A Photo A Day [Days 274 & 275]

This first pic's a rather dull one of the swamps of Jersey. Nothing much to see here.


There's a dinky little carnival going on up the street from us. We took a trip up there so I could try to photograph something a little different from my norm. Unfortunately it's been unseasonably warm today so there wasn't much of a crowd and most everyone there looked rather bored. At least no one hassled me about taking lots of pictures.

Pretzel-stuffed Chocolate Chip Banana Cupcakes With Peanut Butter Frosting

Since we now have the added expense of my husband's fancy new/old car I'm trying to crack down and put us on a real budget so we can rebuild our savings. As part of that savings plan I'm trying to use up what we already have on hand before I go out and buy more. While I might have preferred to try one of the fancy new recipes I've discovered at Pinterest I instead made an effort to come up with something fun using ingredients I already had in the house. Not to mention that I've had some overripe bananas browning on the counter for over a week. Thus was my latest cupcake creation born.

I used my trusty banana cupcake recipe and the melt-in-your-mouth peanut butter buttercream recipe from 125 Best Cupcake Recipes. My unique twist came in the form of adding some chocolate chips to the cake batter and a delicious pretzel nugget at the center of each cupcake. Trader Joe's sells some peanut butter-stuffed pretzel bites that are then coated in a thick layer of chocolate and they are amazing. Sweet and salty heaven in a bite-sized serving! I, being the cheap person that I am, instead found a knockoff version at Aldi for a fraction of the price and stocked up when they were selling them a few months ago. I'd say they are just as good as the original and just as dangerously addictive.


As expected, the cake baked up nice and fluffy and the peanut butter frosting was a great match for the banana flavor. The best part is that the pretzel remained crispy and added a nice surprising crunch to each cupcake. While I won't make these on a regular basis because I'm loath to part with more of my pretzel bites they were a fun experiment and the flavor combination was as appealing as I'd imagined.

Pretzel-stuffed Banana, Chocolate, and Peanut Butter Cupcakes
Recipe adapted from 125 Best Cupcake Recipes by Julie Hasson


1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
Pinch of salt
1 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup vegetable oil (I used melted butter)
2 eggs
1 cup mashed banana (about 2 large)
1 tsp vanilla
3/4 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
12 chocolate covered peanut butter pretzel bites

1) Preheat oven to 350F. Line 12 cupcake wells with paper liners.
2) In a small bowl, mix together flour, baking soda, and salt.
3) In a bowl, whisk together sugar, oil, and eggs until smooth. Add banana and vanilla, beating well. Add flour mixture, beating until smooth. Fold in chocolate chips.
4) Scoop about one tablespoon of batter into each cupcake well. Place one pretzel in the center of each cupcake and top with remaining batter until covered. Bake in preheated oven 22 to 28 minutes or until tops of cupcakes spring back when lightly touched. Let cool in pan on rack for 10 minutes. Remove from pan and let cool completely on rack.

Peanut Butter Frosting
Recipe from 125 Best Cupcake Recipes by Julie Hasson

2 cups confectioner's sugar
1/2 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
1/2 cup creamy peanut butter
2 tbsp heavy cream or milk

1. In a bowl, using an electric mixer, beat together confectioner's sugar and butter until creamy. Add peanut butter, beating well, Add milk and beat until smooth and creamy. Pipe onto cupcakes.

Pull Apart Sweet Lemon Bread

The alternate title for this post is, "How Pinterest is ruining my diet." Since I became addicted to the site just a short week and a half ago I've pinned about 80 recipes I'm dying to make. I've already gotten a few good dinners out of it including an easy spicy tomato egg dish perfect for a weeknight, black bean tortilla pie from Martha Stewart, and these indulgent grilled cheese sandwiches with bacon, apple, avocado, and pepperjack cheese:


The recipe I saw and just knew I *had* to make was a luscious-looking pull apart sweet lemon bread. Those flaky layers of dough interspersed with citrus-flavored sugar and that lemony cream cheese topping just had to be killer. My instincts were right as this is one of the best recipes I've ever made. Seriously. If you have a fear of baking with yeast this is the recipe to try to get you over that fear.

Yes, there are a lot of steps and yes, it is time consuming but it is so worth it. If only my traitorous stomach would have allowed it I could have happily eaten half of the loaf in one sitting. The dough is sweet, but not too sweet. The cream cheese topping is tart but not too tart. Everything about this recipe is spot on.


The only change I made was a minor and unnecessary one. I happened to have some Fiori di Sicilia on hand, a citrusy vanilla flavoring. Since I thought it would lend an extra fun kick of flavor to the dough I added a splash.

I would also caution you to keep an eye on the dough for those first 15 minutes and if it starts to brown too much be sure to cover it with foil for the remainder of the baking process. Mine was perhaps a tad too brown and crispy around the edges by the end, not that I let that stop me from devouring it.

