Take a Megabite

Mini Pumpkin Scones

First of all, please don’t judge me for eating french fries two days in a row. And, please just know that two glazes are better than one. Always.

So maybe two days of french fries is better than one?

We are a few days into September, so it’s only right to get moving with the pumpkin love. And these scones are the perfect start. They are mini, so you can eat them two days in a row and not feel guilty about them. So that’s nice, right?

I probably don’t need to convince you to make these, but just in case … These scones taste like pumpkin donuts in the the best and glaziest way and they are really cute. So there you go!

Mini Pumpkin Scones
Recipe adapted from weheartfood

Ingredients:

scones -

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 7 T sugar
• 1 T baking powder
• 1/2 t salt
• 1/2 t ground cinnamon
• 1/2 t groun nutmeg
• 1/4 t ground cloves
• 1/4 t ground ginger
• 6 T frozen butter
• 1/2 cup canned pumpkin
• 3 T half and half
• 1 large egg

glaze -

• 1 cup + 1 T powdered sugar
• 2 T milk

spiced glaze -

• 1 cup + 3 T powdered sugar
• 2 T milk
• 1/4 t ground cinnamon
• 1/8 t ground nutmeg
• pinch ground ginger
• pinch ground cloves

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 400°F. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper.
2. Combine flour, sugar, baking powder, salt and spices in a large bowl. Grate frozen butter into the dry ingredients and stir until butter is coated. Set aside.
3. In a separate bowl, whisk together the pumpkin, half and half and egg. Fold wet ingredients into dry ingredients. Pour dough onto a clean surface and knead about 4 times. Divide dough in half and pat each into a circle about 1/2 inch high. Cut into 8 small scones, slicing like a pizza. Place on prepared baking sheets and bake for 10-14 minutes or until tops are starting to become golden brown. Place on a wire rack to cool.
4. Make the first glaze by whisking together the powdered sugar and milk. Generously brush glaze over each of the scones. When the first glaze is set, make the spiced glaze by whisking together powdered sugar, milk and spices. Drizzle over the scones using a ziploc bag with the corner snipped, a spoon or a squeeze bottle. Allow the icing to set for about an hour. Eat!

Hot coffee on a chilly morning is where it’s at …
served with a teeny pumpkin scone is even better.

Banana + Honey + Cinnamon Smoothie for One

I’m completely impatient right now. I can’t sit still. It has a little bit to do with throw pillows and shaggy rugs. It has a lot to do with with the fact that I get to move to a cute flat in a couple weeks.

But for now, it’s time to drink this smoothie and try to stop wishing the days away.

Banana + Honey + Cinnamon Smoothie for One

Ingredients:

• 1 frozen banana* + a couple fresh banana slices for garnish
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1 1/2 t honey
• generous sprinklings of cinnamon

* 1 banana peeled and wrapped in plastic wrap and placed in the freezer until firm.

Directions:

1. Dissolve honey in milk by microwaving them together in a small jar or bowl for about 20 seconds. Stir or shake to ensure that the honey is completely dissolved. Sprinkle generously with cinnamon. Chill until smoothie time.
2. Chop the frozen banana into a few pieces and blend with the chilled honey infused milk until smooth. Pour into a small glass and top with a fresh banana slice and sprinkle with more cinnamon. Chug it and feel good about life.

P.S. Did you guys know I’m on Facebook? Sometimes I post fun things.

I tricked the honey, Honey.

Did you know that honey hates being cold? That’s why I dissolved it in milk before making this smoothie! Talk about a dreamy smoothie, despite the all-khaki outfit.

Strawberry Ricotta Graham Tartlets

I’m looking forward to moving, because I know for a fact that there will natural light promised in the lease. I also can’t wait to have a yard that doesn’t back up to mean growly dogs that want to eat Elliot.

When I envision my future home, I imagine white walls, a white oven and windows Elliot can see out of without standing on the back of the couch … and preferably a huge tupperware of these mini tarts in the fridge.

These are cheesecake-ish mini tarts … also known as a cookie stacker … also known as delicious. I’m totally down with ricotta being dessert-y. And as you’ve probably noticed, I’m always down with a dessert involving strawberries. Did you know there’s lemon in these? Oh yeah. Zest in the ricotta + juice in the berries.

