Sour Cream Coffee Cake

I made this wonderful coffee cake this morning for breakfast. It was a HUGE hit! I found the recipe on Gimme Some Oven only change I did was add more than half of the topping to the middle.

Sour Cream Coffee Cake


Ingredients:

Cake Ingredients:

1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, room temperature
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
2 cups flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1 (12 oz.) container of sour cream
1 tsp. vanilla extract

Topping Ingredients:

1 tsp. cinnamon
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 cup chopped pecans or walnuts (optional)(I used pecans)
Method:

In a mixer, cream together butter and sugar. Add eggs to the mixture, one at a time, beating well after each addition.

In a separate bowl, stir together the flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt.

Add the dry ingredients to the creamed mixture alternately with the sour cream and vanilla. Mix until combined.

Then pour half of the batter into a greased 9″x13″ baking pan, and sprinkle with half of the topping. Add the remainder of the batter on top, and sprinkle with the remaining topping. Bake at 350 degrees for 30-35 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the middle of the cake comes out clean.

Also Gimme Some Oven gave a helpful tip that "The batter will be pretty sticky, so I recommend adding your second layer in small spoonfuls all over the pan (rather than just adding the remaining batter in one big blob). This may make it easier to spread out over the cinnamon-sugar layer."

Oatmeal Raisin Cookies W/ Cinnamon chips

If you want to see this image larger just click on the image and it will open to be bigger.



I found this recipe on I Heart Nap Time. I did not put any raisins in these cookies due to some family members not liking raisins so I made Oatmeal cookies with Cinnamon chips. These cookies are thick and chewy. For me I am a lover of cookies that are chrispy on the edge and chewy in the center, these cookies remind me of the thick chewy breakfast cookies that are out there. These cookies are good but I had very high hopes of it bursting with flavor. you can tell there is cinnamon chips in the cookies but only when you get a bite with the cinnamon chips in it. If you don't get a bite with the cinnamon chips in it then it feels like you are eatting baked oatmeal. So needless to say that I have a mixed review about these cookies. They are good but could use more flavor. With how expensive the cinnamon chips are (for a bag that is 1 2/3 C of chips cost almost $4) you will REALLY have to be craving these cookies. Sorry for the mixed review but I do try to be very honest and let my readers know what I think.

Downeast Maine Pumpkin bread

I found this recipe a few years back and this wonderful moist bread even made it into our family cookbook.
I found it on Allrecipes, if you go HERE you will be able to see it as well. The only thing I do different is make 2 loafs of bread and not 3. I like my bread to be a little thicker.

Cheddar-Chive Gougères

This morning I found this recipe and whipped it up real quick. They were easy to make and so good! I had to make my 3 year old get away from them (she ate 3 of them).

Don't those look YUM???? Trust me they are! I found this recipe HERE. I followed the recipe and got 31 biscuits.

Cheddar-Chive Gougères
by Tori Ritchie
Party Appetizers: Small Bites, Big Flavor

Makes about 15 servings (40 to 50 gougères)

1 cup water
8 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into pieces
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup all-purpose flour
4 large eggs
1 1/2 teaspoons dry mustard
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1 1/2 cups (6 ounces) shredded sharp Cheddar cheese, or gruyere
2 tablespoons minced fresh chives

1. Preheat the oven to 375°F (190°C). Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper.

2. Put the water, butter, and salt in a medium, heavy saucepan and place over medium-high heat. Cook, swirling the pan a few times until the butter melts; once it has melted, increase the heat to high and bring the mixture to a rolling boil. Turn off the heat and dump in the flour. Beat the mixture with a wooden spoon until it starts to pull away from the sides of the pan.

3. Take the pan off the stove, set it on a counter or hot pad, and let it cool, without stirring, for 5 minutes.

4. Now, work in the eggs, 1 at a time, beating the mixture well with the spoon after each addition (you have to put some muscle into it to incorporate the eggs fully). With each addition, the dough should look glossy and slick at first, then stick to the sides of the pan before you add the next egg. After beating in the last egg, beat in the dry mustard and cayenne, then the cheese and chives.

5. Scoop up a heaping teaspoon of dough and with another spoon, push it off onto the paper-lined baking sheet (it should form a mound about 1 inch in diameter). Continue with the remaining dough, leaving an inch of space between the gougères (work in batches as necessary, the dough can stand, covered with buttered waxed paper or parchment, for up to 1/2 hour).

