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 400 degrees. 
Bake rolls in preheated oven until golden brown, about 10-12 minutes.  Let rolls cool completely before frosting (frosting will melt off otherwise). 

Frosting:
1 8 ounce package cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup butter, softened
3+ cups sifted confectioners sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon lemon juice
pinch of salt

Cream together the butter and sugar.  Add in the powdered sugar (add more sugar for stiffer frosting if piping).  Add vanilla, lemon juice, and salt and mix well. 

Amy's Notes:
These are very good and will definitely make them again!  Definitely use two cupcake liners because they will leak through just one.  I didn't roll the dough out thin enough or long enough, so my rolls were very hard to fit into the cupcake liners, but I re-rolled many of my rolls to fit.  And beware, these are not a quick cupcake.  There is about 2 hours total of rising time involved.  But they are worth the wait and especially good right after they have been frosted!

Good enough to eat without frosting.

A much too big cupcake with not so perfect frosting!

Lemon Blueberry Cream Scones

My parents were just here visiting for my husband's graduation and brought me blueberries from their backyard.  I had to figure out how I was going to use all the blueberries.  One container is already in my freezer because I knew I wouldn't use them before they went bad.  These scones are delicious, I might just make another batch to use the rest of my not-yet-frozen blueberries!

Lemon Blueberry Cream Scones
Recipe from: The America's Test Kitchen Family Cookbook

Ingredients:
2 cups all purpose flour
3 tablespoon sugar
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
5 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
1 teaspoon lemon zest
1 cup heavy cream
1 cup blueberries

Directions:
Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 450 degrees.  Pulse the flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt together in a food processor to combine, about 6 pulses.  Add lemon zest.  Scatter the butter evenly over the top and pulse until the mixture resembles coarse cornmeal with a few slightly larger butter lumps, about 12 pulses.

Add blueberries and quickly pulse once to combine.  Transfer the dough to a large bowl.  Stir in the cream with a rubber spatula until the dough begins to form, about 30 seconds. 

Turn the dough and any floury bits out onto a floured counter and knead until it forms a rough, slightly sticky ball, 5-10 seconds.  Press the dough into a 9-in cake pan.  Unmold the dough and cut into 8 wedges.  Place wedges on an ungreased baking sheet.

Bake until the scone tops are light brown, 12-15 mins.  Cool on a wire rack for at least 10 mins.

Delicious Scones!

YUMMY

Amy's Notes:
I don't have a food processor, so I used a spatula to mix all the ingredients together and a pastry blender to mix in the butter.  When I make these again, I will probably cut them into smaller wedges, maybe about 12, because then I could have more than one at a sitting!