Canuckette's crazy bake off!!!

Hello Sweets,

Oh man oh man am I baking exhausted, lol.  After a double batch of my original pecan pie muffins, one batch of the new pecan pie muffins, and one batch of pecan dream (originally walnut, but my love likes pecans more), even an avid baker like myself can find that quite exhausting.  Let me paint you a little bit of a more fun picture of what I was doing.  Imagine if you would: me spinning around like a tornado from station to station, and to the oven for about 3 hours straight, lol, funny eh (see what I did there :p)?  The only downside was that during the prep of the pecan dreams, I forgot to take some of the in between photos :( bad bad Jennifer!

So the reason I tried a new pecan pie muffin recipe was because my go to recipe only had 5 ingredients, and this new one has much more, and a different approach all together.  Sometimes it's fun to try new recipes, whether they are just a different variation of one of your favorite recipes, or a completely new recipe, like the second one I will be sharing with you guys tonight; passed down to me via my auntie Peggy (shout out), whom it was given to by my grandma Oburni for Pecan Dreams :)

I know it seems a little crazy baking three different things in the same evening, but I am a little crazy, for anyone who knows me, knows it's true.  I'm pretty sure trying a new pecan pie muffin recipe when I already have a phenomenal one is a little crazy, but alas, I am venturing down this crazy road, won't you join me?

Pecan Pie Muffins (via Southern Living)

Ingredients

1C firmly packed light brown sugar

1C pecans, chopped

1/2C all-purpose flour

1/2Tsp baking powder

1/4Tsp salt

1/2C butter, melted

2 large eggs, lightly beaten

1Tsp vanilla extract

vegetable cooking spray

1/2C pecans, finely chopped

Directions:

1)  Preheat oven to 425F.  Combine first 5 ingredients in a large bowl; make a well in center of the mixture.  

2)  Stir together butter and next 2 ingredients; add to brown sugar mixture, and stir just until moistened.

3)  Coat 2 (12 cup) miniature muffin pans (I used a regular one and yielded 18) well with cooking spray.  Place 1Tsp of the finely chopped pecans in each muffin cup; spoon batter over pecans, filling almost to top.  Place muffin pans on an aluminum foil-lined jelly roll pan.

4)  Bake at 425F for 10-12 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.  Cool for 2 minutes.  Run a knife around edge of each cup to loosen muffins (I didn't need to do this as I used an ample amount of cooking spray), and remove from pans. 

They look, smell, and taste delicious of course, lol, I did make them after all!  But alas, during my tornado baking spree I don't have a final pic, but later in this post there will be a group shot of all the goodies!

So this next recipe was sent to me from my auntie Peggy, she is probably one of my biggest supporters of my blog, and was very excited to try it, since it was passed down through the family.  :)  Now as I said earlier, it did call for walnuts, but here in Texas, pecans are the way to go, so that is my only adjustment since they have the same texture and structure.  On to the dream!

Pecan Dreams (via my auntie)

Ingredients:

2Tbs butter

5Tbs all-purpose flour

1/8Tsp baking soda

1C pecans, coarsely chopped

2 eggs

3/4Tsp vanilla extract

1/4Tsp lemon extract

1C brown sugar, packed

forgot the eggs lol lame

Directions:

1)  Melt butter in an 8" square pan.

2)  Sift flour, baking soda, and salt together; stir in walnuts.

3)  Beat eggs and extracts; add brown sugar gradually, blend until thick.  Blend in dry ingredients.

4)  Turn into pan over the melted butter, do not stir.

finally a picture! pre oven

5)  Bake at 350F for 30 minutes, when finished a toothpick placed in the center will come out clean.

Yummy cookie like treats....I mean dreams :p

6)  Loosen around the edges immediately after cooking.  Then cut and enjoy!

mmmmm yummers!!

Ahh so yes this was a lot of work, and my shoulders and neck are currently in protest, but it's the one thing that can pick up my mood when having a bad day, so I trucked on through, and I even got a shoulder massage after from my man :)

Don't forget you can find the original pecan pie muffin recipe here!

Above is my conquest in the kitchen tonight, not a bad haul :)  I think I will be the favorite "foodie" at NASCAR race weekend starting tomorrow.  So please bare with me if my posts are spaced a little further apart as I will not be at my computer for large portions of the day, but I'll try to do some recap posts on what we did, ate, and saw.  I'll even snap a few pictures of our tailgating crew.  They are all super nice and friendly...actually pretty much all NASCAR attendees are.  I hope you enjoy the recipes I provided tonight. Let me know what you think of them.  Also, I would love to hear some of your family recipes that have been passed down, because they are to savory to pass up :)  Until then......

