Apricot Walnut Bread

My Husband bought a huge package of dried non sulfured apricots and I was sick of seeing them in the fridge mocking me.  I don't eat dried fruit myself, so I thought I would try to make some bread out of some of the apricots.  I looked around and found a nice recipe on The Taste Of Home website.

I followed the recipe exactly, except I lowered the temperature and cooked it for about an hour and a half.

Ingredients:

1 cup snipped dried apricots
2 cups warm water
1 cup sugar
2 tablespoons butter, softened
1 egg
3/4 cup orange juice
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup chopped nuts (I used Walnuts)

Directions:

Soak apricots in warm water for 30 minutes.

Meanwhile, in a bowl, cream the sugar, butter and egg. Stir in orange juice.

Combine flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt; stir into creamed mixture just until combined.

Drain apricots well; add to batter with nuts. Pour into a greased 9-in. x 5-in. loaf pan.

Bake at 350° for 55 minutes or until bread tests done.

Cool 10 minutes in pan before removing to a wire rack. Yield: 1 loaf.

Strawberry Muffins

I had some beautiful local Strawberries that were looking a little sad, I decided to make Strawberry Muffins out of them.  I do have to say they were pretty darn good, my Husband adored them and they are sort of low sugar.  I changed the recipe to better fit my dietary changes.

Ingredients:

1 2/3 cups fresh strawberries
2/3 cup sugar (I used 1/3 regular sugar and 1/3 coconut sugar as it has a lower glycemic index)
1/3 cup vegetable oil (I used coconut oil)
2 eggs
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1 tsp vanilla

DIRECTIONS

Heat oven to 385 F.

Put a paper baking cup in each of 12 regular-size muffin cups, or grease just the bottoms of 12 muffin cups.

Slightly smash strawberries in large bowl, using fork. Mix the berries with a few tablespoons of sugar and let sit for 15 minutes

Stir in sugar, oil and eggs until mixed.

Stir in other ingredients just until moistened.

Spoon batter into muffin cups.

Bake 15 to 18 minutes or until light golden brown or toothpick poked in center comes out clean.

Cool 5 minutes.

Loosen sides of muffins from pan if needed, and take them out of the pan.

Makes 12 muffins.

Cheesy, Bacony Corn Muffins with Jalapeno Jelly Glaze

I was watching an episode of The Kitchen and Sunny Anderson was making some yummy Corn Muffins, She glazed them with Jalepeno Jelly and I realized I had a jar of it which my Sister In Law Leigh brought last time they were in Oregon.

I made a few changes to her recipe and they were fantastic, a great addition to the barbecued chicken legs my husband was cooking for dinner.  Spicy ones too!

Ingredients:

2 packages Jiffy Corn Bread Mix
2 eggs
2/3 milk
1/2 jalapeno pepper diced small
3 green onions sliced
3 slices cooked bacon diced
pepper jack cheese
mozarella cheese
jalepeno jelly

Instructions:

Mix the above ingredients (except the jelly and cheese) together and fill half of your muffin tin with the mixture

Place some of each cheese on top and then a bit more corn bread mix, you are essentially putting the cheese in the middle. (I used my Jumbo silicone ones).

Bake at 350 for about 20 minutes, checking often for doneness.

In the meantime melt some jalapeno jelly which you will drizzle on when they come out of the oven. I added some bacon drippings because I had them, you can use a bit of water to loosen the jelly.

You want to glaze the muffins the minute they come out of the oven so it will sink in.

Let cool and serve