And I can just say, that I’m glad to have some strawberries leftover? I’d like to put them on my yogurt and ice cream, please. Would that be an ok dinner? When it’s really hot out, is that kind of thing allowed?

Strawberry Ricotta Graham Tartlets
Recipe adapted from Food & Wine via Smitten Kitchen

Ingredients:

graham cookies -

• 1 cup + 2 T all-purpose flour, plus more for dusting
• 1/4 cup graham flour, or whole wheat if you can’t find graham
• 3/4 t cinnamon
• 1/2 t kosher salt
• pinch of ground cloves
• 8 T (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened
• 2 T light brown sugar
• 2 T granulated sugar
• 2 T honey
• 1 1/2 t molasses, you can just use more honey if you don’t want to use molasses

strawberry goodness -

• 3/4 pound strawberries, thinly sliced
• 3 T granulated sugar
• 1 1/2 T fresh lemon juice

ricotta mixture -

• 1 1/4 cups ricotta (10 oz.), fresh if you can find it, or a full-fat store-bought
• 2 T confectioners’ sugar
• 1 t finely grated lemon zest

Directions:

1. Make grahams. In a bowl, whisk both flours with the cinnamon, salt and cloves. Beat the butter, light brown sugar and 2 tablespoons granulated sugar at medium speed on an electric mixer until fluffy, about 1 minute. Beat in the honey and molasses, about 30 seconds. Scrape down the side of the bowl and beat in the flour mixture at low speed, just until incorporated. Pat the dough into a disk, cover with plastic and refrigerate until firm, about an hour.
2. Preheat ove to 350ºF. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper. On a lightly floured work surface, roll out the dough 1/8 inch thick. Using  a 1 1/2 inch round cutter (or a larger cutter of your choice) stamp out your bases (about 45 minis). Reroll the dough scraps as necessary. Transfer the grahams to the baking sheets and bake for about 9 minutes (12ish minutes for 3 1/2 inch cookies), or until lightly golden around the edges. Let cool on the pans for 5 minutes, then transfer the grahams to racks to cool completely.
3. Make toppings. In a bowl, toss the strawberries with 3 tablespoons of granulated sugar and lemon juice. Let stand until syrupy, 20 minutes, or overnight. In a medium bowl mix the ricotta, confectioners’ sugar and lemon zest with an electric mixer. Cover both and refrigerate until time to assemble.
4. Assemble tartlets. Divide ricotta mixture between all the graham bases. Arrange strawberries over the ricotta, drizzle with syrup and serve.

P.S. Just know that with these little (1 1/2 inch) tarts, you might only need half of the ricotta + strawberry mixtures, since so little fits on the teeny 1 1/2 inch cookies. If you make the graham cracker bases a bigger size, you’ll be all set since you can just be so generous with the topping.

Do ahead: The grahams will keep in an airtight container for up to 2 weeks. Ricotta mixture will last only for a day or two if fresh, or up to a week from packaged ricotta. Strawberry mixture will keep for a few days, but tastes amazing on everything so probably won’t last that long in real life.

Just the tall-drink-of-water of the cookie world.

Spicy Oven-Roasted Chickpeas

I’ve been snacking on pie this week … pie and chocolate marshmallows. There were definitely the occasional yogurt covered raisin too. And now it’s come to a point where I just feel like I need to get a healthy snack in my life.

So I decided hang out with some chick peas and get my crunch on in a health-conscious way. These crunch like a snack should and kinda smell like christmas. Basically, I wish I would’ve made a double recipe.

Spicy Oven-Roasted Chickpeas
Recipe adapted from The Kitchn

Ingredients:

• 1 (15 ounce) can organic chickpeas
• 1 T olive oil
• scant 1 T chunky sea salt
• sprinkle of black pepper
• 1/4 t cinnamon
• 1/4 t cumin
• 1/4 t coriander
• dash nutmeg
• sprinkle of red pepper flakes

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 400ºF. Pour the chickpeas into a colander and drain and rinse very well under running water. Pat dry.
2. Toss the chickpeas with olive oil and spread out on a large cookie sheet. Roast for 30-40 minutes or until brown and crispy. Turn and stir every ten minutes so they don’t burn.
3. Take out and toss to taste with salt and spices.

