Strawberry muffins...

With a new strawberry season approaching in a month and a half (or so), I've suddenly woken up to the fact that we need to get serious about using up a bunch of frozen strawberries in our freezer!

Last June, with me having a major surgery scheduled in the middle of the month,  we picked strawberries and ate them 'till we couldn't anymore.  I imagine we may have given some away as well, but by the time I submitted myself to the surgery center and the subsequent weeks of healing, the freezer was stocked with a dozen or more quart-sized frozen bags of beautiful red berries. 

All that picking and freezing would be so nice come summer, I thought.  I couldn't have planned it any better.  I did worry a bit about how we would manage picking the cherries and peaches we expected the next two months. 

Then, surprisingly, neither the cherry tree nor the peach tree produced anything in June and July.  We don't know if it was weather related or if we had pruned the trees too much the fall before, but in the end it felt like a mercy that we didn't have any fruit to deal with during the weeks I was healing from surgery.  

And then, when chemo started in the late summer, and my taste buds immediately became affected, I discovered that fruit (especially strawberries) tasted like soap.  Blech.  It became clear that none of the frozen strawberries were going to get eaten for the duration of that unpleasantness.  I think it was Thanksgiving before food started tasting in the neighborhood of normal, and the tastebuds were only fully back as Christmas started to approach.  

Then winter set in and I was decidedly not into eating frozen strawberries, or making smoothies or fruit popsicles (my other frozen strawberry treats)  once it turned cold outside.   And even though we've had an unseasonably warm late winter and early spring, by that time the frozen strawberries had pretty much slid off my radar.  

All of that is to explain how more than nine months could go by and very few of the frozen strawberries picked in the early weeks of June last year got eaten.

So recently, I've gone online looking for what to make with them - because it's become chilly again and I still don't want to eat frozen strawberries. 

Having no desire to make jam and, not caring much for fruity desserts, my options seemed severely limited. But then I was a little intrigued  when I came upon recipes for strawberry muffins. I wasn't 100% sure they sounded good, but everyone who had a recipe blog seemed to be in love with strawberry muffins.  The thing that held me back at first was that almost all the recipes I found said to use fresh strawberries - with the explanation that frozen strawberries would do if fresh wasn't available.  The vibe I got was frozen strawberries might make subpar strawberry muffins.  And that notion got in my way for several weeks, I'm sad to say.

Finally, I decided I wouldn't know if I didn't try, so I took the plunge.  And I am so glad I did.  I decided to use this recipe at Once Upon A Chef and I have decided I need look no further. I did forego putting sugar on top of the muffins (ack!  too sweet for me), and I don't have any almond extract, but other than those two things, I followed the recipe exactly - chopping up still partially frozen strawberries, tossing them in flour as suggested, and these strawberry muffins were superb, in my book.

I may try making them with a bit less sugar - not because they are too sweet, but less sugar would be - well... less sugar.  

Warm and slathered with butter, these were just heavenly.  I honestly, I love them every bit as much as I love blueberry muffins.  And I LOVE blueberry muffins.

At room temperature, they are a tasty quick treat.  I skipped the butter. 

I'm thinking for my next batch I'll try substituting whole wheat flour for some of the all-purpose flour.  I've been meaning to grind some wheat.  Now I have a perfect reason to stop dragging my feet and get that done.  Oooh... and some flax seed.  I need to try ground flax seed in these, too.  

If I could get these a bit healthier, and they still taste good, wouldn't that be nice.

Maybe I can tweak the recipe enough to make it my own and post it here.  I'll try, but until then, I highly recommend the recipe I followed.

To be honest, the website I've linked to is monetized to the point of annoyance.  Normally, I try not to link to such websites, but one can go in, click on "jump to recipe" and print it out without too much headache.  Unless pop-up ads, and constantly changing videos give you a headache - in which case, I am sorry. This is the best I can offer for now.

If you give this recipe a try, I hope you enjoy them as much as we do!

Are you hungry yet?

Cherry cobbler...

As I've harvested and pitted cherries, I've been enjoying thinking about how I will use them in the upcoming months.

That said, after freezing 6 bags with 2 cups each before the cherries on the tree appear to have finally passed their peak this year, I will happily let the birds enjoy what's left on the branches.  Pitting these small tart cherries is quite a chore - especially with my hand issues.

