Pinterest Recipe Trial #3: Pumpkin Zucchini Bread (Muffins)

You may have noticed the change in URL. I bought my domain name. Yeah that happened.

In other news, the fact that I am single again will surprise 0% of the people who pay attention to this blog (hi mom). I'm going to go out on a limb here, and assume that we are all OK with this new development, because unfortunately:

Stef with boyfriend = Stef that is boring

My friends thought it would be comical to set me up with a pint of ice cream and a few chocolate bars. This of course to facilitate the immediate satisfaction, followed by the intense regret for eating your emotions that is socially expected of someone in such a situation.



Funny? Or just a bunch of assholes?

I woke up this morning, drank a copious amount of coffee, and figured it was about time I did another Pinterest recipe trial. Now that it's November, I also wanted to use up the pumpkin in the pantry, and put the fall pumpkin craze to bed for another year. Goodbye Starbucks pumpkin spice latte, you're a little full of yourself anyway.


INGREDIENTS

3 eggs
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup sugar
1 cup oil
1 tablespoon vanilla
1 cup canned pumpkin
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
1 cup grated zucchini


DIRECTIONS

1) Preheat oven to 350F. The recipe says that this makes two loaves. Sure doesn't. Prepare one loaf pan by greasing and flouring the bottom only. After realizing I wasn't going to get two loaves out of this I lined a muffin pan with some obnoxious jack-o-lantern muffin cups. You could also just make all muffins and no loaf.

2) In stand up mixer combine the two sugars and the eggs. Then add the pumpkin and the vanilla. Mix well.

3) In a separate bowl combine the dry ingredients; flour, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, and salt. Add to the mixer and mix until combined. Stir in the zucchini.

4) Now here's where the improvisation comes in. I filled the loaf pan about 2/3 thirds full. Then the remaining batter gave me 10 muffins. I baked the muffins for 25 minutes, and the loaf for approximately 60 minutes.



 

I have to warn you, this loaf/these muffins are not moist at all (said in most sarcastic voice of all time). I can't even explain to you how much awesome is in my kitchen right now, and it's not just because I'm in here.

Recipe adapted from: http://www.sixsistersstuff.com/2011/10/pumpkin-zucchini-bread.html

March's Special Feature: Alisa's Banana Bread

I'm really excited about this month's special feature recipe. It comes from my friend and team mate Alisa who made this for a team snack at this year's Canadian Championships. I always enjoy sampling other people's baking, and was so pleasantly surprised by the unexpected flavor in this banana bread. I knew it was something citrus and immediately turned to Alisa to ask what the secret ingredient was. She said "orange rind"! I'm telling you, this is delightful for a nice change up to plain old banana bread.

From Anne Lindsay's Light-Hearted Cooking


INGREDIENTS
1/4 cup soft margerine
3/4 cup granulated sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup mashed ripe bananas (about 3)
1 teaspoon orange zest
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 cup buttermilk


DIRECTIONS

1) Preheat oven to 350F and spray a 9-inch loaf pan with cooking spray. In a bowl, cream the margarine. Add the sugar and beat well. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in vanilla, banana and orange zest.

2) In a medium bowl combine the flour, baking powder, and baking soda. Add to the egg mixture alternately with the buttermilk.

3) Bake for 40 minutes or until loaf springs back when touched or a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Let cool in pan for 10 minutes. Remove from pan and cool on rack. Enjoy :)

Pinterest Recipe Trial #1: Almond Poppyseed Loaf

Here it is, my first time trying a baking recipe that I found on pinterest. This one caught my eye for a few reasons:

1) Loaves are my favorite thing to bake.
2) I love poppy seeds and that's alright because I'm never going to make it to the Olympics.
3) It comes with a glaze.

Before finalizing my decision I skimmed the ingredients to make sure there was nothing weird that I would have to go out of my way to get. I did not however read the directions. And that is where the fun began...


