Recipe: Lemon-Poppy Seed Zucchini Bread
For a refreshing change from regular zucchini bread, bake this lemon-poppy seed version from Southern Living Magazine. It’s perfect for summer and rated 5-stars!
Ingredients (Makes three 5- x 3-inch loaves):
- 1/2 cup butter, softened
- 1 1/3 cups sugar
- 3 large eggs
- 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/8 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 cup sour cream
- 1 cup shredded zucchini
- 1 tablespoon lemon zest
- 2 teaspoons poppy seeds
Directions:
- Preheat oven to 325°. Beat butter at medium speed with a heavy-duty electric stand mixer until creamy. Gradually add sugar, beating until light and fluffy. Add eggs, 1 at a time, beating just until blended after each egg is added.
- Stir together flour, salt, and baking soda. Add to butter mixture alternately with sour cream, beginning and ending with flour mixture. Beat at low speed just until blended after each addition. Stir in zucchini and next 2 ingredients. Spoon batter into 3 greased and floured 5×3-inch disposable aluminum foil loaf pans (about 1 1/3 cups batter per pan).
- Bake at 325° for 40 to 45 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool in pans on wire racks 10 minutes; remove from pans to wire racks, and cool completely (about 30 minutes).
Picture via Living Rancho Deluxe.
Candy Corn Mousse Cups
Halloween is only a couple of days away! You can make some super fun desserts to give out to the kids’ friends or just as a dessert for the next few days. You can use them for Thanksgiving, too! Here’s how to make your own Candy Corn Mousse Cups:
INGREDIENTS
1 package (8 oz.) cream cheese, softened
½ cup powdered sugar
¼ cup milk or cream
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 small container (8 oz.) Cool Whip, thawed
orange and yellow food color
candy corn
DIRECTIONS
Beat cream cheese in the bowl of a stand mixer until fully smooth. Slowly add powdered sugar, add milk and then vanilla. Continue mixing about 1 minute on medium speed. Fold cool whip into cream cheese mixture; stir until fully combined. Scoop about 1/3 of the cheesecake mousse into a bowl; mix with orange food coloring. Color another third of the mixture yellow. Leave the remaining third white. Beginning with the yellow mousse, pipe or spoon the mixture into each glass. Repeat with the orange and white. Garnish with candy corn. Then ENJOY!
Yield: 8 mini servings. We halved the recipe and were able to fill 4 shot glasses.
Recipe: Cinnamon-Masarpone Pudding
Pudding is all grown up! No longer do we adults need to suffer will the peel off lids! With this recipe from PureWow, we can devour a grown-up version of a kids’ favorite. Recipe makes 6-8 servings.
Ingredients:
Pudding –
- ½ cup sugar
- 1½ tablespoons cornstarch
- 1 cup whole milk
- 3 egg yolks
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon, plus extra for garnish
- 2 cups mascarpone cheese
Topping –
- 1 cup heavy cream
- 3 tablespoons granulated sugar
- 1 cup fresh berries (like blackberries, raspberries, and strawberries)
Directions:
Place 6 to 8 small bowls onto a baking sheet. In a small mixing bowl, whisk sugar with the cornstarch to combine.
In a medium pot, combine milk with the sugar mixture and whisk to combine. Bring to a simmer over medium heat.
While the milk is heating up, whisk the egg yolks in a medium bowl. When the milk has reached a simmer, slowly pour it over the eggs, whisking constantly. Continue whisking for a few moments after all the milk has been added, then return the mixture to the pot.
Cook the pudding over medium-low heat, whisking constantly, until the mixture begins to bubble from the very center of the pot. This will be at least 1 to 2 minutes more.
Remove the pot from the heat and add in the vanilla, cinnamon and mascarpone cheese. Mix until completely smooth.
Pour the pudding into the prepared vessels. Cover the tray with plastic wrap and refrigerate until cool (at least 30 minutes).
When ready to serve, whip the heavy cream with the sugar to medium peaks. Place 1 tablespoon whipped cream on top of each pudding and garnish with a sprinkle of cinnamon and some fresh berries.
Recipe: Nutella Banana Bread
Nutella added INTO banana bread? Yes! It’s a simple recipe to make such delicious bread that you’ll never go back to “regular” banana bread again. Thanks to Chef In Training for the yummy recipe!
Ingredients:
- 1 cup sugar
- 2 large eggs
- 1 1/4 cup mashed ripe bananas
- 1 tsp. vanilla
- 1/3 cup milk
- 3/4 heaping cup Nutella
- 2 cups flour
- 3/4 tsp. baking soda
- 1/2 tsp. salt
- 1/4 cup softened butter
Directions:
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees and spray an 8×4-inch loaf pan with nonstick spray.
- Whisk together flour, baking soda and salt in a medium sized bowl.
- Beat sugar and butter in another large bowl with an electric mixer at medium speed until fully blended. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each one. Add banana, milk and vanilla, then beat until blended. Add the flour mixture from the other bowl and beat at low speed just until flour is mixed in, but not too blended.
- Put the Nutella into a small dish and warm in the microwave for 15 seconds. Add 1 cup of the banana bread batter to the Nutella in the bowl and stir them together until well blended.
- Add this newly made Nutella batter, then the plain banana bread batter in alternating layers into the bread pan. Lightly swirl the two types of batter with a knife.
- Bake at 350 degrees for 50 to 60 minutes. The bread will seem a little underbaked, but that’s what makes it so good and moist! Let the bread cool for at least 15 minutes in the pan before taking it out of the pan to cool completely.
Recipe: 2-Ingredient Pumpkin Cake with Apple Cider Glaze
Seriously, only 2-ingredients for the cake! You can’t go wrong. This is going to be a yearly recipe. Pin it so you can save it for years to come!
Ingredients:
Cake:
- 1 box of yellow cake mix
- 1 can (15 oz) of pumpkin puree
Glaze:
- 1 1/2 cups of powdered sugar
- 3 Tbsp apple cider
- 3/4 tsp pumpkin pie spice
Directions:
- Empty the contents of the boxed cake mix and pumpkin puree into a large bowl. Using a hand or stand mixer, beat until well mixed together. The batter will be very thick, but it will mix well.
- Pour batter into a greased 7 x 11 x 2 pan (the small rectangular pan). Bake at 350-degrees for 28 minutes or until toothpick inserted into center comes out clean. DO NOT OVER BAKE!
- Let cool for 5-10 minutes in the pan, then flip cake onto a plate. While waiting for the cake to cool in the pan, make the gaze.
- Combine powdered sugar, apple cider, and pumpkin pie spice. Glaze should be thick, but thin enough to pour. Add more sugar or apple cider to find the right consistency.
- Pour glaze over the cake while it’s still warm to allow it to harden onto the cake.
- Make more glaze or set aside some to pour onto each piece when served.