I feel like these could be the new crouton.

Old-Fashioned Peach Pie

My mom knows about pie.

She knows that it’s ok to use 8 cups of peaches instead of 5, and she didn’t judge me for not having a pastry blender. She also said that it’s ok if a pie is juicy and doesn’t slice as pretty as you’d hope. “Just serve it in a bowl,” she says. So there you go.

We went to Eastern Market Saturday morning to get all those Michigan peaches up there. We squeezed a lot of peaches to ensure that they were pie-ready.

My mom has skills. Either that, or the peaches she sliced were much softer than mine. I spent half the time bullying peaches instead of slicing them.

And today is my mom’s birthday! So, happy birthday mom! Thanks for helping me work through my fear of the double crust pie.

Old Fashioned Peach Pie (makes one 9 inch pie)
Adapted from Farm Journal’s Complete Pie Cookbook

Ingredients:

• 3/4 cup sugar
• 3-4 T flour*
• 1/4 t cinnamon
• pinch salt
• 5-8 cups sliced peaches*
• 1 t lemon juice
• 1/8 t almond extract
• 2 T butter
• 1 recipe for a 9-inch double crust (recipe below)

* Just use 3 tablespoons of flour for a pie using only 5 cups peaches. Up it to 4 tablespoons of flour if you use 8 cups of peaches.

1. Preheat the oven to 400°F. Combine sugar, flour, cinnamon, and salt in a large bowl. Pour the peaches over the dry ingredients and toss to mix. Add the lemon juice and almond extract. Stir once more and set aside.
2. Roll out a little more than half of the crust into a 10-11 inch circle. Fold rolled dough in half and gently ease it into the pie pan with fold in center. Unfold and fit into pan, using care not to stretch the dough. Gently press out air pockets with fingertips. Make certain there are no openings for the juice to escape.
3. Pour peach filling into the pastry-lined 9″ pie pan. Dot with the two tablespoons of butter.
4. Roll the second ball of dough like the first one. Fold the pastry circle half; lift it to the top of the pie with the fold in the center. Gently unfold over the top of the pie. Fold to p edge under bottom crust and press gently with fingers to seal and to make an upright edge. Crimp edge as desire. (Cut vents in top crust or prick with a fork to allow steam to escape. Either that or cut vents before placing pastry on top of pie.)
5. Place pie on a baking sheet (to catch the peach juice that could escape) and into the oven. Bake for 40 minutes, tenting with foil half-way through bake time. Remove from the oven and promptly “ooooh” and “ahh” over how pretty it will be.
6. Top with vanilla ice cream while the pie is still warm, so it melts just enough.

Double Crust for one 9 inch pie
Adapted from Farm Journal’s Complete Pie Cookbook

Ingredients:

• 2 cups flour
• 1 t salt
• 12 T (1 1/2 sticks) cold butter, cut into pieces
• 4-6 T ice water

Directions:

1. Combine flour and salt in a mixing bowl. Cut in butter using a pastry blender or 2 forks until mixture is the consistency of coarse cornmeal or tiny peas. Sprinkle cold water over dry mixture 1 tablespoon at a time, tossing mixture lightly and stirring with a fork. Add water each time to the driest part of mixture. Continue stirring with a fork. The dough should be just moist enough to hold together when pressed gently with a fork. It should not be sticky.
2. Shape dough into a disk and wrap in plastic wrap. Refrigerate for 30 minutes to an hour.

It was warm when we sliced it, so the peaches had a mind of their own.

P.S. To be honest, after a day in the fridge the peaches still have a mind of their own, but they are just so darn delicious that I don’t mind a bit.

Banana Snack Cake + Honey-Cinnamon Frosting

I had four bananas that were a way too freckled to function. They needed a home. So I figured why not put them in a cake and top them with the dreamiest frosting ever and call it a snack.

Do me a favor and try not to be as impatient as I was about frosting this cake, ok? On top of it being super hot out, and hotter in my kitchen, this cake wasn’t completely cooled when I frosted it. The frosting tried to melt. But now the cake is hangin’ out in fridge, which happens to be the only place in my flat with air conditioning. So this cake is livin’ it up.

