Cranberry Muffins from a Basic Batter: Breakfast Is Served

Cranberry Muffins from a Basic Batter:  Breakfast Is Served

Hi everybody :)

Before I get started today...

 Make A Difference:  Justice for Brandon C. Jackson

I like to call your attention to the new widget I have on the top left side of my blog. It's about the injustice treatment of Brandon C. Jackson. I don't know him, but his story have touched my heart.  I like to implore you to take a little time, if you will, to read his story, sign his petition and pass it along.  

"Welcome to another Breakfast Is Served Sunday!" If you're just tuning  in to my post, every Sunday I post a Breakfast Is Served. Last week breakfast Cherry Berry Crescent Rolls was made from a Basic Roll Dough  today's post is made from a base recipe too. This basic muffin batter can be use to create whatever flavor of muffins you desired. I love recipes like these, I'm sure you will too. Now, let's get it started...
                BASIC MUFFIN BATTER  adapted   The Woman 's Day Cookbook: Great Recipes, Bright Ideas, And Healthy Choices for Today's Cook
 
 Makes 12 muffins

Preparation time: 10 minutes
Baking time 17 minutes plus cooling

2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter or margarine, room temperature
1/2 cup granulated sugar
2 large eggs
1/2 cup buttermilk
I added  1 teaspoon lemon zest
 
Heat the oven to 375°F. Grease twelve 2 1/2-inch muffin cups or line with foil (not paper) baking cups.

In a small bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.In a large bowl with an electric mixer, beat the butter and sugar until pale and fluffy. Beat in the eggs and buttermilk until blended. Stir in the flour mixture just until blended.

Follow the directions for the variation you have chosen and divide the batter among the muffin cups.
 
Bake for 15 to 17 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of a muffin comes out clean. Set the pan on a wire rack to cool for 5 minutes. Turn the muffins out onto the rack and cool completely.

I divided the batter in half. Did 1/2 Cranberry Muffins, 1/2 Cranberry Up-Down Muffins

I prepared the pan for each half . For Jumbo Muffin see "What I Did ..." section below.

 With filling below, I mix as directed adding 1 teaspoon lemon zest to it. I also added about 3 Tablespoons of Cherry Berries Blend, sniped; to the filling.

  CRANBERRY MUFFINS  

Mix 3/4 cup whole-berry cranberry sauce, 1/4 cup chopped pecans, 2 tablespoons granulated sugar, and 3/4 teaspoon grated nutmeg into the basic batter.

Divide the batter among the muffin cups and top each with 1 pecan half. Bake and cool as directed.

OR  

CRANBERRY UPSIDE-DOWN MUFFINS

Thoroughly grease muffin pan cups (do not line with paper cups). Mix 3/4 cup whole-berry cranberry sauce, 1/4 cup chopped pecans, 2 tablespoons granulated sugar, and 1/4 teaspoon grated nutmeg until well blended.

Divide the mixture among the muffin cups. Press 1 pecan half, top side down, Into the cranberries. Add 1/2 tea- spoon grated nutmeg to the flour in step 2 of the basic batter. Divide the batter among the muffin cups and spread gently to cover the cranberries. Bake as directed. Turn out the muffins after cooling in the pan for 15 minutes.

What I Did and/or Think:
The changes I made are in Bold, Italic, and Purple.

This recipe was designed to make regular-sized muffins, but I like my muffins BIG : )  So I baked these in my jumbo muffin pan at 400 degree for 10 minutes, reduced oven temperature to 350 and baked 15 - 18 more minutes.

The Taste: The taste of these muffin reminds me of pound cake. They were tender and buttery with a nice tangy from the buttermilk and a burst of citrus from the lemon zest addition. I also LOVE the taste of the cranberry filling. Whether you swirled the filling into the batter or  layer the bottom, to produce the lovely up-down-look these muffins would make a wonderful addition to your breakfast table. MOST DEFINITELY REPEAT.

