I have to admit it is hard for me to pass up a recipe for bread that contains cranberries and orange. So needless to say, when I saw Cathy Soto's recipe in her Home Cooking with the Moyer Family cookbook, I didn't pass it up.
And once again, I wasn't disappointed in the results. Since I was making it for my husband, Wayne, and me, I decided to make it in two mini pans instead of one 9 x 5 - inch loaf pan. We ate one and I froze the other one. (It didn't stay frozen too long though.)
Click here for a printable version of just the recipe.
CRANBERRY-ORANGE BREAD
2 cup flour
1 cup quick oats, uncooked
3/4 cup sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup orange juice
2 eggs
1/3 cup oil
1 tablespoon grated orange peel (I use the dried orange peel)
3/4 cup chopped cranberries
1/2 cup chopped nuts
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease and flour bottom only of a 9 x 5 - inch loaf or two mini loaf pans.
Combine the flour, oats, sugar, baking powder, and salt with a whisk;
Using a spoon, spread mixture to make a "hole" in the center; set aside.
Beat orange juice, eggs, oil, and orange peel until mixed thoroughly.
Add liquid mixture to dry ingredients (make sure you get all that orange peel),
mixing just until moistened.
Stir in cranberries and nuts.
Pour batter into prepared pan(s).
Bake 60 to 70 minutes or until wooden toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. (I baked the mini loaves between 45 and 50 minutes.)
Cool 10 minutes in pan(s) on wire rack.
Remove from pan(s) and cool completely on rack.
Wrap in foil. Can eat one and freeze the other one.
Most people might not think about making a Key Lime Pound Cake this time of the year. Guess it is good I'm not like most people. I know a number of volunteers at the thrift shop and my friend Fran who are also glad.
I love just about anything Key Lime any time of the year. I know Key Lime Pie is probably what you usually think about though not a pound cake. This pound cake was so easy and was in Anne Byrne's cookbook, The Cake Mix Doctor Returns!
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KEY LIME POUND CAKE
1 package plain yellow, vanilla, or white cake mix (No pudding in the mix)
1 package (4-serving size) vanilla instant pudding mix
1/2 cup key lime juice
1/2 cup water
1/2 cup sweetened condensed milk
1 stick (1/2 cup) butter, at room temperature
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
4 large eggs
1 cup powdered sugar, sifted
1-1/2 tablespoons key lime juice
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. lightly mist a 12 - cup Bundt pan with nonstick cooking spray, then lightly dust it with flour. Shake out any excess flour.
Place the cake mix, pudding mix, lime juice, water, condensed milk, butter, vanilla, and eggs in a large mixing bowl.
With the mixer on low(stir), mix ingredients for 30 seconds. Scrape the sides of the bowl and
then increase the speed to medium and beat 1-1/2 more minutes. Scrape the sides of the bowl again.
Pour batter into cake pan and smooth out the top.
Bake in the center of the oven for 47 to 52 minutes until cake is golden brown and springs back when lightly pressed with fingers.
Cool cake in pan on wire rack for 10 to 15 minutes.
Run a sharp knife around the edges of cake and
remove cake from pan by placing another wire rack over pan and flipping it.
Prepare the glaze by whisking the powdered sugar and lime juice together in a small bowl.
Stir til smooth.
Transfer the cake onto serving plate and
spoon the glaze over the warm cake.
We were hit Sunday with the worse winter storm we have had in three years. We had what the weather people call "white-out" conditions. My husband Wayne measured after a couple of hours and measured 3 inches of snow. Monday afternoon when I had to clean off my car so we could run an errand, there was definitely more than 3 inches on the top of my car. I think we ended up getting 6 inches. Schools were closed Monday, hundreds of wrecks were reported; it was bad. Since I was scheduled to work one of the registers at the thrift yesterday morning, I decided to use our four ripening bananas and make this Banana Sour Cream Loaf to take to share with the other volunteers and staff, thinking there wouldn't be any problems getting out since we had made it out to run our errand.
Well, was I wrong. I never heard if it actually got as low (single digit) as it was forecasted, but we weren't able to get out of our subdivision yesterday morning. There was still plenty of snow in the streets and then with what had melted Monday froze with no traffic during the night, we were stuck in. So I ended up calling the shop and telling them I wouldn't be coming in and now I have three delicious loaves still wrapped in foil waiting to be enjoyed. (I did eat a slice from one of them just cause.) (See pictures at the bottom of the post from our front steps.)
I love making "breads" the day before, wrapping them in foil while they are still warm, and then cutting them the next day. They are so moist that way. This bread is beautiful when cut and really tasty. I don't drink coffee, but for those of you who do, it is just what a cup of coffee calls for. Hopefully I can make it over to the thrift shop today or tomorrow and take the loaves.
Click here for a printable version of just the recipe.
BANANA SOUR CREAM LOAF
2/3 cup butter
1-1/4 cups sugar
2 eggs
1-1/2 cups mashed banana
2-1/4 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup sour cream (I used lite sour cream)
1 cup chopped nuts (I used walnuts)
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease or spray two 8 x 4 - inch loaf pans or three smaller pans with cooking spray.
Cream butter and sugar together in a large mixing bowl.
Add eggs and bananas,
beat until smooth. Scrape the sides of the bowls as necessary.
Sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.
Add dry mixture alternately with sour cream to banana mix, starting and ending with dry mixture;
blend well.
Fold in nuts.
Divide batter between loaf pans.
