Chocolate, Peanut Butter and Marshmallow Cookies

One of the iconic foods of summer is the s’more, and I’ve made a couple of different variations of this treat for my blog. In general I really like baking with marshmallows and I hadn’t made anything with them in a while. My husband and I had gone out to lunch last week and we had the s’mores kit at the restaurant for dessert. Roasting marshmallows over little sterno pots doesn’t quite have the same feel  as roasting them in the great outdoors, they were still good.

This cookie isn’t quite a s’more, as it contains no graham crackers, but it’s really close. I considered crushing up some graham crackers and adding them to the dough! I like the addition of peanut butter chips, with chocolate and gooey marshmallows, how could that be bad? I actually used half peanut butter chips and half chocolate chips as I only had half a package in the cupboard and the silly grocery store didn’t carry peanut butter chips. Really, no peanut butter chips? I was shocked.

These might look good in the picture, but I will admit to you that I had quite a few marshmallow blow-outs and so these aren’t the prettiest cookies. They are pretty rough around the edges, in fact. The marshmallow kind of melts into the dough and after they are baked there are just these chewy bits of sweetness where the marshmallow had been. Be careful not to over bake these; they should still look puffy and a little undone when you take them out of the oven. They will set up! The cookies are chewy and rich, with a wonderful combination of flavors.

Chocolate, Peanut Butter and Marshmallow Cookies

 

1 cup butter, room temperature

1/2 cup sugar

1/2 cup packed brown sugar

2 eggs

1 tablespoon vanilla

2 1/4 cups flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

4 ounce box instant chocolate pudding mix

10 ounce bag peanut butter chips

1 1/2 cups mini marshmallows

Preheat oven to 350F.  Line a two baking sheets with silicone baking mats.

In a large mixer bowl, beat the sugars and butter together until light and fluffy.  Add the eggs and vanilla and stir until completely combined. In a separate bowl, stir together the flour, baking soda, salt and chocolate pudding mix.  Slowly add the flour mixture into the butter mixture. By hand, stir in the peanut butter chips and marshmallows.  Mix just until combined. 

Shape the dough into 1-inch balls and place on the prepared baking sheets. Bake for 10 to 12 minutes.  Let cool for 10 minutes on baking sheet before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.

Recipe from Taste and Tell

Southwest Turkey Meatball Subs with Creamy Cilantro Sauce

For this round of the recipe swap we are making sandwiches and I got this recipe for Southwest Turkey Meatball Subs from Jenna at Jenna’s Cooking Journey. I was excited to make these as they are (somewhat) healthy and I love cilantro. I love a good sandwich!

The main change I made is that I can’t really eat spicy food, as anything with the least bit of spice just turns my mouth on fire. I left out the jalapeno, and in the end the sandwich did need a little more spice. I guess I would probably put some jalapeno in the meat mixture but leave it out of the sauce. Or this would be good with jalapeno jack instead of mild provolone.

I made about 9 meatballs, so they were pretty big. I liked that on the sandwich; they were very substantial! I’m not sure that such a big sandwich is healthy, but at least it has healthy ingredients! I served the sandwiches on potato rolls, which is a favorite in our household. One of our cats, who really won’t eat any table food, will seek you out if you have potato rolls. She’s very strange! Overall, I really liked these and next time I would add in a bit more of the spice. Thanks for the recipe, Jenna!

1 jalapeño, seeds removed (I omitted this)

2 cloves garlic

1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro

3 green onions

1 pound lean ground turkey

1/4 cup panko

1 egg

1 teaspoon cumin

1/8 teaspoon oregano

Salt and pepper

1/2 cup buttermilk

1/2 cup fat free Greek yogurt

1 small jalapeño, seeds removed (I omitted this)

1/2 cup of fresh cilantro

2 tomatillos, husks removed, chopped

1 clove garlic

1 green onion

juice of 1/2 lime

1/8 teaspoon cumin

Salt and pepper

2-4 slices provolone

2-4 hoagie rolls

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Line a baking sheet with foil and spray with cooking spray.

Place jalapeño, garlic, cilantro, and green onions into a small food processor and pulse a few times until finely minced. (Or chop by hand.)

