Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins

My oldest sister gave me this recipe many years ago and I love it. These are moist and a good treat any time of the day. I guess you could eat them for breakfast because pumpkin is good for you, right?!? And who couldn't use a little chocolate?

Pumpkin Chip Muffins

4 eggs
2 cups of sugar
16 ounce can of pumpkin
1 1/4 cup vegetable or canola oil
3 cups flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon of cinnamon
1 teaspoon of salt
12 ounces mini or regular chocolate chips

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Grease or line with liners, 24 regular muffin cups. Beat the eggs, sugar, pumpkin and oil together.  In a separate bowl mix the dry ingredients ( the flour through the salt). Add to the wet mixture and then add the chips. Place in the muffin cups and bake for 16-20 minutes.

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Breakfast Ideas Monday

Banana Coconut Muffins

These are a quick and easy muffin to make and a good way to use up some very ripe bananas. I am not sure how long I have been making these, but the recipe came off a package of Flavorite sweetened, flaked coconut.

Banana Coconut Muffins

1 1/2 cups flour
1 cup of sweetened, flaked coconut, divided
1 teaspoon of baking powder
1 teaspoon of baking soda
1/2 teaspoon of salt
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup canola or vegetable oil (I use canola)
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon of vanilla
3 bananas, mashed
1/2 cup chopped walnuts (optional)

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and grease or line 12 muffin cups.
Mix the flour, 1/2 cup of coconut, baking powder, baking soda and salt together.
In a separate bowl, mix the sugar, oil, eggs and vanilla together. Add the dry ingredients. Add the bananas and the walnuts if using. Fill the muffin cups. Sprinkle the tops of the muffins with the rest of  the coconut. Bake for 20-25 minutes. This makes 12 muffins.

Linking up to Sweets for a Saturday and Breakfast Ideas Monday

Cinnamon Rolls and Orange Rolls

I don't know what was better, the regular cinnamon rolls I always make or the orange variation I made out of my regular recipe.                                    
Cinnamon Rolls

Orange Rolls

This recipe was given to my Mom when I was in grade school. She was on the school board with this lady, I think. Wherever you are Klair Savage, thank you for a great recipe that has never failed me in the 15 years I have been baking cinnamon rolls. This makes about 24 to 27 cinnamon rolls. I made 2 pans of the cinnamon and adapted 1/3 of the batter for the orange rolls.

Fresh out of the oven.

Cinnamon Rolls

2 1/2 cups of lukewarm water
2 packages of quick rise yeast
1 box of yellow cake mix with pudding in the mix
1 cup of flour
3 eggs
1/3 cup oil
1 teaspoon of salt
5 1/4 cups of flour

for the filling:
1/2 cup butter
1/2 -3/4 cup brown sugar ( I prefer dark brown)
1-2 teaspoons cinnamon

icing:
4 tablespoons of melted butter
2 cups powdered sugar
1/2 teaspoon of vanilla
3-5 tablespoons of milk

Dissolve the yeast in the water and let set 3 minutes. Add the cake mix, 1 cup of flour, eggs, oil and salt. Beat with a mixer til bubbles appear. This will happen in 2-3 minutes or less. Slowly stir in the 5 1/4 cups of flour. This will make a soft dough. Knead for 5 minutes. Let rise until double in a greased, covered bowl. Roll the dough into 1 large or 2 medium sized rectangles. Spread with softened butter and then sprinkle with brown sugar and cinnamon. Roll up jelly roll style and cut into 1 inch thick rolls. Place in 3 greased 8 or 9 inch cake pans. Cover with plastic wrap and let rise 45 minutes. Bake in a preheated 350 degree oven for 20 to 30 minutes, depending on your oven and how dark you like you rolls. Mine took about 25 minutes. Cool. Mix up the icing ingredients and frost.

I took 1/3 of the dough and made them into Orange Rolls. That way I was able to have 2 kinds of rolls for not too much more work. You could make the whole batch as orange rolls and just triple my additions below. My husband and I were crazy for these, but my boys liked the cinnamon ones the most.

Orange Roll Variation:
For the dough, I added 1 tablespoon of thawed orange juice concentrate and 1 teaspoon of orange zest  to the dough before the 1st rise.

For the filling, I mixed 3 tablespoons of softened butter with about 3 tablespoons of sugar and 1 teaspoon of orange zest

For the icing, I added 1/2 teaspoon of orange zest  and 1 tablespoon of thawed orange juice concentrate to the leftover icing. I had to add more powdered sugar to that because the orange juice thinned it too much. These are well worth the effort. Now to use this recipe to try all of the different roll filling I have pinned, such as: lemon curd, raspberry, blueberry and cookie dough.

