When life gives you blueberries, you make blueberry muffins. Unfortunately, life (or your neighborhood grocery store in this case) does not always give you blueberries. I'm not one to shy away from out of season fruit--with the exception of watermelon--so when I decided a week ago that I was making blueberry muffins I didn't even consider that I wouldn't be able to find any. What I did find was 2 for 1 strawberries. Order was restored and I took this delicious blueberry muffin with blueberry jam recipe and just subbed in strawberries.

The only thing I didn't like about these is that I "forgot" to give any away and I couldn't eat them all on my own. Strawberries tend to hold a lot of moisture, so you won't be able to get away with eating them a few days in unless you happen to enjoy mold. I'm sure keeping them in the fridge would help. I've never frozen muffins before, but I popped a few of these in the freezer to test out the results. I'll update the post when I try them.

Enjoy!

Strawberry Lemon Muffins
Recipe Adapted from Damn Delicious

Yields 12 muffins

Ingredients:

• 2 cups sliced strawberries, divided
• 3/4 cup and 1 tablespoon sugar, divided
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2/3 cup buttermilk
• 1/4 cup (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, melted
• 1/4 cup vegetable oil
• 2 large eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

For the lemon sugar topping:

• 1/4 cup sugar
• Zest of 1 lemon

DIRECTIONS:Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Line a 12-cup standard muffin tin with paper liners or coat with nonstick spray; set aside.

In a medium saucepan, combine 1 cup strawberries and 1 tablespoon sugar. Bring to a boil; reduce heat to low and simmer, stirring occasionally, until sauce has thickened, about 10 minutes. Let cool 10-15 minutes.

To make the lemon sugar topping, combine the sugar and lemon zest, rubbing the zest into the sugar with your fingertips; set aside.

In a large bowl, combine the flour, remaining 3/4 cup sugar, cinnamon, baking powder and salt.
In a large glass measuring cup or another bowl, whisk together the buttermilk, butter, vegetable oil, eggs and vanilla.
Pour mixture over dry ingredients and stir using a rubber spatula just until moist.
Add the remaining 1 cup sliced strawberries and gently toss to combine.
Scoop the batter evenly into the muffin tray. Top each muffin with 1 teaspoon strawberry jam, swirling into the batter using figure eight motions. Sprinkle with lemon sugar mixture.

Place into oven and bake for 15-17 minutes, or until a tester inserted in the center comes out clean.
Remove from oven and cool on a wire rack.

ps - Sorry for the lack of creative place settings. This is what happens when you rush pictures.

I like to store things in giant ziplock bags. It's not what I would call entirely organized, but it's as organized as I can get. As long as I confine my ziplock bag use to baking goods it's not a problem. Things got a little crazy when I decided it was a brilliant storage device when moving. The next thing you know I had jewelry bags, junk bags, paper bags, pen bags..etc. Those ziplocks have yet to be unzipped. Anywho, in my kitchen I have a sprinkles bag. I don't know why at 22 years old I still gravitate towards sprinkles and bright colors, but I've accepted it. I'm a seven year old at heart.

Of course, for these I decided I wanted to use my favorites, the dinosaur sprinkles. So I guess I'm a seven year old boy at heart. Aside from opening a bag of cake mix all over my kitchen, these are a breeze to make. I bought a tube of crescent dough at the grocery store, but everything else I had on hand. My only advice would be to make sure the icing is a bit runny. I didn't measure (whoops) and proceeded to use the thicker icing instead of adding more milk (read: I was lazy). It covered up the cute little swirled tops. Lesson: don't be lazy, use your better judgment.

Enjoy!

Mini (no yeast) Cake Batter Cinnamon Buns
Recipe from Sally's Baking Addiction

• 1-8oz tube crescent roll dough
• 1/4 cup butter, melted
• 1/4 cup Betty Crocker Supermoist white or yellow cake mix (or any brand white or yellow cake mix)
• 1/4 cup sprinkles
• 2 Tbsp brown sugar
• cake batter icing (recipe below)
• sprinkles for topping

1. Preheat oven to 350F (or whatever your tube of crescent roll instructs). Spray 16 tins of a mini muffin pan with nonstick spray. Set aside.
2. Roll out half of the dough (4 triangles) and close the seams together by pinching. Flip over and pinch those seams together as well.
3. Sprinkle the dough with half of your sprinkles and smooth out with a rolling pin. You want the dough to be totally seamless and the sprinkles to be pressed into the dough as much as possible. I do not have a rolling pin in my tiny apartment, so I covered the dough with parchment paper and rolled over it with a glass cup. The dough needs to be completely smooth and 1/4″ thick.
4. Brush dough with 1 Tbsp melted butter and cover with 2 Tbsp of the cake mix. Brush 1 Tbsp melted butter over the cake mix and sprinkle with 1 Tbsp brown sugar.
5. Roll into a log and cut into 8 equal buns.
6. Repeat steps 2-5 with the other half of the crescent roll dough.
7. Place 16 buns into the prepared muffin tins. Bake for 12-14 minutes or until the buns are lightly browned.
8. Allow to cool for about 5 minutes and spoon icing (recipe below) over top each bun. Top with sprinkles.

