'Snicker'doodle Muffins

Go ahead and say it, ‘they’re ugly’. BUT who cares? As long as they taste good right? I WAS going to make something else one Saturday, but we had just gotten back from Bandung. I asked if I could make something for breakfast. My mom said sure. I looked up breakfast items on allrecipes, my own blog, and another blog. And I found some cinnamon roll muffins. Sounded pretty simple. I got up the next morning and discovered there was no powdered sugar. I got on the same blog and found this recipe and, GOSH was it GOOD!! I want one right now. Everyone loved them, but, as I have said before, they have lots of sugar SO who wouldn’t like them? I don’t know. I got them from here, http://sweetpeaskitchen.com/2012/02/snickerdoodle-muffins/. And here is what I did.

        Muffins

2¼ cups all-purpose flour

3¾ teaspoons baking powder

½ teaspoon nutmeg

½ teaspoon salt

1 cup (1 block) butter, softened (I used salted)

1 cup white sugar

2 eggs

2 teaspoons vanilla

1 cup sour cream

¼ cup buttermilk

       Topping

¾ cup white sugar

2½ teaspoons ground cinnamon

·         Preheat the oven to 190C (350F). Line muffin cups with muffin liners. (Do not use cooking spray.)

·         In a large bowl whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, cream of tartar, nutmeg, and salt; set aside.

·         In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in vanilla extract. Beat in half of the dry ingredients. Beat in the sour cream and buttermilk. Beat in remaining dry ingredients until just incorporated (batter will be soft).

·         To make the topping, in a small bowl, combine the sugar and cinnamon.

·         Using a muffin scooper or ice cream scooper, drop the scoop of batter into the bowl with the sugar and cinnamon. Sprinkle the dough with the mixture and roll it around until it is covered completely in cinnamon sugar. Place the ball into the muffin liner. Repeat with remaining batter. Sprinkle the leftover cinnamon sugar onto the tops the muffins.

·         Bake until muffin tops are golden brown, 18 to 22 minutes, or until toothpick inserted into the center of a muffin comes out with a few moist crumbs attached. Set on wire rack to cool slightly, about 5 minutes. 

Pumpkin Muffins with Cream Cheese Filling

These are very good, BUT…. You know? There’s always that big ‘BUT” after you say, ‘Yum’ these are good’. This big ‘BUT’ is you can’t taste the cream cheese filling very well. I ate these and said, ‘YUM, these are so GOOD!’. BUT my mom said, ‘They don’t taste very much like cream cheese.’ I realize I went through all that work making the cream cheese filling and then half to put it in the muffins and you can’t even taste it!! Anywho, I got this from Buns In My Oven (or my mom got them and told me to make them), http://www.bunsinmyoven.com/2012/09/23/pumpkin-muffins-with-cream-cheese-filling/.    And here is what I did.

      Pumpkin Muffins

¼ cup butter, softened

½ cup sugar

¼ cup red sugar

2/3 cup fresh pumpkin, glop (puree)

½ cup milk

2 eggs

2 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

½ teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon cinnamon

¼ teaspoon ginger

1/8 teaspoon cloves

¼ teaspoon salt

        Cream Cheese Filling

4oz cream cheese, softened

2 Tablespoons white sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla

·         Pre-heat oven to 190C (350F).

·         Cream together butter and sugars until creamy.

·         Beat in pumpkin, buttermilk, and eggs.

·         Combine the dry ingredients in a small bowl and mix into the batter. Stir just until combined. Set aside.

·         Combine the cream cheese, sugar, and vanilla and mix until smooth and creamy.

·         Grease or line a muffin tin with papers and drop one to two tablespoons of the batter into each muffin cup.

·         Drop one teaspoon of the filling in each muffin cup.

·         Add one more tablespoon of batter to each muffin cup to cover the filling.

·         Bake for 24-27 minutes or until baked through. Cool for 5 minutes before removing to a cooling rack.

Cake and Icing

CAKE, yummm! I’ve never known anyone who does NOT like cake. Of course if I ever do meet anybody that does not like cake, I just might faint. I think this recipe came from a friend that’s in Bandung. And the icing came from off the internet (DUHH). We used it to do our Jesus Birthday cake when our package didn’t get here in time. This tasted pretty good, but nowhere as good as a box cake does! Anywho, here it is.

        Master Cake Mix

4½ cups flour

1/8 cup baking powder

¾ teaspoon salt

11/8 cups *Lard thing* (come on you people in Indonesia, you know what I’m talking about) or Blue Band

        White Cake

2 cups Master Cake Mix

¼ cup white sugar

½ cup milk

1 teaspoon vanilla

2 egg whites that have been beaten 2-4 mins.

        Chocolate Cake

2 cups Master Cake Mix

1 cup sugar

5 Tablespoons cocoa powder

3 Tablespoon oil

2/3 cup water

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 egg, beaten

        Butter Cream Icing

½ cup *Lard thing*

½ cup (half block) butter, softened

1 teaspoon vanilla

4 cups powdered sugar, sifted

2 Tablespoons milk

·         MASTER CAKE MIX: Combine flour, baking powder, and salt. Cut in Lard thing.

·         WHITE CAKE: Mix together Master Cake Mix and sugar.

·         Preheat oven to 175C (350F).

·         Add milk, vanilla, and egg whites and beat til’ well mixed.

·         Grease and flour 2 round 9in pans. Pour the batter in the pans.

·         Bake for 30 mins.

