I think this may be the World’s Best Quickbread. In any case, I can’t quit eating or baking it. Photo…eventually.

Ingredients

Procedure

1. Preheat oven to 350º and prepare loaf pan.
2. Toast walnuts, cool, and roughly chop.
3. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda, and salt. Set aside.
4. Cream butter and sugar.
5. Add eggs, banana, sour cream, and vanilla all at once. Mix for about one minute, until thoroughly blended.
6. Add flour mixture and mix on low speed until just moistened.
7. Add cranberries and walnuts and mix until well incorporated.
8. Scrape the batter into the loaf pan. It will be about ¾ of an inch from the top.
9. Bake 55 to 65 minutes or until the bread is golden and springs back when pressed lightly in the middle. You may have to tent loosely with foil midway through baking to avoid overbrowning.
10. Cool on wire rack for ten minutes. Loosen the sides, turn out of the pan, let cool completely.

By the time I made it down to the deck overlooking the chicken coop, the raccoon had her half way down the run. I stood above them, trembling, crying, and throwing rocks until the ‘coon dropped the injured hen and alighted to the top of the fence.

By six am the sun was up, Trotsky was in the ground, and her last two eggs were folded into a batch of blackberry orange muffins. Despite our heavy lids, I knew the Squeeze and I were up. And we may as well eat.

Ingredients:

Procedure:

I always have greater success in achieving a good texture when I mix these muffins by hand instead of in an electric mixer. Lumpy batter is OK.

1. Prepare ten standard-sized muffin cups and preheat oven to 350ºF.
2. Cream butter and sugar. Don’t worry about “light and fluffy,” just get them smoothly and evenly combined.
3. In a separate bowl, combine flour, baking powder, and salt. Set aside.
4. Add eggs, vanilla, and orange zest to butter mixture. Stir to combine. Do not mix so long that it becomes smooth and uniform.
5. Add flour mixture and milk. Again, stir to combine, leaving some lumps.
6. Gently fold in blackberries. Scoop into muffin tin.
7. Bake until lightly browned and a toothpick inserted into the center of the muffin comes out clean.
8. Cool five minutes on a wire rack before removing muffins from the tin.

Adíos, Trotsky. We’ll miss you and your delicious eggs.

Yields 12 standard muffins.

Ingredients:

Procedure:

1. Adjust oven rack to upper-middle position to heat oven to 400ºF.
2. Prepare muffin tins.
3. Bring 1 cup fresh blueberries and all dried blueberries to a simmer in a small saucepan over medium heat.
4. Cook, stirring frequently and pressing blueberries against the side of the pot, until berries have broken down and mixture is thickened, about five minutes.
5. Remove from heat and cool slightly.
6. Whisk flour, baking powder, and salt together in the large bowl. Set aside.
7. In a separate bowl, whisk eggs and sugar together until pale and fluffy. Slowly whisk in melted butter and oil.
8. Whisk in buttermilk and vanilla until combined.
9. Using a rubber spatula, gently fold in remaining one cup blueberries.
10. Gently fold in flour mixture until just moistened. Batter will be very lumpy.
11. Using a large spoon, divide half of the batter equally among the 12 muffin cups. Cups should be about a third filled.
12. Place a heaping teaspoon of berry mixture on top of batter.
13. Scoop remaining batter on top of berry filling.
14. Using a bamboo skewer, gently swirl berry filling into batter.
15. Sprinkle turbinado sugar on top of the muffins.
16. Bake until muffin tops are golden and just firm, 17 to 19 minutes.
17. Cool muffins in pan for 5 minutes, then transfer to wire rack and cool for five minutes more before serving.

P.S. For more amazing recipes, you should really go get a membership at Cook’s Illustrated. It’s totally, totally worth it.

These muffins require no sales pitch. I will tell you anyway that they are fluffy, flavorful, and easy to make with or without an electric mixer.

