Lemon Crumble Breakfast Cake

Hi all– It was a perfect match.  I saw this Lemon Crumble Breakfast Cake on Pinterest and the next week got a big bag of lemons from a friend who was smart enough to plant a row of citrus trees in her yard.

And you don’t have to serve this for breakfast. you know.  We had it with a group of friends who came in last Wednesday night for our weekly time to pass around hugs and laugh and talk and pray together.  It’s fresh and bright– just a nice little piece of cake on a plate to go with your mug of tea.

LEMON CRUMBLE BREAKFAST CAKE

Streusel Topping:
1/4 cup (4 oz.) butter, melted
1/3 cup sugar
3/4 cup flour
grated rind of 1 lemon
1 tab. lemon juice

Cake:
3/4 cup sugar
grated rind of 2 lemons
1/2 cup canola oil
1 egg
1 tsp. vanilla
1/2 cup buttermilk*
1/4 cup lemon juice
2 cps flour
2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
garnish: powdered sugar

In a small mixing bowl, make the streusel by mixing together the 1/3 cup sugar sugar and melted butter with a fork. Then stir in the 3/4 cup flour flour, lemon rind and 1 tablespoon lemon juice.  Set it aside.

For the cake, stir together the 3/4 cup sugar, grated rind of 2 lemons, oil, egg vanilla and buttermilk.  Then mix in the 2 cups flour, baking powder and salt.

Scoop the thick batter into a 8″ or 9″ spring form pan (or deep cake pan) that has been sprayed with cooking spray.  With your fingers, crumble the streusel into little bits over the cake batter.

Pop it into the oven for 45 to 50 minutes until a thin knife inserted into the cake comes out clean.

When you’re ready to serve the cake dust the top with powdered sugar through a sieve.  Enjoy!

*In place of buttermilk, you can use a tablespoon of cider vinegar and milk to make 1/2 cup.

recipe adapted from Pinterest

Blueberry Streusel Coffee Cake

Hi friends– This is not the first blueberry cake to cross paths with this blog.  It’s an old favorite of mine and when I saw this streusel-ly version I jumped right on it.

I’m taking it to “Snack’n’Yak”.  Our group at church skips class time this first Sunday of the year.  We all just bring food and catch up after the busy Christmas break– hear all the news about kids come home for Christmas, about celebrations and about plans ahead for the New Year.  I’m looking forward to it…

BLUEBERRY STREUSEL COFFEE CAKE

Streusel:
1/4 cup melted butter (4 tab.)
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup flour
1/2 cup walnuts, chopped fine

Cake:
1/2 cup sugar
6 tab. canola oil
1/4 cup sour cream
1/4 cup milk
1 egg
1 tsp. vanilla
1 cup flour
1  1/4 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. salt
1 1/4 cup blueberries, divided*

Glaze:
3/4 cup powdered sugar
1 to 2 tab. milk

To make the streusel, melt the butter in the microwave.  Then stir in the 1/2 cup flour, brown sugar and walnuts.  Set aside.

For the cake, stir together the sugar, oil, sour cream, milk, egg and vanilla.  Then mix in the flour baking powder and salt.

Scoop the batter into a 9″ or 10″ cake pan than has been sprayed with cooking spray.  Sprinkle 1 cup of the berries one the batter.  Then with your fingers, sprinkle the streusel over the top.  Take the remaining blueberries and distribute them over the streusel.

Pop the coffee cake into a 350 degree oven for 35 to 40 minutes until it is firm to the touch and cooked through.

While the cake is cooling, whisk together the powdered sugar and milk for the glaze.  Add one tab. of the milk first and if it seems too thick, add a bit more.  Drizzle it over the cooled cake and you are ready to eat it up!

*I used Trader Joe’s tiny organic frozen berries.  I like how they look pretty on a cake.

Pumpkin Pecan Bran Muffins

Hi friends– My most frequent “stress dream” is always the same.  I’m working on dinner for a crowd waiting hungrily in the next room,  and I can’t get it done– I’m trying to summon up dinner from 2 oranges and a can of beans or I’ve lost the turkey…

Well, my nightmare finally came true!  The family was here for a birthday dinner and I realized when it was bout time to eat that my oven was dying!  The roasting potatoes and the corn soufflé was totally raw!!  Ugh.

