Lovin' From the Oven

Day 8: White Chocolate Cranberry Cookies

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Eeeeek! 5 more days until Christmas (just in case you didn’t know already). Good thing I only have my boyfriend to shop for and that’s already been taken care of. Well, I also got my dad a Ronald Reagan bomber jacket from my work which he absolutely adores. I think it’s cute how much he loves his Ronald Reagan gear. I even bought him an air force one plane toy for him! He stared in awe at it for a solid minute and said that this was all he wanted for Christmas. How precious!

Day 8 of my twelve days of cookies: I adapted this recipe from allrecipes. I seriously love that website. You can find a recipe for ANYTHING and know that they’ve been tried and true. I tend to lean toward the recipes the have a lot more ratings, cause you know it’s gotta be good to have that many people try them out. Anyways, I took these to a dinner party and they raved about them! They were soft with the perfect amount of sweetness. The white chocolate balances out the cranberries nicely and it’d be a great addition to your Christmas cookie list!

Ingredients

  • 1/2 cup butter, softened
  • 1/2 cup packed brown sugar
  • 1/2 cup white sugar
  • 1 egg
  • 1 tablespoon vanilla
  • 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
  • 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
  • 3/4 cup white chocolate chips
  • 1 cup dried cranberries

Directions

  1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Grease cookie sheets.
  2. In a large bowl, cream together the butter, brown sugar, and white sugar until smooth. Beat in the egg and vanilla. Combine the flour and baking soda; stir into the sugar mixture. Mix in the white chocolate chips and cranberries. Drop by heaping spoonfuls onto prepared cookie sheets.
  3. Bake for 8 to 10 minutes in the preheated oven. For best results, take them out while they are still doughy. Allow cookies to cool for 1 minute on the cookie sheets before transferring to wire racks to cool completely.

Blueberry Crumb Coffee Cake

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So with all my free time lately, I decided to re-watch Battlestar Galactica, starting with season 1. It’s just that good. Don’t judge me until you’ve seen it! It may be totally nerdy, but it’s amazing.

I went on my first beach trip of the summer yesterday and decided to bake some goods to take along in my “new” picnic basket. I’ve been hunting for a picnic basket for a year, but didn’t want to spend the 100 bucks on it (seriously, they’re THAT expensive for a good one!). I finally found one at a garage sale.. brand new with tags! The real bang is that I got it for 2 whole bucks! I guess the phrase “someone’s trash is another one’s treasure” really is true.

This coffee cake is perfect. It’s ridiculously moist and just delicious in every way. Everyone that tried it loved it and even came back for seconds. I got it from Cooking Dunkin Style and you can find the recipe HERE. I sprinkled some raw sugar on it afterwards, which is always a good idea to me 🙂 I also used cookie cutters to cut it into fun shapes.

  • 1.5 cups all purpose flour
  • 2 tsp baking powder
  • 1/4 tsp salt
  • 1/2 cup butter or margarine softened
  • 1/2 cup sugar
  • 1 egg
  • 2 cups fresh or frozen blueberries
  • 1/2 cup milk, I used 2%

Topping

  • 1/4 cup flour
  • 1/4 cup sugar
  • 1/2 tsp cinnamon
  • 3 tbl butter

1.) Preheat oven to 375 degrees
2.) Mix flour, baking powder and salt on waxed paper.
3.) Cream softened butter and sugar in a large mixing bowl until light and fluffy, beat in the egg.
4.) Place blueberries in a small bowl, dust with a small amount of the flour mixture. Toss to coat.
5.) Add the remaining flour mixture and milk alternately to creamed mixture, mixing continually
6.) Gently fold blueberries into batter.
7.) For the topping, mix flour, sugar and cinnamon (Ginger if you wish) in a small bowl, cut in butter until crumbly.
8.) Spread batter into a greased 8 inch square baking dish.
9.) Sprinkle topping over batter.
10.) Bake for 45 minutes or until topping is golden brown.

Blueberry Muffins

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I’ve been on a blueberry binge lately.. eating them everyday- whether frozen by itself or in my yogurt. My boyfriend got me addicted! My mom had some fresh blueberries at home so I decided to make some muffins. I’m not really a fan of muffins, cause as my sister says, “Muffins are retarded cupcakes.” If I had to choose between a muffin and a cupcake, I’d take a cupcake every time, which is probably why I rarely bake muffins. I made these for my boyfriend, but forgot to take them over to his house when I went, so these babies were left at home!

The taste was absolutely perfect, not too sweet, but sweet enough. The turbinado sugar on the top was definitely the icing on the cake. The blueberries baked perfectly, and the top rose beautifully. The only thing that irked me a bit was that they were a bit dry. The next time that I make these, I’d recommend adding a cup or so of plain vanilla yogurt to moisten up the texture a bit. That, or possibly lower the baking time/temperature. I also left out the lemon zest on half the batter and it turned out fine. I actually think I prefer it that way!

2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 cups fresh blueberries (you can use frozen, just make sure that you dry them as best you can)
1 stick (8 tablespoons) butter, room temperature
1 cup granulated sugar
zest of 1 lemon
2 large eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/2 cup milk
1-2 tablespoons turbinado sugar for sprinkling

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Line a 12-cup muffin pan with paper muffin cups and spray with Pam.
2. In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder and salt. Set aside.
3. In another bowl, toss the blueberries with about 1 tablespoon of the flour mixture. This will help them to stay afloat in the muffins instead of sinking to the bottom. Set aside.
4. In the bowl of an electric mixer, using your paddle attachment, beat the butter, sugar, and lemon zest on medium-high speed until light and fluffy, about 3-5 minutes.
5. Add the eggs one at a time and beat well, then mix in the vanilla extract.
6. Gradually add the flour mixture and beat just until moistened. Add the milk and beat just until combined. Do not overbeat!
7. Lightly fold in the blueberries using a rubber spatula, careful not to squish them. Divide the batter evenly among the muffin cups so that each one is 2/3 full. Sprinkle your desired amount of turbinado sugar over the batter in each muffin cup.
8. Bake until the muffins are golden brown and a toothpick inserted in the center of one of the muffins comes out clean, about 25-30 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack or another surface to cool. Remove muffins from pan and let cool completely.

Sidenote: I know this is totally unrelated to my blog but I’m desperate! I’m trying to find someone to take over my lease at my apartment in LA so that I can move back home due to financial troubles and just commute to school.. if you know anyone that needs a place to live in west LA, please contact me! The apartment is great, for more info, go HERE. Thanks!

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