Lemon Whole Wheat Bread

As we know, I love making bread.  In fact, I started this blog as a record of my bread-making in some sense.  I was looking for a nice, healthy bread for breakfasts and possibly sandwiches and came across this nice lemon honey whole wheat bread.

It was great: flavorful, whole wheaty, but it made 2 loaves, oops!  I ate the first loaf in the first couple of days with chili for lunch or jam for breakfast.  It would make really great peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.  I used half of the second loaf for a savory bread pudding that I will blog about later.

Oreo Cupcakes

For a friends birthday, she requested something Oreo.  I thought it would be brilliant to fill chocolate cupcakes and cover them with Oreo frosting.  They were awesome.  I usually don't like chocolate cake (it's not chocolaty enough), but the chocolate cupcake recipe was great.  I also added about 6 crushed Oreos.  I was inspired by a peanut butter Oreo cupcake recipe.  They were awesome and can be played with in lots of different ways with different fillings and frostings, from the same basic chocolate recipe.  I also took the cream cheese out of the frosting since I don't like it.

I made filling from shortening to make sure it was white.  I made it a little too thick and it didn't fill as well as I hoped.  The frosting was fine with butter since the Oreos made it light brown.  I doubled the recipe to feed the crowd and ended up with 28 cupcakes.

Ingredients

Chocolate Cake
• 1 stick (8 tbs) unsalted butter, cut into 4 pieces
• 2 oz bittersweet chocolate, chopped
• 1/2 cup cocoa powder
• 3/4 cup flour
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 3/4 tsp baking powder
• 2 eggs
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/2 tsp table salt
• 1/2 cup yogurt
Peanut Butter Filling
• 4 Tbsp shortening
• 1/4 c powdered sugar (or more to taste/Oreo cream consistency)
• 1/4 tsp vanilla
Oreo Frosting
• 1/2 cup butter
• 1/2 c powdered sugar (more as needed to make it taste good)
• 1/2 tsp vanilla
• 10 crushed Oreos
• Pinch of salt

Instructions

For the Cupcakes
1. Set oven to 350 degeres and line standard sized muffin pan with baking cup liners.
2. Combine butter, chocolate and cocoa in medium heatproof bowl. Set bowl over a saucepan containing barely simmering water, heat mixture until butter and chocolate are melted and whisk until smooth and combined. Set aside and cool until just warm to the touch.
3. Whisk flour, baking soda, and baking powder in a small bowl to combine
4. Whisk eggs in a second medium bowl to combine, add sugar, vanilla and salt until fluffy and incorporated. Add cooled chocolate mixture and whisk until combined. Sift about 1/3 of the flour mixture into chocolate mixture and whisk until combined. Whisk in sour cream until combined, the sift remaining flour mixture in and whisk until batter is combined.
5. Scoop into 12 cupcake tins. Bake until skewer in center comes out clean, 18-20 minutes.
6. Let cupcakes cool.
For the Filling
7. Combine shortening, powdered sugar, and vanilla in a bowl and beat until well combined. Scoop the filling into a piping bag. Insert tip into center of cupcake and squeeze as you pull the tip out to fill the cupcake.
For the Frosting
8. Beat butter. Add in powdered sugar in 1/4 cup increments. Add in the vanilla and the pinch of salt. Add the chopped up oreos and mix until oreos are evenly distributed.
9. Put frosting into a piping bag and pipe onto filled cupcakes.

Apple Wheat Muffins

I went apple picking last month.  I ended up with a couple dozen apples, so I looked for apple recipes  After making apple sauce I decided I wanted apple baked goods.  So I looked for muffin recipes.

I found this recipe on Smitten Kitchen and fixed it a little bit.

I froze about half of them.  Any that are not eaten or frozen immediately should be refrigerated.  I didn't and some of them turned to rotten mush in the middle.  Also, the recipe called for buttermilk or yogurt, I cut out 1/2 cup butter and used both.

Whole Wheat Apple Muffins
I ended up with 18 muffins.

1 cup (4 ounces) whole wheat flour
1 cup (4 1/4 ounces) all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon cinnamon
1/2 cup yogurt
1/2 cup (3 1/2 ounces) granulated sugar
1/2 cup dark brown sugar, packed, divided
1 large egg, lightly beaten
1 cup (8 ounces) buttermilk
2 large apples, peeled, cored, and coarsely chopped

Preheat the oven to 450°F. Grease and flour 18 muffin cups and set aside.

Mix together the flours, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon, and set aside. In a separate bowl, cream the yogurt and add the granulated sugar and 1/4 cup of the brown sugar. Beat until fluffy. Add the egg and mix well; stop once to scrape the sides and bottom of the bowl.  Mix in the buttermilk gently. (If you over-mix, the buttermilk will cause the mixture to curdle.) Stir in the dry ingredients and fold in the apple chunks.

Divide the batter evenly among the prepared muffin cups, sprinkling the remaining 1/4 cup brown sugar on top. Bake for 10 minutes, turn the heat down to 400°F, and bake for an additional 5 to 10 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of a muffin comes out clean. Cool the muffins for 5 minutes in the tin, then turn them out onto a wire rack to cool completely.