In a large bowl combine turkey, chopped herbs, panko, egg, cumin, salt and pepper. Mix well. Shape into meatballs of desired size. I made about 9 meatballs with 1 pound of turkey. Bake for 15-20 minutes.

While the meatballs are baking, make the cilantro sauce: combine the buttermilk, yogurt, jalapeno, cilantro, tomatillos, garlic, green onion lime juice, cumin, salt and pepper in a small food processor. Pulse until combined.

When the meatballs come out of the oven, turn on the broiler. Top hoagie rolls with meatballs and cheese. Broil until the cheese is melted. Top with cilantro sauce.

Recipe from Jenna’s Cooking Journey

Toasted Coconut Bread

Coconut is one of those things that you love it or you hate it. I remember a friend of mine telling me that someone she knew hated coconut macaroons so much that they could sum up everything that was wrong in the world through a description of a coconut macaroon. Now, I never heard that description, but I probably couldn’t disagree more. I love coconut a lot and when I read the description that this bread was “macaroon-like” I was very interested.

I tend to take some shortcuts in the kitchen, softening butter in the microwave, toasting nuts and coconut also in the microwave. For this recipe, I did toast the coconut on the stove and my house smelled amazing. I think they tell you to bake cookies when you are showing your house to sell, but you should really toast coconut instead; the fragrance is divine! Do watch it carefully so it doesn’t burn, as burnt coconut is not tasty at all.

This mixes quickly but takes a little longer to bake. I thought that an hour was too long to bake, but it wasn’t done in the center so I covered it with foil to avoid overdone edges. That seemed to work very well, as it was done just right without getting too browned. Some quick breads have to be served right away, but I let this sit for a day and it was still very fresh when I cut it. I look it to the advising center in the college, where I help out during the summer, where it was gone in about 30 minutes. The bread is macaroon-like, with great coconut flavor. 

Toasted Coconut Bread

 

1 cup coconut

2 cups flour

¾ cup sugar

2 teaspoons baking powder

½ teaspoon salt

1 egg

1 cup milk

¼ cup butter, melted

1 teaspoon vanilla

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray a 9” x 5” pan with cooking spray.

Toast coconut, stirring constantly, in a small ungreased skillet over medium heat. Watch carefully so the coconut doesn’t burn. Remove from the heat and allow to cool.

In a large bowl combine the cooled toasted coconut, flour, sugar, baking powder and salt. In a separate bowl or large measuring cup, whisk together the egg, milk, butter and vanilla. Pour liquid mixture over the flour mixture and fold with a spatula until just combined. Do not over mix.

Scrape batter into the prepared pan and smooth the top. Bake for 50 minutes to one hour, until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. If the bread seems to be browning too quickly, cover loosely with foil the last 15 minutes of the baking time.

Allow to cool for 15 minutes before removing from the pan. Cool completely before slicing.

Recipe from All the Best Muffins and Quick Breads by Joie Warner

Cinnamon Brown Sugar Cookies

One of my first memories of baking is standing on a stepstool in the kitchen and using a spatula to take cookies off of the baking sheet. I have a photo of me doing that somewhere and I remember very fondly being in the kitchen baking. The first cookies that I remember making are snickerdoodles and they are still a favorite. On this blog I have made different types of snickerdoodles and other snickerdoodle-inspired items. Here’s another to add to the list.

This cookie isn’t exactly a snickerdoodle, but it’s pretty close. The original recipe called these cookies butterscotch cinnamon sugar cookies, but they aren’t really butterscotch other than containing brown sugar. The cinnamon comes from the cinnamon sugar that you roll the dough in before baking: just like snickerdoodles. These don’t contain cream of tartar for leavening, which is to me what makes a snickerdoodle a snickerdoodle, but they are really great. Just think of them as a brown sugar snickerdoodle. 

This recipe doesn’t make very many (just 2 dozen) and they go super-fast. I took them to work and they were gone in about 2 hours. They have a wonderful caramel-like flavor from the brown sugar, which was intensified because I used dark brown sugar. The butterscotch chip on top is mainly for decoration, and I’m not sure it adds that much flavor, but I liked that little extra bit of sweetness. I don’t think the cinnamon was that strong, but you could add some extra cinnamon to the dough if you want to enhance the cinnamon flavor. But these cookies were so good, and when I make them again, I won’t change a thing.

