Pumpkin Bread/Muffins

It's pumpkin MANIA~ This is an easy, not-too-awful-for-ya recipe- my favorite kind!

Here's what you'll need:

3 1/2 cup unbleached all purpose flour ( I used 1 cup whole wheat flour, 2 1/2 cups unbleached all purpose because that's what I had here)
2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
2 tablespoons + 1 tsp pumpkin pie spice mix
1 15oz can pumpkin
4 eggs
1/2 c veg oil
1/2 c apple sauce
1 cup white sugar
1 cup brown sugar
1 tablespoon ground flax seeds
(I made 1 standard sized loaf and 12 regular sized muffins- I also use THESE baking pans, sheets etc so no greasing or foil lining required and muy, muy easy clean-up. I can't recommend them enough.)

                               

Preheat your oven to 350.
Sift the flour, baking soda, salt and spice mix into a medium bowl.
Combine the eggs, pumpkin, sugars, apple sauce, oil and flax in a large bowl- mix until all ingredients are incorporated. Slowly mix in dry ingredients, until everything is well mixed together.
I filled one standard size loaf pan about 1/2 to 2/3 full & 12 regular size muffins/muffin tin 1/2 to slightly over 1/2 full.
I put both in at the same time.
Pull the muffins out at 25-30 minutes, cook the loaf 50 minutes- until a butter knife inserted in to he center comes out clean.
Serve w some coffee....mmmmmmmmm.

Pear & Pumpkin Goodness

This was actually supposed to be muffins, but I didn't have any muffin tin liners and cleaning that thing is a real PITA, so I opted for a big ole loafy loaf instead. I highly doubt Logan will notice the difference- if he does, I'll re-post and let you know. (update: he loved it just how it was, no love lost over not being in muffin form)

The forecast for this weekend is 95 and sweaty as S-- so why not fire up the oven and get my bake on, right?
Sorry, it's OCTOBER in 5 minutes, I couldn't hold out any longer- A/C cranked up, it's time to get my first Pumpkin recipe of the season underway....

I recently discovered Cooking With My Kid a great website you should check out ASAP! I used her "Best Ever Pumpkin Muffins" (which you will find by clicking the link above) as the basic template for this recipe.
This is so moist and yummy, it's insane. However, if you've got a major sweet tooth- step up the sugar, because at less than 2 tsp per serving- this is not super-sweet- used a little less than 1/2 a cup because I knew Logan was gonna have some. I love it this way!

Here is what you will need:

1 1/2 cup whole wheat flour (or oat flour for a gluten free option)
1/2 cup sugar (I used just a little less than that)
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp cloves
2 eggs lightly beaten
1/2 cup oil
1/3 cup Greek yogurt
1 15oz can pure pumpkin puree
1 tablespoon ground flax seeds
a handful of rolled oats for the top
1 large pear peeled and chopped into bitsy squares

Preheat the oven to 350.
Lightly grease an 8 x 8 pan or get out those muffin tin liners & do up 2 muffin tins or mini muffin tins.
Mix all the ingredients, except oats, until they are well incorporated.
Pour into prepared pan or muffin liners.
Sprinkle oats over top
Bake 50 minutes or until a knife inserted into the center comes clean.
Reduce time to 35 minutes for regular sized muffins, 25-30 minutes for mini muffins.

HAPPY FALL!!

Tuesdays With Dorie~ Black & White Banana Loaf

YAY! I'm back!! We took a little vacation up North to visit Nate's best friend Charlie and had an incredible weekend with him, his wife Molly (who makes the best Bloody Mary I've ever had in my LIFE) and our first experience at the Oregon Brewers Festival. (more to come on that...)

So, though be it late, this marks my return from vacation, and return to TUESDAYS WITH DORIE

This weeks TWD recipe was chosen by Ashlee of A YEAR IN THE KITCHEN visit her site for the recipe if you don't have the fabulous book Baking~From My Home to Yours...You can also go to the TUESDAYS WITH DORIE site to see EVERYONE'S creations~



I LOVE banana and LOVE chocolate, though I've never made a bread combining the two flavors. Because I didn't want to eat the whole loaf myself, I opted to bake some muffins which was fun and easier to share with Nate's office!!

Thank you Ashlee for an awesome pick of yet another delicious Dorie recipe that I will no doubt make again!!

