Little Beach Street Bakery - A Novel

I'm sure summer is just around the corner… can you feel it?  Spring time in Oklahoma has been anything but sunshine and flowers blooming!  The sun is hiding and my flowers have all but drowned!  What's a girl to do when she can't get out and dig in the dirt?  Why… curl up with a good read and bake of course!  I have a stack of to be read books calling my name on my bedside table.  Side note, hop on over to Modern Mrs. Darcy.  Anne Bogel's blog is chalked full of great reads. Every book I have read from her blog has never disappointed.  I just read the last page of Little Beach Street Bakery by Jenny Colgan.  Such a fun and yummy read.  A sweet story about a young woman starting over and finding her passion… baking!  I found myself being pulled to the kitchen and searched my pantry for something delicious to bake!  On one such trip to the kitchen after firing up the oven, I stumbled on some very ripe bananas.  Perfect for banana bread!  Instead of bread I wanted to try muffins.  So I started digging in my cookbooks looking for just the right recipe.  I love adding a dollop of sour cream to my muffins, cakes and scones but I couldn't find a recipe with the ingredients I wanted to use.  So wallah… I came up with my own!  Mark, my kids and grands were my taste testers.  I got a "two thumbs up" from the family!  Score!

Scoot to your local book store or order your copy of Little Beach Street Bakery and bake up some muffins.  Make time this summer to curl up with a good book and just enjoy!

Streusel Banana Nut Muffins

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups all purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

3 large ripe bananas, mashed

3/4 cup dark brown sugar

1 egg

1/3 cup melted butter

1 teaspoon vanilla

1/4 cup sour cream

3/4 cup or a little more pecans, if desired

Streusel Topping:

3/4 cup brown sugar

3/4 cup flour

1 tablespoon water

2 teaspoons cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon kosher salt

1/4 cup butter softened at room temperature

Mix all topping ingredients until crumbly.

Sift flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt together and set aside.  In a separate bowl mash bananas- I use a fork but fingers work quite well!  Add the egg, brown sugar, sour cream, melted butter and vanilla, mix well.  Combine banana mixture to the dry ingredients and mix well.  Stir in the nuts if so desired.  Line muffin tins with muffin papers and fill about 2/3 full.  This recipe makes about 16 muffins.  Cover each muffin with streusel topping and bake in a 350 degree oven 25 - 30 minutes.  Muffins are done when you touch them and they spring back.

Now pour a tall glass of ice cold milk and lather up a muffin with a pat or two of butter, grab your book and enjoy the goodness!

Something for the First Time...

     Something for the First Time is the theme this year at my church, St. Luke's United Methodist Church.  Each week Dr. Bob Long encourages us to try something for the first time.  Since the beginning of the year, I have thought about many things I want to try.  Most of the time the road takes me to the kitchen.  I have always loved scones.  A cup of Chamomile tea, with honey of course, a scrumptious scone with lemon curd and I'm in paradise!  I can certainly see me at Buckingham Palace (with a beautiful hat of course!) having tea with the Queen or Princess Kate!  Everything about "high tea" intrigues me… the tea cups, pretty dishes, tiny spoons, little sandwiches and cakes.  Mmmmmm makes me hungry!  It's got to be tea time somewhere! Maybe I will start treating myself to high tea every day,  or maybe once a week!  I see a fancy tea party with my granddaughters in the near future!  Ok, back to something for the first time!  I have never ever made a scone and was honestly a little intimidated at the thought of baking them.  I tried several recipes; some too dry, some too crumbly.  After combining 5 or so different recipes, I believe I have the perfect scone!  Everyone says their recipe is the perfect one right???  Of course there is always room for improvement in anything!  For me, I love this one and plan to stick with my creation.  The best thing about this recipe is you can add fresh fruit, different flavors of chips or just enjoy them plain!  The first time I made them, I used mini cinnamon chips.  Ooo la la… they were yummy!  But… I forgot to save a couple scones and take pictures!  A senior moment I guess!

I recently discovered King Arthur Flour.  I ordered lemon chips and sanding sugar and couldn't be happier.  Check out their website, good stuff!

Enjoy these sconealicious lemon scones.  Put the tea kettle on and have yourself a "tea party!"

Scones

Ingredients:
2 cups flour + a few Tablespoons for rolling out dough
1/2 cup light or dark brown sugar
1 Tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup unsalted butter (freeze the stick of butter, after frozen grate the butter with a cheese grater and place back in freezer)
1 extra large egg  (I use extra large eggs in all my baking)
1/2 cup sour cream
1 teaspoon of vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups lemon chips
zest of a lemon
course sugar for sprinkling on top before baking (optional)

Glaze:
1 cup confectioners' sugar
3 Tablespoons milk/half and half or cream
1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
lemon zest if desired

Directions:
Preheat oven to 400F degrees.  I place my baking shelf in the middle.  Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a silicon baking sheet works great as well.

