BLUEBERRY COCONUT MUFFINS

 I may not be baking much the last few weeks, but the quality of what I have been making has certainly been making up for it. So far this year I have been making Saturday morning breakfast special with something fresh from the oven. I have no idea why I thought to do this, but I think Wayne and I are both happy I did. Friday night  before we went to bed, I picked up Volume Two of my The American Country Inn and Bed & Breakfast Cookbook. I opened it about in the middle where I had the pages bookmarked with my expired driver's license. 

There were three recipes on the left-side page - - Peach-Oatmeal Bread, Pecan Corn Bread, and Blueberry Coconut Muffins. On the right-side page were recipes for Bread Pudding with Blueberry Sauce, Lemon Poppy Seed Bread, and Fillet of Sole Webster. I had to check out several of the recipes because they sounded so good. BUT the Blueberry Coconut Muffins had me at Blueberries and Coconut.

AND WE WERE NOT DISAPPOINTED AT ALL!!!!

BLUEBERRY COCONUT MUFFINS

1-3/4     cups flour

1/2        teaspoon salt

3           teaspoons baking powder

2/3        cup sugar

     *     *     *

1           egg

2/3        cup milk

1/4        cup oil

1           teaspoon vanilla extract

     *     *     *

1           cup blueberries (I used frozen wild blueberries)

1/2        cup flaked coconut (I used unsweetened flaked coconut)

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Spray a 12-cups muffin tin. Set aside.

In a large bowl, mix the flour, salt, baking powder, and sugar with a whisk. Set aside.

In a separate bowl, beat the egg.

Then whisk in the milk, oil, and vanilla.

Add the liquid ingredients to the dry ingredients.

Stir just until the flour mixture is moistened.

Carefully stir in the blueberries and coconut.

(Because I used frozen berries, they did "bleed" into the batter, but that didn't bother me.)

Divide the batter evenly among the 12 muffin cups.

Bake for 20 to 25 minutes.

Enjoy warm

with a little butter.

BANANA LEMON BREAD

 I have made a lot of different Banana Bread recipes, but I think this is my first Banana Lemon Bread. I had four bananas that weren't super ripe, but ripe enough to make some bread. I used bottled lemon juice and dried lemon peel. The recipe was supposed to make two loaves or one Bundt pan cake. No size was given for the two loaves, but I decided to make three loaves using my pyrex loaf pans that are 6 x 4 - inches . That worked out well. I made one loaf for us to eat now, one loaf I froze, and one loaf I took to my neighbor Sara for her birthday.

The recipe came from the Victoria Place Bed & Breakfast in Lawai, Kauai, Hawaii.

BANANA LEMON BREAD

1/2     cup butter (1 stick)

1        cup sugar

2        eggs, beaten

2        cups mashed ripe bananas (about 4 large ones)

6        tablespoons lemon juice

2        cups flour

1        tablespoon baking soda

3        tablespoons grated lemon peel

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Spray or grease 2 loaf pans, 1 Bundt pan, or 3 larger size mini loaf pans (6 x 4 - inches) .

In a large bowl cream together the butter and sugar.

Blend in the eggs, bananas, and juice.

Stir in the dry ingredients that you have mixed together with a whisk.

Pour the batter into the pans and

bake for 1 hour unless you are making the 3 loaves. I baked mine 45 minutes. Cool in pans on wire racks for a few minutes and

then remove to finish cooling.

I decided to make a small amount of powdered sugar glaze and spooned over the top of the warm loaves. (a little powdered sugar with lemon juice)

PEACHY PEACH COBBLER

 Since peach cobbler is one of our favorite desserts, I have a handful of recipes for it in various forms. Wayne always liked one I made that didn't have much juice because he grew up eating "dry" cobblers. I, on the other hand, grew up loving juicy cobblers.

At a recent estate sale, Janice and I sat for a while going through the owner's mass collection of cookbooks. I am usually looking for Amish cookbooks and  cookbooks from diners, cafes, or famous locations. I always look twice through cookbooks from B & B's, but the Volume Two of the American Country Inn and Bed & Breakfast Cookbook didn't need a second look. Just seeing the title was enough for me. I already had Volume One and have made so many recipes from it. Volume Two is interesting because it has recipes for other dishes such as desserts and veggies and main courses. I am sure I will be just as successful with Volume Two as I have been with Volume One.

Image my delight when I found this recipe for Peachy Peach Cobbler! And on page 25!

I had some fresh peaches that I had frozen in my freezer when the door was left open a crack overnight and I needed to use them. The bag originally had 6 cups of sliced peaches in it but I had removed some for another recipe earlier. This recipe called for 2 cups, but I didn't measure what I had left. They filled the bottom of my baking dish, so I didn't concern myself with the amount. It might not have been quite 2 cups, but the cobbler tasted so good and Wayne loved it also. The topping is different from my other recipes. I especially liked it with the taste of my "fresh" peaches.

PEACHY PEACH COBBLER

2       cups peeled and sliced peaches

Dash allspice

Sugar to taste

     *     *     *     *

3/4     cups sugar

3        tablespoons butter

1        teaspoon baking powder

1/4     teaspoon salt

1/2     cup milk

1        cup flour

     *     *     *     *

1        cup sugar (I used about 3/4 cup)

1        tablespoon cornstarch

     *     *     *     *

2/3     cup boiling water

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. 

Toss the peaches with the allspice and sugar to taste. (Since my peaches were thawed, I just sprinkled the peaches with the allspice and about a tablespoon of sugar.) in the baking dish. Arrange the peaches in the bottom of an 11 x 7 - inch pan.

Combine the sugar, baking powder, salt, and flour with a whisk.

Add the milk and melted butter. Stir til well blended.