Julia Child's Daring French Bread~

WOW- talk about diving HEAD FIRST into baking bread for my very first time. I have had "bake bread" on my to do list forever. When it came time for this month's Daring Bakers Challenge, I was thrilled to see that Mary of The Sour Dough and Sarah of I Like to Cook chose French Bread....and not just any old bread recipe- but the 18-page tribute to doing it best, Julia Child's French Bread recipe from "Mastering the Art of French Cooking: Volume Two by Julia Child and Simone Beck".



So I set aside an entire day to get down and make some bread. I was so excited to tackle this challenge, I can't even put it into words! Deciding what shape to form the bread was hard, so many options, and the very first time to try any one of them! After some debating I decided to form two boules (bread bowls). The instructions/the recipe was a very descriptive one, THANK GOODNESS!!! I really appreciated all the description and was so thankful for the tips from the experience of Sarah and Mary!! To see the full recipe, visit THIS LINK courtesy of Mary. If you are ready to get inspired by some beautiful bread check out the DARING BAKER'S BLOGROLL.


Gettin' ready for the FIRST RISE..


WOO HOO!!!! Now that's RISEN!


Gettin' ready for the SECOND RISE...

Mine could have MOST DEFINITELY been more golden, and more neatly shaped & formed, but I had a blast putting the first notch in my bread-baking belt. Now the ice has been broken and I very much look forward to baking bread again and again and many, many more times after that! This is the whole reason I joined the ranks of the Daring Bakers. I feel that innovation and creativity can truly be taken to new heights by learning and trying things I never made, and whipping up something I may not have been brave enough to make time for before. So far in my 3 months as a member, I have rolled a roll cake, made meringue with confidence and now I'm BAKING BREAD!!! I look forward to this years challenges, and can not wait to see what is up next!

Crock Pot Beef Stew & my 100th post!

I should actually, more accurately call this Meat & Potatoes Stew, because that is what it is! We had a fantastic Prime Rib, which I promise to stop "talking" about soon...and I used the bones and some meat to make the Beef Stock for this recipe,and added carrot, tomato, etc to the STOCK, but left all that business out of the stew. I don't like the texture of cooked carrots and Nate is not so big on tomatoes or peas- so I thought I keep it super simple and go straight-up old-school meat & potatoes.

This is also the FIRST recipe I've made using my new Christmas-present crock pot!! YAY!! (THANKS MOM!!) It's a 5 1/2 quart WITH A TIMER!! No more RACING home from work, praying the chili didn't overflow (which only happened once, and fortunately I placed the crock just right next to the sink). Ever since the chili-spilly I would always picture Lee rolling on the floor in our dinner, a real Chili-Dog ;)
Never have to worry 'bout that again! WOO HOO! I feel like such a grown-up!

I'll be crockin' much more now that I have more than 2.5 quarts of crock to rock, coming home from a long day at work and having something fabulous all ready to eat is such a fantastic feeling! I think it may torture Leela a little bit during the day to have the whole pad smell like delicious beef, but it's worth it!

This is also a wee milestone for my blog- it's my 100th post!! So enjoy the stew and Cheers to many more hundreds of dishes!



Meat & Potatoes Stew

2-3 Large Russet potatoes,, cleaned, peeled and chopped into big chunks
1/2 a sweet onion chopped
2 lbs beef for stewing
8-10 cups beef stock
Kosher salt, pepper, basil, oregano & garlic salt (all just sprinkled over it to taste)
Chili flakes- just a pinch ;)
3 T cornstarch
1/4 water
1-2 Bread Boule's (we shared one big one!)

Add all ingredients (except cornstarch & water) to crock-pot.
Cook on low for 8 hours.
In a small bowl whisk cornstarch and water until well blended and stir into stew in crock pot. Put the lid back on and cook an additional 30 minutes on low.

Cut the top off the boule and hollow out the center, save the "guts" and chop up the top for dippin'.
Perfect for days like today when the wind is whipping & it is COOOOOLD outside!!

French Toast

Nate has been super sweet to me this weekend (he always is!), so since the time has changed and we got a whole extra hour to sleep I used that extra time to make French toast for our Sunday morning breakfast. I have not made this in AGES, and forgot how much I love it!
Nate had some fried eggs with his and I usually make this with bacon or breakfast sausage, but we didn't have any...