Meanwhile, I enjoyed making (and we thoroughly enjoyed eating) a simple cherry cobbler last weekend.   It's a pretty standard recipe found in lots of places online, but here it is in case you're interested.  Next time I'm going to follow the suggestions for doubling the recipe (or I suppose, I could just use a smaller baking dish) for a thicker cobbler.

It was the first dessert I've had in over three months.  

And I do believe it was worth breaking my sugar fast for.  

I certainly have no regrets!

I'm curious if you like cherries and if so, what do you like to do with them?

Irish Soda Bread...

Somehow I've misplaced an Irish Soda Bread recipe I've been making for years, but I found I had recently clipped this one from a March, 2003 Light & Tasty Taste of Home magazine.  My clipped recipe is just called Irish Soda Bread, but it's identical to the one at the link that is called Moist Irish Soda Bread.

Mine was a tad too moist, but I'll confess...  I added mostly-melted butter instead of cutting cold butter into the flour, but I think adding a bit more flour during the short kneading time so it wasn't quite so sticky would have solved the too moist issue.  That, and baking it about 10-15 minutes longer helped (even after I cut it - never mind that it's cut and pieced back together for the picture above).

I love the floury crust as much as the slightly sweet innards. 

Since the recipe is published and accessible on the TOH site, and I'm linking to it, I trust it's okay to share it here with my comments:


Irish Soda Bread:

4 cups all-purpose flour

1 tablespoon sugar

1-1/2 teaspoons baking soda

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/4 cup cold butter

1 cup golden raisins  (I used dark raisins)

1-3/4 cups buttermilk  

    (I used whole milk with about ~ 1 Tbs bottled lemon juice added)

In a large bowl, combine the flour, sugar, baking soda, baking powder and salt. Cut in butter until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Add raisins. Stir in buttermilk just until moistened. Turn onto a lightly floured surface; gently knead 6-8 times (adding flour as needed).

Place on an ungreased baking sheet (I used parchment paper over a baking stone).  Pat into a 7-in. round loaf. Using a sharp knife, cut a 1-in. cross about 1/4 in. deep on top of the loaf. Bake at 375° for 40-45 minutes or until golden brown. (Mine needed to bake about 50 minutes, but this will depend on how sticky-moist the dough is before baking).  Cool on a wire rack - if you can without cutting and tasting first. 

Or do as we do.  We don't even try to wait 'till a loaf of this is cool.  Tasting a slice of freshly baked bread is one of life's great, but simple pleasures.  😊

Some yummy (and somewhat healthier) banana bread...

With my husband back home this week (after his spending time at his mother's last week) I'm back to cooking like it matters. Yeah, I know it matters all the time, but when I get some time alone I live like I don't really believe that.

Anyway...

Knowing hubs would enjoy some banana bread, I decided today was the day to bake like it matters.

While I normally use some amount of whole wheat flour when making most baked goods these days, I can never remember if I should use hard or soft whole wheat flour in something like banana bread, so I googled it.  When I did, this recipe popped up (from Heavenly Homemakers).

I'm not a big fan of honey, in general, but I was intrigued that the recipe above only calls for 1/3 cup of  honey instead of the 1 cup of sugar the recipe I normally use calls for.   Honey and sugar have a similar Glycemic Index, but if I'm only using a third of cup of honey that's a significantly lower GI overall for this recipe than my normal one, so I figured it was a recipe worth trying.

It was significantly less sweet than what we're accustomed to, but both DH and I thought it tasted good.  Not dessert good (which my regular banana bread is), but for a healthy alternative?  Yeah!  It was okay.

Okay enough that I decided to make a second loaf.  But when I got out my cell phone (where I had originally pulled up the recipe) I had somehow lost the page.  And I couldn't find it again no matter what I looked up (forgetting what I had googled when I found the recipe).

BUT...  googling "banana bread with whole wheat flour and honey, I came across this Healthy Banana Bread recipe and even though it called for coconut oil rather than butter, and it had cinnamon and water, and it didn't have baking powder, I decided it was close enough.  

I made the second recipe, waited for it to bake then cool enough to remove from the pan for a taste test.  Even with the cinnamon in it, it pretty much tasted like the first loaf I had made.  (Edited to add...  tonight, hubs said it tasted "apple-y".  I think it was the cinnamon he was tasting and apple-y was the best he could come up with to describe it.)  It was a bit moister (than the first recipe) - even though I cooked it a tad long and it browned a bit too much on the bottom.  

