Delicious Cottage Cheese Blueberry Muffins

Delicious Cottage Cheese Blueberry Muffins
Source: https://simplyyummyeats.com/healthy-cottage-cheese-blueberry-muffins-recipe/
Prep: 15 minutes
Cook Time: 20-25 minutes

Ingredients
• 1 cup cottage cheese
• 2 large eggs
• ½ cup honey or maple syrup or liquid stevia (I used a mix of honey and solid sugar substitute) 

• ¼ cup vegetable oil or unsweetened applesauce
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1½ cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• ½ teaspoon baking soda
• ¼ teaspoon salt
• 1 cup fresh or frozen blueberries

Instructions:
1. Preheat your oven to 375°F (190°C). Line a muffin tin with paper liners or lightly grease the cups.
2. In a large mixing bowl, combine the cottage cheese, eggs, honey, vegetable oil, and vanilla extract. Stir everything together until it’s well mixed and smooth.
3. In another bowl, whisk together the all-purpose flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Make sure these dry ingredients are well combined to ensure your muffins rise properly.
4. Gradually add the dry ingredients to the wet mixture. Stir gently until just combined—be careful not to overmix, as this can make your muffins tough! 5. Gently add the blueberries to the batter, taking care not to crush them.
6. Divide the batter evenly among the muffin cups, filling each about two-thirds full.
7. 7. Bake for 20-25 minutes. They’re done when they’re golden brown and a toothpick inserted into the center of a muffin comes out clean.
8. Once baked, let the muffins cool in the pan for about 5 minutes. Then transfer them to a wire rack to cool completely.

Alice and Kyle LOVED these! Rachel and Zed didn't like the blueberry part.

Chocolate Chip Cake

Source: https://spaceshipsandlaserbeams.com/chocolate-chip-cake/

Prep Time: 25 minutes
Cook Time: 28 minutes
Total Time:53 minutes

Ingredients 

Cake 

2 ¼ cups all-purpose flour 

2 tablespoons all-purpose flour 

1 ½ teaspoons baking powder 

½ teaspoon baking soda 

½ teaspoon salt 

¾ cup unsalted butter, room temperature 

1 ½ cups granulated sugar 

2 teaspoons vanilla extract 

3 large eggs, room temperature 

1 cup buttermilk, room temperature 

1 cup mini chocolate chips 

Frosting 

1 ½ cups unsalted butter, room temperature 

5 cups powdered sugar, sifted 

1 ½ teaspoons vanilla extract 

½ teaspoon salt 

4 tablespoons heavy cream 

⅓ cup mini chocolate chips 

2 tablespoons mini chocolate chips, to garnish the top of the frosted cake 

Instructions 

Cake 

Bring butter, eggs, and buttermilk to room temperature.

Preheat oven to 350* F. 

Spray 2 9-inch round cake pans with Baker’s non-stick spray and line with parchment paper rounds. Set aside. 

To a medium bowl mix together 2 ¼ cups all-purpose flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Set aside. 

To a large mixing bowl beat the butter, on medium-high speed with a handheld mixer, for 1-2 minutes or until light and fluffy. 

To the butter, add the granulated sugar and beat again until fully incorporated. 

Add the eggs, one at a time, and the vanilla extract to the butter mixture and mix on medium speed until all the eggs are fully incorporated. Be sure to fully incorporate each egg before adding the next one. 

To the bowl of wet ingredients add a third of the flour mixture, mix on low until incorporated, followed by half the buttermilk and mix just until incorporated. 

Add another ⅓ of the flour mixture, followed by the remaining buttermilk then lastly the final ⅓ of the flour mixture. Be sure to mix each addition thoroughly before adding the next. You will need to scrape down the sides, and bottom, of the bowl as needed to ensure the batter is evenly mixed. The batter will be thick. 

To a small bowl add the mini chocolate chips and 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour. Toss to coat all the mini chocolate chips in the flour. This will help to ensure that the chips do not sink to the bottom of the batter when the cake layers are baked. 

Stir the flour-coated mini chocolate chips into the batter just until evenly distributed. 

Divide the cake batter evenly between the two prepared pans and smooth to an even layer so that the cake layers bake up evenly.

 Bake for 28-30 minutes or until lightly golden brown and a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean.

 

Allow the cake layers to cool in the pans for 10 minutes before carefully turning them out onto a wire rack to cool completely. Be sure to remove the parchment paper to allow the cake layers to cool properly. 

While your cake layers are cooling, you can make the frosting. 

Frosting 

To the bowl of a stand mixer, fitted with the paddle attachment, beat on medium speed the unsalted butter for 1-2 minutes or until light and fluffy. 