Cinnamon Brown Sugar Cookies

1 1/4 cups flour

1/4 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup butter, room temperature

3/4 cup brown sugar

1 egg

1 teaspoon vanilla 

Cinnamon sugar (1/4 cup sugar, 2 teaspoons cinnamon)

Butterscotch chips, for decoration

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line two baking sheets with silicone baking mats.

In a medium bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt.

In a large mixer bowl, cream together butter and brown sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in egg, followed by vanilla. Gradually blend in the flour mixture until dough comes together. Do not over beat.

Shape dough into 1-inch balls and roll in cinnamon sugar before placing on prepared baking sheets. Allow about 2 inches between cookies to allow for spread.

Bake for 11-14 minutes, until cookies are set and very lightly browned around the edges. Allow cookies to cool on baking sheet for a few minutes. While still one the baking sheet you can press a butterscotch chip in the center of each cookie. Transfer cookies to a wire rack to cool completely.

Recipe from Very Enchanting

Chocolate Chip Sour Cream Muffins

During the school year, I’m at the mercy of having to bake things ahead of time and bring them in to work the next day. I like doing that, but it excludes a number of baked goods from my repertoire as some things really need to be baked and served right away. A lot of breakfast baking seems to be this way: most scones and muffins are best warm from the oven. During the regular school year I get to work too early to make that possible, but now it is summer and things are different.

I work a little during the summer, but the earliest I have to be at work is 10 am. During the rest of the year I am thinking about eating lunch at 10 am! So I have been able to get up (since I still get up pretty early) and do some baking and then take it to work. I’ve really enjoyed that. Ok, so the first thing that I made was cookies, which do last more than a day, but I can also make things like these muffins which don’t keep all that well.

My husband loves chocolate chip cookies so I knew these muffins would be to his liking. They took about 15 minutes to put together and then about 15 minutes to bake so they are very fast start to finish. I try to keep sour cream in the refrigerator since that comes in hand with quite a few recipes! Otherwise, these muffins contain ingredients that you are likely to have on hand already. These are quick and certainly would be a nice surprise for anyone as a breakfast treat.

Chocolate Chip Sour Cream Muffins

1-1/2 cups flour

2/3 cup sugar

3/4 teaspoon baking powder

3/4 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 large egg

1 cup sour cream

5 tablespoons butter, melted

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 cup chocolate chips

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line a muffin pan with 12 paper liners.

In a large bowl, mix together the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. In a separate bowl, combine the egg, sour cream, melted butter, and vanilla, mixing well.

Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and stir with a rubber spatula until just combined. Add in the chocolate chips and stir until incorporated.

Evenly divide the batter among the prepared cups, filling the cups about 3/4-full.

Bake for 14-18 minutes, until lightly browned and a tester inserted into the center of the muffins comes out clean.

Recipe from The Curvy Carrot

French Strawberry Cake

This week’s Tuesdays with Dorie recipe is the French Strawberry Cake. The hosts for this week are Sophia of Sophia’s Sweets and Allison of Sleep Love Think Dine . You can visit their blogs and get the recipe for this cake. The ingredients are simple but the technique is a little more involved. This cake is a genoise, which is made without leavening. The rising of the cake completely depends on how well you whip the eggs and how well you can incorporate the other ingredients without deflating the eggs. I, apparently, am not very good at that.

We made a similar cake to this when we were baking through Baking from My Home to Yours. My cake there didn’t turn out all that well, and it seems as if fate repeated itself. I thought everything was going so well and then when I tried to add the second third of the sifted flour, all the flour dumped in and I knew that my cake wouldn’t be light and lovely. I tried not to give up by my batter was dense and not completely smooth when I put it in the oven to bake.

It came out looking fine, but hadn’t raised much. I knew I wouldn’t be splitting it into layers, and instead opted for a strawberry shortcake-like cake. The cake is kind of dry, but it’s ok paired with the strawberries and whipped cream. This cake isn’t too sweet, and despite being a little dry, it’s quite nice. I don’t practice this cake enough to really get it right, so I try not to feel too bad. At least it looks ok!