Linking up to: Sweets for a Saturday and Breakfast Ideas Monday

Hot Cross Buns

Happy Easter! For years I have planned to make hot cross buns at Easter time and have never gotten around to it. Thursday night I searched through my numerous recipes and cookbooks for a good recipe. I even went on the internet to look up more. By the time I was done searching and had watched the Pens game and The Big Bang Theory in between, it was too late to bake a yeast recipe with 2 rising times. I ended up making these yesterday morning. I halved a recipe from The Complete Guide to Country Cooking (A Taste of Home cookbook). This particular recipe comes from Dorothy Pritchett. An easy recipe, but you do have to factor in all of the time for rising. I am giving the recipe with the proportions I used, which made about 16 buns.

Hot Cross Buns
1 package of active dry yeast
1/4 cup of warm water (110 degrees)
1/2 cup warm milk (110 degrees)
1/4 cup sugar
2 tablespoons of butter, softened
1/2 teaspoon of vanilla
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
3 to 3 1/2 cups flour (plus more for kneading)
2 eggs
1/2 cup raisins or currants (I could not find currants and I really wanted to try them!)

Icing
2 tablespoons melted butter
1 to 1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
2 teaspoons of milk
A small splash of vanilla

Grease 2 nine or eight inch round cake pans.
Dissolve yeast in the warm water. Add the milk through the cinnamon. Add about half of the flour and beat until smooth. I just used a wooden spoon,  no need to get the mixer out. Add the eggs, then the raisins and the rest of the flour until you have a soft dough. Knead on a floured surface about 5 minutes. Place in a greased bowl. Cover and let rise one hour (until doubled). Punch down dough and shape into 16 balls, placing 8 in each pan, touching each other. Cover and let rise another 30 minutes.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Bake 15 to 18 minutes. Cool and then mix up the icing and place it in a ziplock with the corner snipped off. Make a cross on top of the rolls with the icing. Let set.
Linking up to: Sweets for a Saturday

Neapolitan Cake

This is my birthday cake from last year. Months before my birthday, I search for the best cake to make. This Neapolitan cake was it for me once I saw it. The year before was the Chocolate Guinness Layer Cake I posted. The year before that was a Strawberry Layer Cake. Mmm. I need to make that one again.  Searching for a good Strawberry Layer Cake recipe led me to my first food blog and then I was hooked on food blogs.

Do I look like I am going to fly away or what?

The cake recipe come from Annie's eats and I am going to send you there because this is an extensive recipe. I didn't have any problems with it and I loved the taste of each kind of cake. I didn't use her frosting recipe though. I used a Paula Deen recipe for Strawberry Cream Cheese Frosting. It's posted below.

Neapolitan Cake Recipe From: Annie's eats

Strawberry Cream Cheese Frosting From: Paula Deen
1/4 cup butter, softened
1 8 ounce package of cream cheese, softened
1 10 ounce package frozen strawberries in syrup, thawed and pureed
1/2 teaspoon strawberry extract
7 cups powdered sugar

Beat the butter and cream cheese together until smooth. Add 1/4 a cup of the strawberry pureed (use the rest for something else). Add the extract and then slowly add the sugar. Frost your cake.

So good!

Reese's Pieces Peanut Butter Cookies

What do you get when you put these two things together? Some of the best peanut butter cookies I have ever had, that's what!

The recipe comes from Mel's Kitchen Cafe. She puts chocolate chip in the cookies and I have tried that also. Those are good to. There isn't a recipe of her's that I have tried, that has not been like by everyone in the house.

Reese's Pieces Peanut Butter Cookies  Adapted from: Mel's Kitchen Cafe
1 cup of butter, softened
2 cups smooth peanut butter
1 1/ 2 cups packed brown sugar (I prefer dark brown sugar, but light works well)
1 cup sugar
2 large eggs
1 1/2 tablespoons milk
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla
2 1/2 cups flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 package of mini Reese's Pieces (or 2 cups of chocolate chips)

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. I use parchment lined cookie sheets, but lightly greased sheet should work to. Beat the butter and peanut butter until light and fluffy. Add both sugars and then the eggs, mixing another 2 minutes. Add the milk and vanilla. Stir the flour through the salt together in a separate bowl, then add to the wet mixture. Add the Reese's Pieces. I used a small cookie scope that holds about 2 teaspoons of dough. Bake 8-9 minutes. I like them very light because they stay softer. Wait a minute or 2 before removing to a cooling rack or they will fall apart. The original recipe uses tablespoon sized balls and cooks for 10-11 minutes. With these smaller one, I got about 8-9 dozen out of the batch. A ton! But that just meant I thought I could eat more of them. I think Reese's Peanut Butter is not as easy to find, as say Jif. It is really good though. I can't get it at Walmart, but I can at a smaller grocery in my town.

Linking up to Sweets for a Saturday.