6. Bake until the gougères are puffy and light golden, about 25 minutes, switching pan positions halfway through. Remove from oven and let cool slightly before serving, or turn off oven and let gougères remain in oven, with door ajar, for up to 1 hour.

Recipe © 2004 Tori Ritchie.
© 1999–2007 Leite's Culinaria, Inc.

Oatmeal cookies

When I was growing up my mom taught me how to bake. One of the many things that she taught me to bake is my dad's favorite oatmeal cookies. Once we moved to Texas I wasn't able to find the recipe and my mom had misplaced it as well. Then I finally found it! I had to make them. So with the help of my youngest daughter, Natily, these cookies were made. 

Oatmeal Cookies

Makes 2 dozen

1 C. All purpose flour

1/2 C. granulated sugar

1/2 C. packed brown sugar

1/2 tsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp. baking soda

1/4 tsp. salt

1/2 C. butter flavored shortening

1 egg

1/4 tsp vanilla

3/4 C. quick cooking oats

1/4 C granulated sugar (for rolling the cookies in)

In mixing bowl stir first 6 ingredients together. Add shortening, egg and vanilla; beat well. Stir in oats. Form into balls and roll in a additional granulated sugar. Place on ungreased cookie sheet. Bake at 375 F for 10-12 minutes.

My review for Chocolate mint truffles

I found this recipe on this site http://www.controllingmychaos.com/2008/12/chocolate-mint-truffles.html.

Here are the ones that I made. They look just like the one from the blog.

My review: they are plain and sweet. They need chopped pecans or something to give it more flavor and texture. These are super easy to make though.

Hubby's review: "YUCK, THESE ARE WAY TO RICH"

LOL .

Via muffins

Via muffins that I made

http://thepioneerwoman.com/tasty-kitchen/recipes/breads/via-cappucino-muffins/


My review: I will not be making these again. The coffee flavor is too strong for me.

Hubby's review: He loves them! He is a huge coffee drinker.

Breakfast biscuits

My friend Jackie came up with these awesome breakfast biscuits! My girls love them and they are super easy. This is how I make them. You take a can of 8 count biscuits cut them into 4 pieces, smash them down so they will fit into a muffin pan. Place one of the quarter pieces in each spot on the muffin pan (only use 16 muffin spots) . Place some shredded cheese of your choosing on top of each biscuit then put some breakfast meat (sausage, bacon, ham, etc) on top of cheese. Scramble some eggs (as many or as little as you like) and pour some on top of the meat sprinkle more cheese on it if you would like (depending on how much you put on the bottom) and use the remaining biscuits, cut them into 4  pieces smash them down and put them on top you don't need to press down just lay it on top. Bake at 350 for about 20 min. or until the tops are golden brown. I bake these ahead of time and freeze them so my daughters have quick easy breakfast throughout the week. To heat them up all i do is wrap them up in a paper towel and put them in the microwave for about a minute or less depending on how big or small the biscuit is.

For these I used turkey bacon

Natily's Good Morning Cookies

Right now I am trying to figure out what I should post first in this family blog that I am going to try to keep up. The only thing that I can think of that I haven't shared with a lot of people is Natily's Good Morning Cookies. My friend Jackie and I came up with these cookies due to both of us having daughters that are not always in the best moods first thing in the morning. Jackie describes the taste of these cookies as no baked cookies (only these cookies are baked).  I do not claim that these are healthy but for now they do the trick of making our lives a little easier in the mornings with our little girls.

Natily's Good Morning Cookies

1 Cup all purpose flour

3 Tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

1/2 Cup margarine

1/2 Cup brown sugar

1/2 Cup white sugar

1 egg

1 Tbsp brewed coffee (at room temp)

1 tsp vanilla extract

1/4 Cup creamy peanut butter

1 heaping cup of rolled oats

3/4 Cup semi sweet chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 F.

Stir together flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda and cinnamon. Set aside. 

In large bowl cream together margarine, brown sugar and white sugar. Beat in the egg, vanilla and brewed coffee. Add peanut butter. Mix in dry ingredients. Add oatmeal and chocolate chips.

Bake 8-12 minutes 

Makes just over 2 dozen cookies.