Ingredients:

Procedure:

1. Preheat oven to 350º standard / 325º convection.
2. Prepare standard-sized muffin tin with grease or papers.
3. Combine flour, baking powder, salt, and spices. Whisk to evenly mix. Set aside.
4. Cream butter and sugar until well incorporated. You do not need to mix until fluffy and light. With muffins, it’s OK (maybe even preferable) to leave the mixture a bit uneven.
5. Beat in eggs and milk. Again, don’t mix as much as you would if you were making cookies.
6. Add flour mixture and, using a rubber spatula, fold gently into wet mixture. Leave some dry spots in the batter.
7. Add pumpkin and continue to fold until the batter is mostly even.
8. Add cranberries and give the batter one or two more folds.
9. Using a measuring cup, large spoon, or portion scoop, fill muffin cups about ¾ full.
10. Bake until set: a toothpick or skewer inserted in the center of the muffin will emerge clean. This morning, my batch took 35 minutes to bake.
11. Remove pan from oven and allow to cool a few moments before removing muffins.

Ingredients:

Procedure:

1. While your jars and lids boil, combine and heat mashed berries, calcium water, lemon juice and honey.
2. When the berry mixture comes to a boil, sprinkle in the pectin. Stir vigorously and thoroughly, taking care to hunt down and eliminate pectin lumps.
3. Return to a boil for a few moments, remove from heat, and fill sanitized jars.
4. To seal jars, first wipe their mouths with a clean cloth, careful not to touch them with your fingers.
5. Apply lids and rings.
6. Place jars into a large, tall stockpot full of boiling water. Boil, submerged, for five minutes.
7. Remove jars carefully with canning tool or tongs. Allow to cool. Home-canned products should be used within a year.

Procedure:

1. Stir together the flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, almonds and butter.
2. On medium-low speed, “cut” in the butter. It’s right when the mixture looks like coarse meal and the butter pieces are roughly pea-sized.
3. Leave the mixer on and slowly add the buttermilk, pouring it in a long, slow, stream.
4. You will probably not need the full cup of buttermilk; and you’ll be sorry if the dough is too wet.
5. Stop pouring when the dough begins to stick together. It should be crumbly, but not dry. When you press it together between your fingers, it will feel almost satiny, though not slick or wet. Stir in the strawberries. Keep in mind that adding fresh or frozen berries will also add moisture.
6. Turn the dough out onto a very lightly floured cutting board. Pat it out into a circle,approximately nine inches in diameter and maybe an inch and a half thick.
7. Brush top and sides with egg wash, if using.
8. Cut into wedges – eight or twelve according to your preference.
9. Use your knife to transfer the scones to your baking sheet. The dough may try to stick to the cutting board; do not be alarmed.
10. Bake at 400º F. until the edges are golden brown and you cannot stand waiting a moment longer.
11. Let cool on the baking sheet for just a few moments. The are at their very best still warm.

I do not often bake cakes. Cake, somehow, has become dessert of higher order. Cakes mark birthdays, weddings, anniversaries, graduations – and evidently conception – and these are no ordinary events. Cakes signal extra-specialness. I’m more of a cookie girl myself. I’m big on breakfast pastries and quickbreads. I like me a real nice tart once in a while. But I only make cake when someone else is having a party and I am asked very nicely to provide dessert.

There are two noteworthy results of this trend: One: Whenever I do make a cake, I am always eager to test a new recipe that I’ve been sitting on for weeks, maybe months. Two: Since I get such little practice, I’m not terrifically good at it.
I have picked up a few tricks over the years, though – most from the Infamous Frenchman – and this handful of techniques has served me relatively well. Attempting to be sensible, this time around I only altered one piece of the cake puzzle and stuck with the rest of my usual construction. There was little chance that the fillings, frosting, or decoration would go awry – the only wildcard this time around was Sally Schneider’s Nut Cake recipe. But it isn’t as if I found the Nut Cake recipe stuck to the underside of a MAX seat, Ms. Schneider seems to know what’s what (far better than I).

J9′s Nuts and Berries Cake, for Julia and Skippy

Components:
• Berry Compote (I used cherries and marionberries and a little bit of sugar, cooked down until very thick.)
• Fresh raspberries
• Fresh blueberries
• Candied hazelnuts
• Lemon Chantilly (chantilly = heavy whipping cream + confectioner’s sugar)
• Edible flowers
• Sally’s Nut Cake (mine was almond and hazelnut)