Cake Batter Icing

• 3/4 cup SIFTED Betty Crocker Supermoist white or yellow cake mix (or any brand white or yellow cake mix)*
• 2 Tbsp + 1 tsp half-and-half (or milk)

Whisk together sifted cake mix and half-and-half until fully combined.  Add more or less half-and-half depending on how thick you want the icing.  Spoon over warm cinnamon buns and top with sprinkles. Store cinnamon buns in fridge.

French toast reminds me of Sunday mornings when I was growing up and living at home. My mom always cooked something delicious for breakfast on Sundays. I guess it was her way of making the kids get up for church. That's the effect it had on me, at least. There was no way I was going to miss blueberry pancakes, waffles or french toast. Such are the motivators for the average teenager (they'd probably still work on me). 

Alas, I never really have it anymore. I think I get distracted on brunch menus by other delicious things, and somehow french toast gets the short end of the stick. I have no idea why. The aroma fills the air, the cinnamon, syrup and powdered sugar come together in perfect harmony...what's not to love? So, what happens when you take everything that's wonderful about french toast and put it in cookie form? Yep, harmony. Again. I'm sorry french toast, oh how I under appreciated you. 

The best part of these cookies is the icing. I guess I shouldn't be surprised by this considering french toast is nothing without it's maple syrup counterpart. Rich, maple frosting dusted with cinnamon and powdered sugar. Now we're talking. 

My camera is still glitching. Sorry for the odd coloring on the pictures! 

French Toast Sugar Cookies

Recipe by The Minimalist Baker

Ingredients

Cookies:

• 1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, slightly softened

• 1 cup sugar

• 1 egg

• 3 cups all purpose flour

• 2 tsp. baking powder

• 1/2 cup milk

• 1 tsp. vanilla extract

• 1/4 tsp. salt

• 1 teaspoon cinnamon

Icing:

• 1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, softened

• 1 lb. powdered sugar

• 2-3 tsp. maple extract

• 2-4 Tablespoons milk, or to desired consistency

Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
2. Cream sugar and butter with mixer; add egg and beat until combined.
3. Add dry ingredients to a sifter. Alternate adding milk and dry ingredients to the butter mixture while mixing. Then add vanilla and stir.
4. Chill for 30 minutes before rolling out. Roll out on floured surface, cut into squares and bake at 375 degrees for 10-11 minutes, being careful not to over-bake.
5. To make the frosting, cream softened butter with 1 cup of the powdered sugar and then slowly add in the rest.
6. Add maple extract (I used 3 teaspoons) and milk, and stir. The consistency you’re looking for is thick and spreadable; not runny.
7. Once cookies have cooled, frost the tops with the maple icing and dust with powdered sugar and cinnamon.

Sorry for the brief break between posting--I've been having some camera issues recently. It seems they may have fixed on their own, but we shall see! On the bright side, I've been baking up a storm. I'm all settled in my new place and I can finally fit all of my cooking supplies. It's a glorious thing. I may not have been able to take pictures of everything, but it was all so good I guess I'll just have to take one for the team and go for round two. More to come in the next few weeks with those. 

As I'm sure is pretty apparent, I love adding candy to recipes. The dough base for these cookies is fantastic, and I'm fairly certain it would be great with all sorts of candy add-ins. I stuck with the recipe this time and the results were amazing. The caramel melts out, the twix cookie provides the perfect crunch, the chocolate...well, you know how I feel about chocolate. Basically this is just a great cookie. It's nothing fancy or complicated, but I loved every part of it! 

Sidenote: after three years I finally was about to snag a chocolate therapy domain name before someone renewed the contract. You can now get to my page by going to www.mychocolatetherapy.com. The blogspot address will redirect there. Spread the word!

Twix Bar Cookies

Recipe from Sprinkled with Flour

2 cups plus 2 tbsp all-purpose flour

½ tsp. baking soda
½ tsp. salt

12 tbsp. unsalted butter, melted and cooled until warm

1 cup packed brown sugar

½ cup granulated sugar

1 large egg plus 1 egg yolk

2 tsp. vanilla extract

2 cups coarsely chopped Twix bars

Preheat oven 325°. Coarsely chop the Twix bars (about 1/4-inch chunks). I used mini Twix bars and cut them in half  I like to cut each bar in half lengthwise, and then make several cuts width ways to make even blocks. In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda and salt; set aside. In the bowl of an electric mixer, mix butter and sugars until thoroughly combined. Beat in egg, yolk, and vanilla until combined. Add dry ingredients to the sugar mixture and beat at low-speed just until combined. Gently stir in the Twix chunks.

Roll a scant half cup of dough into a ball. Break into two pieces, placing each on the baking sheet with the rough sides facing up and keeping ample room between mounds of dough. Repeat until all dough has been used. If you run out of room in the oven, store the extra dough in the fridge until you have space to use it. Bake, reversing position of cookie sheets halfway through baking, until cookies are light golden brown and outer edges start to harden yet centers are still soft and puffy (approximately 15-18 minutes). Do not overbake. Allow the cookies to cool completely on the baking sheet. Since the caramel from the Twix can make the cookies stick a little, I use an offset spatula to slide under the cookies without breaking them apart. Enjoy!