Pull Apart Lemon Loaf
Recipe from Clockwork Lemon


Sweet Yeast Dough
2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour (You might not use all of this)
1/4 cup granulated sugar
2 1/4 teaspoons (1 envelope) instant yeast
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup whole milk
2 ounces unsalted butter
1/4 cup (2 fluid ounces) water
1 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon Fiori di Sicilia (optional)
2 large eggs, at room temperature

Lemon Sugar Filling
1/2 cup granulated sugar
Zest of three lemons
1 tablespoon finely grated orange zest
2 ounces unsalted butter, melted

Tangy Cream Cheese Icing
3 ounces cream cheese, softened
1/3 cup powdered sugar
1 tablespoon whole milk
1 1/2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice

1. Make the dough: In the microwave heat the butter and the milk together until the butter melts. Set aside to cool slightly. While it is cooling mix two cups of the flour with the yeast and the sugar in the bowl of a mixer. Then add the water to the milk mixture and stir in the vanilla extract and optional Fiori di Sicilia.

2. Pour the milk mixture over the flour mixer and stir until combined. Turn the mixer on low speed and add the eggs one at a time, mixing each egg until it is combined. Add another 1/2 cup of the flour and the salt and mix until combined.

3. Sprinkle the dough with 2 tbsp of flour and knead it with the dough hook for 3 minutes. The dough will be sticky but should become soft and smooth from the kneading. Place the dough in a large bowl, cover it with plastic wrap, and let it rise in a warm place 45-60 minutes or until doubled in size.

Make Ahead Tip: If you want to make the dough the night before you bake it just gently deflate the dough after its first rise, place back in the bowl and cover it with plastic. Stick it in the fridge overnight (it will continue to rise, but at a much slower rate). Plus you get added flavor in the bread from the benefit of a slow, cold rise. The next day take the dough out and bring it to room temperature before proceeding with the next steps.

4. Mix the sugar, lemon zest, and orange zest. It will draw out the citrus oils and make the sugar sandy and fragrant.

5. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C). Grease a 9″x5″ loaf pan or spray it with baking spray

6. Forming the loaf: Deflate the dough with your hand. Flour a work surface and roll the dough into a 20″ by 12″ rectangle. This part is a lot easier with a ruler on hand. Use a pastry brush to thickly coat the dough with the melted butter

7. Use a pizza cutter, pastry cutter, or a sharp knife to cut the dough crosswise in five strips, each about 12″ by 4″ (it might not be this exact size, but try to make the five strips be equal sizes). Sprinkle 1 1/2 tablespoons of the lemon sugar over the first buttered rectangle and gently press the sugar in. Top it with a second rectangle, sprinkling that one with 1 1/2 tablespoons of lemon sugar as well. Continue to top with rectangles and sprinkle, so you have a stack of five 12″ by 4″ rectangles, all buttered and topped with lemon sugar.

8. Slice this new stack crosswise, through all five layers, into 6 equal rectangles (each should be 4″ by 2″.) Carefully transfer these strips of dough into the loaf pan, cut edges up, side by side. it might be a little roomy, but the bread will rise and expand after baking. Loosely cover the pan with plastic wrap and let the dough rise in a warm place until puffy and almost doubled in size, 30 to 50 minutes.

9.Bake the loaf for 15 minutes and then check to make sure that top isn't browning too quickly. If it is, just cover the top of the loaf with tinfoil and continue baking. My loaf took a little over 40 minutes to bake completely. When done, transfer to a wire rack and let cool in the pan for 10 to 15 minutes.

10. Meanwhile, make the cream cheese icing. Beat the cream cheese and powdered sugar in a medium bowl with a wooden spoon until smooth, then add the milk and lemon juice. Stir until creamy and smooth. Spread over the warm bread (you might want to put some plastic wrap or parchment paper under the bread to catch the drips)

11. Eat!

The Galaxie Revealed! A Photo A Day [Day 273]

I finally convinced the weather to cooperate so I could take some pictures of my husband's Ford Galaxie 500 in all its glory. I think this qualifies for this week's theme of "vintage" too.

I considered somehow blurring out the license plate number but I'll trust you all to not track me down and stalk me based on my revealing that personal information. Thanks.

A Photo A Day [Day 272]

This lengthy post will attempt to explain why I'm the way I am. Some of you may have noticed I'm a bit... odd. I only have my parents to blame for this and my bizarre half-German upbringing. Case in point: these charming illustrations in a popular German children's book, Der Struwwelpeter. It amuses me that this sort of thing was once sanctioned for children as cautionary tales about the consequences of misbehaving. Let's just say that the Germans are big on making sure children obey their parents.

In the first panel, we see Struwwelpeter himself, shunned by society because of his poor grooming habits. That outfit probably didn't help either. You can see his unruly, unkempt hair and his unsightly overgrown fingernails. Do you want to wind up like icky Struwwelpeter, kids?

The second panel illustrates the consequence of playing with matches after little Polly's parents expressly forbade her to do so. Even her poor cats begged her to stop but to no avail. The ensuing conflagration results in Polly "burnt all up from tip to toe" with her poor cats crying over the pile of ashes left behind. The good news is her beautiful shoes survived intact.

The third panel is a simple but enjoyable story of a hunter whose prey decides to take revenge upon him by stealing the hunter's own gun and turning the hunter into the hunted. Perfectly normal.

