Blueberry Muffins (Jordan Marsh’s)

Nic and I picked a bunch of blueberries today. We wandered over to Westward Orchards in Harvard. Pick your own blueberries are 3.99 a pound and are gorgeous! July is the month for blueberries in Massachusetts. We decided to have an all things blueberry day. On the agenda: muffins, smoothies and blueberry pancakes. Now that we've exhausted our first picking we will certainly be back! 

I spent a little time looking for a good muffin recipe and came across this one. After testing this blueberry muffin recipe is a KEEPER. It's a must try if you like blueberries & muffins. The original source can be found here. I've pasted the recipe below for my personal future reference. 

INGREDIENTS

• ½ cup softened butter
• 1 ¼ cups sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 cups flour
• ½ teaspoon salt
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• ½ cup milk
• 2 cups blueberries, washed, drained and picked over
• 3 teaspoons sugar

PREPARATION

1. Preheat the oven to 375.
2. Cream the butter and 1 1/4 cups sugar until light.
3. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Add vanilla.
4. Sift together the flour, salt and baking powder, and add to the creamed mixture alternately with the milk.
5. Crush 1/2 cup blueberries with a fork, and mix into the batter. Fold in the remaining whole berries.
6. Line a 12 cup standard muffin tin with cupcake liners, and fill with batter. Sprinkle the 3 teaspoons sugar over the tops of the muffins, and bake at 375 degrees for about 30-35 minutes.
7. Remove muffins from tin and cool at least 30 minutes. Store, uncovered, or the muffins will be too moist the second day, if they last that long.

Zucchini Banana Bread - worth making

First attempt at a garden in Massachusetts yielded a few vegetables, Zucchini being one! Seems the deer / rabbits do not care for this green vegetable? 

I looked for a new recipe this morning and came across this banana / zucchini bread combo. Worth making again. Good stuff.

Ingredients
4 eggs
2 cups sugar
1 cup vegetable oil
2 medium ripe bananas, mashed (about 1 cup)
3 cups all-purpose flour
1-1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1-1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1-1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon salt
1-1/2 cups shredded unpeeled zucchini
1 cup chopped pecans (or not)

Directions
In a bowl, beat eggs. Blend in sugar and oil. Add bananas and mix well. Combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon and salt; stir into egg mixture. Stir in zucchini and pecans just until combined.
Pour into two greased 9-in. x 5-in. loaf pans. Bake at 350° for 50 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Cool for 10 minutes. Remove from pans to wire racks to cool completely. Yield: 2 loaves.

Apple Pie - Seriously good ... and easy!

Scoured the web and found this apple pie recipe. So good and super easy. I made a few adjustments so I typed out the recipe below. We have so many apples from our apple picking trip, we need to use them up!

Ingredients:

• 1 recipe pastry for a 9 inch double crust pie
• 1/2 cup unsalted butter
• 3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 1/2 cup white sugar

• 1/2 cup packed brown sugar
• 1/4 cup water
• 5 LARGE CAMEO apples - peeled, cored and sliced

1. Melt butter in a sauce pan. Stir in flour to form a paste. Add white sugar, brown sugar and water; bring to a boil. Reduce temperature, and simmer 5 minutes.
2. Meanwhile, place the bottom crust in your pan. Fill with apples, mounded slightly. Gently pour the sugar and butter liquid over the apples. Pour slowly so that it does not run off. Cover with crust.
3. Bake 15 minutes at 425 degrees F (220 degrees C). Reduce the temperature to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C), and continue baking for 35 to 45 minutes.

Caramel Pecan Popcorn

When a craving comes around sometimes you need to satisfy it. I've been craving caramel pecan popcorn from the Chocolate Covered Wagon (Utah). Their caramel popcorn is so chewy and has a great flavor. After googling a few recipes I think this recipe comes close - I've altered it for my purposes below.

Ingredients:

Caramel

• 1 c. brown sugar
• ¾ c. granulated sugar
• ½ c. butter
• 1-14 oz. can sweetened condensed milk
• 1½ c. light Karo syrup or corn syrup
   
• 16 c. popped popcorn (or 4 bags of microwave butter popcorn)
• 2 c. pecans (halves)

Instructions:

Combine all ingredients (except popcorn & nuts) in large, heavy saucepan. Bring to a boil over medium heat, making sure to STIR constantly. Stir, Stir, Stir! You don't want it to scorch or burn. Keep stirring as it boils until it reaches the soft ball stage, 234 degrees on your candy thermometer. Remove from heat, and immediately pour over the popcorn. Stir until coated. Spread onto cookie sheets or wax paper. Let cool.

I cooked on medium heat till the soft ball stage and I think it came to that stage to hot to fast. Next time I will cook it much slower, lower heat and remove from heat around 220. I wanted the caramel to be softer. Still tasty but not as chewy as I wanted.

