Banana Espresso Chocolate Chip Muffins

Between my son and me we had already eaten 3 before I remembered to take a picture!



Once again I delved into Baked for a breakfast treat - Banana espresso chocolate chip muffins (without the espresso since I couldn't find instant espresso powder).
While I don't like coffee, I'm actually kind of bummed that I couldn't find the instant espresso powder since I thought it would be quite tasty in these muffins.

1 1/2 C. mashed, very ripe bananas (about 4 medium)
1/2 C. sugar
1/4 C. firmly packed light brown sugar
1/2 C. (1 stick) unsalted butter, melted
1/4 C. whole milk
1 large egg
1 1/2 C. all purpose flour
1 tsp. instant espresso powder
1 1/2 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. salt
1 C. semisweet chocolate chips

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Spray a 12 cup* muffin pan with nonstick cooking spray or line with muffin tins (I like the silver foil ones since muffins don't stick to them when removing).

In a medium bowl, stir together the bananas, sugars, butter, milk, and egg.

In another medium bowl, whisk together the flour, instant espresso powder, baking soda, and salt. Make a well in the middle of the dry ingredients. Pour the wet ingredients into the well and stir until just combined. Fold in the chocolate chips.

Fill each cup about 3/4 full. Bake in the center of the oven for 20-25 min, until a toothpick inserted in the center of a muffin comes out clean.

Move the muffin pan to a cooling rack, and let cool for 15 min. After 15 min, remove the muffins from the pan and let them finish cooling on the cooling rack.

*I actually ended up with enough batter to make 14 muffins

Sour Lemon Scones

I recently picked up Baked by Matt Lewis and Renato Poliafito. It didn't take me long to decide that I needed to make pretty much every recipe in this book. Today I decided to make the very first recipe; sour lemon scones. These were magnificent!

They were quite easy to make although I must admit I always have problems with kneading scone dough to start with. And today I also had the added disadvantage of my two year old insisting on helping with everything, down to zesting lemons and kneading the dough - all with a runny nose.

Ingredients:
4 C. all purpose flour
1/2 C. sugar
1 Tbsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp ginger
1 1/2 C. (3 sticks) unsalted butter, cubed and cold
1 large egg
1 C. buttermilk
1/4 C. grated lemon zest (about 3 lemons)
1/2 C. diced candied lemon peel (optional)
2 Tbsp raw sugar

Preheat the oven to 350. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

In a large bowl combine the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and ginger. Whisk until combined.

Add the butter. Use your fingertips to rub the butter into the flour until the butter is pea sized.

In a separate bowl, whisk together the egg, 3/4 C. of the buttermilk, and the lemon zest. Slowly pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients, and then gently knead the dough with your hands until the dough starts to come together. If using, add the candied lemon peel and knead to incorporate. Move the dough to a lightly floured surface. Use your hands to shape the dough into two discs (about 1 1/2 in. in height). Do not overwork the dough.

Cut each disk into 6 wedges. Place the wedges onto the prepared baking sheet. Brush each scone with the remaining buttermilk and sprinkle with raw sugar. Bake in the center of the oven for about 25-30 min (rotating the baking sheet halfway through the baking time) or until the scones are golden brown.

Transfer the scones to a cooling rack. You can serve slightly warm or completely cooled.

I made the straight recipe without adding in diced candied lemon peel. They had a wonderful rich texture to them and the raw sugar on top added a little bit of sweetness to the scones. Definitely a keeper!

Peaches and Cream Cheesecake

This past weekend I took a request from my parents on what to bake. Their choice was the Peaches and Cream Cheesecake from my Juniors Cheesecake Cookbook.

Now Juniors cheesecakes have a sponge cake crust, which is excellent, but very time consuming in my opinion. So I chose to make your typical graham cracker crust for the base of this cheesecake. The recipe I use for the graham cracker crust is as follows:
1 C. (6 crackers) of graham cracker crumbs
3 Tbsp. sugar
3 Tbsp. melted unsalted butter
Grease the bottom and sides of a 9 inch springform pan. Cover bottom and all the way up the sides with aluminum foil. Mix all ingredients together until crumbly and press into pan. Bake 10 min. at 325 degrees. Cool.

This particular cheesecake has a peach filling (naturally) that is like a peach pie filling and is then covered (after cooling) with a cinnamon crumb topping. You could even add both of these to ice cream and it would make an excellent dessert.

Peach filling:
10 oz. dry-pack frozen whole peaches (not in syrup), thawed (I could not find these at my local store and so I used 3 fresh peaches instead)
1/2 cider or apple juice
1 Tbsp. cornstarch
1 Tbsp. sugar
1/8 tsp. ground cinnamon
Drain the peaches on paper towels (important). Cut into bite sized pieces. The recipe suggests leaving about 5 slices whole to decorate the top of the cheesecake with, but mine started turning brown and so I skipped it. Pour the cider or apple juice into a small saucepan and whisk in the cornstarch, sugar and cinnamon. Bring to a full boil, stirring continuously. About a minute after it boils it will start to thicken and turn a deep golden color. Remove from heat and add the peaches. Cool.

Cheesecake filling:
3 8 oz. packages cream cheese (room temperature)
1 1/3 C. sugar
1/4 C. cornstarch
1 Tbsp. vanilla
2 eggs
2/3 C. whipping cream
Put one package cream cheese, 1/3 cup of the sugar and the cornstarch into a mixing bowl and cream together. Add the remaining packages cream cheese one at a time making sure to scrape down the bowl after each addition. Add the remaining sugar and the vanilla. Add the eggs one at a time making sure to beat well after each addition. Beat the cream in just until blended. Gently pour mixture over the crust. Spoon peach filling over the top and almost to edges of pan.
Place the cheesecake in a large shallow pan containing 1 in. of hot water. Bake at 350 degrees about 1 1/4 hours until the edges are light brown and the top is slightly tan. (Mine should have baked longer than the 1 1/4 hours as my center did not set up completely - so be sure to have the top lightly browned as your guideline). Remove from the water bath and place on a wire rack to cool for 2 hours. Cover loosely with saran wrap and place in the fridge to finish cooling for at least 4 hours.

Crumb Topping:
3/4 C. all-purpose flour
1/3 C. firmly packed brown sugar
1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon
grated rind of 1 large lemon (about 1 tsp)
1/2 C. (1 stick) cold unsalted butter cut into small pieces
Preheat oven to 350. Butter a 9x13 pan. Mix the flour, brown sugar, cinnamon and lemon rind together. Add cut up butter and work in with your fingers until crumbly. Spread out in prepared pan and bake for 15 min. Be sure to toss the mixture 2-3 times and remove when it becomes a light golden brown. Let it cool on a wire rack for half an hour and then brake into small crumbs.

When decorating the cheesecake, remove the sides of the springform pan carefully. Top with crumbs covering the entire cheesecake. Decorate with reserved peach slices (if you choose do so). Refrigerate until ready to serve. Enjoy!

Love to bake

There's something relaxing about baking; the delicious smells perhaps? Given the opportunity I think I would bake something everyday. Not so good for the waistline however!
I usually make the same things though - cheesecakes, banana bread, brownies, a cake from a box mix or cookies.
My goal here is to try new baking experiences. Not an easy thing to do with a 2 year old running underfoot, but something I'm willing to try. Hopefully I can try something new once a month. If things go well perhaps twice a month.
Check back for my escapades in the art of baking!

Jenny