But, still...  it held the same "Yeah!  It's okay" appeal.  And since (at the time) the second recipe was still on my phone I decided to print that one out to keep.

And that's when I realized I had forgotten to add vanilla.  It's also worth noting I substituted 1/4 cup of sour milk for hot water.   And I used some unbleached flour from my cupboard in place of a bit of the whole wheat flour.  I used a cup or more of walnuts ('cuz I always add more nuts than any recipe calls for), and I added some ground flax seed (probably close to 1/4 cup).

About this time, I also remembered what search terms I used when I found the first recipe above (which is why I can link to it here, and I have since printed that one out, too).

Honestly, the above recipes are both keepers, in my opinion.  I'm going to experiment with using olive oil instead of coconut oil, and next time I make it I'm going to actually measure the ground flax seed and walnuts.  If I manage to do all that so that I'm confident of my adaptations, I'll type it up and share it. 

Meanwhile,  if you're open to trying a not-very-sweet banana bread, I highly recommend the two recipes linked to above with a slight preference for the second one.   

Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life; he who comes to Me will not hunger, and he who believes in Me will never thirst..."   John 6:35

Cream Cheese and Chocolate Marble Brownies...

I've become a fan of combining cream cheese and chocolate brownies in one yummy dessert.  I became a fan when I found a recipe on the box of a brownie mix once upon a time.  Having in my possession a brownie mix that didn't have such a recipe, I went online to see if I could find a recipe for just the cream cheese filling.

Oh my!  Did I ever find recipes!  I thought it would be hard to choose, but after perusing several sites, I concluded that the basic recipe is so common that it probably falls into the category of common knowledge.   Who knew?!?   

Most that I came across were identical, or any differences I found were insignificant.   Except for this recipe.   This one looked interesting because it added butter, and seriously... isn't everything better with butter?  That said, I was in disbelief that only 3 oz. of cream cheese would make an adequate filling.  So I took the knowledge I'd gleaned from other recipes and came up with a slight variation of the above recipe.

First, if you're making brownies from scratch, I suggest using any number of the recipes you can find online.  I can't vouch for any in particular as I have my own simple, but fine, from-scratch brownie recipe that I sometimes use, but I wanted something that I could use with a box mix.  'Cause sometimes a mix is just fine. 😉

Okay...  so if you want to add cheesecake to pretty much any box-mix brownie, I think this should work for you:

First, make the cheesecake batter by combining the following and mix until fairly smooth:

  8 oz. cream cheese, softened
  1/4 cup granulated sugar
  1 large egg
  1  tsp. vanilla extract
  2 Tbs. butter, softened  (do not use margarine)
  1 Tbs. flour

Then, in another bowl, make the box mix as directed.  For the brownie pictured, I used a Betty Crocker Milk Chocolate Brownie mix, but I actually prefer Aldi's Baker's Corner Fudge Brownie mix.  Cheap and yummy.

Okay...  whatever brownie mix you use, pour most of the brownie mixture into a buttered 9x13 glass baking dish.  I didn't measure, but I left maybe a cup, cup and a half of the brownie mixture in the bowl to use later.  

Spread the brownie mixture evenly in the baking dish.

Then, with a large spoon, dollop the cheesecake mixture on top of the brownie mixture.  Depending on how thick the brownie mixture is, you may be able to spread the cheesecake mixture a bit.  But don't be a perfectionist about this.

Then pour, or scrape out (with a spatula) the rest of the brownie mix over and around the cream cheese mixture.

With a knife, cut through the whole mixture, snaking back and forth through the cheesecake and brownie mixtures to sort of combine them into swirls.  I like to snake the knife horizontally and then vertically to really spread that cheesecake around, being careful to not over-mix the two mixtures.  Again, don't be a perfectionist.  Cream cheese marble brownies are like folk art.  Every piece looks a little different, and each taste is it's own kind of delicious.

Follow the baking instructions on the box.    When done baking, let cool completely before cutting (if you can).  Then enjoy! 

These don't last long enough at our house to go bad, but if you want to keep them longer than a couple of days, I suggest refrigerating or possibly even freezing. 

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