Spread the mixture over the peaches.

Combine the sugar and cornstarch and sprinkle the mixture on top of the batter.

Pour the boiling water over all.

Bake for 45 minutes.

Cool and serve warm or cold. Tastes good with ice cream or without. 

Store covered in the refrigerator.

GRAPE NUTS MUFFINS

 We had temperatures in the 60 for several days after we got back from our road trip to visit extended family in Arkansas, Louisiana, and Florida. Then it shot up to the 90s. Everyone feels like we didn't have a spring and we just went to summer. We had a lot of rain before we left, but not much since we got back. Still trying to get back into the swing of things.

I guess one thing that is fairly easy for me to continue is making something special for breakfast on Saturday. Last week I waited until Saturday morning to find something, but I woke up earlier than I have been so it didn't delay us too much. It helped when I found a super easy and fast recipe for these Grape Nuts Muffins from Vol II of The American Country Inn and Bed & Breakfast Cookbook I recently got. 

It also helped that I had a ziplock bag of 1-1/2 cups of the cereal that I had saved from another muffin that I made using the cereal. Wayne liked this muffin better. He liked that the cereal was hard and crunchy. The other recipe had you soak the cereal in buttermilk first. Since we liked the muffins so much, I'm especially glad that I mad 17 muffins instead of 12 as the recipe said.

GRAPE NUTS MUFFINS

1-1/4     cups flour (I used half all-purpose and half whole wheat flour.)

3           teaspoons baking powder

1/2        teaspoon salt (optional) (I did omit.)

1/2        cup sugar

1-1/4     cups milk

1-1/2     cups Grape Nuts cereal

1           egg

1/3        cup oil

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Spray muffin tins to make 12- 17 muffins. Set aside.

In a large bowl combine the dry ingredients with a whisk and then

add the milk, egg, and oil and stir with a wooden spoon.

Fill the muffin cups.

Bake for 25 minutes.

Cool briefly before removing the muffins with the help of a knife. Taste great with a slather of butter.

I made the extra 5 muffins in a 6 - cup muffin tin. If you end up not using all of the cups, pour some water in the empty cup(s) so that the muffins will cook evenly. You place some of them in a ziplock freezer bag and freeze for later.

BLUEBERRY PIE/COBBLER

 Today you are in for a treat! I have two recipes in one for you. If you want to make a blueberry pie you can do that. If you prefer a blueberry cobbler, you got it, you can make that. It is also a day to show how you can turn something good out of something bad.

It all started the other morning when Wayne told me that he had not closed the freezer door completely the night before when he got some sherbet so some of the things were thawed when he realized that morning what had happened. Not everything in the freezer had thawed which was good. The main thing that had thawed were fresh fruit I had frozen and the sherbet, of course. Fortunately we have a half-size chest freezer in the garage, so it was just a matter of carrying the items downstair to the garage and the other freezer. When I was carrying the gallon bag of blueberries down the stairs, I realized I was dripping berry juice all down the stairs. This was all bad.

But the something good was Sunday when I was looking for a recipe to make to take to Hillcrest Thrift Shop the next morning for the volunteers, I only looked for recipes using blueberries and a lot of blueberries at that.

Most of the recipe just used a cup which was not going to make a dent in my gallon bag of blueberries. Finally I found a recipe for Blueberry Cobbler that sounded good, but it called for canned blueberry pie filling. That would defeat my purpose! As I looked further, I found a recipe for Fresh Blueberry Pie and guess what? It called for 5 cups of fresh blueberries. Eureka! (which mean "I have found it.")

So I set out to make a blueberry pie but instead of putting the blueberry mixture in a pie shell, I would go back to the other recipe and make a cobbler. It worked fantastically! Everyone raved about it at the shop the next morning! It really did taste delicious. SOOOOO you have the choice now to make a pie or a cobbler! I will leave it up to you.

BLUEBERRY PIE/COBBLER

3/4     cup sugar

3        tablespoons cornstarch

1/8     teaspoon salt

1/4     cup cold water

5        cups fresh blueberries, divided (I used fresh blueberries that I had frozen.)

1        tablespoon butter

1        tablespoon lemon juice

     *     *     *     * 

(1 pastry shell ( 9 inches) baked - if making a pie)

     *     *     *     *

1/2     cup butter, softened

3        ounces cream cheese, softened

2        teaspoons vanilla extract

1        yellow cake mix with no pudding added (I used a sugar-free yellow cake mix.)

In a saucepan combine the sugar, cornstarch, and salt with a whisk till smooth.

Over medium heat, add the water and

stir til smooth. 

Add 3 cups blueberries and bring mixture to a boil.

Cook and stir for 2 minutes or

until thickened and bubbly. Remove from the heat.

Add the butter, lemon juice, and remaining 2 cups of berries and

stir until butter is melted. Cool. 

If you are making a pie, pour cooled mixture into a pastry shell that you baked and allowed to cool. Refrigerate until serving.

For the cobbler,

Grease or spray a 9 x 13 - inch baking dish.

Pour the pie filling into a  dish. Bake in a preheated 350 degrees F oven for 5 - 7 minutes or until heated through. You can simply pour the pie filling you made into the greased pan without cooling it. I placed the filled pan in the oven while it was preheating and I was mixing up the dough for the cobbler so it would stay hot.

In a mixing bowl, cream the butter, cream cheese, and vanilla til smooth. Empty the dry cake mix in another bowl and

cut in the cream cheese mixture using a big fork until crumbly.

Sprinkle the crumbly mixture over the hot pie filling

and bake 25 to 30 minutes or until topping is golden brown. 

You can add some ice cream if you like or it can be enjoyed cold just by itself. (The way the volunteers enjoyed it at the thrift shop.)