 












ENJOY! Come again...

Linked to:
BYOB @ girlichef: BYOB - Bake Your Own Bread
Scrumptious Sunday Recipe Link Party @ Addicted Recipes 
Nifty Thrifty Sunday  
Everyday Moms Meals 
Think Pink Sunday @ Flamingo Toes Get Your PartyOn
Sweet 2 Eat Baking: Sugar & Slice Sunday  
 Marvelous Mondays @ This Gal Cooks
 The Chicken Chick: Clever Chicks Blog Hop
 Melt In Your Mouth Monday @ Make Ahead Meals for Busy Moms 
Just Something I Whipped Up
Recipe Sharing Monday @ Jam Hands
Jaime @ Mom's Test Kitchen
Carole's Chatter: Muffin & Cupcake Links Food Friday 

Oatmeal Cookie Dough Truffles with Variations

Oatmeal Cookie Dough Truffles with Variations

Hi everybody :)

I'm sharing more cookie dough love today :) This recipe was originally design to be  sandwiched by granola bars like the cookie dough in the Cookie Dough Crispy Treats  yesterday. But, I switched it up a bit to form truffles. Let's get it started...
 
Oatmeal Raisins Cookie Dough adapted The Cookie Dough Lover's Cookbook

1/4 cup (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
2 tablespoons granulated sugar
1/4 cup light brown sugar, packed
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 tablespoon milk or cream  (I added more to combine the dough)
1/2 cup old-fashioned rolled oats
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon (optional)
1/2 cup raisins

To prepare the cookie dough: In a large mixing bowl, beat together butter and sugars with on electric mixer on medium speed until light and fluffy, 2 to 3 minutes. Beat in vanilla and milk. Add oats, flour, salt, and cinnamon (if using and stir until dough comes together in large, dry crumbles. Stir in raisins. (I added more milk until I was add to combine the dough mixture.)
Here's What I Did and/or Think:  

First I like to say this cookie dough is safe to eat also, because it doesn't contains eggs.

The change I made to the recipe was adding more milk or cream to the dough, just until it comes together when pressed with fingers.

This is a great make-ahead recipe so plan ahead so the flavors will get a chance to mellow. The longer it set the better :)
 
To prepare the truffles: Add the additional flavor(s) stated below, to the dough  Shape cookie dough into balls. 

Roll balls into finely chopped nuts or coconut.  Refrigerate or freeze truffles until set, about 30 minutes.

I tripled the recipe,  got about 10 -12 balls per batch, depending on the size; divided them into 3 batches. 

BATCH #1

Bourbon Oatmeal Raisin Cookies Dough Truffles
Prepared Oatmeal Raisin Cookies Dough
1 Tablespoon Bourbon or Spice Rum
Walnuts, toasted and cooled; finely chopped
Cinnamon Sugar, to taste

Mix dough with bourbon,  shape into balls, set aside. Mix walnuts and cinnamon sugar together.  Roll balls in walnut mixture until well coated, place in refrigerator or freezer to set; about 30 minutes.

BATCH #2

Tropical Oatmeal Cookies Dough Truffles
Prepared Oatmeal Cookies Dough (without raisins)
1 Tablespoon lemon juice
1- 2 teaspoon lemon zest
Coconut, toasted and cooled; finely chopped

Mix dough with lemon juice and zest, shape into balls, roll balls in coconut until well coated,
place in refrigerator or freezer to set; about 30 minutes. 

Dried chopped pineapple or mango would be a great replacement for the raisin in this version.

BATCH #3

Praline Caramel Oatmeal Cookies Dough Truffles
Prepared Oatmeal Cookies Dough  (without raisins)
1 Tablespoon Praline Liqueur
18 Caramel candies, unwrapped plus 1 teaspoon water
Pecans, toasted and cooled; finely chopped

Mix dough with liqueur, shape into balls, set aside. Melt caramel and water in microwave for 1 minutes; stir every 30 seconds. Working quickly dipped balls into caramel mixture, one at a time, as you would caramel apples. Toss the balls with pecans, reshape, if needed, place in refrigerator or freezer to set; about 30 minutes.

