pumpkin on pumpkin

You know it's fall when I start baking anything with pumpkin and I couldn't be happier. On one of my usual trips to the market during the week, I was able to sample a delicious take on the fall staple, pumpkin butter. I tried it with an open mind and found it delightful, not too heavy and the perfect spread for a little spice of pumpkin. I knew I wanted to accompany it with a bread of some sort, 1 because the bottle says if mixed with cream cheese, you won't eat anything else (OK it doesn't say exactly that, but as soon as I thought of the combo, I knew it's be to die for!) and 2 because who doesn't like pumpkin bread or even better, bread's little cousin, muffins. 

I can assure you that this combination of pumpkin on pumpkin is killer. Although either by themselves are equally as tasty.  So get out your pumpkin and start baking!

cranberry LOVE muffins

I got a special request last week or so to bake some cranberry orange muffins and I jumped at the chance to use my new rachel ray muffin pan, compliments of my awesome madre. Since I didn't have a recipe on hand, I used my handy iphone app, epicurious to find a tasty recipe and got started. These were the results, a delicious sweet treat that made breakfast exciting for once!

going bananas

Today I got the urge, as I often do, to do a little baking. On the menu was a twist of grandma's banana bread: banana chocolate chip muffins. I remember I loved my grandma's banana bread, and we could only make it when we had the bananas that no one would ever eat because of all their brown spots.

In my lack of chocolate chips, I grabbed peanut butter chips and let me tell you, it was meant to be. Peanut butter and banana are by far one of my favorite pairings. It was a nice treat that indeed satisfied my sweet tooth.

Banana Chip Muffins

• 1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
• 2/3 cup sugar
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup mashed ripe bananas
• 1 large egg
• 1/2 cup unsalted butter, melted
• 1/4 cup milk
• 3/4 cup semisweet chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350°F. Mix flour, sugar, baking powder and salt in large bowl. Mix mashed bananas, egg, melted butter and milk in medium bowl. Stir banana mixture into dry ingredients just until blended (do not overmix). Stir in chocolate chips. Bake for 32 minutes or until tops are pale golden brown. Cool.

Enjoy.