Do you have some oldie bananas laying around causing trouble? Make this! It’s tasty.

Banana Snack Cake
Recipe adapted from allrecipes

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter at room temperature
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 2 eggs
• 4 ripe bananas, mashed
• 2 cups cake flour*
• 1 t baking soda
• 1/2 t salt
• 1 t vanilla

* If you don’t have cake flour on hand, just use all-purpose. No problem.

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 375ºF. Butter and flour a 9 x 13 inch baking dish.
2. Using an electric mixer, cream together the butter and sugar until smooth and pale. Add eggs one at a time. Beating until thoroughly mixed. Add bananas and mix until evenly distributed.
3. In a separate bowl whisk together the dry ingredients (flour, baking soda and salt). Add dry mixture to the banana mixture. Add vanilla. When smooth pour batter into the prepared pan. Bake for 20-25 minutes, or until a knife comes out mostly clean and the top is golden. Cool and frost cake! Or if you don’t feel like frosting it, just sprinkle it with powered sugar and serve it up.

Honey-Cinnamon Frosting
Recipe adapted from Martha Stewart’s Cupcakes

Ingredients:

• 1 1/4 cups confectioners’ sugar
• 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter at room temperature
• 1 T honey
• 1/8 t ground cinnamon

Direction:

1. With an electric mixer on medium speed, beat all ingredients until smooth. Use immediately!

Elliot’s favorite place to lounge.

Jam-Filled Muffins

These muffins are low-fat, I guess. But mostly they are necessary. They are necessary when you’re starving and it’s almost 8 and there is no dinner in the oven. Then you’ll need one of these muffins. You won’t be able to fight it. It’s either this or the tortilla chip crumbs that are in the bag on top of the fridge.

What? You don’t eat muffins when you are hungry at 8pm? Why not?

These muffins are really good. I think it has to do with the fact that they are a muffin and I know it has to do with the fact that strawberry jam is darn superb.

Jam-Filled Muffins
Recipe from Cooking Light via Crepes of Wrath + Think Inside the Icebox

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 2 1/2 t baking powder
• 1 t ground cinnamon
• 1/4 t salt
• 2/3 cup vanilla fat-free yogurt
• 1/4 cup butter, melted
• 3 T milk
• 1 large egg, lightly beaten
• 1/4 cup jam (I used strawberry since it’s my most favorite.)

topping -

• 1 T sugar + 1/2 t ground cinnamon = cinnamon sugar

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 375ºF. Place 12 paper liners in muffin cups.
2. In a medium bowl whisk together dry ingredients (flour, sugar, baking powder, cinnamon and salt). In another bowl whisk together the yogurt, butter, milk and egg. (I used greek yogurt because it’s what I had and had to add another tablespoon of milk. So if you use a thick yogurt, you might need to do that too!) Make a well in the dry ingredients and pour the yogurt mixture in. Stir just until combined.
3. Spoon 1 tablespoon of batter into each muffin cup. Top each with a teaspoon of jam. Top with remaining batter. Sprinkle with cinnamon sugar and bake for 15 minutes or until a cake tester comes out clean when inserted in the center of a muffin. Remove from pan and cool on a wire rack. Eat them!

I know. The jam should be in the middle. What was this muffin trying to prove?

Roasted Banana Bread

When you make this banana bread, just consider the oven a banana tanning bed. In a mere 15 minutes they have bronze beach bodies … and on top of all that, the fruit turns into a caramelized dream.

I fell in love with roasted bananas back when I made Roasted Banana Cupcakes. So I decided to take my mom’s classic banana bread and roast the bananas. Then I added a bit of cinnamon.

The next thing you know I was in love … in love with a bread. Why not?