The Taste: I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE all three variations of the truffles! The lemony-coconut flavors MMM,mmmm ...the bourbon raisins cinnamony walnut flavor; oh my, my and let's not forget the praline pecan liqueur flavored ones coated with caramel and toasted pecan; DELICIOUS! REPEAT as often as possible :)

ENJOY! Come again...
 
Linked to 
Strut Your Stuff Saturday @ Six Sister's Stuff 
The Better Baker Weekend Potluck
Sweet Saturday Link Party: The Gingerbread Blog
Something Swanky: Sweet Treats and Swanky Stuff Saturday 
Sweet 2 Eat Baking: Sugar & Slice Sunday 
Melt In Your Mouth Monday @ Make Ahead Meals for Busy Moms
Jaime @ Mom's Test Kitchen

Cookie Dough Crispy Treats

Cookie Dough Crispy Treats

Hi everybody :)

Sorry about the lateness, but I'm working on some sourdough projects I'll be posting later.

Now to the recipe at hand, Cookie Dough Crispy Treats, who doesn't LOOVVVVE cookie dough??? This recipe is guarantee to make you a cookie dough fan, if you're not one already.  And YES, it's SAFE to eat, because it doesn't contain eggs. I'm sharing the love today, people, let's get it started... 

Cookie Dough Crispy Treats adapted The Cookie Dough Lover's Cookbook

Makes 24 Treats

FOR COOKIE DOUGH:
1/3 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup light brown sugar, packed
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup mini semisweet chocolate chips

FOR THE CRISPY TREATS:
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
12 ounces marshmallows (about 44 regular or 7 cup mini marshmallows)
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
7 cups crisp rice cereal

Grease a 13-by-9-inch baking pan with butter or cooking spray, set aside.

FOR THE COOKIE DOUGH:
In a mixing bowl, beat together butter and sugars with on electric mixer on medium speed until light and fluffy, 2 to 3 minutes. Add vanilla and milk. Mix in flour and salt and beat on low speed (or by hand) until incorporated. Stir in chocolate chips.

FOR THE CRISPY TREATS MIX:
Melt butter and marshmallows together in a large saucepan over low heat, stirring occasionally, until completely melted. Remove from heat, add vanilla. 

Fold in cereal,  stirring until completely coated.
Press half of the cereal mixture into prepared pan.  

 Spread with cookie dough and then top with remaining cereal,

carefully pressing into an even layer with generously buttered hands

Cut into squares. Treats can be stored in refrigerator, use within 3 days

What I Did and/or Think:
The only change I did was drizzled white chocolate over the bars. 

Here's a TIP: I rolled the cookie dough layer out as in the picture below on a lightly floured and powdered sugar surface (another tip for rolled cookie; mix powdered sugar and flour or cocoa for chocolate cookies to roll them out with) then topped and pressed.

The Taste: DELICIOUS of course! as if otherwise :) Definitely a REPEAT!

ENJOY! Come again...




Linked to:

Miss information: I Freakin' Did It Friday 
The Mandatory Mooch Tasty Thursday
Full Plate Thursday @ Miz Helen's Country Cottage
It's a Hodgepodge Friday 
Feature Friday Link Party: Blissful and Domestic
Simply Link Party: Simply Designing
The Better Baker Weekend Potluck
Foodie Fridays @ Designs By Gollum
Strut Your Stuff Saturday @ Six Sister's Stuff 
Something Swanky: Sweet Treats and Swanky Stuff Saturday
Sweet Saturday Link Party: The Gingerbread Blog 
Sweet 2 Eat Baking: Sugar & Slice Sunday 
 Melt In Your Mouth Monday @ Make Ahead Meals for Busy Moms