In a good size bowl, whisk the flour, brown sugar, baking powder, and salt.  Remove the grated butter from the freezer and toss in the flour mixture.  Using a fork or pastry cutter combine until the mixture looks like course cornmeal.  Set aside.

Whisk the egg, sour cream and vanilla in a small bowl.  Pour over the mixture and then mix with a rubber spatula until everything is moistened.  Gently fold in the lemon chips.  Try to not over work the dough.  Don't start getting intimidated!!!  The dough is going to be pretty moist at this point.  Work the dough as best you can into a ball.  On a lightly floured surface pat the dough in an 8" round circle.  Cut the dough in 8 wedges.  Place wedges on the prepared baking sheet.  Give each scone some space.  Using a little cream, brush the wedges with the cream and if desired sprinkle with course sugar.

Bake 20 - 25 minutes or until lightly browned.  The first time I made them I over baked them a tad!  Remove from the oven and let the scones cool down a bit.  Meanwhile… whip up the glaze.  Drizzle the glaze over the scones.

Scones are best if enjoyed right away, well wait till the tea is ready!  If you have any leftovers, the scones keep well in an air tight container at room temperature for 2 or 3 days.

Now it's time to sit on the patio, garden, watching a good movie or soaking in the tub, enjoying a hot cup of tea and a sconealicious scone!

Once again big thanks to my sweet friend Nelou.  You encourage me to do better every day!

sweet smell of cinnamon rolls

     First of all for the record...  Hi, I'm Gwyn and I'm a cinnamon roll-aholic!  Annnnd all together now... Hi Gwyn!  Haha okay, just making sure we're all in the right place!!  Alrighty, I have been on a mission to create the best ooey goey, cinnamon filled slice of heaven you've ever tasted.  As I think back upon the many cinnamon rolls I have enjoyed over the years, my mind often wanders to my sweet childhood friend in Casper, Wyoming.  Her mom made the best cinnamon rolls, I tell ya.  If I close my eyes and breathe in slowly, I can still smell the aroma drifting down the stairs into the basement.  Needless to say we took them two at a time in order to savor those first couple rolls fresh from the oven!  Oh the memories... Ok... eyes back open and back to reality!  In my not so humble opinion, I believe the secret ingredient to these amazing cinnamon rolls... is mashed potatoes!  You heard correctly... I said potatoes!  How can you go wrong combining yummy mashed potatoes with dough?  A true match made in heaven!

Timeless Cinnamon Rolls

Ingredients:

Rolls:
1 cup mashed potatoes - do not salt the potatoes
1 cup potato water (scoop out a cup of potato water before you drain the potatoes!)
3/4 cup melted butter
3/4 cup sugar
2 teaspoons salt
1 cup hot water
2 packages of yeast
1/2 cup warm water (100 - 110 degrees F, to dissolve yeast)
2 eggs
8 1/2 cups plus 2 Tablespoons all purpose flour (I don't know why plus 2 T., it just works!)

Filling:
1 cup melted butter, plus more if needed
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup ground cinnamon

Maple Icing:
These are "approximate" measurements.
1 pound powdered sugar
1/4 cup maple syrup (pancake or waffle syrup works just dandy!)
3 Tablespoons melted butter
Milk for thinning if needed

For the Dough:

Combine potatoes, potato water, butter, sugar, salt and hot water in a large mixing bowl.  Set aside to cool.  Combine yeast and 1/2 cup warm water in a small bowl.  Let rest so the yeast can get going, about 5 minutes.  Add the eggs, 2 cups of flour and yeast mixture to potato mixture.  Beat until well mixed.  I use my big girl mixer with the dough hook attachment but you can do this by hand.  Get ready to use your muscles!  Continue adding flour, one cup at a time, until a soft dough forms.  Knead on a lightly floured surface until smooth and elastic (about 6 minutes), or use your big girl mixer!  Place the dough in a clean greased bowl, then cover.  You won't want to stop playing with this dough, it is soooo soft and supple!  Big girl play dough!  Let the dough rise and do its thing in a warm cozy place for an hour.  Laundry?  The dryer is a perfect place for the dough to do its magic!  Get ready!  This dough poofs up big time!  After an hour get your fist ready and punch down!  Divide dough in half.