Roasted Banana Bread {makes 1 large loaf or 3 mini loaves}
Recipe adapted from my mom

Ingredients:

• 4 bananas (about 1 cup after roasting + mashing)
• 2 1/2 cups flour
• 2 1/2 t baking powder
• 1 t salt
• 3/4 cup milk
• 1 egg
• 3 T canola oil
• 1 cup sugar
• generous sprinkling of cinnamon (1/4 t-ish)
• turbinado sugar, for sprinkling (optional)

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 400ºF. Place 4 whole unpeeled bananas on a baking sheet and roast for 15 minutes. The peels with darken. Don’t be alarmed. Remove from the oven and allow to cool before peeling. Reduce oven temperature to 350ºF.
2. In a large bowl mash the roasted bananas. In a separate bowl whisk together the flour, baking powder and salt. In a 2-cup measuring cup or small bowl whisk the milk, egg and canola oil together. Pour the flour mixture into the roasted bananas, followed by the milk mixture and sugar. Stir until everything is incorporated. Sprinkle cinnamon generously over the batter and stir in.
3. Spray 3 mini bread pans or 1 large bread pan with cooking spray. Line the bottom with a rectangle of parchment paper and overlap two sides of the pan so you can lift the bread out eventually (like below). Spray with cooking spray again.
   
4. Divide batter between 3 prepared mini loaf pans or 1 large bread pan. Bake the minis for 30 minutes or until a cake tester or skewer comes out clean. Bake the large loaf for an hour or until cake tester comes out clean.
5. Remove from pans and allow to cool completely on a wire rack. Enjoy!

Hey Elliot, thanks for keeping it real and appreciating roasted banana bread.

Chocolate Chip Muffins

Breakfast is really important to me. It’s right up there with black coffee and dessert. So I guess it goes to show that when there’s chocolate involved in a muffin, I’ll be down. Down all the way.

These guys have skills. They will make your early morning feel not so early and they’ll make your late morning feel less lazy. So needless to say, you should make these.

And they’re so cute you might want to hug one before you eat it, but be careful!

Chocolate Chip Muffins
Recipe from McCormick via Bake or Break

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/3 cup granulated sugar
• 1/4 cup packed brown sugar
• 1/2 t baking powder
• 1/2 t baking soda
• 1/2 t ground cinnamon
• 1/2 t salt
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, melted + slightly cooled
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1 t vanilla extract
• 1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips or chocolate coasley chopped
• turbinado sugar for sprinkling, optional

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 375ºF. Lightly grease or line 12 regular sized muffin cups or 36 mini muffin cups.
2. In a large bowl, mix flour, sugar, brown sugar, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon and salt. Set aside.
3. In a separate bowl, beat the eggs. Stir in melted butter, milk and vanilla. Add to flour mixture, stirring just until dry ingredients are moistened. Stir in chocolate chips or chunks. Spoon batter into muffin cups, filling each about 2/3 full. Sprinkle with turbinado sugar if you’re feeling sparkly.
4. Bake regular sized muffins for 20-22 minutes and minis for 10 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center of a muffin comes out clean. Serve warm.

Just a mini chocolate chip muffin army … intimidating you with chocolate.

Cinnamon Blondies

Sometimes I tell my niece things like, “I’m growing my hair so long because I want to be a mermaid when I grow up” or “I want to be as pretty as YOU when I grow up”.

She tells me that I’m already grown up.

I ate one of these before dinner. I couldn’t resist. I guess being a grown up is ok sometimes.

These are spicy with nutmeg and cinnamon and dreamy like a cookie.

They are also the first blondie that I successfully made! So make these! Take a nutmegabite.

Cinnamon Blondies {makes about 16 blondies}

Recipe from Sugarlaws

Ingredients:

• 1 1/3 all-purpose flour
• 1 t baking powder
• 1/2 t cinnamon
• 1/8 t nutmeg
• 1/4 t cream of tartar
• 1/2 t kosher salt
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, softened
• 1 large egg
• 1 1/2 t vanilla extract

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350°F. Line an 8×8-inch pan with parchment paper and spray with cooking spray.
2. In a medium bowl whisk together the flour, baking powder, cinnamon, nutmeg, cream of tartar and salt. In another medium bowl using an electric mixer cream together the butter and sugars. When combined add the egg and vanilla and mix until blended together nicely.
3. Add the flour mixture and stir until mixed completely. Spread batter in the bottom of the prepared pan, evening it with a spatula. Bake for 20-25 minutes or until a toothpick or cake tester comes out clean when inserted in the center. Let the pan cool completely before lifting the bars out of the pan with the parchment paper. Slice into 16 squares.
4. Eat one before dinner.

I bought some whole nutmeg for moments like these. Look at the squiggly inside!
I’m into it.