Butterscotch and Banana Muffins

Back at the end of March, I made some trail mix with butterscotch chips. Every time I opened up my cabinet where I keep my baking chips, cinnamon, salt, baking powder, etc. I kept seeing that half empty bag. I have been racking my brain trying to figure out a way to use up the rest of the bag of chips.  Well, yesterday morning, I looked over on the kitchen counter and the bananas that were ripe earlier in the week were now prime candidates for banana muffins! Hmm, the light bulb went off and I thought how about bananas and butterscotch chips mixed together??  I have given up chocolate for the time being, so I am looking for other baking chips that aren't chocolate.  I love cinnamon chips, but neither of the two grocery stores I shop at have them in stock now. The dude at Kroger last week told me it was a "seasonal" item. Okay then, around the holidays, I'm stocking up on cinnamon chips!!! I put a picture of my muffins on my Facebook page yesterday evening and asked my "buddies" to guess the three main ingredients. A few guessed bananas, but they weren't able to guess the other two main ingredients - sour cream and butterscotch chips.  I get a kick out of doing my "mystery" ingredient game.  If you have to bake anyways, why not make it fun?!?!?!?!  These muffins are DELICIOUS heated up in the microwave for about 30 seconds.  I had two for breakfast this morning with my coffee as I was writing this blog post :)

Ingredients

1/3 cup margarine, softened
1 cup white sugar
2 large eggs
1 cup light sour cream
1 cup mashed bananas, about 2 large
2 teaspoons vanilla
2 1/4 cups white flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
3/4 cup butterscotch chips

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.  In large bowl, put the margarine, sugar, eggs, sour cream, bananas and vanilla. Beat by hand with large spoon or with electric mixer until well blended.  Add flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon and nutmeg and mix well.  Add the butterscotch chips and mix in gently with large spoon. Distribute batter evenly between 18 muffin tins that have been lined with paper liners.  Bake for 20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the middle of one of the muffins comes out clean.

Baked French Toast Casserole

If you had to make an individual serving of french toast for every single hungry person sitting around your kitchen or dining room table during breakfast or brunch, it would probably take a while, wouldn't it?? what if you could feed everyone, all at once? Good idea, right? You assemble this casserole the night before, pop it into the fridge and put it into the oven about an hour before you want to eat it the next morning. This casserole uses a type of bread called, "Texas Toast."  That kind of bread is thicker than a regular piece of bread, so it absorbs the liquid ingredients better :)  The next time you are serving brunch or breakfast for a crowd, think about putting this casserole on the "menu!"

Ingredients

1/2 cup margarine, melted
12 slices Texas Toast, cut in half
1 cup light brown sugar
1 1/4 teaspoons cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
4 large eggs
1 1/2 cups milk

Melt margarine slowly in a small saucepan or microwave. Pour into the bottom of a 9 x 13 inch pan. Set aside. In small bowl, put the light brown sugar, cinnamon and nutmeg and stir until blended with a large spoon and set aside. In medium bowl, put the vanilla extract, eggs and milk.  Stir until well mixed with a  fork.  Set aside. On the bottom of pan, put 12 halves of the bread - three rows down, four rows across.  Sprinkle half of the brown sugar mixture evenly on top of the bread slices. Put another 12 halves of the bread on top - again, three rows down, four rows across.  Pour the egg and milk mixture evenly over the bread halves. Sprinkle the other half of the brown sugar mixture evenly on top.  Cover with a  piece of foil and put in the fridge for a minimum of eight hours. When ready to eat, preheat oven to 350 degrees, remove the piece of foil and replace with a new piece of foil and put into the oven. Bake for 30 minutes and then remove the foil and cook an additional 20-25 minutes or until the casserole is starting to brown and is set in the middle. Remove from oven and let cool about 5-10 minutes. Serve with or without maple syrup!  Makes 12 servings.

Orange Scones

My grandmother who lived to be 101 years old once told me, "Cathy, you can use all the parts of a pig but the squeal!" It took me a minute to realize what she meant and then the light bulb went on :) She was telling me that there was more than one use for a pig.  As I was squeezing the juice out of an orange to make these scones, I was wondering what other use the orange could have. Of course!! I can use the skin, also known as "zest." Since I wasn't 100% sure what the word "zest" meant, I looked it up. According to Wikipedia, it is, "a food ingredient that is prepared by scraping or cutting from the outer, colorful skin of unwaxed citrus fruits such as lemon, orange, citron and lime." I don't know that I've ever put "zest" in anything I've ever baked, so this was a first. When I was taking these scones off the baking sheet and transferring them to a wire rack, Dominic took one look and said, "cookie." I told him they were scones and asked him if he wanted one.  He is always willing to try my baked goods and will give me his honest opinion.  He proclaimed these to be "good!"  Cool, I thought they were pretty good too!
 

Ingredients

2 1/2 cups white flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
2 tablespoons white sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
6 tablespoons shortening
1/8 cup orange juice
1/2 teaspoon orange zest
3/4 cup milk

Topping:

1/4 teaspoon white sugar

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.  Spray a baking sheet with non-stick cooking spray and set aside.  In medium bowl, put the flour, baking powder, sugar and salt. Using two knives, "cut" in the shortening. Make a small "well" in the middle and add the orange juice, zest and milk.  Mix well with large spoon. On a lightly floured surface, press the dough out to a round circle about eight inches in diameter.  With a knife, slice into eight equal triangles.  Sprinkle the 1/4 teaspoon of white sugar evenly over all eight scones. Place on the baking sheet and put in the oven for about 18-20 minutes or until they are turning brown on the bottom.  Remove immediately to a wire rack to cool.  Makes eight scones.