Roll one portion of dough on a lightly floured surface to an approximate 12" x 18" rectangle.  Now for the oh so good goodness...  Spread 1/2 of the melted butter over the dough.  Use your fingers to spread the butter evenly over the dough.  Combine the brown sugar, granulated sugar and cinnamon in a bowl.  Spread the sugar mixture over the dough.  At this time the sweet smell of cinnamon will start filling up your kitchen!  Now it's time to roll the dough.  Drumroll please...  Beginning at the end farthest from you, start rolling towards you keeping the dough as tight as possible.  When you reach the end, pinch the seam together.  I use a serrated knife to cut the dough in 1 1/2" slices.  I eyeball the log before I make the first cut and cut the log in half, then I cut in half again.  This gives me 4 mini logs.  Next, I cut 3 rolls from each log.  I have found my rolls seem to bake more evenly if I bake 6 rolls in a pan.  So I use round pie pans or aluminum pie pans for baking my rolls.  Melt a couple of tablespoons of butter and swish around the pan and place the cinnamon rolls in the buttery pans.  Cover the pans with a kitchen towel and set aside to rise for at least 20 minutes.  More laundry?  Once again the dryer is a great place for the rolls to hang out!  Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.  Remove the towel and bake for 20 - 25 minutes.  Don't allow the rolls to become too brown.

While the rolls are baking and filling up your kitchen with the most heavenly fragrance, use this time to prepare the maple icing!  In a large bowl, whisk together the powdered sugar, maple syrup and butter.  This is where you have to use your best judgement.  As you mix you may need to add a little milk to get the consistency you want.  If you get it too thin, no worries, add more powdered sugar!

Once the rolls come out of the oven, I let them cool about 10 minutes before I add the icing.  Remember those ooey goey cinnamon rolls I mentioned earlier?  Now's the time to drizzle or spread the icing all over them!  And guess what?  These rolls freeze beautifully.  After you frost the rolls and they have completely cooled, you can pop them in the freezer.  I put the pan and all in a gallon freezer bag.  When you are ready for a fresh pan, pull them out of the freezer and allow to thaw about 15 minutes.  Pop in a 250 degree F oven for about 15 minutes.  Yum yum!

I hope you enjoy this recipe and it takes you back to a wonderful memory.  It's not so much of what we eat, but the memory of what we have eaten!

Another big shout out to my dear friend nelougrace.com for her expert advice, support and editing!

Enjoy!

muffin ministry

A bit of sunshine…

     Sweet, simple, and delicious poppy seed muffins will add sunshine to your day!  These muffins are my "go to" muffins to package up and take to family and friends.  I have always enjoyed trying new muffin recipes.  Over the years I have taken my "muffin ministry" on the road.  Reminds me of a childhood song… "oh do you know the muffin man?"  Nothing warms my soul more than wrapping up fresh-baked muffins in pretty little packages to share with a few special friends.

My dear mother in law Barbara shared this recipe with me many years ago.  As you can see the page has seen better days!

The page from the cookbook may not have stood the test of time, but I guarantee you these amazing muffins do!  If you would rather make loaves of bread this recipe makes 2 loaves.  The bread and muffins freeze well too (if there are any left over, of course)!

Orange Glazed Poppy Seed Muffins

Ingredients:

3 eggs
1 1/8  cups vegetable oil
2 1/4  cups sugar
1 1/2   cups whole milk
3 cups flour
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoons almond extract
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla
1 1/2 Tablespoons poppy seeds

Glaze:
1/4 cup orange juice
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 teaspoon almond extract

Directions:

In a mixer combine eggs, oil, sugar, vanilla and almond extract.  Mix well.  In a separate bowl sift flour and baking powder.  Whisk in the salt.  Do not skip the sifting, you will have lumps in your batter if you do not sift!  Alternate flour and milk to the mixing bowl and beat until well mixed, about 2-3 minutes.  Line muffin pans with your favorite muffin/cupcake liners.  Bake at 350.  If you are making bread, bake one hour or until toothpick inserted comes out clean.  Muffins take about 15-18  minutes.  Be careful to not let them get too brown.  They look a little anemic but trust me, do not over bake!  I usually find 18 minutes is the perfect amount of baking time.  Cool muffins on a cooling rack.  I take a toothpick and poke several holes in the tops of the muffins.  After the muffins have cooled, spoon the glaze over each muffin.  Makes 32 muffins.  I know what you are thinking… "why 32?"  I have tried to get 3 dozen from the batter but it just never happens.  The average is "32!"

Tip:  I always use extra large eggs in my recipes.

Put the tea kettle on or brew a cup of coffee, pull up a chair and enjoy!  Thanks to my mother in law Barbara for sharing this recipe!  They have truly stood up to the "taste" of time!

© photography by  n e l o u G R A C E