recipes

Yummy Bananaberry Muffins

2 cups flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup sugar
1/3 cup butter, room temperature
2 eggs
1 cup mashed ripe bananas (or two medium-sized bananas)
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup fresh blueberries (rinse and pat dry)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and line tray with muffin cup papers.
Sift flour, baking powder, salt and sugar together with a wire whisk.
Add butter, eggs, bananas and vanilla.
Mix on low until just combined.
Fold in blueberries. Reserve some to place on the tops.
Bake for about 20 minutes or until toothpick inserted comes out clean.
Serve while still warm with butter.

Makes 12-15 muffins.

Snickerdoodle Cupcakes

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1/2 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
1 cup sugar
2 eggs, room temperature
1 teaspoon vanilla
3/4 cup milk, room temperature

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
• Line regular and miniature cupcake trays with paper liners.
• In a medium bowl, sift together flour, baking powder and cinnamon. Set aside.
• In a mixer, cream butter and sugar on medium for about 2 minutes.
• Add eggs, one at a time and mix until combined.
• Add vanilla and mix until combined.
• Add flour mixture to creamed butter and sugar in three additions. Alternate with milk in two additions.
• Fill baking cups about 3/4 full.
• Bake for about 15-20 minutes.
• Remove cupcakes from trays and let cool.

To decorate, pipe on frosting, place one cookie on top and then pipe another dollop of frosting on top. Sprinkle with leftover cinnamon and sugar from the Snickerdoodle cookie recipe.

Makes 12 cookies

Chocolate Chip Cookies

2 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup butter, room temperature
1 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup sugar
2 eggs
2 tsp vanilla
2 cups chocolate chips

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
• In a medium bowl, mix flour, baking soda and salt with a wire whisk and set aside.
• With a mixer, beat butter and both sugars until well blended.
• Beat in eggs and vanilla.
• Add flour mixture in two additions until combined.
• Stir in 1 1/2 cups chocolate chips.
• Use a mini ice cream scoop to drop cookie dough on a parchment covered cookie sheet about 2 inches apart.
• Bake for 8-10 minutes.
• Tip: About half way through baking, sprinkle reserved chips on top of cookies. This is just to make them prettier so, some of the chips are seen on top.
• Makes about ??. (I ate too many before I counted. But a couple dozen for sure.)

Cold & Creamy Banana Pudding

1 (14-ounce) can Eagle Brand Sweetened Condensed Milk
1 1/2 cups cold water
1 (3.5 ounce) package instant pudding and pie filling
2 cups (1 pint) whipped cream, whipped*
36 vanilla wafers
3 medium bananas, sliced and dipped in lemon juice

• In a large mixing bowl, combine sweetened condensed milk and water.
• Add pudding mix and beat until well blended.
• Chill 5 minutes in refrigerator.
• Fold in whipped topping. (Do this slowly and as few times as you possible to combine, so the mixture will retain its thickness.)
• Spoon 1 cup pudding mixture into 2 1/2 quart glass serving bowl.
• Top with 1/3 each of wafers, bananas and pudding. Repeat twice.
• Garnish as desired.
• Chill thoroughly. Refrigerate any leftovers.

Mini Maple Chocolate Chip Pancake Muffins.
(Someone please come up with a shorter name for these.)

1 cup flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons sugar
2/3 cup buttermilk
1 egg
2 tablespoons pure maple syrup
2 tablespoons melted butter
1/2 cup milk chocolate chips

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
• Combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and sugar in a medium bowl. Sift together with a wire whisk.
• In another bowl, stir buttermilk, egg, maple syrup and melted butter until just combined.
• Add wet ingredients to dry ingredients and stir with a spoon until combined.
• Stir in chocolate chips. Reserve a few chips to sprinkle on the tops.
• Bake for 8-9 minutes.

Pumpkin Pie Bites

· 2 refrigerated ready-to roll pie crusts

· 8 oz. cream cheese, room temperature
1/2 cup sugar
1 cup canned pumpkin
3 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
Pumpkin-shaped cookie cutter

· Optional
1/2 cup chocolate morsels
vegetable oil
re-sealable plastic bags

· Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Use cookie cutter to cut 12 pumpkin shapes from each pie crust. You will need to roll the dough thinner than it comes out of the box.
Press dough shapes into a 24 cup mini muffin tray. (Make 12 at a time, alternating cups to make sure pie crusts don’t overlap each other.)
Apply egg whites from one egg to the top edges of each pie.
Mix cream cheese, sugar, canned pumpkin, remaining 2 eggs, vanilla and pumpkin pie spice together until thoroughly combined.
Spoon mixture into each pumpkin-shaped pie crust.
Bake for 12-15 minutes.
Remove pies to cool and repeat with second pie crust. Place the muffin tray in the freezer to cool it quickly for re-use.

· Makes 24 pies. Keep refrigerated.

· To decorate, melt chocolate in a heat-proof bowl in the microwave on medium. Heat in 30 second intervals, stirring in between until melted. Add a little vegetable oil to make the chocolate more fluid. Transfer to a re-sealable plastic bag and cut the corner off. Drizzle or draw faces on pies.

· Note: The cutter I used was 3 3/4 inches wide, but if you don’t have one, don’t worry. Just use a round cutter around that size or slightly smaller to cut circle shapes out of the dough. Then make stems with the scraps. Press each stem over the edge and down the side of the dough before filling.

· Pumpkin pie spice is a mixture of cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg and allspice.