Lemon Bar Brownies

I found this recipe on Pinterest and have made it several times. The recipe and photo come from the Baker Girl:  Confessions of a Budding Baketress.

Cakey Lemon Bar "Brownies"

Brownies

3/4 cup all-purpose flour

3/4 cup granulated sugar

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, softened

2 large eggs

2 1/2 teaspoons lemon zest

2 tablespoons lemon juice

Lemon Glaze

1/2 cup powdered sugar

1 tablespoon lemon juice

2 teaspoons lemon zest

Preheat oven to 350°F. Spray an 8-by-8-inch baking dish with cooking spray and set aside. 

Zest and juice two small lemons; set aside.

In the bowl of an electric mixture fitted with the paddle attachement, beat the flour, sugar, salt, and softened butter until combined. 

In a separate bowl, whisk together the eggs, lemon zest, and lemon juice until combined. Pour into the flour mixture and beat at medium speed until smooth and creamy, about 2 minutes. 

Pour into baking dish and bake for 25 minutes, or until just starting to turn golden around the edges and a toothpick inserted into the center of the brownies comes out clean. Allow to cool completely before glazing.

When brownies are cooled completely, make the glaze by whisking together all three ingredients. Spread over the brownies with a rubber spatula, cut into bars, and serve!

Source: Barely adapted from Rita's Recipes.

Poppy Seed Dressing

This is SO EASY to make and yummy!  I have tried a few recipes and this is my favorite.  All of the others are too sugary!  This recipe can be found HERE and comes from AllRecipes.com.

Ingredients:

1/2 cup salad dressing (I use Miracle Whip)
1/4 cup milk
1/4 cup white sugar
1/8 cup distilled white vinegar
1 TBS poppy seeds

Directions:

In a small bowl (or blender is WAY easier) whisk together all ingredients.  Chill until ready to use.

Pie in a Jar

I love making these fun little pies!

From a previous post on my personal blog,  A Lioness at the Gate:  Paul called home last night after a long day at work.  He was looking forward to coming home to having a cup of ice-cream. I thought (to myself) I can do better than a cup of ice cream, so I decided to surprise him with a individual serving of a pie in a jar!  I have been wanting to make these for over a year after I found the cute idea on Our Best Bites (here is their link).

I had all the supplies on hand (1/2 pint wide mouth mason jars, pie filling, and ingredients to make the crust)!

 I have used a pie crust from this Perfect Apple Pie recipe  and now I love this recipe from the Pie Lady.

 Line the jar with pie crust.

 Fill them up with 1/2 cup of pie filling.

 I brushed the tops of each pie with whisked egg yolk and then sprinkled them with sugar. Bake at 375 for 45 minutes or until golden brown on top.

 They were delicious!  You can even freeze them to bake later.

Easiest Pie Crust

This recipe for the crust comes from our own local "Pie Lady".  She has made tens of thousands of pies over her lifetime, with it all starting out helping her grandma bake pies at Cherry Hill campground in Utah.


1 rounded cup of flour
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 cup butter flavored Crisco (you may use any form of solid fat:  butter, margarine, shortening)

Mix all together with fingers until you have fine crumbs.

Add 1/4 cup water


A 2 crust pie is baked on bottom shelf of oven at 375 for 1 hour.  (regular filled pies)

Before baking a 2 crust pie, frozen or fresh, dot top with milk and sprinkle with sugar.


Additional Notes:
Add 20-25 minutes for frozen pie.

To make a pie shell place dough on back of side of tin, poke with fork and bake on bottom shelf of oven at 375 for 10-12 minutes. (You would only pre-bake the crust if you were doing a cream filled pie).

Tiff's Banana Bread

This comes from putting two recipes together.  It's delicious!

• 2/3 cup vegetable oil
• 1 cup white sugar
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 4 eggs
• 2 cups mashed bananas
• 1/2 cup sour cream
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 2 cups whole wheat flour
• 1 1/2 cups white flour
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 teaspoons baking soda

In a large bowl, beat oil and sugar together.  Add eggs, and mix well.  Stir in bananas and vanilla.  Then add dry ingredients and mix well.  

Divide batter into two greased 9 x 5 loaf pans and bake at 325 for 55-60 minutes. (I have baked it at 350 along with other sweet breads and it has done fine, too).

Poppy Seed Bread With Glaze

I have been using this recipe for years and love it.

3 eggs
1 1/8 cups oil
2 1/4 cups white sugar
1 1/2 tsp. almond extract (or lemon extract)
1  1/2 tsp. butter flavoring (opt.)
1 1/2 tsp. vanilla
2 T. poppy seeds
1 1/2 tsp. salt
1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
1 1/2 cups milk
3 cups flour

Beat together oil and sugar, then add the eggs.    Add the flavorings and extracts, poppy seeds, salt, baking powder, and milk.  Mix.  Then add the flour.

Pour mixture into two greased bread pans.  Bake at 350 for approx. 1 hour

When the bread is done and removed from the pan, cover it with glaze.

Glaze:
1/4 cup orange juice concentrate
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 tsp. almond extract
1/2 tsp. vanilla

Heat these ingredients in a sauce pan until dissolved.  Pour or brush over bread.  As it cools, it will harden.

Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Bread

This is a MUST try!  I LOVED it...well my whole family loved it!  Yummy!

This recipe comes from one of my favorite food blogs - Our Best Bites.  You can view the recipe HERE and check out all the other yummy recipes they have.  You won't be disappointed!

Ingredients

2 cups all purpose flour (spooned into measuring cup and leveled)
1 cup whole wheat flour (again, don’t scoop!)
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoons nutmeg
1/4 teaspoons ground cloves
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon table salt
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 1/2 cup white sugar
6 ounce container vanilla yogurt
3 eggs, slightly beaten
15 ounce can pumpkin puree
1/2 cup canola oil
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup chocolate chips (plus a few extra for the top of loaves)

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Spray 2 9×5 (or similar sized) loaf pans with nonstick spray and set aside.

Combine flours (after you put your flour in the bowl, just grab a teaspoon or two of it and toss with chocolate chips), cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, baking soda, baking powder, and salt.  Whisk gently to combine and set aside.

In a separate mixing bowl combine brown sugar and white sugar and whisk to combine, breaking up any clumps of brown sugar.  Add yogurt, eggs, pumpkin, oil, and vanilla extract and whisk until smooth.

Slowly add dry ingredients to wet and mix together, being careful to not over mix.  When combined, gently stir in chocolate chips.   Divide batter between loaf pans and sprinkle a few extra chocolate chips on top.  Bake for 50-60 minutes or until a skewer comes out with a few crumbs attached.  All ovens are different, I would set your timer for about 45 minutes and keep an eye on it after that.  Don’t overbake!

Let cool for 10 minutes and then run a sharp knife around edge of pan and remove loaves from pan.