I saved the best for last. The fourth panel is my absolute favorite of the stories included in the book. You see, young Conrad has the unsanitary habit of sucking his thumbs. As always in these stories, his parents have told him to cease his nasty ways so as to mold him into a respectable human being. Of course, not only does Conrad disobey his parents but he also continues with his horrid habit as soon as his mother leaves the room. The natural consequence of this is that a tailor runs into the room brandishing sharp, pointy scissors and chops off both of Conrad's thumbs. There. Problem solved. The boy will never disobey like that again. Such is the German way of solving problems. :)

French Toast Loaf

As soon as I saw Gingerbread Bagels post about her French Toast Loaf I put it at the top of my baking list. I was so eager to make it that I planned to make it that very weekend. But that was almost two weeks ago. What took me so long, you may ask? It seems that Texas Toast is a valuable commodity only sold in select stores. It took me over a week of hunting to track some down in my area after trips to four different grocery stores. Who knew fulfilling my lust for sugar and butter could be so difficult?

This masterpiece is a combination of all of the things that make French toast good: fluffy bread, cinnamon, oodles of sugar, and more butter than I care to mention all tied together with an eggy base. Aside from tracking down the necessary ingredients it was a piece of cake to make. Just follow the directions to layer everything in a loaf pan and the next day you'll have breakfast waiting to go in the oven.

My only complaint is that mine didn't turn out as cohesive as hers. The filling bubbled out everywhere and was almost a little too runny. I might try it with less butter next time to help prevent that and to cut back on the calorie punch at the end. I am somewhat ashamed to admit that I only got four servings out of this. What can I say? Those two weeks of anticipation gave me more time to build up my hunger. That and I still had strawberries left on my plate after I finished the thin slice I'd first carved out for myself so I simply had to go back for seconds. If you do the math you'll realize that means I ate about half a stick of butter with each portion. Ouch! Try to not hold that against me.

It's also a little tricky pouring the batter between each layer after you've taken the time to press them all down as much as possible. She says the reason for not doing this as you go along is so the bread can be as compact as possible, but I had trouble doing it without tearing a lot of my bread. Might be the reason for my slightly crumbly final product. I'm also not entirely sure I evenly distributed the batter in the process. Still, the idea is wonderful and the result is a tasty breakfast dish that you can proudly share with your family. And, let's face it, considering how much butter there is in this you're better off sharing it.

French Toast Loaf
Recipe from Gingerbread Bagels


12 pieces Texas Toast or a thick sliced bread (stale/day old bread)

9 ounces light brown sugar (a little over 1 cup packed)
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
8 ounces unsalted butter, thinly sliced

Batter
10 ounces heavy whipping cream
4 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Mix together the brown sugar and 1 teaspoon of cinnamon. Set aside.

Whisk together the heavy whipping cream, eggs, vanilla extract and 1 teaspoon of cinnamon. One it’s whisked together, pour it back into a measuring cup.

Take a loaf pan and liberally coat it with non stick spray.

Place 3 slices of bread on the bottom of the loaf pan. Sprinkle 1/3 of the brown sugar cinnamon mixture on top. Put 1/3 of the butter slices on top of the brown sugar cinnamon mixture.

Put 3 more slices on top and press them down really firmly. Sprinkle another 1/3 of the brown sugar cinnamon mixture on top of the bread. Add 1/3 more butter slices on top.

Place another 3 slices on bread on top. You’ll need to really smash it down. Sprinkle the remaining brown sugar cinnamon mixture and add the remaining 1/3 butter slices on top.

Lift the bottom layer of bread slices and pour in some of the batter very slowly. Continue lifting the bottom layer of bread slices all the way around the loaf pan and slowly pouring in the batter. Allow it to soak into the bread. Do not rush this process.

Lift the next layer of bread slices and carefully pour in some of the batter. Lift that layer of bread slices all the way around the loaf pan and slowly pour in the batter. Let the batter soak into the bread for a couple of minutes.

Pour the batter on top of the bread and press it into the bread. Place the last layer of bread slices (3 slices of bread) on top. Pour the batter on top of those slices and slowly press the batter into the bread.

If you have any remaining batter, (which you probably will) carefully lift the bottom slices of bread and pour in the batter all the way around the loaf pan. Continue pouring in the batter where there are spaces that could be filled with batter.

Cover the loaf pan with parchment paper and foil. Place it on a baking sheet lined with paper towels.
Place the loaf in the refrigerator and let it to chill overnight.

The next day, remove the paper towels from the bottom of the baking sheet. Bake the loaf at 350 degrees for 1 hour and until the internal temperature of the loaf reaches 160 degrees. (keep the parchment paper and foil on)
Then remove the parchment paper and foil and bake the loaf for an additional 15 minutes. If butter seeps out of the loaf pan, don’t worry. This happens.

Let it cool for about 10 minutes. Then slide a knife around the edges and invert the loaf. Cut into slices and enjoy!

A Photo A Day [Day 271]

Just a teaser pic for a cupcake recipe I'm planning to post this weekend. Let's just say it involves a combination of banana, chocolate, peanut butter, and pretzels. Beyond that it shall remain a mystery!