Recipe from Baking with Julia by Dorie Greenspan

Peanut Butter Honey Cookie Cups

There are few combinations that I like more than peanut butter and honey. Ok, maybe chocolate and hazelnut is my all-time favorite, but I love peanut butter and honey. I’ve made peanut butter cookies with honey instead of sugar, but they tend to burn. That wonderful honey flavor can be delicate!

I saw these and knew immediately that I wanted to make them. I love cookies baked in mini muffin cups because even a basic cookie becomes instantly fancy when baked in a little cup. This included the honey, but as part of a simple buttercream on top. So I didn’t have to worry about the honey getting scorched.

This made quite a few cookies, nearly 4 dozen, which is a lot considering it only uses 1-1/4 cups flour. I baked one batch for 10 minutes and they seem quite soft when you take them out of the oven, but I was hopeful that they would set up and they did. So don’t bake them until they are “done” because then they’ll be too done. I was worried about having enough buttercream, because I like to be heavy-handed with frosting. I ended up using 8 tablespoons butter, 4 tablespoons honey, and 2 cups powdered sugar and I had just the right amount.

Peanut Butter Honey Cookie Cups

1 1/4 cups flour

3/4 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup butter, softened

1 cup peanut butter

3/4 cup sugar

1/2 cup light brown sugar

1 egg

1 tablespoon milk

1 teaspoon vanilla

6 tablespoons butter, softened

3 tablespoons honey

1 1/2 cups powdered sugar

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease about 48 mini muffin cups.

In a small bowl, combine the flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Set aside. In a large mixer bowl beat the butter and peanut butter together until fluffy. Add the sugars and beat until smooth. Add the egg and mix well. Add the milk and vanilla. Add the flour mixture and stir until combined.

Fill each muffin cup 3/4 full with the cookie dough. Bake for 10-11 minutes, until a toothpick comes out clean. Do not over bake. Cookies may seem a little soft. While still warm, make a well in the center of each cookie cup using a small spoon (I use the handle of my whisk). Allow the cookies to cool about 15 minutes before removing to a wire rack to cool completely.

Make the buttercream: in a large mixer bowl, cream the butter with the honey. Beat in the powdered sugar until light and fluffy. Pipe the buttercream into the cookie cups.

Recipe from Sweet as Sugar Cookies

Ultimate French Onion Soup

For this round of the recipe swap, it’s blogger’s choice where I am given a blog and I get to choose any recipe that I want. I got The Cookaholic Wife for my blog and I had a good time looking through all of the recipes to decide which one to pick. I ended up going with a recipe that I love and I’ve always wanted to make: French Onion Soup.

Now I’m probably a weirdo but my favorite part of French onion soup is actually the onion soup part and not the cheesy bread part. Don’t get me wrong, the cheesy bread part is fine but I love onions. And I love caramelized onions even more. I’ve never really made caramelized onions at home (well, very successfully, that is) and I figured this would give me an opportunity to give them a try.

I halved this recipe since there is just the two of us, but it still makes a good quantity of soup. I used gruyere cheese rather than provolone because I thought that was more traditional and I honestly didn’t look at what cheese the recipe specified before going to the store. The onions took a lot longer to caramelize than the 15 minutes the original recipe stated. I didn’t want my onions to be underdone! Despite cooking the onions a little longer, this soup was fairly quick to make. Oh my, this was so good and the flavors were just spot on! Thanks, Nichole, for a great recipe!

Ultimate French Onion Soup

4 tablespoons butter

2 onions, sliced

1 clove garlic, chopped

1 bay leaf

1/2 cup red wine

1 quarts beef broth

1-1/2 tablespoons flour

Italian bread, sliced

Shredded Gruyere cheese

salt and pepper to taste

In a large pan melt the butter over medium heat. Add in the onions, garlic, bay leaf, salt and pepper. Cook the onions until caramelized and soft, about 25 minutes.

Add in the wine and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat and simmer until the wine has almost completely evaporated. Remove the bay leaf. Add the flour to the pan and stir well until all of the onions are coated. Reduce heat to low and cook for a few minutes to remove the raw flour taste.

Add the beef broth and bring the soup back up to a simmer. Add salt and pepper to taste and cook for about 10 minutes more.

For the bread, preheat the broiler and arrange slices of bread on a foil lined baking sheet. Top with the cheese and broil for 2-3 minutes until bread is toasted and cheese is melted.