The bad new is a couple days later I was having 30 friends for breakfast and no oven— The good news is that the world’s best neighbor Trisha let me use her oven.  The crazy news is her house is in the middle of a total remodel, so I was dashing in and out amid the construction crew with tins of muffins and pans of coffee cake…

But it all came out OK (Thank’s Trisha!!)– and these are the muffins– good for a post Thanksgiving breakfast to use up that leftover pumpkin.  They are delish!

PUMPKIN PECAN BRAN MUFFINS

Streusel:
4 tab. butter, melted
6 tab. brown sugar
2 tab. white sugar
6 tab. flour
1/3 cup pecans, chopped

Muffins:
1/2 cup pumpkin puree
1 egg
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup canola oil
1 cup flour
1 cup wheat bran
1 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
2 tsp. pumpkin pie spice
2/3 cup chopped pecans
1/3 cup currants

First make the streusel.  Melt the butter in a mixing bowl (microwave).  Then stir in the 6 tab. brown sugar, 2 tab. white sugar and 6 tab. flour. Chop the 1/3 cup pecans and set all this aside.

In a larger mixing bowl, stir together the pumpkin, egg, 1/2 cup brown sugar and canola oil.  Them mix in the 1 cup flour, wheat bran, baking powder, salt and pumpkin pie spice.
Last, fold in the peans and currants.

Spoon the thick batter into 10 to 12 muffins cups lined with cupcake papers*.

With your fingers, break up the streusel into coarse crumbs over all the muffins and then sprinkle the 1/3 cup chopped pecans over the top.

Pop them into the oven at 350 for 15 to 20 minutes– until they are firm to the touch.

Delicious hot from the oven, or cooled with a bracing mug of tea.

*If you live in socal– Sprouts has the best muffin papers– a pretty light  brown parchment, slightly waxed to the muffins never stick.

 

Chocolate Pumpkin Streusel Bars

Hi all– November baking often ends up one pumpkin recipe after another.  I can’t help it.  And my absolute favorite pumpkin baking event is stirring up 30 loaves of pumpkin bread with my 4th graders the day before our Thanksgiving break!

It’s a pumpkin-palooza! Five teams of bakers are skittering up to my supply table for sugar, eggs, pumpkin, mini chocolate chips (their favorite ingredient)– Eggs are cracking and flour is flying!! I always have to apologize to the janitor at the end of the day.

It’s just great to send them out the door for their Thanksgiving break with that pumpkin-y loaf to share with their family.  They are so proud.

But back to this recipe!  It involved a more sedate baking situation– me alone in my kitchen–less exciting, but even more delicious. And this time it’s tender, streusel topped little pumpkin laced cakes, topped and filled with chocolate bits, little sweet taste of Thanksgiving.

CHOCOLATE PUMPKIN STREUSEL BARS

Streusel:
2/3 cup flour
2/3 cup brown sugar
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
6 tab. butter
1/2 cup mini chocolate chips*

Cake:
2 cups flour
2 tsp. pumpkin pie spice
1 tsp. baking powder
3/4 tsp. salt
3/4 cup canola oil
3/4 cup brown sugar
3/4 cup white sugar
1 egg
2 tsp. vanilla
1 cup pumpkin puree
1 cup mini chocolate chips

First, prepare the streusel.  Mix together the 2/3 cup flour, 2/3 cup brown sugar and  cinnamon.  Then with a pastry blender (or two forks) cut in the butter until it resembles coarse sand.  Stir in the 1/2 cup chocolate chips.  Set this aside.

In a new mixing bowl, stir together the 1 cups flour, pumpkin pie spice, baking powder and salt.  Then mix in the oil, white and brown sugar, egg, vanilla and pumpkin.  Fold in the chocolate chips.

Spoon the mixture into a 9″ x 13″ baking dish that has been sprayed with cooking spray.  Sprinkle the streusel over the stop and pop it into a 350 degree oven for 30 to 35 minutes until the bars are firm to the touch.

Let them cool a bit and the cut into tidy little squares.  Pumkin-y good.

*I had a nice chocolate bar someone had given me so I chopped it and mixed it in with the mini chocolate chips for the topping on the streusel.

 

Peach Pecan Muffins

Hi all– Farewell sweet peaches. They are still in the market this week, but I know they won’t be around for long…  I love these golden juicy fruits and am sad to see them go.  That’s why I’m stuffing them into any possible baking project before it’s time to move on to apples and pumpkin.

