Orange Spice Muffins

Warm and toasty spices mixed with vibrant orange bring in the flavors of fall to your morning meal!

I have to admit, although I sort of resisting it, the weather is changing and fall is coming.  Summer is my true season and I dare say I didn't get enough of the long warm days and the abundance of fresh fruits and vegetables.  But Mother Nature is telling me to look toward the cool crisp air, leaves, and warm cozy nights.

So while I may still bring you a few fresh "summer-ish" recipes over the next few weeks today I'm all about fall baking!

ORANGE SPICE MUFFINS

One bite and your suddenly in a mountain cabin, with a nice low fire going to take the chill off, leaves falling outside, and the smell of warm spices filling the air.  Boy, this muffin is all that and more! 

I took the warm notes of pumpkin pie spice and the vibrancy of orange juice and added it to my Basic Muffin Recipe which makes a small batch of 6 that you can easily whip up on a crisp fall morning.  The spices bring you that warm cozy feeling and the orange mixed in brings a light citrus pop to the muffin.  To add a little more of an earthy flavor I used coconut palm sugar but you can certainly use plain white sugar.  Add a little chopped pecans to the top and the end result is a fabulously comforting fall flavored muffin!  

Be sure to make some soon and....

Enjoy!




Orange Spice Muffins

yield:  6 muffins

1 egg
1/4 cup milk
1/4 cup orange juice
1/4 canola oil
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1/2 cup coconut palm sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
1/4 cup chopped pecans

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

In a large bowl add the egg, milk, orange juice, and canola oil and whisk until light.  Add in all the dry ingredients with the exception of the nuts.  Mix batter just until incorporated.  Do not over mix.  Batter should be thick.

Using a large ice cream scoop, divide batter among the wells of a muffin pan sprayed with cooking spray.  Top with chopped pecans.

Bake for 15-18 minutes until tops are brown.  Remove from the oven and allow to cool on a wire rack for 10 minutes.  Serve warm.

Basic Scone Recipe

Yum

I have to say that baking runs in my blood.  While I cook just about everything baking is a secret passion of mine.  (As if you couldn't tell by the dozens of muffin recipes I have!) I come from a long line of "home bakers" as it was just a matter of course in feeding their family.  Making homemade breads, pies, cakes, biscuits, and quick breads were all just part of the makeup of what they ate.  

I remember my grandma making pies and cakes in her little kitchen and the anticipation of eating her "Red Cake" as we called it.  Grandma was one of those "a little of this, a little of that" cooks.  My mom, was the "Pie Queen".  She would whip up all kinds of pies in nothing flat.  My dad's favorite was her blueberry pie, but mine was her chocolate meringue pie.  It was so chocolaty it was like having a piece of heaven!  On most weekends we include something baked for breakfast such as muffins or biscuits.  And as Dad said "there's nothing better than Mom's biscuits and gravy."  In later years we started branching out into other baked goods, namely, scones. 

BASIC SCONE RECIPE

We had never really eaten a scone when I was young.  They were just a more crumbly form of an English biscuit to us.  When I first tasted them I didn't think much of them.  They were very slightly sweet and very crumbly.  Certainly not as good as our Southern biscuits!  I think I didn't get a very good one because they started popping up all over in bakeries and Starbucks, gaining in popularity so we decided to add this to our baking repertoire.  Once we made them and tasted a really good scone, oh boy, did my viewpoint change!  Scones are really really good!

What is a scone?  Originating in Britain, this is a baked good that used flour along with baking powder as the leavening agent.  Scones can be made savory or sweet containing dried fruit such as currants.  Some scones are made with cream instead of butter and milk which produces ultra-tender and cake-like scones that are softer than the butter version. We are going to make the butter version in this recipe which is worth learning as it uses ingredients that you will most likely always have on hand.  They produce a sturdier scone with crisper edges, and are super delicious.

So while I have a few scone recipes already on my blog such as these fabulous Lemon Scones made with yogurt, or these luscious Strawberry Shortcake Scones. I noticed that I haven't posted a Basic Scone Recipe.  So here we are!  This is your basic "start here" recipe.  This is the perfect vehicle for your favorite ad-ins from cranberries to cheddar and chives.  

It's so worth it to bake your own scones!  A cold scone is something that's tolerable and better than no scone at all.  But having a hot scone, split open and spread with butter or jelly so it's ooooozing out the sides and dripping on your fingers as you eat it.  Boy! THAT’S the way to enjoy a scone.

Enjoy!

Basic Scone Recipe

Yield: 12 scones

3 cups all purpose flour

3 tbsp sugar

1/2 tsp salt

4 tsp baking powder

3/4 cup butter (cold)

1 egg

1 cup whole milk

Preheat oven to 450 degrees.

Add the dry ingredients to a large bowl and combine.

Using a pastry cutter cut cold butter into flour mixture until there are pea-sized pieces of butter throughout.  Add the milk and egg and mix just until combined. 

Remove the dough to a generously floured work surface and knead just til it comes together. Pat the dough out to 3/4 - 1 inch thickness and cut with a biscuit cutter.  

Place the scones on a baking sheet and bake for 10 to 15 minutes or until golden brown on top.  Remove from the oven and allow to cool on a wire rack for several minutes.  Serve warm.