 Ladle the soup into bowls and top with the bread.

Recipe from The Cookaholic Wife

Royal Cherry Trifle

To celebrate the Queen’s Jubilee, my husband and I made a trifle. Trifle can be lots of things, usually with cake/ladyfingers, custard, and whipped cream. It seems like there is usually alcohol of some sort, sherry or in this case, cherry brandy. This trifle is quite a bit different than the baking that I usually do, as this does not require exact ingredients. Yes, the Madeira cake and the custard is fairly finicky, but I made a number of substitutions with other ingredients. 

As I said earlier, I couldn’t find the Madeira cake in the store so I just made one. You could substitute any pound cake and it would work. I certainly used way more than 3-1/2 ounces of cherry brandy, probably double that! I find that amaretti are fairly expensive and so I used almond biscotti that I got at Trader Joe’s. Their biscotti are really good and we really enjoyed the extras we had. I also used a combination of cherry preserves and some chocolate cherry preserves. With this type of recipe, you can really get away with going in your own direction.

This was a great ending to our Diamond Jubilee celebration. We also had tarts (from our local British store) and finger sandwiches. It was such a fun day and we should really put together little celebrations like this more often. 

2 ounces sugar

2 ounces cornstarch

1 teaspoon vanilla

2 eggs, plus 1 yolk

1 cup milk

1 cup heavy cream

1 pound cherries, pitted

12 ounce jar cherry preserves

1 pound Madeira cake

3-1/2 ounces cherry brandy

5 amaretti, broken

1 cup heavy cream, lightly whipped

Make the custard: In a medium bowl, whisk together the sugar, cornstarch, vanilla, eggs, and egg yolk. In a medium saucepan, combine the milk and heavy cream. Heat on low until hot, but do not boil. Slowly pour the hot milk mixture over the sugar/egg mixture, whisking as you go. Wash the saucepan and then pour the custard mixture back into the saucepan. Heat on low, stirring constantly, until thickened and smooth. Pour the custard into a small bowl and cover the surface of the custard with plastic wrap to prevent a skin from forming. Refrigerate until cool.

In a medium saucepan, combine the pitted cherries and half of the cherry preserves. Cover over medium heat for about 5 minutes until softened and sauce-like. Remove from the heat and allow to cool slightly.

Slice the Madeira cake into ½” slices. Spread half of the slices with the remaining cherry preserves. Sandwich with the remaining cake slices. Pour the cherry brandy into a small bowl and dip the cake sandwiches into the brandy. Arrange in the base of an 8” trifle dish.

Top the cake sandwiches with the cooled cherry mixture, then top with the crumbled amaretti. Add the cooled custard on top and then finish with the lightly whipped cream. Chill for several hours before serving.

Recipe from BBC Good Food

Madeira Cake

Last week my husband and I made a special dinner to celebrate the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee. For dessert there was a recipe for trifle that we wanted to make. My husband is quite the trifle maker and he hadn’t made one in a while. I’d never made one, and this one sounded good. We figured we could get most of the ingredients as we have a British store close to us. One thing that the recipe called for was Madeira Cake, and we couldn’t find that already made.

No worries, as I figured that there are many Madeira Cake recipes out there and I would just make one. I did a quick search online and this recipe was one of the first ones that I came across. I like Nigella Lawson’s recipe and this one seemed very straight-forward. I thought Madeira Cakes contained Madeira, but I guess they don’t! (Research revealed that the cake was often served with Madeira, thus the name.) This is a very simple recipe, with flavoring just from the lemon zest and juice. 

The recipe says to line the pan and I didn’t do that. Don’t skip this step! It was basically impossible for me to get this out of the pan, but since most of the cake was going into a trifle, that wasn’t a problem. I cut the loaf in half and then was able to get it out of the pan. Learn from my mistake. The cake by itself was so good, a little crumbly, but the lemon (and the butter) is a real winner. I love the sugar crust that tops this cake, giving it something a little extra. 

8 ounces butter, softened

7 ounces sugar, plus extra for sprinkling

Grated zest and juice of 1 lemon

3 eggs

 7.5 ounces self-rising flour*

 3 ounces flour

Preheat oven to 340 degrees. Butter and line with parchment paper a 9” x 5” loaf pan.

