I'm Baaaaaccckkk!

I bet you never thought you'd see the day, huh?
Well, the time has finally come. I have returned.
With a vengeance...Muhahahahahaaaa...
*ahem*
Anyways, it's been a looonnnngggg couple months, and since I have a feeling no one here really feels like reading a 200 page novel on the trials and tribulations that are my life, I'm going to spare you.
Don't worry, you can thank me later.
But in the short and sweet version there are two things to know, I've moved and started a new job!!
What does this mean for you?
It means I have my own kitchen! Ready to be used at a moments notice. And with this new job, I have time! No more 60+ hour weeks, so there will actually be time for baking annnndd sleeping! It really is a novel concept.

I had to break in my new kitchen somehow, and with some overripe fruit just hangin around, I knew what had to be done.
After some searching I found the perfect recipe: a Banana Peach Bread.
I was able to use up all of the fruit and it tasted amazing!
I used a little less sugar than the recipe called for, more like 3/4 cup. I think it would have been just too sweet with that extra sugar. And instead of straight orange juice, I used an orange-peach-mango juice.
Enjoy!

Fuzzy Navel Tea Bread
Ingredients:
8 Tbsp unsalted butter, room temperature (+ butter for greasing pan)
2 cups All-Purpose Flour
1 tsp salt
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
2 very ripe bananas
2 very ripe peaches
zest of one orange
2 Tbsp fresh orange juice

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350˚F. Use butter to grease one medium loaf bread pan and set aside.
2. Mix dry ingredients and set aside. Put peaches in a blender and pulse until well mashed. Transfer to a bowl and mash in the bananas using a potato masher or a fork. Add zest of one orange (I used a microplane zester/grater) and mix thoroughly with bananas and peaches. In a medium bowl, cream the butter. Beat in the eggs, one at a time and then beat in the fruit mixture and orange juice.
3. Gently stir the wet mixture into the dry ingredients. Don’t over mix.
4. Pour batter into loaf pan and bake for 50-60 minutes. Test with a toothpick, which should come clean when inserted.

Recipe from Streaming Gourmet

Glittery Sugar Cookies!!

Theres something you need to know about me.
I. Love. Glitter.
Like, Love.
Seriously, I don't know what it is. It's been this way for as long as I can remember... It's like I was born with a special glitter gene. A little piece of sparkle in my veins that attracts to me other sparkley things.
It's really an obsession.
So you can only imagine my excitement when I came across Disco Dust!!!
Within about two minutes of seeing it I ordered three different colors offline.
Amazing.
It's everything I hoped for and more!
And there's only one thing better than just glitter....pink and glitter!
So I had to make something to test out of the Disco Dust, and hearts and cupcakes seemed like the perfect idea.
This sugar cookie recipe is the best one I've found so far, they're nice and soft and still hold together well enough for decorating. I'm still working on my decorating skills...but these are by far my best yet.
A little glitter never hurt anyone...give it a go!


Sugar Cookie Recipe
Ingredients:
¾ cups Butter
1 cup White Sugar
2 whole Eggs
1-½ teaspoon Vanilla Extract
2-½ cups All-purpose Flour
¼ teaspoons Cream Of Tartar
1 teaspoon Baking Powder
½ teaspoons Salt
Directions:
In a large mixing bowl, combine room temperature (not melted) butter and sugar until smooth. Add eggs and vanilla and combine.

In a separate bowl, sift together flour, cream of tartar, baking powder, and salt. This is an important step; you want to avoid lumps in your dough.

Slowly add dry ingredients into wet batter until fully incorporated.

Drop dough onto a large piece of saran wrap, mold it into a 4×4 square, and refrigerate for at least one hour. I often let mine sit overnight.

When ready to bake the cookies, generously flour a flat surface and roll out the dough. You can use as much flour as you need! I prefer to make cookies about 1/4″ to 1/2″ thick, but you can go thicker and still have successful results.

For best results, bake on silpat or parchment paper. You can reuse parchment, too!

