The Surprise..

So the past 3 nights I've been prepping and mixing and baking and shipping a fancy pants early Cinco de Mayo present for Kyle. Well, I can't post the recipe or pictures until he gets this spectacular present in the mail. So stand by to be blasted with cuteness and yumminess!!

Cherry Ginger Muffins

It's been a while since I've posted, I know. Things have been crazybusy! But I'm back with a unique breakfast muffin that I've been enjoying for several days. They're filling, delicious, and exotic! Plus I actually mixed this recipe by hand - unusual for me. I adapted the recipe a bit from one I had found using apricot preserves. All I had in the house was cherry jam (thanks to the discovery of an ethnic grocery store on one of my many road trips). I swapped ingredients and substituted some whole wheat flour for some of the all purpose flour and VOILA! Deliciousness!



Cherry Ginger Muffins
1 cup all purpose flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1 cup buttermilk (1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar plus enough milk to equal one cup)
3 tablespoons canola oil
1 egg
1/3 cup cherry jam (or your favorite flavor of jam or preserves)

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Line muffin pan with paper liners.

In a large bowl, combine flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt and ginger. In another bowl combine buttermilk, oil, egg and jam. Stir wet ingredients into flour mixture until just moistened. Fill the muffin liners most of the way, leaving enough room for the muffins to bake into their "tops". Bake 15-20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted comes out nice and clean.

(Almost) Nestle Tollhouse Cookies

Ah the American Dream.. Nestle Tollhouse Cookies right from the back of the package. The deliciously perfect consistency is unlike anything else in the cookie world. Salty, sweet, buttery.. ok now I'm drooling. Well I decided to make these with some leftover Valentine's candy (haha I know, I even shocked myself there) and a dark chocolate mint bar I had broken up into pieces. As usual, I cut the recipe in half so I would be less tempted to eat them (it didn't work this time). I had no brown sugar, so I just subbed in some molasses and they came out just as delicious, though a bit richer in color and flavor. Let's just say that only half the batter made it into the oven and there were two cookie casualties after they came out. Mmmmm..

Lemon Lavender Cookies

So last night I decided it was time lavender up a new batch of cookies! Flipping through some old recipes I copied from newspaper articles, I discovered a lemon lavender cookie recipe. Now this one called for powdered sugar and chilling and rolling.. just not really my thing for 8:00 at night. Plus I have yet to buy myself a rolling pin. I switched out some ingredients and added some white chocolate to create a VERY sweet cookie. I adore the texture and the flavor, but next time I think I'll cut down on the sugar a bit and add some more flour. For those of you with a high tolerance for sweets.. ENJOY!

Lemon Lavender Cookies
3 1/3 tablespoons butter, softened
2 tablespoons plain yogurt
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon lemon zest plus a squeeze of lemon juice
3/4 cup flour (I used brown rice flour)
1/2 teaspoon lavender buds
1 square white baking chocolate chopped up (or 1/4 cup white chocolate chips)

Preheat oven to 350. Beat butter, yogurt, and sugar together. Add in lemon zest, flour, and lavender. Mix well and add in white chocolate. Drop by tablespoons 2 inches apart onto ungreased cookie sheet. Press down with fork in that criss-crossy peanut butter cookie pattern. Bake about 15 minutes and cool completely