·         CHOCOLATE CAKE: Mix together the Master Cake Mix and sugar.

·         Keep the oven on at the same temp.

·         Add cocoa, oil, water, vanilla, and egg. Beat til’ well mixed.

·         Grease and flour 2 MORE round 9in pans.

·         Bake in the preheated oven for 30 mins.

·         ICING: Cream together Lard thing and butter in a mixer. Add vanilla.

·         Gradually add the powdered sugar, one cup at a time, beating well on medium speed.

·         Scrape the sides of the bowl of and on (I bet you would do that even if I hadn’t put it on).

·         When all the sugar has been mixed in, icing will appear dry. Add milk and beat at same speed til’ light and fluffy.

**Lard thing comes in plastic and you can find it almost anywhere.

Dill Pickles

I thought, ‘hmmm, I think it’s time for another snack.’ And that’s what I ‘m doing! This recipe is from a friend in Papua, we’ve only made this once. But they are so good. They taste like pickles you got from the store. And they’re pretty easy to make (YES!!!). But I all most DIED when my mom said they had to cool for 24 HOURS!!! I could probably make these on my own, BUT since it was the first time my mom made them and I helped. Here it is.

        Dill Pickles

6 cucumbers, sliced or speared

½ of a small onion

3 cloves garlic

3½ cup water

½ cup vinegar

¼ cup salt (WOW!!!!)

2 Tablespoon dill weed

1 teaspoon turmeric

·         Place cut cucumbers in a large container (we used a large Lock’n’lock). Cut the garlic and onion very small or to your desire. Add to the cucumbers.

·         Mix the water, vinegar, salt, and turmeric together and bring to a boil. Once it comes to a boil, turn the heat off. Add the dill weed and stir. Pour over cucumbers, garlic, and onion.

·         The cucumbers should be covered with the water mixture.

·         Let cool in the fridge for 24 hours.

Skillet Tacos

When you make this you might look at it and go, ‘bbllick!’ This is exactly what I thought when I saw dinner one night. This is what al my sibs. thought. But then you taste and can’t stop eating it. I’m serious. We did below and we finished it all. I’ll tell you this makes a lot. We or I ate this with white rice, tomato, cheese, and sour cream, but you’re welcome to eat this with whatever. My mom got this from
http://www.lynnskitchenadventures.com/2012/10/skillet-tacos-with-way-better-tortilla-chips.html. And here is what we did.

        Skillet Tacos

1 kilo (2 pounds) ground beef

One 6oz can tomato sauce

One 6oz can tomato paste

1 pack of Taco seasoning (we have people send these)

2 cups refried beans (or 2 cans)

2 cups shredded cheddar cheese

180g tortilla chips, (you can make these) crushed, optional

•   In a skillet cook ground beef until browned and cooked through.
• Add tomato sauce, paste, taco seasoning, and beans. Cook over medium low heat for 5 minutes to blend flavors.
• Stir in cheese and crushed tortilla chips.

Pumpkin Pie Coffee Cake

Oh my gosh!! This is one of the best pumpkin recipes ever! It is not over done with sugar like the Pumpkin Scones, but it is just so GOOD!!! Everyone in my family loved it. We left it on the stove for about half the day (so not a good idea) and then I went in the room where the stove is and a lot of the top was missing. Apparently, my 6 year old brother had been eating it. That just proves he likes it a lot. How I got this recipe was like this, I asked my mom if I could get on ALLRECIPES.com and look for a pumpkin coffee cake (we love coffee cakes). She said I could. So I looked up Pumpkin Coffee Cake and there are only two different pumpkin coffee cakes so I click on one and we have everything. I ask if I can make it the next day for breakfast. And, yep, she said yes. I made it and we LOVED it! Here’s the original recipe, http://allrecipes.com/recipe/pumpkin-pie-coffee-cake/. And here is what I did.

        Pumpkin Pie Coffee Cake

Bottom Layer:

3 cups all-purpose flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon salt

1 cup white sugar

1 cup red sugar (brown)

1 cup butter, melted

2 eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla

Top Layer:

1 cup white sugar

1 cup butter, melted

16oz fresh pumpkin, mashed or known as puree (I say mashed, sorry)

1 cup all-purpose flour

2 eggs

1 Tablespoon ground cinnamon

1 Tablespoon Pumpkin Pie Spice

2 teaspoons nutmeg

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon salt

Topping

1½ Tablespoons white sugar

1½ teaspoon ground cinnamon

·         Preheat oven to 175C (350F). Lightly grease a 9x13 casserole dish.

·         Bottom Layer: mix flour, baking powder, and salt together in a large bowl. Stir in sugars, melted butter, eggs, and vanilla til’ batter is combined (I think that is a duhh). To get this combined well, you have to kinda’ knead it together. And you can’t pour it into the pan you have to pick the ball of dough up and mash it into the pan to make it work.

·         Bake in preheated oven for 5 mins. Leave the oven on.

·         Top Layer:  While the first layer is cooking, beat together sugar and melted butter. Stir in pumpkin, flour, eggs, cinnamon, pumpkin pie spice, nutmeg, baking powder, and salt til’ batter is smooth. Pour batter over the first partly cooked layer.

·         Topping: mix together in a very small bowl, sugar and cinnamon. Sprinkle over the coffee cake.

·         Bake in the preheated oven til’ knife inserted in the CENTER of the coffee cake comes out clean, I cooked it about 40 mins, but the real recipe says to cook it about 35 mins.