Bake at 325-350 degrees for 5 to 8 minutes. In my oven, right about 6 minutes yields a perfectly cooked cookie, with no brown edges.( I had to cook them closer to 10 minutes at 350, so just keep an eye on them)

Recipe from i am baker

Royal icing recpe Here

Whole Wheat Banana Oat Muffins

Over the last few years I've become a total breakfast person. Not like the big huge eggs and toast and pancakes breakfast, but just a little breakfast, like a bagel or a muffin.
Basically, I just like carbs in the morning.
Or afternoon...
Or night...
Well, you get the picture.
But unfortunately, sometimes my common sense catches up to me and reminds me that eating doughnuts and sugary muffins for breakfast every morning may not be the best idea. So I went hunting for an easy, good tasting muffin recipe that I could make that had some sort of nutritional value.
I found a basic recipe for banana muffins, and after making a few adjustments, I was hooked. Sometimes I even make these in a jumbo muffin pan for a more filling breakfast.
I do have one suggestion though, make sure these are cooked all the through before you pull them out of the oven. They're really thick and sometimes take a little longer to cook, so double check them.
Enjoy!

Whole Wheat Banana Oat Muffins
Ingredients:
1/2 Cup Whole Wheat Flour
1/4 Cup Oats
1/4 Cup Brown Sugar
1 Teaspoon Baking Powder
1/2 Teaspoon Cinnamon
1/4 Teaspoon Nutmeg
1/4 Teaspoon Allspice
1/4 Teaspoon Vanilla
1/4 Cup Milk
3 Medium sized very ripe bananas
1/4 Cup Applesauce
1/2 Cup Raisins

Preheat oven to 425 degrees.
Mix all dry ingredients and set aside.
In a separate bowl, mash banana until smooth. Add in applesauce, milk and vanilla. Mix well.
Make a well in the dry ingredients, then pour wet ingredients into well. Fold together until mixed. Fold in raisins.
Fill muffin cups, these do not rise very much so you can fill them about 3/4 full. Sprinkle top with extra oats.
Bake at 425 degrees for 7 minutes.
Turn heat down to 395 degrees and bake for another 25-30 minutes.

Recipe by Me!

Cream Cheese Cake Mix Cookies

I'm back!!
Sorry it's been so long, things have been crazy! I've been working like mad, my mom came into town :), we've been opening new stores at work, I've been starting new jobs...Just crazy! But enough about my life, more about cookies!
First thing I have to say is that these pictures just do not do these cookies justice. The camera battery died while I was taking pictures, and by the time I got around to charging it, well the cookies were definitely gone.
You're probably looking at this post and thinking,
Wait...didn't she already post these?
And you're right. I did.
Kind of.
These are a new variation on the Cake Mix Cookies I had previously shared, but thicker and creamier.
I still feel like the cake mix is almost cheating, but they're so easy and soooooo good it's impossible not to make them!

Cream Cheese Cake Mix Cookies
Ingredients:
1 Box Funfetti Cake Mix
1 8 oz. package Cream Cheese, room temp.
1/4 cup Oil
1 egg

Directions:
Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
Mix cake mix, cream cheese, oil and egg together.
Roll dough into 1 inch balls and place on cookie sheet.
Press ball down slightly to flatten.
Bake 8-10 minutes until edges are light golden brown.
Let cool for 1 minute on sheet then remove from cookie sheet.
Optional: Spread frosting over warm cookies.

Recipe from Me

I won't be gone for much longer!

Maybe you haven't noticed, but it's felt like a million years since I've posted anything.
Valentine's Day is the busiest time of year for me at work, so six day work weeks and sleeping off the stress has put a slight hold on my baking lately. Therefore putting a hold on the posts as well. But the much dreaded Valentines Day is almost here, and then I shall return with a vengeance!
Until then, I have made a new page on Sugar Junkie! Towards the top, you'll see I have created my Bake List. It's the list of everything I hope to make at some point this year and I'll definitely be adding to it as I think of more.
Here's to goals! Cheers!

Maple Glazed Doughnuts

There are two important things I learned making these doughnuts: 1.Plastic utensils in boiling oil melt. 2. Don't put said plastic utensils in boiling oil. Ha..
Well, maybe that was more like one important thing, but it's pretty important none the less.
After the minor spoon melting incident, and a new batch of oil and some metal tongs later, I finally had some doughnuts made. And O. M. G....These are amazing! I've never had homemade, fried doughnuts before and they definitely live up the their expectations. Next time, I'm going to try these with a filling and maybe a chocolate glaze.
Yumm!