Sweet Peach Dutch Baby with Honey Laced Ricotta

A showstopper presentation is made when you serve this deliciously light and fluffy Dutch Baby filled with juicy ripe peaches at your next breakfast or brunch!

Yum

While it is starting to get a little crisp in the mornings it is still hot in Los Angeles during the day.  We had several days of 102 degree heat to prove it over the past week!  Being that it is still warm we are still getting in some late summer fruit which is heaven in our book! 

I walked in to the local grocery store Saturday morning to buy 1 item, chili powder, when I was suddenly hit by the most delicious fruity smell. Navigating toward that smell I was lead to a huge display of the prettiest yellow peaches.  Oh man, that smell was calling me!!!  The smell alone made me pick up 4 of them right then and there.  No bag in site, not even a cart.  So I'm toting them around looking for my favorite chili powder for dinner and off I go.  I'm going to make:

SWEET PEACH DUTCH BABY

We have an old family recipe for Dutch Babys and I laugh now remembering my mom and I trying to make one but we didn't have a 10" skillet handy.  So we grabbed an 8" skillet and I just thought it would come out thicker.....oh boy that was NOT the case! The Dutch Baby overflowed in the oven and made a mess.  Oh my, what was left was tasty but cleaning that up left me not wanting to try that again anytime soon.  But today I got up my courage once again to tackle this beauty of a breakfast.  Plus I have my 10" skillet ready to go!

Sorry, I don't want to scare you away.  It really is easy to make.  You just need to make sure you have a 10" skillet for this recipe in order for it to come out without issues.  Too much batter, or too small of a skillet and it may end up in a big mess like the one my mom and I created so long ago!

What is a Dutch Baby?  AKA a German pancake, it can be called considered an American popover.  Basically it's a large fluffy pancake.  The Dutch baby baked in the oven, in a skillet, and is usually a little thicker than most pancakes.  Plus it doesn't contain any of the additional leavening ingredients, such as baking powder, that pancakes do. A nice hot cast iron skillet causes the pancake to puff up dramatically which will slightly deflate soon after being removed from the oven.

This large, fluffy pancake is excellent for breakfast, brunch, lunch and dessert any time of the year.  All you have to do is just dump all of the ingredients into a blender, give it a good whirl, pour it into a heated skillet sizzling with butter, and pop it into the oven.  Poof! a masterpiece with emerge!

How Do I Serve this?  You can leave the Dutch Baby as is and serve if with hot maple syrup or a dusting of confectioner's sugar.  Plain and simple with do you in a pinch.  However, if you want to jazz it up then the variation of what you can do are endless. Berries and whipped cream would be fantastic.  Warm cinnamon apples would be perfect for fall.  But since the weather is still warm and I bought those luscious peaches I'm going to jazz mine up with juicy peach slices and a dollop of honey laced ricotta cheese for good measure.

Note:  Frozen fruit will work perfectly and allow you to have this dish all year round.  Make sure to thaw the fruit first if using frozen.  

What special equipment do I need?  A good 10" cast iron skillet such as this one, or a metal oven proof skillet like this one is needed to make this.  I love my cast iron skillets because they are so versatile and are perfect for the stovetop and the oven, so that's what I used.  A heavy skillet that gets really hot it a necessary component for this dish so that the pancake rises.  

NOTE:  Make sure to use a 10" skillet with this recipe so that your batter doesn't spill over the sides, (been there, done that!) or if too big it won't fill the pan correctly and rise like it should.  If you prefer to use a blender to mix the ingredients that works perfectly, but mixing them by hand is what I did and was just a simple, and I didn't have to clean the blender.

The results are in!  MGG gave a big wow when i served this on the breakfast table Sunday morning, straight from the skillet.  So that was a huge plus!  Even better was that he had several helpings.  I was very pleased with the presentation, the pancake was nicely browned with big poofy spots.  The fresh peach topping was the perfect addition for a nice late summer breakfast, and the ricotta with honey gave it just a little extra something.  Come to think of it, yogurt with honey would be nice too.

I hope you make this while the peaches are ripe and the sun is shining bright!

Enjoy!





Sweet Peach Dutch Baby

serves 6

2 cups sliced peaches (fresh or frozen, thawed)
3 tsp sugar
1 tsp lemon juice
3 eggs
1/2 cup flour
1/2 cup 2% milk
1/2 tsp salt
2 Tbsp butter
1/4 cup ricotta cheese
2-3 Tbsp honey

Peal and slice peaches if fresh.  Place in a medium bowl and add the sugar and lemon juice  Stir to coat and set aside.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.  In a 10" cast iron skillet add the butter.  Place in the oven to melt butter for about 5 minutes.  Meanwhile in a medium bowl beat the eggs until light an fluffy.  Add flour, milk and salt to the bowl and whisk until smooth and combined.

Remove skillet from the oven and immediately pout the batter into the hot skillet.  Place in oven and cook for 20-25 minutes until puffy and golden with very few wet spots.

Meanwhile add ricotta cheese to a small bowl and add the honey.  Stir to combine.    Remove skillet from the oven and fill with the peaches.  Serve with ricotta.