Beth's French Toast

4 Slices wheat bread
2 eggs
softened butter
sugar
cinnamon

Butter both sides of each slice of bread. Lightly coat each buttered side with sugar and cinnamon. In a bowl big enough for a piece of bread, mix the 2 eggs well with a fork. Heat a medium skillet on the stove, on medium head- spray it with non-stick spray. Using the fork dunk the prepared bread slice in the eggs, flip the bread over to make sure it is coated in egg. Place egg'd bread in heated skillet and cook on medium for about 2-3 minutes or until golden brown, flip and do the same on the other side. Repeat for other pieces!
Serve with syrup and powdered sugar.

Cornbread Muffins

On Sunday we kept it very relaxed and I made my CHILI in the crock pot. I've been searching for an awesome homemade cornbread (or corn muffin in this case) recipe for a while and decided to try THIS ONE from PEABODY'S BLOG, pretty much one of my ALL time favorite blogs in the world & they were FANTASTIC. Please use the link for recipe info.




I'll be sticking with this as a great go-to cornbread recipe, I had to add the honey too, it looked to good to resist!

Beer Bread

I have not quite yet become brave enough to whip up some badass bread like some of my fellow bloggers, but fortunately I found this perfect "training wheels" recipe. I did buy some yeast and other bread making goodies, so stay tuned for Beth Baking Bread...coming soon (most likely when I have a long weekend circa Thanksgiving)
As I am sure you've noticed I LIKE BEER, and incorporate it in anything and everything when ever possible, another reason this recipe was screamin' my name.



Beer Bread
3 C. Flour
1 T. Baking Powder
1/4 C. Sugar
1 bottle of beer (I used Pumpkin ale)
2 T. ground flax seed

Combine ingredients, pour into greased loaf pan & bake at 350 for 50 minutes.
Next time I'll make this with regular non-pumpkin beer and add some roasted garlic and some fresh herbs.

Pumpkin Gingerbread

The first thing I've baked with pumpkin this fall, and one of my all-time favorites. This is such a fabulous fall-holiday loaf and makes your whole house smell fantastic while it's baking and cooling! I made this with spiced cream cheese and as always it went FAST!



Beth's Pumpkin Gingerbread
Makes 2 regular loaves or 6 minis
3 C Sugar
1 C Oil
4 Eggs
2/3 C Room temp water
1 15oz Can pumpkin puree
3 tsp ground ginger
1 1/2 tsp Allspice
1 tsp cinnamon
1 1/2 tsp cloves
3 1/2 C flour
2 tsp baking soda
1 1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking powder
1 T molasses

Prepare loaf pans by lightly greasing and flouring.
Mix oil and sugar until combined, add eggs one at a time and mix well. Add pumpkin, water and spices & mix well. In a large bowl sift together flour baking soda, salt and baking powder, slowly add to pumpkin mix until well combined. Add molasses & mix.
Pour into prepared loaf pans and bake at 350 for about 1 hour or until shish kabob stick comes out clean.
Serve with spiced cream cheese.

Spiced Cream Cheese
1 8oz package cream cheese, softened
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp ginger
1/2 tsp cloves
1/2 tsp all spice

Mix all until well combined.

Zucchini Bread

I had never had this before, and quite frankly I did not think I would like it. Nate convinced me & he shredded up all the zucchini and we made a few loaves of zucchini bread. I do like it, but it's just not my fave, it was fun to make something new and different though!




We sort of improvised the recipe but got tips from several reviews on ALL RECIPES

3 c. flour
1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp nutmeg
3 large eggs
1/2 c. oil
1/2 c. no sugar added apple sauce
2 T. vanilla
1 c. loose brown sugar
1 c. white sugar
2 c. shredded zucchini
1 c. chopped walnuts

Grease 2 regular loaf pans
Preheat oven to 325

In medium bowl sift together flour, salt, baking powder,baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg. In separate bowl cream eggs, sugars, vanilla, oil, applesauce until well combined. Sift & mix in dry ingredients until well combined. Fold in zucchini using spatula or wooden spoon, stir in walnuts.
Pour into prepared pans, bake 40-50 minutes or until a knife (or shish-kabob stick) comes out clean.