Turn the mixer to low speed and add the powdered sugar, 1 cup at a time, and mix until all the powdered sugar has been added. You will need to stop the mixer and scrape down the paddle attachment, and the sides of the bowl, to ensure that the frosting is being evenly mixed. 

To the bowl add the vanilla extract, salt and heavy cream. Beat on medium-high speed for 2-3 minutes or until the frosting is light and fluffy. 

Scrape down the bowl, and paddle attachment, before stirring in the ⅓ cup mini chocolate chips to the frosting. 

To assemble the cake, add one of the cooled cake layers to a cake plate then add 1 - 1 ½ cups of the frosting to the cake and spread to an even layer. 

Top with the second cake layer and frost the sides, and bottom, of the cake with the remaining frosting. Garnish the top of the frosted chocolate chip cake with the remaining 2 tablespoons of mini chocolate chips before slicing and serving. 

Notes 

Mini chocolate chips work best for this recipe as they are distributed more evenly in both the cake batter, and the frosting, than standard sized chocolate chips are. 

Buttermilk adds moisture and helps to create a tender crumb to the cake. If you do not have buttermilk you can make a substitute by adding 1 tablespoon of white vinegar, or fresh lemon juice, to 1 cup whole milk. Allow the milk to sit for 5 minutes before stirring and adding to the recipe.

 It is important when making this cake recipe that your butter, eggs and buttermilk are all at room temperature before using them to make the cake batter. This will ensure that your batter is smooth and the cake layers bake up properly. 

When making your frosting, you may need to add a little extra powdered sugar (starting with ¼ cup) if the frosting is too loose. Alternately, you may need to add a little extra (starting with 1 teaspoon) heavy cream if the frosting is too thick.

Easy 5-Minute Fluffy Vanilla Frosting

Source: https://foodess.com/easy-5-minute-fluffy-vanilla-frosting/

Ingredients
2 cups softened unsalted butter
4 cups confectioners' sugar
2 tsp milk
1 tbsp pure vanilla extract

Instructions
Combine all ingredients in stand mixer fitted with whisk attachment. Start on low to incorporate confectioners' sugar, then gradually increase to high.
Whip on high speed for 5 minutes, until very pale and very fluffy. This long whipping time is critical for the frosting to be light, satiny, mousse-y and like the most delicious, beautiful-textured vanilla frosting ever.
Pause several times to scrape down sides of mixer bowl while it is beating. The frosting will double in volume and will go from a dull, matte white to a shiny, satiny, fluffy white when it is ready.

This recipe yields enough frosting to frost and fill a two-layer 9″ cake, or 24 cupcakes. If you’d like to frost the cake and then pipe additional details, make 1 1/2 times this recipe.

Baked Peanut Butter Oatmeal

 Baked Peanut Butter Oatmeal

Ingredients
1.5 cups quick oats
1/4 cup packed brown sugar
1/4 cup white sugar
3/4 cup milk
3/4 cup melted butter
1 egg
1/2 cup peanut butter
1 tsp baking powder
3/4 tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla
raisins, chocolate chips, bananas, etc.

Directions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 9 by 13 pan.
Mix all ingredients in a large bowl and stir well.
Spread evenly into pan and bake for 20-25 minutes or until edges are golden brown.
Serve with warm milk poured over top, if desired.

Shortbread Cookies

 Shortbread Cookies 

Source: http://www.thebrewerandthebaker.com/archives/9257

Ingredients
2 cups (4 sticks) unsalted butter
1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
4 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp almond extract
4 cups (20 oz) all purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder

Instructions
To make the cookies, cream the butter and powdered sugar together on medium-high for 2-3 minutes, until fluffy. If you start with cold butter like I do, 3-4 minutes.
Reduce speed to low and add the extracts.
Add flour and baking powder, and mix on medium just until the dry ingredients are completely incorporated.
Turn dough out onto plastic wrap, shape into a disc, wrap tightly, and refrigerate for 30 minutes.

Preheat oven to 350.  
Lightly flour your work surface and roll out your dough (it's easier for me to divide it into 3 or 4 portions first) to ~1/3 inch thickness.
Cut shapes with a floured cookie cutter, reflouring between each cookie.
Lightly knead the scraps and re-roll until you run out of dough or get the number of cookies that you need. (Leftover dough can be refrigerated a week or frozen for several months.)
Transfer cookies to a parchment lined baking sheet and place in the freezer while the oven is preheating.
 Bake 10-12 minutes, until the cookies just begin to brown around the edges.
Let cool completely before decorating. Frost using this recipe.