In a large mixer bowl, cream the butter and sugar. Stir in the lemon zest. Add the eggs one at a time with a tablespoon of flour for each. Gently mix in the rest of the flour and, finally, the lemon juice.

Spread the batter in the prepared pan and sprinkle the top with about 2 tablespoons of sugar. Bake for about 1 hour or until a toothpick inserted in the center of the loaf comes out clean.

Remove to a wire rack, and let cool in the pan for about 30 minutes before removing from the pan to cool completely.

Recipe from Nigella Lawson

*I make my own self-rising flour by combining 2 cups flour, 2 teaspoons baking powder, ½ teaspoon baking soda and ½ teaspoon salt.

White Chocolate, Peanut Butter, and Pretzel Cookies

There are some foods out there that I just love. And there are other foods that I go through phases with and really like them a lot and then all of a sudden I’m just not interested any more. Pretzels are like this. (Not the big fluffy baked pretzels; those I can’t get enough of!) I go through times when I can’t stop eating them. But I recently bought a big bag at the store and I had some and I was just not interested. I guess I’m in the phase of not liking pretzels.

So now I have all of these pretzels and I don’t want to eat them. I know that there are quite a few cookie recipes that use pretzels so I just figured that I would use them in my baking. I already had two recipes bookmarked, but they were both bar cookies and required a number of ingredients that I didn’t have. So I looked some more and came up with two contenders: one with peanut butter and white chocolate and the other with peanut butter and Rolos. I love Rolos, but those will need to wait for another day. No worries, I have lots of pretzels.

You melt half the white chocolate chips and add that to the batter for richness. I’ve found white chocolate chips to be the hardest thing to melt successfully. If it gets even a bit too hot it completely seizes. I melted mine in the microwave using 30 second increments and that worked. These smelled divine and they taste even better. White chocolate can be super sweet, but the salt from the pretzels and the sweetness is great. This cookie looks like a good old-fashioned cookie, but pairs together some really interesting flavors. This is one you don’t want to miss.

½ cup butter, softened

1/2 cup sugar

1/2 cup packed brown sugar

2 cups white chocolate chips, divided

1 1/4 cups peanut butter, divided

1 egg

2 teaspoons vanilla

1 1/4 cups all flour

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 cup broken pretzel pieces

Additional salt

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line two baking sheets with silicone baking mats.

In a large mixer bowl, cream the butter and sugars until light and fluffy.  Melt 1 cup of the white chocolate chips and 2 Tablespoons peanut butter (or in a microwave).  Add melted chocolate chips and remaining peanut butter to the butter mixture.  Stir in the egg and vanilla.

In a small bowl combine the flour, baking soda and salt in bowl.  Add to the butter mixture and stir until just combined.  Add the pretzels and the remaining 1 cup of white chocolate chips and stir by hand until combined. 

Scoop the dough into 1 tablespoon mounds on the prepared baking sheet.  With the palms of your hand, gently press down each cookie to about 1/2 inch in thickness.  Sprinkle each cookie with a touch of salt.  

Bake for 12-15 minutes or until edges become golden.  Let cool for 10 minutes on baking sheet before removing to a wire rack to cool completely.

Recipe from Picky Palate

Cinnamon Rhubarb Muffins

After our trip the other week to buy rhubarb, I now have a supply of it in the freezer. My dance teacher mentioned that she really loves rhubarb and had been unable to find it in the store. She was right, that was why we had taken a bit of a trip to get some. Since I often bring her treats when I go to dance class, I figured that I would make something for her with rhubarb. This muffin recipe seemed just perfect. 

I like making muffins, but they seem to get hard so quickly that I am often hesitant to make them as I typically bake in the evening and take them the next day. I had enough time to bake these in the afternoon before my evening ballet class, so they were still slightly warm. Muffins are at their best when they are still warm! She loved them and was so happy I made something with rhubarb.

These muffins retain the tartness of rhubarb, which is quite powerful for some folks. The cinnamon sugar topping offsets the tartness nicely, so you get the sweet, too. When writing up this recipe I realized that I left out ½ teaspoon of baking soda, but the muffins turned out just fine and seem to raise plenty with just the baking powder. Usually baking isn’t quite so forgiving, but I lucked out this time. 

