Raspberry Chocolate Muffins

These are incredible muffins.

My husband was willing to give them a shot on Father's Day over his beloved chocolate chip pancakes. I'm so glad he did. Sally's Baking Addiction hits the mark with these large and delicious muffins.

They are worth the investment in fresh raspberries, especially when you can find them for $1.29 like I did.

Raspberry Chocolate Muffins
3 cups flour
4 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. ground cinnamon
2 eggs, room temperature
3/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 cup milk, room temperature
1/2 cup canola oil
1 tsp. vanilla
2/3 cup chocolate chips
1 1/4 cups fresh raspberries
Vanilla sugar

Preheat oven to 425°F. Grease jumbo muffin pans.

In a large bowl, combine flour, baking powder, salt and cinnamon. Mix until all dry ingredients are combined.

In a medium bowl, whisk together eggs and sugars until combined. Mix in milk, oil and vanilla.

Fold wet ingredients into dry ingredients together by hand. Fold in the chocolate chips, and then  gently fold in the raspberries.

Pour batter into prepared muffin tins, filling completely to the top. Sprinkle with vanilla sugar. Bake at 425°F for 5 minutes. Reduce oven temperature to 375°F and bake another 25 minutes until tops are golden. A toothpick inserted in the center should come out clean. Cool 10 minutes prior to serving. Makes 7 to 8 large muffins.

Baked French Toast Muffins

One of my favorite things about weekends at home (lazier weekends) is the chance to try new breakfast recipes. I do try new ones during the week occasionally, but I want to share them fresh with my husband whose palate is slightly more sophisticated than our son's.

This weekend I made these muffins from Two Peas and Their Pod. Essentially, it's all that's good about baked french toast with the cuteness factor amped up by making them in jumbo cupcake tins. They take less than 5 minutes of preparation in the morning and only require about 10 minutes of work the previous night. They are delicious and would work well for a buffet for more of an individual serving of french toast.

Baked French Toast Muffins

12 cups of french bread, torn into 1/2-inch pieces
2 1/2 cups milk
6 large eggs
1/2 cup sugar
1 Tbsp. vanilla extract
1 tsp. ground cinnamon
Cinnamon Streusel Topping
1/4 cup cold butter
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup flour
1/8 tsp. ground cinnamon
Pinch of salt

In a medium bowl, whisk together the milk, eggs, sugar, vanilla, and cinnamon.

Grease 10 jumbo muffin tin cups. Divide bread evenly among cups. Carefully pour egg and milk mixture evenly over each muffin tin. Press down on the bread cubes after pouring a little egg mixture, and then pour more to ensure thorough coating without overflow. Cover the muffins with plastic wrap, and refrigerate for 2 hours or up to overnight.

When ready to bake, preheat the oven to 350°F. To make the cinnamon streusel, in a small bowl, combine butter, brown sugar, flour, cinnamon, and salt. Mix together with your hands, until you have a crumbly mixture.

Remove the muffins from the refrigerator, and sprinkle the muffins evenly with the streusel topping. Bake for 30 minutes or until tops are golden brown. Let muffins cool for 5 minutes. Remove from pan, and serve with butter and maple syrup, if desired. Makes 10 muffins.

Happy Father's Day!

Happy Father's Day! I am blessed to have a wonderful husband for years who transformed instantly into an amazing father the moment our first child was born. More often than not, his patience exceeds mine. (Granted, I'm sure I use a lot of my patience working on baking projects with the help of our 21-month-old son.)

Since he's definitely a burgers and fries kind of guy, I decided to use Bakerella's idea. (Go there for instructions since she details everything perfectly.) I had seen this last year but was a bit intimidated by the project. I was wrong to be intimidated. These are extremely easy to make. You can cheat as much as you want - - make the brownies, cupcakes and frosting from scratch, use box mixes or buy them from the store. Assembling the cupcakes takes maybe 30 minutes (with the help of a 21-month-old boy) tops, so it's very do-able. You don't need fancy piping tips, either.

So, you really have no excuse as to why you wouldn't whip these up for the amazing person in your life ... unless he's a diabetic. I'll accept that excuse.

Skillet Strawberry Shortcake Cobbler

I've become a fan of my cast-iron skillet in the past year or so. I love the versatility of the skillet (and believe it or not, I actually use it for savory dishes, too). This recipe from Recipe Girl caught my eye, especially since I just purchased a large amount of strawberries.

The cobbler of this has a definite cornmeal texture, which works perfectly in this dish. This is easy to make and just as easy to eat. Definitely a simple repeat recipe.

Skillet Strawberry Shortcake Cobbler
32 oz. strawberries, hulled and sliced
3/4 cup granulated sugar, divided
2 Tbsp. freshly squeezed lemon juice
1 Tbsp. cornstarch
1 cup flour
1 cup cornmeal
2 Tbsp. baking powder
6 Tbsp. cold unsalted butter, cut into pieces
Pinch salt
1 large egg
1/2 cup milk
Whipped Topping
1 cup heavy cream
1 Tbsp. powdered sugar 

Combine strawberries, 1/4 cup granulated sugar, lemon juice and cornstarch in a medium bowl. Let sit 15 minutes.

Preheat oven to 375°F. Butter a 10-inch cast-iron skillet. Whisk together flour, cornmeal, remaining 1/2 cup granulated sugar and baking powder in a large bowl. Add butter and salt, and cut into flour mixture with a pastry cutter or your fingers until the butter is incorporated. Whisk egg and milk together in a small bowl. Stir egg mixture into flour mixture.

Scrape strawberries and juices into prepared skillet. Drop batter by the spoonful on top of strawberries.

Bake 30 to 35 minutes, or until the shortcake cobbler is golden brown. Remove pan from oven and let cool at least 15 minutes before serving.

Use a mixer to beat cream and confectioners' sugar until thickened. Spoon cobbler into serving dishes and top with sweetened whipped cream.

Crockpot Cheesesteak Pulled Chicken

I made a version of chicken cheesesteak sandwiches earlier, which we really enjoyed. These (again from How Sweet It Is) aren't quite as delicious in our opinion, but they do come together easily with the use of a crockpot and provide a fairly healthy meal to boot.

Crockpot Cheesesteak Pulled Chicken

2 green peppers, sliced
2 sweet onions, sliced
4 garlic cloves, minced
1 1/2 pounds boneless, skinless chicken breasts
2 tsp. smoked paprika
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. pepper
8 oz. beer
8 oz. cheddar cheese
whole grain buns, toasted

Season chicken breasts with salt, pepper and paprika.

In the bottom of your crockpot, layer peppers and onions. Add garlic evenly over top. Place chicken on top, and then pour in beer. Cover, and cook for 6 to 8 hours on low. After 6 hours, shred chicken with two forks or tongs. About 15 minutes before serving, completely shred chicken, and toss thoroughly to coat. Keep mixing and tossing to combine the chicken, peppers and onions, and all of the liquid should become absorbed.

Stir in the grated cheese, and then turn your crockpot to the "warm" setting (or simply turn it off and keep it covered) and cover for 5 minutes. Makes 4 to 6 servings.