Most Amazing Chocolate Chip Cookie

Amazing Chocolate Chip Cookies:

1 cup butter

1 cup sugar

1 cup brown sugar

2 eggs

2 t. vanilla

3 cup flour

1 t baking soda

2 t hot water

1/2 t salt

2 cup chocolate chips

1 cup chopped PECANS

Cream sugars well. Add eggs and vanilla and cream again. Add flour, soda salt and water, mix well. If dough is sticky add a little flour. Spoon onto cookie sheet or parchment paper. Bake at 350 for 10 min.

Mom's amazing chocolate chip cookies.

These cookies are to die for. Seriously YUM. When my mom bakes you know the end result will be seriously good. She's been making these cookies for a while now. They are Andrew's favorite and she makes entire batches just for him. In fact she sent him across the country with a farewell batch!

I decided to make these for the first time with tips from my mom. They turned out perfectly.  Below is the recipe. The biggest tip... cream! And extra tips from my mom via text below.

text tips from mom...

Blackberry pie bars

Below is the recipe I found for the blackberry pie bars. Super yummy. We've made them three times in the last few weeks. Gotta use up those berries.  We've had them hot, cold and warm.  I think I prefer the warm version... Sure does make a pretty dessert (forgive the phone photos).

Blackberry Pie Bars

Yum, Yum, Yum! Blackberry pie bars.

Blackberry Pie Bars

By Kathleen, June 28, 2014 From Gonna Want Seconds website

Ingredients:

• Crust:
• 1 1/2 Cups - All-Purpose Flour
• 3/4 Cup - Sugar
• 1/8 Teaspoon - Salt
• 3/4 Cup (1 1/2 Sticks) - Unsalted Butter, Very Cold, Cut Into Small Cubes
• Filling:
• 2 - Large Eggs
• 1 Cup - Sugar
• 1/2 Cup - Sour Cream
• 1/4 Cup Plus 2 Tablespoons - All-Purpose Flour
• Pinch of - Salt
• 16 Ounces - Fresh Blackberries

Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

2. Line an 8X8 baking pan with aluminum foil, allowing the foil to extend a couple of inches on two opposing side.  Spray with nonstick cooking spray

3. Make the crust by adding to the bowl of a food processor the flour, sugar and salt.  Pulse for about 30 seconds to combine ingredients.  Add the cubed cold butter and pulse until the butter pieces are about the size of peas.  Remove 3/4 cup of the mixture to use as a topping and set aside until needed.  Pour the rest of the crumb mixture into prepared pan and press into pan.  Bake for 12-15 minutes or until the edges begin to turn golden.  Cool completely.

4. Make the filling by mixing together, in a medium bowl, the eggs, sugar , sour cream, flour and salt until well combined.  Spread the berries in a single layer on the cooled crust.  Spoon the filling batter over the berries.

5. Evenly spread the reserved crumb mixture on top of the filling.  Bake for 45-55 minutes, or until the filling is just beginning to turn golden and is set.  Cool bars completely on a baking rack then refrigerate if desired.

Peaches!

Finally finished eating, canning, making jam and basically using up all the peaches I grabbed from mom's tree. Fresh peaches are the best!!!

We tried a new pie. Here is a link to the recipe and the recipe is also pasted below. I was trying to recreate a pie I ate when I worked at epek (Dixon peach pie). So amazing and I still crave it. I wish they had not gone out of business. If anyone ever can find a recipe for that pie... you gotta get it to me.

This pie was really good and I'll make it many times over - but not the same as the Dixon peach pie.

Ingredients

• 3 Cups Fresh Sliced Peaches
• 1 Cup Sugar
• 1/3 Cup All Purpose Flour
• 1/8 teaspoon Salt
• 2 Eggs
• 1/2 Cup Sour Cream
• 1/8 teaspoon Cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon Almond Extract
• 1- 9"inch Unbaked Pie Shell
Crumb Topping
• 1/2 Cup Sugar
• 1/2 Cup All Purpose Flour
• 1/4 Cup Cold Cubed Butter

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 350.
2. Start by placing the sliced peaches into your unbaked pie shell.
3. In a small bowl sift together the flour, sugar, cinnamon, and salt.
4. In a separate bowl beat together the eggs, sour cream and extract.
5. Pour half of the dry ingredients into the cream mixture. Mix well.
6. Add in the remaining dry ingredients and beat well again. Now pour cream filling over top of the peaches.
Crumb Topping
7. In a bowl sift together the flour and sugar. Then cut in the cold butter with a fork or pastry blender. You will want for the crumbs to be pea size that will come together if you pinch it between your fingers. Sprinkle evenly over entire pie.
8. Place onto the center rack of your preheated oven, bake for 1 hour. Let pie cool completely before serving.