These muffins are stuffed with sweet peaches and nutty pecans.  And with the crunchy streusel topping, they are a bit like eating peach cobbler for breakfast (minus the big blob of vanilla ice cream!).  They are that yummy.  Hope you like them too.

PEACH PECAN MUFFINS

Streusel:
4 tab. butter, melted
6 tab. brown sugar
2 tab. white sugar
6 tab. flour

Melt the butter in the microwave.  Stir in the sugars and flour.  Set aside

Muffins:
2 yellow peaches*
1 egg
1/2 cup milk
1/4 cup canola oil
1 1/2 cup flour
1/2 cup sugar
2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. cinnamon
2 tsp. amaretto
1 cup pecans, chopped

Peel the peaches, take out the pit and chop them to nice little bits.  In a mixing bowl, stir up the egg, milk and oil.  Then mix in the flour, sugar, baking powder, salt and cinnamon.  Lastly fold in the amaretto, pecans and cut peaches.

Spoon the batter into a 12 cup muffin tin lined with paper muffins cups.  With your fingers crumble the streusel mixture over the muffins and pop them in a 350 degree oven for 20 to 25 minutes until they are golden and firm to the touch.

*When we moved into our house, we had a white peach tree in the backyard that bore the most flavorless sad peaches.  I think that left me disposed to yellow peaches.  It always seems like yellow peaches are sweeter and peachier!  Crazy, I know.

Peach Cobbler Pancakes

Hello there–  I wonder if you’ve run across the t.v. show called “Unique Eats.”  Larry’s t.v. consumption consists mainly of Angel’s baseball games.  But when “Unique Eats” comes on, he’s happy to join in.  It’s a fun one.

The program visits uniquely interesting places to eat around the country– I’m keeping a mental list of the deli in L.A. and the bakery in Brooklyn…  And a few weeks back, they dropped into a brunch place in San Francisco that served peach cobbler pancakes.  These sweet things looked delectable and like something that could happen in my kitchen.  So here’s my best try at these unique early morning pancakes.  They were rather delicious…

PEACH COBBLER PANCAKES

Streusel:
1/2 cup old fashioned oats
1/4 cup flour
3 tab. brown sugar
1/4 cup butter (1/2 stick)

Stir together the oats, four and brown sugar.  With a pastry blender (or food processor) cut in the butter until it form coarse crumbs.

Pancakes:
1 1/2 cups flour
3 tab. sugar
2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1 egg
1 tsp. vanilla
1 tsp. cinnamon
1 1/2 cups buttermilk*
3 tab. canola oil
2 large peaches, pitted, peeled and cut into smallish chunks (Plus more to garnish)

In another bowl whisk together the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt.  Then add in the egg, buttermilk and oil.  Heat a your skillet to medium heat and spray with cooking spray.  Pour out about 1/3 cup of batter for each pancake.  Top every pancake with a heaping tablespoon of peach bits and then a  heaping tablespoon of streusel.  Cook and flip to cook the streusel side until both sides are a lovely brown.

Serve with more peaches and maple syrup.

Pineapple Streusel Muffins

Hello there–  It’s just about this time of year by desert monitor shifts from chocolatey and rich over to fresh and fruity.  I mean you just can’t beat chocolate cheesecake in the dead of winter.  But now there’s berries in the side yard and nectarines at the market.  So there’s muffins chock full of crushed pineapple baking up right now– ready for my Monday night ladies who’ll be here in a couple hours.

PINEAPPLE STREUSEL MUFFINS
2 cups flour
1/2 cup sugar
2 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. salt
20 oz. can crushed pineapple, not drained
2 eggs
1 tab. oil
1 tsp. vanilla
3/4 cup chopped walnuts

Stir together the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt.  Then mix in the pineapple, eggs, oil and vanilla.  Next fold in the nuts and spoon the batter into muffins cups lined with paper liners (makes about 16 standard muffins)

Streusel:
2 tab. flour
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. nutmeg
1/4 cup walnuts, finely chopped
4 tab. butter, melted

Mix together the first 5 ingredients and then top each muffin with about 1 tsp. of the streusel.  Then drizzle the butter over all the muffins.  Pop them in the oven at 400 degrees for 15 to 20 minutes, until they are firm to the touch.

Thanks to Kirsten at http://cookiescakespiesohmy.wordpress.com for this scrumptious recipe and all the others I’ve made from her blog.  I think you’d love to see all the beautiful things she’s baked up!