Bake until the loaves test done when inserted with a toothpick in the center. I made three small loaves and baked them about 50 minutes. Larger loaves will probably bake 55 to 60 minutes.
Recipe used a 9 x 5 - inch loaf pan and said to bake 55 to 65 minutes. The batter almost filled my pan and I was afraid the loaf would run over the top of the pan and made three loaves in my Pyrex loaf pans that are about 4 x 6 - inches.
Cool in pans for 10 minutes on wire rack. Run a knife around the edges before removing from pans.
Finish cooling on wire racks.
Wrap in foil. Can freeze extra loaves or share with friends.
Here are some pictures I took during the storm Sunday afternoon from our front step:
My husband Wayne walked up the stairs to the kitchen, saw the cookies cooling on the harvest table on a wire rack, and said, "Oh, you made cookies." After picking one up to eat, he said, "This is the second best cookie you have ever made after the Clinton Chips." I can't believe he still remembers those cookies. It has been quite a while since I made them. Guess I need to surprise him and make them and see if they are still his all-time favorite cookie.
In the meantime, you will just have to try his second favorite cookie. I love the name of these cookies and wish I knew why nine-year old Chelsea Humerickhouse called them that. I found the recipe in the Home Cooking With The Moyer Family cookbook. Chelsea's mother Cathy (Early) Soto compiled the recipes from the Moyer Family for the cookbook. I wish she had included a family tree to see the relationships of everyone who included recipes with William Edward Everett Moyer (6.8.1859 - 6.25.1930) and his wife Ellen Elizabeth Kochenower (10.11.1861 - ?)
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PUDDLE JUMPERS
(CHOCOLATE COOKIES)
3/4 cups (1-1/2 sticks) butter, softened (room temperature)
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar, packed
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 egg
2 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 (10-ounce) bag candy coated M & M's (1-1/4 cups)
1/4 cup baking cocoa
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
Stir butter, sugars, vanilla, and egg in a large bowl until mixed.
Stir in flour, cocoa, and baking soda.
Stir in candies.
Drop dough using a cookie scoop and place about 2 - inches apart on ungreased cookie sheet.
Bake 12 to 15 minutes or until set.
Cool 1 minute before taking cookies off cookie sheet.
Made almost 5 dozen cookies.
Personal notes: Substitute Reece's Pieces for a peanut butter taste. The chocolate cookie is so delicious, you will want to try other substitutions if you don't want to use the M & M's. Store the cookies in an air tight container. If they get hard, place a slice of bread in the container to soften them.
Last week I worked at the thrift shop on Monday but it was one of the few times I didn't take something for the volunteers to enjoy. It was a crazy weekend and I just was too lazy Sunday afternoon or night to make anything. There was only one volunteer who asked me what I brought when she saw me. I felt really bad when I had to explain I didn't bring anything. Needless to say, I made sure I made something Sunday afternoon this week.
I had found the recipe for these scrumptious looking pumpkin muffins in the November, 2006 issue of Cooking Light magazine Friday when I was looking for recipes for sweet potatoes to take to our family Thanksgiving dinner with our younger son Patrick and his family. They looked so good and a note with the recipe said you could prepare the muffins up to two days ahead which sounded perfect.
Well, I wasn't disappointed with the results and neither were the volunteers. The recipe said it made 18 muffins, but I had so much batter left over after filling one pan of 12 regular size cups that I just decided to make mini-muffins too. So I made 12 regular muffins and 24 mini-muffins.
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Click here for a printable version of just the recipe.
PUMPKIN MUFFINS
2-1/4 cups flour
2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice
1-1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup dried cranberries
1 cup packed brown sugar
1 cup canned pumpkin
1/3 cup buttermilk
1/3 cup oil
1/4 cup molasses
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 large eggs
Cooking spray
sugar
Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Spray muffin tins with cooking spray. (Recipe can make 12 regular size muffins + 24 mini-muffins or 24 regular size muffins)
Combine flour, pumpkin pie spice, baking soda, ginger, and salt in a large mixing bowl. stirring well with a whisk.
Stir in dried cranberries, make a well in center of mixture. (I separate the dried cranberries to make sure there are no clumps of berries.)
Combine brown sugar, canned pumpkin, buttermilk, oil, molasses, vanilla, and eggs,
stirring well with a whisk.
Add sugar mixture to flour mixture,
stir just until moist.
Spoon batter into muffin tins.
(I have an ice cream scoop that hold 1/4 cup that I used for the regular size muffin tins and I used my cookie scoop for the mini-muffins. I had a little batter left so I added a little to each one and smoothed it out with a spoon.)
Sprinkle tops of muffins with sugar.
Bake regular muffins about 15 minutes (check doneness with toothpick in center of one of the muffins) and about 10 minutes for mini-muffins.
Remove immediately from tins to cool on wire rack.
The mini-muffins...
Combine the flour, oats, sugar, baking powder, and salt with a whisk; 
Using a spoon, spread mixture to make a "hole" in the center; set aside.
Beat orange juice, eggs, oil, and orange peel until mixed thoroughly.
Add liquid mixture to dry ingredients (make sure you get all that orange peel), 
mixing just until moistened. 
Stir in cranberries and nuts.
Pour batter into prepared pan(s).
Bake 60 to 70 minutes or until wooden toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. (I baked the mini loaves between 45 and 50 minutes.)
Cool 10 minutes in pan(s) on wire rack. 
Remove from pan(s) and cool completely on rack. 