Stay sweet,

Jennifer xoxoxo

A newbie and a Classic

Hello Sweets,

I don't know about where all of you are, but here in Texas there is a cold front coming and it is chilly, stay inside kind of weather.  The winds are so strong here, that the outdoor fans look like they're on high speed!  Before coming down to Texas, I made sure to pack some new and old recipes to make for my favorite men :), and I completely forgot about the rare and unique recipe that I had stumbled upon.....pecan pie muffins!  I love pecan pie, and just this last summer, Nathan took me to the Fort Worth Stockyards for a day trip/date, and while we were there we went to Riscky's Steakhouse.  We had some delicious steak, the waiter tried to trick us into ordering cow testicles, lol yuck, and for dessert we had the most amazing piece of pecan pie either of us have ever had!

Now I know with that setup, you'd be thinking I'm going to do a pecan pie recipe, but nope not a pie, but muffins!  When I came across the recipe, I thought it was an interesting concept and decided right then and there that I should make this the next time I'm in Texas.  Now Texans love their pecans, any which way they can have them too, so I knew that I had to make sure I brought my A game, and rock out some amazing muffins.  So let's get this recipe in the oven.  It's super simple and very quick to make ;)

Pecan Pie Muffins

Ingredients

1C pecans, chopped

1C brown sugar

1/2C flour

2 eggs

1/2C butter, melted

I'll be writing "keeper" on this recipe card ;)

Directions:

1)  Preheat the oven to 350F.  Combine the first 3 ingredients in a large bowl, make a well in the center of the mixture.

I only had whole pecans, so chop chop chop for me 

so simple it's crazy 

looks almost like instant oatmeal, but much more aromatic

2)  Beat eggs until foamy.  Stir together eggs and butter; add to dry ingredients, stirring until just moistened.

foamy eggs 

now with butter 

smells just like pecan pie, mmmmm!

3)  Place baking cups into muffin pans, or spray with cooking spray if you're out of muffin cups.  Spoon batter into cups, filling them 2/3's full.

Makes a small batch, only 12 :( should have doubled the recipe.

4)  Bake at 350F for 20-25 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.  Remove from pans immediately.

Makes your kitchen smell just like pecan pie!

Don't be alarmed when they don't rise, they are short but hearty muffins.  The top will be nice a crispy where the sugar caramelized, and the bottom is soft and sweet.  It passed the Texas men test, not to mention I absolutely love them too, so they are officially part of Canuckette's recipe box!  Hmmm maybe when I get home I'll take a picture of my recipe box and the story about how it all started :)

Well obviously that was the new recipe (I only said it like three times lol), and this oldie but goodie recipe is very simple but always delicious.  Now I have been craving these for almost five months now, lol and I know what you're thinking; "just make them!".  But you need a certain cooking method in order for them to be perfect and living in the city sort of limits you from having a....fire to roast marshmallows!  I have been wanting smores for so long, and since Nathan's family has a fire pit I asked him if we could have some :)  Of course he said yes, he actually thought I was cute when he saw how excited I got over them lol, and the best part of smores is that you can make them anyway you'd like.  It's much different now then when I grew up, they have all different kinds of marshmallows and even multiple types of graham crackers!  You can use different types of chocolate, so use your favorite chocolate bar.  There are unlimited options for them so have fun and get creative.  I have opted to go with the classic plain marshmallows, a Hershey's chocolate bar, and the twist is with the "cinnamon" graham crackers, courtesy of Honey Maid ;)

Super Easy and Delicious Smores

Ingredients

Kraft Jet Puffed marshmallows, as many as you'll need

Hershey's milk chocolate bars

Honey Maid graham crackers (we're using cinnamon)

Directions:

1)  Start a fire, making sure it's contained.  If you're a child, make sure that you have adult supervision.  If you're not lucky enough to have a marshmallow roaster, you can make one out of a coat hanger (just unwind and straighten as much as possible), and burn for a moment to sanitize.  You can also use a stick (just make sure it's not too thick and again burn it for a moment to sanitize).

I'm a child at heart, so Nathan supervised and started the fire

all the fixin's 

2)  Place the marshmallow on the end of the stick and roast it just above the flames.   I personally like mine REALLY cooked, but most people like them a light brown.

waiting is the hardest part

3)  Once you have reached your roasting preference, place a piece of the chocolate on a graham cracker and squish the marshmallow between that and another graham cracker.

haven't had one in years!!!!!

4)  Wait just a second or two as to not burn your mouth, and enjoy!

Lol I look sort of evil, my smore!!

Honestly this was the perfect little mini stay-in date on a chilly night :)  How do you like your smores?  Do you have any secrets or tips?  I would love to hear all about your childhood memories of summer.  And I encourage all of you to go back to your childhood once in awhile, and if you have an indoor fireplace I encourage you to have smores once every couple of months lol!!  Until next time....

Stay sweet,

Jennifer xoxoxo