Doughnuts!!!
Ingredients:
1 (1/4-oz) package active dry yeast (2 1/2 teaspoons)
2 tablespoons warm water (105–115°F)
3 1/4 cups all-purpose flour plus additional for sprinkling and rolling out dough
1 cup whole milk at room temperature
1/2 stick (1/4 cup) unsalted butter, softened
3 large egg yolks
2 tablespoons sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
About 10 cups vegetable oil for deep frying

Directions:
Stir together yeast and warm water in a small bowl until yeast is dissolved. Let stand until foamy, about 5 minutes. (If yeast doesn’t foam, discard and start over with new yeast.)

Mix together flour, milk, butter, yolks, sugar, salt, cinnamon, and yeast mixture in mixer at low speed until a soft dough forms. Increase speed to medium-high and beat 3 minutes more.

Scrape dough down side of bowl (all around) into center, then sprinkle lightly with flour (to keep a crust from forming). Cover bowl with a clean kitchen towel (not terry cloth) and let dough rise in a draft-free place at warm room temperature until doubled in bulk, 1 1/2 to 2 hours. (Alternatively, let dough rise in bowl in refrigerator 8 to 12 hours.)

Turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface and roll out with a lightly floured rolling pin into a 12-inch round (1/2 inch thick). Cut out as many rounds as possible with 3-inch cutter, then cut a hole in center of each round with 1-inch cutter and transfer doughnuts to a lightly floured large baking sheet. Cover doughnuts with a clean kitchen towel and let rise in a draft-free place at warm room temperature until slightly puffed, about 30 minutes (45 minutes if dough was cold when cutting out doughnuts). Do not reroll scraps. (You're not suppose to reroll the scraps, not gonna lie...i did, and it was fine)

Heat 2 1/2 inches oil in a deep 4-quart heavy pot until it registers 350°F on thermometer. Fry doughnuts, 2 at a time, turning occasionally with a wire or mesh skimmer or a slotted spoon, until puffed and golden brown, about 2 minutes per batch. Transfer to paper towels to drain. (Return oil to 350°F between batches.)
Source:Joy the Baker

Maple glaze
1 cup powdered sugar, sifted
2 tablespoons maple syrup
2 tablespoons milk

* Whisk together until smooth.
Source:Here

Lemon Cheesecake Cookies

There's something about cheesecake, in pretty much every form that makes everything better. It's really a cure-all I think.
Bad day? Cheesecake.
Cold? Cheesecake.
Fabulous day with no real reason? Cheesecake.
I'm just sayin...
But let's be real, I don't usually have like five packages of cream cheese on hand, do you? And I love to have my baking ingredients on hand. The less trips to the store, the better.
This is where the cookies come in...
Three ounces of cream cheese and you've got a delicious cheesecake subsititute right in your hands.
So. Good.
Ever since I made the last cheesecake cookies, I've had constant requests for more. And now, I think these are going on that list.
Make sure you don't overbake these cookies, you want the middles to stay really soft, almost underbaked to have the cheesecake texture. Making them a little bigger helps with that. And I loved the mini chocolate chip addition, it really added that extra something.
Enjoy!

Cheesecake Cookies
Ingredients:
3/4 cup butter, softened
3 ounces cream cheese, softened
3/4 cup white sugar
4 teaspoons lemon zest (I just used the zest and juice of one lemon)
2 tablespoons lemon juice
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/3 cup finely chopped pecans (I omitted the pecans)
1/3 cup graham cracker crumbs
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 cup mini chocolate chips, optional
In a large bowl, beat together butter, cream cheese, and sugar. Add in the lemon zest and juice if you are using. Mix in vanilla. Stir in the flour until well combined and refrigerate dough for 30 minutes so that it is easier to handle.

Mix together the pecans, graham cracker crumbs, and cinnamon to make the crust. Pour half of the crust mixture onto a large sheet of wax or parchment paper. Form a log with half of the cookie dough and roll it in the crust mixture. Place log of dough on a new sheet of parchment paper and wrap the ends up. Repeat with the remaining dough and place both dough logs in the freezer for 30 minutes.

Slice dough into half inch thick rounds and place on a parchment lined baking sheet. Bake in a pre-heated 375 degree oven for 8-10 minutes. The bottoms should be only lightly browned. Allow to cool on the cookie sheet for a couple of minutes and then transfer to a wire rack. Store in an airtight container.

Source:Buns in My Oven