Banana and Apple Muffins

There always seems to be an abundance of ripe bananas in our house and Dominic is currently going through a Granny Smith apple phase. It seemed natural for me to combine both fruits into a bread.  In all my years of baking, I had never put bananas and apples together into a bread until about a month ago. When you make this for your kids, they'll be none the wiser that they are eating TWO fruits at the same time. It will be our little "secret!"

Ingredients:

1 cup whole wheat flour
1 cup white flour
1/2 cup white sugar
1/2 cup light brown sugar
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 cup canola oil
1/4 cup milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup peeled and shredded tart apple (like a Granny Smith)
1 cup mashed bananas

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and place paper liners into a 12-cup muffin tin. Set aside.  In large bowl, put all ingredients together in the order shown and mix well with large spoon.  Distribute batter evenly and bake for 20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the middle of a muffin comes out clean. Let cool for 10 minutes and then remove to wire rack.

Sour Cream Scones

A scone is basically a fancy word for a sweet biscuit. These particular scones are made with light sour cream and sprinkled on top with a little bit of sugar. The whole first floor of my house smelled amazing when these were in the oven this morning!  Of course, I had to "sample" one once they had cooled off a little. My regular "taste testers" were at school today :)  One word - scrumptious!!  How about one of these scones with some fresh fruit on the side? Instead of a bowl of cereal for breakfast, try serving these to the family instead. They will think they are dining in a high-end bakery/coffee shop!

Ingredients:

2 1/2 cups white flour
1/2 cup white sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
3/4 cup light sour cream
1 large egg, beaten
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 tablespoons milk

Topping:

1/2 tablespoon white sugar

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.  Mix flour, sugar, baking powder and salt together with spoon in large bowl.  With two knives or a pastry blender "cut" in butter until it resembles coarse crumbs.  Add sour cream, egg, vanilla extract and milk and combine until well blended.

On a lightly floured surface, knead the dough 8-10 times or until smooth (don't overwork the dough or it will be tough).  Flatten dough out to a 10-inch wide circle with your hands.  Cut dough into eight equal sized wedges and place on ungreased cookie sheet.  Sprinkle the 1/2 tablespoon white sugar evenly between the eight wedges.  Bake for 20-25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted until the middle of a scone comes out clean and they are starting to brown.  Cool on cookie sheet about 10 minutes and then transfer to wire rack.

Snickerdoodles

My love of cinnamon has been passed down to Lauren and Dominic (guess it's in the genes).  When you think of a cookie that has cinnamon, what is one of the first cookies you think of?  Snickerdoodles? These smelled so good yesterday when they were baking.  That's what I love about cinnamon - it makes your whole house smell good :)  Lauren had one of her good friends over for a bit after school yesterday and the both of them, plus Dominic were my "taste testers." I sent some cookies home with Lauren's friend and gave a few to Dominic's bus driver this morning. There's something about the word "snickerdoodle" that puts a smile on a person's face.  Since St. Patrick's Day is Sunday, I sprinkled a little green sugar on top of the cookies before baking - just to be a little festive!

Ingredients for Cookie Batter:

2 3/4 cups white flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/2 cup + 1 tablespoon unsalted butter, softened
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
1 cup white sugar
2 large eggs

Sugar/Cinnamon Mixture:

1 1/2 tablespoons white sugar
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

In a medium bowl, combine flour, soda and nutmeg with large spoon. Set aside.  In large bowl, put butter, vanilla extract, light brown sugar and white sugar.  Beat with mixer or by hand until smooth.  Add the eggs and then stir in the flour, soda and nutmeg.  Combine well and then cover with plastic wrap and chill in fridge at least one hour. If you roll the cookies about the size below, you should be able to get about 3 1/2 dozen out of the batter.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  In small bowl, put the sugar and cinnamon and mix well with small spoon.  Roll the dough balls in the sugar/cinnamon mixture and place on an ungreased cookie sheet.  Bake for 12 minutes, remove from oven, let cool for 5 minutes and then transfer to wire rack.

Pumpkin Pancakes

Sunday mornings at our house have become "pancake making" day.  For the past several months, I have whipped up pancakes from a recipe out of the Better Homes and Gardens New Cookbook.   I quadruple the recipe so Lauren and Dominic can eat them throughout the week for breakfast before they go to school.  It is a very popular item on the "menu." This past Sunday, I decided to make some pumpkin pancakes from a recipe my sister sent me back in November of last year.  I made some modifications here and there from the original recipe, but for the most part the ingredients are the same.  I made these this past Sunday morning for the hubby and kids.  For something a little different,  I tossed a small handful of chopped walnuts into a few of the pancakes for the hubby and I (the kids don't eat walnuts).  Surprise the family one night by serving these pancakes for dinner.  Where is it written that pancakes are only for breakfast?!?!? Growing up, my mom would sometimes serve us breakfast for dinner. I used to think it was pretty cool and I guarantee your family will think so too!!!

Ingredients:

4 cups white flour
15-ounce can packed pumpkin
2 large eggs
1/4 cup canola oil
3 tablespoons white vinegar
1/3 cup light brown sugar
4 teaspoons baking powder
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon salt
3 1/2 cups white milk

In large bowl, put all ingredients in the order given and mix well with large spoon.  Batter maybe a little lumpy.  Spray pancake griddle with non-stick spray.  Makes 22-24 5-inch pancakes.

Homemade Yellow Cupcakes

Lauren and Dominic LOVE cupcakes.  What kid doesn't??  I don't even know how many dozens of cupcakes I have baked in my lifetime - let's just say ALOT :) I have always thought that making homemade cupcakes took longer than making them from a box of cake mix, so that's what I have always done in the past. Today, I decided to do a little experiment and see how quickly I could make cupcakes from scratch. Believe it or not, I think I ended up spending less time making them myself than using a box of cake mix!! This recipe came from a Amish/Dutch cookbook from 1961. It's actually a recipe for yellow cake, but I decided to make it into cupcakes.  I thought it would make about 12 cupcakes -  it made 18.  I decided to take a little help from the store by using canned frosting I had leftover from last weekend. I had just barely enough to cover the cupcakes!

Ingredients:

2 cups white flour
1 cup white sugar
1/2 cup margarine, softened
2 large eggs
2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup white milk

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Fill muffin tins with paper liners. Set aside.  In large bowl, put all ingredients in the order above.  Mix on medium speed with electric mixer for one minute or by hand with large spoon until smooth. Distribute the batter evenly between 18 paper liners.  Bake for 15-20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the middle of a cupcake comes out clean.  Frost and decorate with sprinkles if desired.  Makes 18 cupcakes.