INGREDIENTS

Loaf

3 cups flour

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

3 eggs

1 1/8 cups cooking oil

2 1/4 cups sugar

1 1/2 cups milk

1 1/2 tablespoons poppy seeds

1 1/2 teaspoons almond extract

1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla

1 1/2 teaspoons butter flavoring extract (or 1 1/2 teaspoons melted butter can be substituted)

Glaze
 

1/4 cup orange juice

3/4 cup sugar

1/2 teaspoon almond extract

1/2 teaspoon vanilla

1/2 teaspoon butter flavor extract (or 1 1/2 teaspoons melted butter can be substituted)

DIRECTIONS

Preheat oven to 350F. Then I shit you not, it says "mix all the ingredients together". I'm sorry in what world do we bake like this? It sure would explain why the ingredients list doesn't even make an attempt at a meaningful order. Since I actually know how to bake, I created directions as follows:

1) In mixer, combine eggs and sugar. Once blended smooth, mix in the oil (is that extra 1/8 of a cup really necessary?), vanilla, almond extract and melted butter. Do not use butter flavor extract, use the real thing.

2) In a separate bowl combine the flour, salt, baking powder and poppy seeds. Add to the wet ingredients alternating with the milk. Grease and flour the bottoms only of two loaf pans and pour in batter.

3) Turns out this took about 70 minutes to bake. Cool at least 10 minutes before removing from the pan.

4) For the glaze, combine all the ingredients in a sauce pan. I didn't have orange juice so I was like, "what up citrus five alive in my fridge". Heat until the sugar has dissolved. Follow glazing instructions for lemon pound cake.




Receiving glaze...

Well, on a scale of repulsive to "jizz in my pants" I rate this as mediocre. The texture was fluffy and edges crunchy and sufficiently calorie soaked, but the flavor was nothing to write home about. I was actually surprised at how light it was as I was expecting it to be super rich. There is an element of danger here because you could probably eat a lot without you're body warning you that you've had too much.

Link to the original recipe on pinterest.


TESTIMONIALS

Sue (Mom): "Your lemon loaf is f***ing amazing :D"

It's not lemon...

"Oh, why did I think it was lemon? Guess it was the poppyseeds lol. All I know is it was moist and delicious!"

Zucchini Bread

I was studying and got distracted by the urge to post a recipe. I also just drank half a bottle of wine.

The reason I decided to make a zucchini bread is simple. Ryan's mom gave me a ton of vegetables from their garden; carrots, potatoes, spaghetti squash, beets, and of course zucchini. What an interesting sensation that opening the fridge and finding food is.

Now I'm not really a huge fan of zucchini in general so I figured why not try a zucchini bread? This recipe is definitely good but I found that the cinnamon stole the show. The recipe calls for three teaspoons and I have left it at that however, you may wish to try using only two. Or, aim for three cups of zucchini if you can to increase the zucchini flavor (and density).


INGREDIENTS

3 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
3 teaspoons ground cinnamon
3 eggs
1 cup vegetable oil
2 1/4 cups sugar
3 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 cups grated zucchini
1 cup chopped walnuts


DIRECTIONS

1) Preheat oven to 325F. Grease and flour two loaf pans. If you're like me and only have one loaf pan, it really makes life difficult. I have to bake one, wash the pan and then bake the second one. If you think that is sad, you should see the condition of my spatula.

2) Combine flour, salt, baking powder, baking soda, and cinnamon together in a bowl.

3) Beat the eggs, oil, vanilla, and sugar together in stand up mixer. Add the dry ingredients and beat well. Stir in the zucchini and nuts until combined. Pour the batter into pan(s).

4) Bake for 40 - 60 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean. Cool in pan for about 20 minutes or until you can't wait any longer. Remove from the pan. Follow cooling and slicing procedure for Banana Bread.

Note: Please make sure to leave the skin of the zucchini on. This is what gives it the nice flecks of green within. Also, do not squeeze the moisture out of the zucchini.


13/10/13 - Today I made this loaf and used 2 teaspoons of cinnamon. I highly recommend this. Was also feeling the need to jazz it up a little bit, so I decided to drizzle it with a maple glaze.

Maple Glaze

1/2 teaspoon maple extract
1 cup icing sugar
milk (as much as required for desired consistency

Combine all and drizzle over the top!