2 cups flour

¾ cup sugar

2-1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon cinnamon

½ teaspoon salt

1 cup sour cream

2 eggs

½ cup butter, melted and cooled

1 teaspoon vanilla

1-1/2 cups sliced rhubarb

Cinnamon sugar, for topping

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Line 12 muffin cups with paper baking cups.

In a large mixing bowl, combine the flour, sugar, baking powder, cinnamon, and salt and whisk to blend. In a separate bowl, whisk together the sour cream, eggs, melted butter, and vanilla until smooth. Stir the sour cream mixture into the flour mixture with a spatula until the batter just comes together; do not over mix. Gently stir in the rhubarb. Divide the batter among the muffin cups.

Sprinkle each muffin with cinnamon sugar. Bake the muffins 18-22 minutes, until golden brown, and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool in the pan for 5 to 10 minutes and then remove from the pan and allow to cool on a wire rack. Serve warm.

Recipe from Inspired 2 Cook

Oasis Naan

This week’s Tuesdays with Dorie recipe is Oasis Naan and this week’s hosts at Maggie at Always Add More Butter and Phyl at Of Cabbage and King Cakes. You can get the recipe for this bread at their blogs. Don’t forget to check out the Tuesdays with Dorie website to see how all the other bloggers did with this week’s recipe.

At first, I wasn’t going to make this recipe because we were busy making things for the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee. But I looked at the recipe and figured that I could make the dough one night and then bake it the next. I was almost out of flour so this recipe used about 2/3 all-purpose flour and 1/3 whole wheat flour. It seemed to work just fine! The topping of green onions, salt and cumin seed was really interesting. I’m very glad that I made this because I really liked it.

I don’t have a baking stone so I baked these on the back of baking sheets. My husband wanted to see how one would bake up in the Panini press so one was baked that way, too. That one turned out pretty good and looked like focaccia after it’s been in a Panini press. That one was a little chewier, since it didn’t rise as much. I docked the naan a lot before baking, because I knew others had issues with them being puffy, but mine were puffy too. That’s ok, they tasted good. These aren’t as thin and soft as the naan I get at the Indian restaurant, but they are really great. This was something very different and I’m glad I tried it!

Recipe from Baking with Julia by Dorie Greenspan

Marshmallow Sandwich Cookies

Usually I buy a bag of marshmallows and use some of them and forget that I have them, eventually they go stale. Unless it’s winter when I put them in cocoa, but it’s been a little too warm for that! So this time after making the Chocolate Marshmallow Cookies, I planned to make these cookies to use up all of the marshmallows. How frugal of me, huh?

These cookies contain corn syrup, which I think helps them be chewy and pliable, but some folks don’t like corn syrup. If you’re in that camp, feel free to use honey or golden syrup instead. It should work just fine. The chocolate cookies for these sandwiches are just the most perfect looking cookies ever. You could make them for any occasion and will them with almost anything: raspberry jam, Nutella, anything! Just make sure you make an even number of cookies and that they are similarly sized.

Microwaving the marshmallows so that they are just right is a bit of an art, but I found 15 seconds to be about right. The marshmallows bet big and puffy as they get warm, which is kind of fun to watch. I found that a whole marshmallow was a bit too much, so I cut the marshmallows in half and that was better. Once you top the marshmallow with another cookie, let these set until the marshmallows are no longer soft and sticky. You need to eat these the day you make them or the next day, but they’re pretty tasty so I doubt that will be a problem for you!

2/3 cup butter, room temperature

1-1/4 cups sugar

¼ light corn syrup

1 egg

1 teaspoon vanilla

2 cups flour

½ cup cocoa powder

2 teaspoons baking soda

¼ teaspoon salt

Sugar

Large marshmallows

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line two baking sheets with silicone baking mats.

In a large mixer bowl, cream the butter and sugar. Stir in the corn syrup, egg, and vanilla. In a small bowl stir together the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt. Stir the flour mixture into the butter mixture. Refrigerate the dough for about 15 minutes.

Shape the dough into small balls. Roll the balls into sugar and place on the prepared baking sheets. Bake for 10-11 minutes. Allow to cool before assembling sandwiches.

