Baby Bran Muffins

Saturday breakfast! I whipped up a quick batch of lower-fat bran muffins for breakfast this morning to accompany my veggie egg fritatta leftovers. I subsituted the oil in this recipe with applesauce, used half whole wheat pastry flour and half all purpose, and mixed up a buttermilk substiute using greek yogurt, milk, and lemon juice. I reduced the sugar from standard amounts, but honestly I think they could have used just a little more sweetness. I added cherries (frozen from last summer's trip to northern Michigan!) which helped spruce up the flavor. They were tasty!! I'll definitely make again! The mini size will be perfect for little snacks throughout the week.

Lemon Coffee Cake with Dried Tart Cherries

This coffee cake has been one of my go-to recipes for at least 5 years now. I make it for a lot of brunch functions, bring the cake into the office to share with employees, and make it at home. It's always a hit, and I love how beautiful the final presentation is with the shape of the bundt cake. The texture of the cake is similar to a pound cake: nice buttery taste, but still a delicate crumb. The lemon flavor of the cake comes from a generous amount of lemon zest, as well as lemon juice. To top that off, the entire cake is drizzled with a glaze with even more lemon zest and juice. The lemon flavor is huge, but I have never heard any complaints of it being too much.  The tart cherries add a nice contrasting sour taste to the sweet cake, but I've made the cake with fresh and frozen blueberries and raspberries which work just as wonderfully.

The Everything Muffin

These muffins have a lot going on, but it really works. They're like the Everything Bagel, but a muffin. Part carrot, part banana, part pecan- not to mention the oats, molasses, and buttermilk. Each of these ingredients could be the dominant ingredient in a muffin, but this one includes them all. One of these muffins would qualify as some kind of power/energy breakfast, but they definitely don't taste like they're a healthy substitute. These muffins were a hit when I made them - great for a quick, satisfying breakfast, and just as great topped with ice-cream for dessert (kind of like a carrot-banana-pecan cake)! And if you're still looking for something to add, try topping with raspberry jam!

Cranberry Coffee Cake

When I was home for the holidays this year, my mom and I dug around in some old cookbooks for some older recipes to try. We're not sure where this recipe came from, and we modified a lot of it anyway, but the general idea was a coffee cake made with cranberry sauce. I made the cranberry sauce with orange juice to keep it light for the cake. The sauce needs to be made in advance, but it only takes about 30 minutes to do. The rest of the cake comes together quickly and bakes for a little less than an hour. It was delicious! The cake was moist, and the cranberry sauce was nice and thick. We added walnuts to the recipe and they paired perfectly with the cranberries. To top it all off, the cake was beautiful. The cranberry sauce is visible on the top of the cake, as you can see in the picture, which makes it especially festive-looking this time of year!