Lemon Pound Cake

One day I had an intense craving for pound cake for which I cannot explain. I stumbled upon this simple yet awesome recipe. Be warned, this is not for you if you are having a fat day. Go find yourself a low-fat oatmeal cookie or something.

13/03/13: Just discovered that this freezes beautifully. I thawed it in the fridge and then gave it a few seconds in the microwave to take the chill off. I recommend baking this, eating a piece or five, and then immediately freezing it to avoid devouring the whole loaf.


INGREDIENTS

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 cup butter, softened

1 cup sugar, plus 1/3 cup

4 eggs

2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

1/4 cup lemon juice, plus 1/3 cup

DIRECTIONS

1) Preheat the oven to 350F. Grease and flour bottom only of a loaf pan. In a bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, and salt.

2) In stand up mixer, cream the butter. Add 1 cup of the sugar and beat. With the mixer running at low speed, add the eggs one at a time. Add the vanilla.

3) Working in alternating batches, and mixing after each addition, add the dry ingredients and 1/4 cup of the lemon juice to the butter mixture. Mix until just smooth. Pour into the pan and bake until toothpick inserted into the center comes out dry and almost clean. Between 65 and 75 minutes.

4) In a small bowl, stir together the remaining 1/3 cup sugar and the remaining 1/3 cup lemon juice until the sugar is dissolved. When the cake is done, let it cool in the pan for 10 minutes. Run a knife around the sides of the pan. Set a wire rack on a sheet pan with sides (to catch the glaze) and turn the cake out onto the rack.

5) Obviously this cake is lacking calories, so you should probably glaze the shit out of it. Using a pastry brush, spread the glaze all over the top, bottom, and sides of the cake and let it soak in. Give'r until all the glaze is used up, and half of it is sprayed across your counter.

I just noticed that the original recipe says "serve at room temperature, in thin slices". Good thing I just cut myself an effing wedge. I recommend serving this with strawberries, or some other fruit that doesn't judge you on your poor life choices.

Banana Bread

I know what you're thinking "big deal, its just a banana bread recipe" - WRONG. This is banana bread that gets people into trouble when they tell their mothers that my banana bread is the best they have ever had. I use baking to make friends and impress men, and this is a "go-to" because its easy. Who doesn't have bananas in their freezer at any given time?

Here it is:

INGREDIENTS
1 1/4 cups sugar
1/2 cup butter, softened
2 eggs
1 1/2 cups mashed very ripe bananas (don't measure, just use 4) 
1/2 cup buttermilk *
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt

* I will now share with you an earth shattering baking tip. Buttermilk, sour cream, and plain yogurt can be used interchangeably with ANY recipe. Substitutes are exactly one-to-one. I use which ever of the three I happen to have in my fridge at the time.


DIRECTIONS

1) Heat oven to 350°F. Grease and flour bottom only of 1 loaf pan, 9x5x3 inches. People wonder how I get the bottom of the banana bread to taste almost (yes almost) as good as the top. I use Pam and flour to grease the bottom.

2) Mix sugar and butter in your stand-up mixer (if you don't have one, that's unfortunate, its a gift from god). Add eggs and mix until well blended. Add bananas, buttermilk and vanilla. Beat until smooth. Stir in flour, baking soda and salt just until moistened. Pour into pan.

3) Bake about 1 1/4 hours, although I find it usually takes a little bit longer than this. Maybe it's just my oven. Just make sure to do the toothpick test. When you stick it in the center, it should come out clean. Cool 10 minutes before attempting to remove it from the pan. You should probably wait until it has completely cooled before you try to slice it, but who does that? When you decide to slice it when its still hot, know that you are going to make a bit of a mess of it. Just try not to get angry, eat the imperfect slices right away and you'll be fine.

 

I have to tell you about this one time that I only had three frozen bananas. I thought I was hooped because I've always believed that fresh bananas just did not have the necessary flavor for a wicked banana bread. I took a chance, and threw in one recently purchased banana (not green, but definitely not on the ripe side). The finished product blew my mind. My brother (baking critic) just about lost his shit over it. He said he could actually taste the different bananas within it and thus, the depth of flavor was extraordinary.