To make the sandwiches, place cookies flat side up on a microwaveable place. Top with half of a marshmallow and microwave for about 15 seconds. Immediately top with another cookie. Allow to set.

Recipe from Favorite Brand Name Cookie Collection

Irresistible Graham Cracker Cookies

I find that recipes that come from manufacturers are usually pretty good (although not always the most inspired ideas). I try to always have graham crackers on hand for different recipes, but sometimes I just end up eating them as a snack. Our kitchen was particularly bereft of tasty snacks recently so I’ve been munching on the graham crackers and I forget how good they can be.

The box has been out on the counter and I kept looking at the recipe on the back of the box. They looked pretty good but I have so many different cookie baking ideas going through my mind that I figured that I’d probably never get around to making them. Well, my husband commented that they looked really good so I just decided to make them and see how they turned out. 

These cookies are a little bit different in assembly: they don’t have eggs or sugar and instead use sweetened condensed milk. I wasn’t sure how that would work but the dough came together very easily. For the mix-ins, you could use whatever you have on hand. I used sliced almonds, coconut and a mix of mini chocolate chips and dark chocolate chunks. I love the dark chocolate chunks mixed with the sweetness of the graham cracker crumbs. These cookies were a nice surprise, especially since they’re just a recipe from the box of generic graham crackers!

1-1/2 cups graham cracker crumbs

½ cup flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

14 ounce can sweetened condensed milk

½ cup butter, room temperature

1 teaspoon vanilla

2 cups chocolate chips

1 cup nuts

1 cup coconut

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line two baking sheets with silicone baking mats.

In a medium bowl, combine the graham cracker crumbs, the flour, and the baking powder. Set aside.

In a large mixer bowl beat the sweetened condensed milk and butter until smooth. Stir in the vanilla and then stir in the graham cracker crumb mixture. Stir in the chips, nuts, and coconut.

Drop by teaspoonfuls onto the prepared baking sheets. Bake for about 12 minutes, until set and lightly browned around the edges. Allow to cool on the baking sheets for a few minutes before removing to a wire rack to cool completely.

Recipe from the box of Kroger graham crackers

Cold Sesame Noodles

For this round of the recipe swap the theme was noodles. That leads to many, many possible recipes! I got this recipe for cold sesame noodles. I’ve had these before but it had been at least ten years ago so I was eager to make these. I decided to make these for dinner one night and serve them with bbq pork. It was a great dinner.

Years ago I worked in a store deli and my job was to make the salads. One of the salads we made was very similar to this recipe. When I made this I was thinking it would be like that recipe, but that recipe was more soy sauce-based and had a lot less peanut butter. I did go a little light on the peanut butter but that was still the prominent ingredient. I had all the ingredients on hand with the exception of the red chili sauce. I substituted some sweet chili sauce that really didn’t have any heat. It needs a little something so don’t skip that ingredient. (As a side note, I added a touch of the spicy mustard commonly served with bbq pork and that worked quite nicely!)

As always, I have a lot of fun with the recipe swaps and I get the opportunity to try some different things for my blog. Thanks to Sarah from A Taste of Home Cooking for this recipe. She’s the organizer of these swaps and I have such a good time participating. Thanks so much Sarah!

1-inch piece fresh ginger, peeled and chopped
3 cloves garlic, smashed
2 tablespoons brown sugar
1 cup creamy peanut butter
3 tablespoons rice wine vinegar
3 tablespoons low-sodium soy sauce
1 teaspoon red chili sauce
1 teaspoon toasted sesame oil
6 tablespoons water

1 pound Chinese egg noodles or spaghetti

Salt
2 scallions, sliced thin
sesame seeds and cilantro, for garnish

In a blender or food processor, combine the ginger, garlic, brown sugar, peanut butter, rice wine vinegar, soy sauce, chili sauce, sesame oil and water. Blend or process until smooth. Refrigerate for 30 minutes.

Cook the noodles in large pot of boiling salted water over medium heat until tender. Drain immediately and rinse with cold water until cool. Drain the noodles well and transfer to a wide bowl.

Pour the peanut sauce over the noodles and toss until well coated. Serve garnished with the scallions, sesame seeds, and cilantro.

Recipe from A Taste of Home Cooking